1.

ABSTRACT

Based on the objective of the experiment, which is to study the performance of shell and tube
heat exchanger by evaluating log mean temperature difference (LMTD), overall heat transfer
coefficient, Reynolds number, and pressure drop at shell side and tube side. Every run used
different flowrate. The experiment starts with the hot and cold fluids enter the heat exchanger at
opposite ends and flow in opposite directions forming counter flow heat exchanger. The results
from the calculation shows that the higher the flowrate, the higher the log mean temperature
difference but slightly decrease when it reached 10LPM. Same goes to the heat loss rate, when the
flowrate increased, the heat loss rate is also increased but decreased once it reached 10LPM. The
lowest flowrate which is 2LPM gives the most heat loss which is -1150.1734W and the lower
temperature difference which is 7.38℃.
 2. INTRODUCTION

Shell and tube heat exchangers are used extensively throughout the process industry. It is
also are a vital part of chemical engineering process. There are many different types of heat
exchangers, each having various application. Shell and tube heat exchanger utilize two separate
fluids to transfer thermal energy from one to another. To achieve this, one fluid is routed through
a tube inside a hollow shell. The shell has the second fluid flowing through it, allowing heat to
transfer between the two.

Shell and tube heat exchanger are capable of having a large surface area for heat transfer
to take place. This is because their numerous tubes. This design also minimizes the necessary
overall length (Guche et al., 2016). Shell and tube exchangers also offer a lot of versatility when
it comes to operating pressure and temperature.
 Since there are limited pressure and temperature restrictions, small shell and tube heat
exchangers can accommodate a higher heat duty. This is because additions can be made to neglect
thermal expansion effects as well as variations to the thickness of the exchanger.

There are four basic flow configurations of heat exchanger which are

 Counter flow
 Co-current flow
 Crossflow
 Hybrids (cross counterflow / multi pass flow)

For this experiment, counter current flow heat exchanger was used. Figure above illustrates
an idealized counterflow exchanger in which two fluids flow parallel to each other but in opposite
directions. This type of flow arrangement allows the largest change in temperature of both fluids
and is therefore most efficient (where efficiency is the amount of actual heat transferred compared
with the theoretical maximum amount of heat that can be transferred).
 3. OBJECTIVES

A. To study the counter current heat exchanger performance.

B. To evaluate the pressure drop.
C. To perform temperature profile study and the flow rate effect on heat transfer.

4. THEORY

Heat exchanger is an equipment which transfers energy from a hot fluid to a cold fluid. While
the fluid is passing through the heat exchanger, the temperature of fluid changes along the length
of heat exchanger. A heat exchanger can be designed by the LMTD when inlet and outlet
conditions are specified. When the problem is to determine the inlet and outlet temperatures for a
particular heat exchanger, the analysis is performed more easily by using a method based on
effectiveness of the heat exchanger and number of transfer units (NTU). The heat exchanger
effectiveness is defined as the ratio of actual heat transfer to the maximum possible heat transfer.
(Transfer, On, & Heat, 2014). In the countercurrent flow heat exchangers, the fluids enter at
opposite ends, flow in opposite directions and leave at opposite ends (Heat, n.d.).

The temperatures are denoted as follows:

T1: Temperature Of Entering Hot Fluid, oC

T2: Temperature Of Mid-Position Hot Fluid, oC
T3: Temperature Of Leaving Hot Fluid, oC
T4: Temperature Of Entering Cold Fluid, oC
T5: Temperature Of Mid-Position Cold Fluid, oC
T6: Temperature Of Leaving Cold Fluid, oC
The approaches are:

T1 – T6 = ΔT1
T3 – T4 = ΔT2
Part 1: Heat Transfer and Heat Loss

In heat exchangers there is no shaft work and mechanical-potential and mechanical-kinetic

energies are small in comparison with the other terms in energy balance equation. If Qe is the heat
power emitted from hot fluid, while Qa is the heat power absorbed by cold fluid, and also if constant
specific heats are assumed (Classification, 1998):

