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NTUmethodWikipedia,thefreeencyclopedia

NTUmethod
FromWikipedia,thefreeencyclopedia

TheNumberofTransferUnits(NTU)Methodisusedtocalculatetherateofheattransferinheat
exchangers(especiallycountercurrentexchangers)whenthereisinsufficientinformationtocalculate
theLogMeanTemperatureDifference(LMTD).Inheatexchangeranalysis,ifthefluidinletandoutlet
temperaturesarespecifiedorcanbedeterminedbysimpleenergybalance,theLMTDmethodcanbe
usedbutwhenthesetemperaturesarenotavailableTheNTUorTheEffectivenessmethodisused.
Todefinetheeffectivenessofaheatexchangerweneedtofindthemaximumpossibleheattransferthat
canbehypotheticallyachievedinacounterflowheatexchangerofinfinitelength.Thereforeonefluid
willexperiencethemaximumpossibletemperaturedifference,whichisthedifferenceof
(Thetemperaturedifferencebetweentheinlettemperatureofthehotstreamandtheinlettemperatureof
thecoldstream).Themethodproceedsbycalculatingtheheatcapacityrates(i.e.massflowrate
multipliedbyspecificheat) and forthehotandcoldfluidsrespectively,anddenotingthesmaller
oneas
.
Aquantity:

isthenfound,where
isthemaximumheatthatcouldbetransferredbetweenthefluidsperunit
time.
mustbeusedasitisthefluidwiththelowestheatcapacityratethatwould,inthis
hypotheticalinfinitelengthexchanger,actuallyundergothemaximumpossibletemperaturechange.The
otherfluidwouldchangetemperaturemoreslowlyalongtheheatexchangerlength.Themethod,atthis
point,isconcernedonlywiththefluidundergoingthemaximumtemperaturechange.
Theeffectiveness(E),istheratiobetweentheactualheattransferrateandthemaximumpossibleheat
transferrate:

where:

Effectivenessisdimensionlessquantitybetween0and1.IfweknowEforaparticularheatexchanger,
andweknowtheinletconditionsofthetwoflowstreamswecancalculatetheamountofheatbeing
transferredbetweenthefluidsby:

Foranyheatexchangeritcanbeshownthat:

Foragivengeometry, canbecalculatedusingcorrelationsintermsofthe"heatcapacityratio"

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andthenumberoftransferunits,

where istheoverallheattransfercoefficientand istheheattransferarea.

Forexample,theeffectivenessofaparallelflowheatexchangeriscalculatedwith:

Ortheeffectivenessofacountercurrentflowheatexchangeriscalculatedwith:

For

Similareffectivenessrelationshipscanbederivedforconcentrictubeheatexchangersandshellandtube
heatexchangers.Theserelationshipsaredifferentiatedfromoneanotherdependingonthetypeofthe
flow(countercurrent,concurrent,orcrossflow),thenumberofpasses(inshellandtubeexchangers)
andwhetheraflowstreamismixedorunmixed.
Notethatthe
isaspecialcaseinwhichphasechangecondensationorevaporationisoccurring
intheheatexchanger.Henceinthisspecialcasetheheatexchangerbehaviorisindependentoftheflow
arrangement.Thereforetheeffectivenessisgivenby:

References
F.P.Incropera&D.P.DeWitt1990FundamentalsofHeatandMassTransfer,3rdedition,pp.
658660.Wiley,NewYork
F.P.Incropera,D.P.DeWitt,T.L.Bergman&A.S.Lavine2006FundamentalsofHeatand
MassTransfer,6thedition,pp686688.JohnWiley&SonsUS
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Categories: Heattransfer

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