CDB2052

Chemical Engineering Laboratory I

May 2017

Experiment : 10 Plate Heat Exchanger

Group : L2

Lavanya A/P Shanmugam 24139

Muhammad Fawwaz Bin Mohd Zulkifli 24185

Group Members : Muhammad Rahmat Syafiq Bin Zainal Abidin 24120

Sitisaro Binawae 22306

Velisia Chandra Gunawan 24084

Lab Instructor : Rizwan Safdar

Date of Experiment : 2017, July 25th

Table of Contents

1.0 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 2

2.0 Methodology and Experimental Procedures .......................................................................... 4

3.0 Results and Discussion .............................................................................................................. 6

4.0 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 10

References ............................................................................................................................................ 12

Appendix .............................................................................................................................................. 13

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1.0 Introduction

The plate heat exchanger is a closed-type exchanger (recuperator). In this type of

exchanger, the hot and cold fluids do not come into direct contact with each other. The
energy exchanged flows from one fluid to the outer surface of the plate wall by force
convection, through the plate wall by conduction, and then from the inside surface of the
plate wall to the second fluid by forced convection. The flow can either be co-current or
counter current.

The unit consists of mainly a plate heat exchanger with hot and cold water circulation
systems with all the necessary instrumentation for heat exchanger studies. A data
acquisition system is provided to allow on-line data for recording temperature, mass flow
rate and calculation for mass and energy balances, heat transfer coefficients, heat exchanger
efficiencies and log mean temperature difference calculations.

The objectives of this experiment are to determine the efficiencies and overall heat
transfer coefficient for the plate heat exchanger in a counter-current operation mode and
co-current operation mode.

Plate heat exchangers are now common and very small brazed versions are used in the
hot-water sections of millions of combination boilers. The general equation is:

Q = UATm

Where
Q = heat transfer per unit time, W
U = the overall heat transfer coefficient,
W/m2 C
A = heat transfer area, m2
Tm = the mean temperature difference, the
temperature driving force, C

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 From the result it is observed that, if we omit the first reading at cold water flowrate at
8 LPM as outlier due to its value differ significantly from other values, when the flow rate
of cold water is increased, the heat transfer coefficient in the heat exchanger also increases.
For the co-current flow of the heat exchanger operation however our data follows the above
equation for counter-current flow of the heat exchanger operation. When the heat transfer
coefficient (U) increases, the total heat transfer (q) will also increase. This will result in a
higher efficiency (E) as E = q/qmax.

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2.0 Methodology and Experimental Procedures
METHODOLOGY

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Note: Flow chart Icon

Data recording
Decision Step
Step

Starting or Process or Action

Stopping Step Step

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3.0 Results and Discussion

Graph 1: Graph of plate heat exchanger efficiency against the cold water flowrate.

Figure 1 shows the relation between the operation mode of a plate heat exchanger and
its efficiency. The hot water in the tank is maintained at 55oC. In Graph 1, the result is
obtained by maintaining the flow rate of hot water at 12 LPM and the flow rate of cold
water is manipulated from 8 to 22 LPM. From Figure 1, it is observed that when the
flowrate of cold water is increased, the efficiency of the heat exchanger decreasing. This in
fact is the opposite of the theoretical predictions but if we omit the reading at 8 LPM as
outlier, we will get the results as what we can predict theoretically. If we increase the
flowrate of the cold water, the efficiency of the heat exchanger will increase too. There
might be some errors in recording and taking the value which will be discussed later.

In addition, Graph 1 also shows us that counter-current mode operation of the heat
exchanger will give a higher efficiency than that of co-current mode which is true from
theoretical predictions. This is due to the fact that both fluids moving in the opposite
directions, it will significantly improve the heat transfer between both fluids.

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 Graph 2: Graph of heat transfer coefficient vs cold water flowrate

Graph 2 shows the relation between the operation mode of a plate heat exchanger and
the heat transfer coefficient. The hot water in the tank is maintained at 55oC. In Graph 2, the
result is obtained by maintaining the flow rate of hot water at 12 LPM and the flow rate of cold
water is manipulated from 8 to l6 LPM.

From both figures, it is observed that, if we omit the first reading at cold water flowrate
at 8 LPM as outlier due to its value differ significantly from other values, when the flow rate
of cold water is increased, the heat transfer coefficient in the heat exchanger also increases. In
addition, Graph 2 also shows that counter current mode operation of the heat exchanger will
give a higher heat transfer coefficient than that of co-current mode.