𝑄ℎ = 𝑚̇ℎ (ℎℎ,𝑖 − ℎℎ,𝑜 ) = 𝑚̇ℎ 𝐶𝑝ℎ (𝑇ℎ,𝑖 − 𝑇ℎ,𝑜 )

𝑄𝑐 = 𝑚̇𝑐 (ℎ𝑐,𝑖 − ℎ𝑐,𝑜 ) = 𝑚̇𝑐 𝐶𝑝𝑐 (𝑇𝑐,𝑖 − 𝑇𝑐,𝑜 )

Where,

𝑚̇ℎ , 𝑚̇𝑐 = 𝑚𝑎𝑠𝑠 𝑓𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑜𝑓 ℎ𝑜𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑑 𝑓𝑙𝑢𝑖𝑑, 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑦

ℎℎ,𝑖 , ℎℎ,𝑜 = 𝑖𝑛𝑙𝑒𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑙𝑒𝑡 𝑒𝑛𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑙𝑝𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 ℎ𝑜𝑡 𝑓𝑙𝑢𝑖𝑑, 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑦
ℎ𝑐,𝑖 , ℎ𝑐,𝑜 = 𝑖𝑛𝑙𝑒𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑙𝑒𝑡 𝑒𝑛𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑙𝑝𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑑 𝑓𝑙𝑢𝑖𝑑, 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑦
𝑇ℎ,𝑖 , 𝑇ℎ,𝑜 = 𝑖𝑛𝑙𝑒𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑙𝑒𝑡 𝑡𝑒𝑚𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 ℎ𝑜𝑡 𝑓𝑙𝑢𝑖𝑑, 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑦
𝑇𝑐,𝑖 , 𝑇𝑐,𝑜 = 𝑖𝑛𝑙𝑒𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑙𝑒𝑡 𝑡𝑒𝑚𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑑 𝑓𝑙𝑢𝑖𝑑, 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑦
𝐶𝑝ℎ , 𝐶𝑝𝑐 = 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑐 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑡𝑠 𝑜𝑓 ℎ𝑜𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑑 𝑓𝑙𝑢𝑖𝑑, 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑦

Part 2: Log Mean Temperature Difference

Log mean temperature difference is derived in all basic heat transfer texts. It may be written for a
parallel flow or counter flow arrangement:

∆𝑇2 − ∆𝑇1
∆𝑇𝑙𝑚 =
∆𝑇
𝑙𝑛 ∆𝑇2
1
Part 3: Heat Transfer Coefficients

Since our experiment using counter flow arrangement, in order to calculate the heat transfer
coefficient, the NTU method must be used. It is convenient to describe this dependence using
several dimensionless numbers, namely the Reynold number (Re), Prandtl number (Pr) and
Nusselt number (Nu):

𝐷ℎ 𝜗𝜌
𝑅𝑒 =
𝜇
𝐶𝑝 𝜇
𝑃𝑟 =
𝑘
ℎ𝐷ℎ
𝑁𝑢 =
𝑘
1
𝑁𝑢 = 0.027𝑅𝑒 0.8 𝑃𝑟 3

Here, ρ, μ, k, and cp are the density, viscosity, thermal conductivity, and heat capacity of
the fluid, v is the flow velocity, and Dh is the hydraulic diameter of the channel:

4𝐴
𝐷ℎ =
𝑃

Here, A is the cross-section area and P is the perimeter of the channel. In particular, the
hydraulic diameter of for a circular pipe is equal to its diameter. Relationship between Re, Pr,
and Nu depends on the system geometry and whether the flow is laminar and turbulent. For
example, for a turbulent flow inside a circular pipe.
Part 4: Pressure Drop

Notice that, both calculated pressure and measured pressure are considered in unit mmH2O.
In this case, since calculated pressure drop in both of shell and tube side have been obtained during
the experiment, so it’s only required conversion factor to change the value into unit of mmH2O,
where x is the calculated pressure value in the unit bar.

