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Cole Meyer
Section ABE, Monday 11-1pm
TA: Yu Chen
November 27, 2017
I. Introduction
Heat exchangers are used in a wide array of real world applications such as cars and
air conditioners. The types of heat exchangers studied in this lab are shell-and-tube,
concentric-tube, and brazed plate. Shell-and-tube heat exchangers are the most common
type and consist of an outer shell that has many smaller tubes. The hot liquid will flow
through the smaller tubes and the cold liquid flows around the smaller tubes within the
shell. This type of heat exchanger is neither parallel or counter flow. Concentric-tube heat
exchangers have the cold and hot fluids flow in either the same direction or opposite
direction, known as parallel flow or counter flow respectively. Brazed plate heat
exchangers consist of thin metal plates that are held together. There are small gaps that
In this lab, the effectiveness of each of the heat exchangers was studied as well as the
differences between parallel and counter flow within concentric-tube heat exchangers.
The effect of changing inlet temperatures and flow rates were also observed in the
During this lab, there are a multitude of assumptions that are made to simplify the
analysis done for this lab. It was assumed that the heat capacity of water is constant with
respect to changing fluid temperature, pressure drop is negligible, potential and kinetic
energy are negligible, and that there is no heat loss to the surroundings.
A multitude of equations were used to help analyze the data in this lab.
𝐶𝑗 = 𝑚̇ 𝑗 𝑐𝑝𝑗 (1)
𝑄̇ = 𝐶𝑗 ∆𝑇 (2)
Ci is the heat capacity rate, 𝑚̇ 𝑗 is the mass flow rate of the fluid, cp is the constant-
pressure specific heat capacity, 𝑄̇ is the heat transfer rate, and ∆𝑇 is the temperature
difference between the inlet and outlet in the equations above. The log-mean temperature
difference for both parallel and counter flow and the overall heat transfer conductance are
𝑄̇
𝑈𝐴 = ∆𝑇𝑛𝑒𝑡 (5)
𝑙𝑚
Th,I is the hot fluid inlet temperature, Th,o is the hot fluid outlet temperature, Tc,I is the
cold fluid inlet temperature, Tc,o is the cold fluid outlet temperature and UA is the overall
heat transfer conductance in the equations above. In order to analyze the performance of
the heat exchangers the number of transfer units, the effectiveness of both parallel and
counter flow configurations, and the heat capacity rate ratio are listed below.
𝑈𝐴
𝑁𝑇𝑈 = 𝐶 (5)
𝑚𝑖𝑛
𝐶
𝐶𝑟 = 𝐶 𝑚𝑖𝑛 (6)
𝑚𝑎𝑥
1−exp[−𝑁𝑇𝑈(1+𝐶𝑟 )]
𝜀𝑃𝐹 = (7)
1+𝐶𝑟
1−exp[−𝑁𝑇𝑈(1−𝐶𝑟 )]
𝜀𝐶𝐹 = 1−𝐶 (8)
𝑟 ∗exp[−𝑁𝑇𝑈(1−𝐶𝑟 )]
In equation 5, NTU is the number of transfer units. Cmin and Cmax, shown in equation
6, are the minimum and maximum heat capacity rates of the cold and hot fluids. Lastly,
Cr is the heat capacity rate ratio, 𝜀𝑃𝐹 and 𝜀𝐶𝐹 are the effectiveness’ of the parallel and
This figure shows the setup of the lab. A hot water reservoir was used and it had two
heaters on it. Attached to the reservoir were a concentric-tube, brazed plate, and shell-
and-tube heat exchanger. Hot water was supplied from the reservoir to the hot fluid inlets
of each of the heat exchanger. Coming from the other direction was a cold water supply
that interacted with the hot water and various ways. The flow rates of each of the water
supplies could be controlled and changed. Thermocouples were attached to the various
setups to measure the temperatures of the water throughout the setup. Initially, the water
heater was turned on and heated the water up to the desired temperatures of 40˚C, 50˚C,
and 60˚C. The flow of the water was then turned on and adjusted to values of 1, 2, and 3
L/min. The cold water was then allowed to flow as well and the system was allowed to
reach steady state. After it was reached, the values were then recorded using the
thermocouples. The steps were repeated for different heat exchangers, flow rates, and
temperatures.