From the result of our experiment the effect is more visible regarding to heat transfer
coefficient to the efficiency of the heat exchanger. The result that we obtained, however, does
not correlates with the equation

q = U x A x LMTD

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for the co-current flow of the heat exchanger operation however our data follows the above
equation for counter-current flow of the heat exchanger operation. When the heat transfer
coefficient (U) increases, the total heat transfer (q) will also increase. This will result in a higher
efficiency (E) as E = q/qmax.

We could see that from both graphs and readings, there are some value that must be
omitted and considered as outliers due to its value differ significantly from other values. The
inaccurate result might be due to some errors that occur during the experiment such as heat lost
to the surrounding or parallax error what occur while taking temperature reading.

ERRORS AND IMPROVEMENTS

During the experiment, there might be heat lost to the surrounding. This is cause by the
defect in the insulation system of the plate heat exchanger. To overcome this, always perform
maintenance on the plate heat exchanger to ensure the efficiency of the insulation system.

Parallax error may occur while taking the temperature reading and adjusting the water
flow rate. To overcome this error, always ensures the eye level is perpendicular to the scale or
taking every readings to calculate the average temperature.

Possible Errors:

1. Before the reading of the temperature is taken, we need to wait one minute. Zero error
might occur on the stopwatch.
2. Parallax error may occur when the reading of the flow rate of water.
3. Random error might occur when there is a heat loss from the water and the temperature
recorded will not be accurate.
4. Systematic error can be caused by the inaccuracy of the data obtained.

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Methods for Result Improvement:
1. To overcome parallax error, the eye level must be perpendicular to the reading.
2. Zero error can be prevented by setting the stopwatch to 0 before any reading was
taken.
3. Random error can be overcome by carry out the experiment in a place with room
temperature.
4. Systematic error can be reduced by calculating the average of each data.

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4.0 Conclusion

There are three types of manipulating factor for this experiment, which are flow rate
and the mode of heat exchanger which includes the co-current and counter-current flow.
Firstly, when setting the hot water as a constant a flow rate and the cold water flow rate
have been varied 8 to 16 LPM. Theoretically as heat transfer coefficient increases, the
efficiency increases, however, from the result it is observed that, if we omit the first reading
at cold water flowrate at 8 LPM as outlier due to its value differ significantly from other
values, when the flow rate of cold water is increased, the heat transfer coefficient in the
heat exchanger also increases. For the co-current flow of the heat exchanger operation
however our data follows the above equation for counter-current flow of the heat exchanger
operation. When the heat transfer coefficient (U) increases, the total heat transfer (q) will
also increase. This resulted in a higher efficiency (E) as E = q/qmax.

Firstly, the results obtained delineate that as the flow rate increases, the heat transfer
coefficient and efficiency increases. It has proven that the elementary equation from basic
thermodynamics that states that the rate of heat transfer equals to the overall heat transfer
coefficient multiplied by area of the tubes followed by multiplying the log mean
temperature difference, Q=UATlm. In another word, the rate of heat transfer is directly
proportional to the overall heat transfer coefficient.

After conducting the experiment set with the plate heat exchanger in both co-current
and counter-current mode, it can be concluded that the counter-current mode operation of
the heat exchanger will give a higher efficiency and overall heat transfer coefficient than
that of co-current mode which is true from theoretical predictions. This is due to the fact
that both fluids moving in the opposite directions, it will significantly improve the heat
transfer between both fluids. As a result, it can be observed that from the results there are
some value that must be omitted and considered as outliers due to its value differ
significantly from other values. The inaccurate result might be due to some errors that occur
during the experiment such as heat lost to the surrounding or parallax error what occur
while taking temperature reading.

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 In conclusion, much have been learned about the factors affecting the heat transfer
coefficient and efficiency. This is very useful and important for chemical engineers like us
because we are most probably going to encounter a heat exchanger in the industry.

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References

Afgan, N. H. (1974). Heat Exchanger: Design and Theory Sourcebook. New York: McGraw-
Hill.
Bergman, T. L., Lavine, F. P., & Dewit, D. P. (2011). Fundamentals of Heat and Mass
Transfer, 7th Edition. Hoboken: Incropera.
Cengal, Y. A., & Ghafar, A. J. (2011). Conductive Heat Transfer. Heat and Mass Transfer:
Fundamental and Application. 4th Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Hause, H. (1983). Heat Transfer in Counte- flow, Parallel Flow and Cross Flow. New York:
McGraw-Hill.
Mueller, A. C. (1973). Heat Exchanger: Fundamental of Heat Transfer. New York: McGraw-
Hill.