70
60
Local Temperature - T - °C
50
1 L/min C
40 2 L/min C
30 3 L/min C
1 L/min H
20 2 L/min H
10 3 L/min H
0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2
Cumulative Heat Transfer Rate - Q_dot - kW
Figure 2. Load curves for parallel flow in concentric-tube at different flow rates
The figure above shows the relationship between the temperature at a specific
location and the cumulative heat transfer rate at the location. The relationship is a linear
one with hot fluids having a negative linear motion while cold fluids have a positive
linear motion. This makes sense since the heat transferring between the two fluids causes
the hot water temperature to drop and the temperature of the cold water to rise. As the
flow rate of the hot liquid increases, the hot water slope becomes shallower, whereas the
cold liquid’s slope seems unaffected by flow rate. The table below shows the effect of a
in a zero. However, an intelligent guess could be that with an increasing flow rate, the
70
60
Local Temperature - T - °C
50
60C C
40 50C C
30 40C C
60C H
20
50C H
10 40C H
0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2
Cumulative Heat Transfer Rate - Q_dot - kW
temperatures
Figure 3 shows the relationship between the local temperature and the cumulative
heat transfer rate at that location while changing the inlet temperature of the hot fluid. As
can be seen above, raising the temperature of the flood causes a vertical shift in the line
but has no noticeable effect on the slope. The cold fluid lines are unaffected by the
different inlet temperatures of the hot fluid. The effects of the different temperatures can
T inlet[˚C] UA Tlm
60 0.05681 29.49717
50 0 0
40 0 0
Due to possible experiment error, it is difficult to make an assumption on the trend as
60
50
Local Temperature - T - °C
40 1 L/min C
2 L/min C
30
3 L/min C
20 1 L/min H
2 L/min H
10
3 L/min H
0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2
Cumulative Heat Transfer Rate - Q_dot - kW
Figure 4. Load curves for counter flow concentric-tube at different flow rates
The figure above illustrates the relationship between the local temperature and the
cumulative heat transfer rate associated with that location while varying the hot fluid
flow rate. As can be seen in figure 4, increasing the flow rate of the hot fluid causes a
decrease in the slope of the hot fluid line. However, the cold fluid line remains unaffected
by the change in the flow rate of the hot liquid. These effects can be seen below in Table
3.
Table 3. Varying flow rates effect on overall heat transfer conductance and log-
60
50
Local Temperature - T - °C
40 60C C
50C C
30
40C C
20 60C H
50C H
10
40C H
0
-0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2
Cumulative Heat Transfer Rate - Q_dot - kW
Figure 5 above demonstrates the relationship between the local temperature of the
flow and the cumulative heat transfer rate at that location while varying the temperature
of hot fluid at its inlet location. If the hot fluid temperature is increased, the whole line is
translated vertically, which is also true for the cold fluid in the counter flow
configuration. For the two of the data points, they are either negative or zero. This error
can be attributed to either a human error or issues with the readings the thermocouples
took. Temperatures could have read lower than the actual temperature, which would
result in the negative or zero points. The effects that changing the temperature in the
T inlet[˚C] UA Tlm
60 0 0
50 0.063495 16.49495
40 0.046741 -4.418142
This case almost has a parabola like behavior by hitting a peak then dropping again.
Table 5. Effect of varying flow rates on overall heat transfer conductance and
T inlet[˚C] UA Tlm
60 0.102725 24.46936
50 0.102128 18.45939
40 0.104978 11.97217
Table 7. Effect of varying flow rates on overall heat transfer conductance and
T inlet[˚C] UA Tlm
60 0.067358 27.98809
50 0.066695 21.98484
40 0.057807 14.49425
Errors in this experiment can be attributed most likely to faulty thermocouples. If the
readings are slightly off, it can skew the results in either direction dramatically. In order
to decide upon which setup is the most effective heat exchanger, the largest UA must be
found. In this experiment, the brazed plate with a flow rate of 3 L/min and a temperature
1.2
0.8 Cr=0
Effectiveness
Cr=0.25
0.6
Cr=0
Cr=0.75
0.4
Cr=0.9
0.2 Cr Exp
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
NTU
Figure 6. Plot of effectiveness versus NTU for parallel flow configuration with
varying Cr values
1.2
0.8 Cr=0
Effectiveness
Cr=0.25
0.6
Cr=0.5
0.4 Cr=0.75
Cr=0.9
0.2 Cr Exp
0
0 2 4 6 8
NTU
Figure 7. Plot of effectiveness versus NTU for counter flow configuration with
varying Cr values
The two figures above, figures 6 and 7, are theoretical plots of heat exchangers
effectiveness versus NTU for parallel and counter flow setups. Both of them show the
effect that the value of Cr has on the plots. To compare, the experimental values were also
plotted against these theoretical values. It can be seen that generally the higher the Cr
value, the lower the effectiveness of the configuration for both cases. The experimental
data follows roughly the same initial slope, but there are not enough data points to show
the rest of the slope. Again, the issues can be attributed to thermocouples along with
human error in calculation or messing up the input into an equation. However, the slopes
of the graphs show that the data acquired was on the right track overall.
and-tube, and concentric-tube. The log-mean temperature difference, and overall heat
transfer product were solved for in order to compare the different setups. This was
done to help determine the most effective heat exchanger, the brazed plate heat
exchanger at a rate of 3 L/min. For the concentric-tube heat exchanger, the parallel
configuration was compared against the counter flow by using plots of the load
curves. The flow rates and temperatures were changed with these in order to properly
analyze the two different setups. Lastly, the theoretical effectives-NTU curves were
created to show how Cr affects the plots as well as to compare against the
experimental data.
The only suggestion for the lab I have is being able to truly understand the
different setups. I would like to have a thorough walkthrough of what they look like
as well as how they function. That would add a lot to the understanding of the lab as