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Appendix

Figure 1: Table of Saturated data properties

Figure 2: Specifications Data for Plate Heat Exchanger

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CALCULATIONS
1. Calculate the Tavg to find the temperature for properties.
, + ,
, =
2
, + ,
, =
2
2. Using table A-9 from Appendix (Cengel& Ghajar, 2015), interpolations can be done to
find the properties needed, such as density (kg/m3) and specific heat capacity (J/Kg.K)
both for cold and hot water.

1 1 3
3. To calculate mass flowrate, = 60 1000 (Note: to convert the
flowrate in LPM to m3/s)

4. Calculate heat capacity =

5. Calculate the heat (q) = (, , )

6. To calculate U from Q = UA

1 2
=

ln 1
2

For co-current,
1 = , ,

2 = , ,
For countercurrent,
1 = , ,

2 = , ,
7. Since A = 0.96 m2,

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 8. To calculate the efficiency, the relation between efficiency and qmax can be used.

=

By comparing the value of Ch and Cc, we can find Cmin, which is the smaller value between
those two. Then substitute to the formula. = (, , )
9. Calculate the efficiency.

CO-CURRENT OPERATED PLATE HEAT EXCHANGER DATA

Hot Water Flowrate Cold Water Flowrate Temperature (C)

(LPM) (LPM) Th,in Th,out Tavg,h Tc,in Tc,out Tavg,c
8 55 44.7 49.85 25.7 34.3 30
12 55 46.4 50.7 27.9 34.6 31.25
12 16 55 46.2 50.6 27.2 33.4 30.3
20 55 45.5 50.25 27.5 32.9 30.2
22 55 45.7 50.35 27.8 33.2 30.5

Density Mass Flowrate Specific Heat

hot (kg/m3) cold (kg/m3) (kg/s) (kg/s) , (J/kg.K) , (J/kg.K)
988.16 996 0.197632 0.1328 4180.97 4178
987.694 996.75 0.1975388 0.19935 4181.28 4179.5
987.752 996.94 0.1975504 0.265850667 4181.24 4179.88
987.955 996.96 0.197591 0.33232 4181.1 4179.92
987.897 996.9 0.1975794 0.36553 4183.14 4179.8

Heat Capacity Heat

U
transfer q 1 (C) 2 (C) (C)
Ch (W/K) Cc (W/K) (W/m2.K)
(J/s)
826.2935 554.8384 8510.8227 29.3 10.4 18.24709 485.8551
825.965 833.1833 7103.2993 27.1 11.8 18.40194 402.0919
826.0056 1111.224 7268.8496 27.8 12.8 19.34009 391.5037
826.1477 1389.071 7848.4034 27.5 12.6 19.09059 428.2434
826.5023 1527.842 7686.4713 27.2 12.5 18.90704 423.4794

Max. Heat Transfer, qmax (J/s) Efficiency ()

16256.77 0.523525
22383.65 0.317343
22962.96 0.316547
22719.06 0.345455
22480.86 0.341912
16256.77 0.523525

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COUNTER-CURRENT OPERATED PLATE HEAT EXCHANGER DATA

Hot Water Flowrate Cold Water Flowrate Temperature (C)

(LPM) (LPM) Th,in Th,out Tavg,h Tc,in Tc,out Tavg,c
8 55 48.5 51.75 35.7 27.5 31.6
12 55 46.5 50.75 34.6 27.5 31.05
12 16 55 45.6 50.3 34 27.3 30.65
20 55 44.5 49.75 33 27.3 30.15
22 55 44.2 49.6 32 27.4 29.7

Density Mass Flowrate Specific Heat

hot (kg/m3) cold (kg/m3) (kg/s) (kg/s) , (J/kg.K) , (J/kg.K)
987.085 995.36 0.197417 0.132715 4180.35 4178
987.665 995.58 0.197533 0.199116 4181.3 4179.58
987.926 995.74 0.197585 0.265531 4181.12 4179.74
988.2 995.94 0.19764 0.33198 4182.9 4179.94
988.26 996.06 0.197652 0.365222 4184.84 4178.12

Heat Capacity Heat

U
transfer, q 1 (C) 2 (C) (C)
Ch (W/K) Cc (W/K) (W/m2.K)
(J/s)
825.2722 554.4819 5364.269 27.5 12.8 19.2222 290.6941
825.9447 832.2213 7020.5302 27.5 11.9 18.62358 392.677
826.1274 1109.849 7765.5979 27.7 11.6 18.49666 437.331
826.7084 1387.656 8680.4377 27.7 11.5 18.42824 490.6665
827.142 1525.941 8933.1336 27.6 12.2 18.86377 493.2921

Max. Heat Transfer, qmax (J/s) Efficiency ()

10701.5 0.501263
16849.27 0.416667
17348.68 0.447619
18187.58 0.477273
19024.27 0.469565
10701.5 0.501263

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