𝐻𝑤: 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑢𝑏𝑒 𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑑𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑠 𝐷𝑃 (𝑡𝑢𝑏𝑒)𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑐ℎ 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑏𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑖𝑠
𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑐𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑢𝑏𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑑𝑟𝑜𝑝.
𝑊𝑐: 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑠ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑙 𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑑𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑠 𝐷𝑃 (𝑠ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑙)𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑐ℎ 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑏𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑖𝑠
𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑐𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑢𝑏𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑑𝑟𝑜𝑝.

5. APPARATUS

 SOLTEQ Heat Exchanger Training Apparatus

 Hot water and cold-water supply
 Control panel
 6. METHODOLOGY

General Start-up Procedures

1) Perform a quick inspection to ensure equipment working properly.

2) Make sure all valves are closed except V1 and V2.
3) Fill up hot water and cold-water tank via supply hose connected to V27 and V28,
respectively until the tank is full then closed the valves.
4) Connect a drain hose to the cold water drain point.
5) Switch on the power and heater and set the temperature to 50℃ at the control panel.
6) Allow the water temperature reached the set point before starting the experiment.

Experimental Procedures

1) Perform general start up procedures.

2) The valve is switched to counter-current heat exchanger arrangement.
3) Switch on P1 and P2.
4) Valves V3 and V14 are adjusted until desired flowrates are obtained.
5) Allow the system to reach steady state (10 minutes).
6) The results are recorded from the control panel which are, FT1, FT2, TT1, TT2, TT3,
TT4, DPT1 and DPT2.
7) The pressure drops also been recorded.
8) Repeat steps 4-7 for different flowrates.

General Shut-down Procedures

1) Switch off the heater and wait until the water temperature drops to 40℃.
2) Switch off both pumps, P1 and P2.
3) Switch off main power.
4) Drain all water in process lines except water in hot and cold tanks.
5) Close all valves.
 7. RESULTS

Table 1: Manipulated Variable – Cold water Flowrate

Constant Variable – Hot water Flowrate
FT1 FT2 TT1 (℃) TT2 (℃) TT3 (℃) TT4 (℃) DPT1 DPT2
(LPM) (LPM) (mmH2O) (mmH2O)
10 2 45.3 31.7 47.4 48.0 101 4
10 4 39.3 30.7 46.6 48.4 97 10
10 6 36.7 30.7 45.3 48.2 99 62
10 8 35.8 30.8 46.6 49.7 97 155
10 10 35.2 31.4 44.6 47.7 101 206

Table 2: Manipulated Variable – Hot water Flowrate

Constant Variable – Cold water Flowrate
FT1 FT2 TT1 TT2 TT3 TT4 DPT1 DPT2
(LPM) (LPM) (℃) (℃) (℃) (℃) (mmH2O) (mmH2O)

2 10 32.9 31.3 41.9 49.2 5 209

4 10 33.2 31.3 43.7 48.6 5 208
6 10 34.0 31.4 44.4 48.9 6 210
8 10 34.7 31.4 44.2 47.7 34 209
10 10 35.6 31.6 45.2 48.2 103 209
 8. CALCULATIONS

Hot Water Cold Water

Density: 988.18 kg/m3 Density: 995.67 kg/m3
Heat Capacity: 4175 J/kg.K Heat Capacity: 4183 J/kg.K
Viscosity: 0.6436 W/m.K Viscosity: 0.6155 W/m.K
Thermal Condition: 5.494x10-4 Pa.s Thermal Condition: 8.007x10-4 Pa.s

Sample calculation of heat transfer and heat loss

𝑄ℎ = 𝑚ℎ 𝐶𝑝 ∆𝑇
10 𝐿 1 𝑚3 1 𝑚𝑖𝑛 988.18 𝑘𝑔 4175 𝐽
𝑄ℎ = 𝑥 𝑥 𝑥 𝑥 𝑥 (321 𝐾 − 320.4 𝐾)
𝑚𝑖𝑛 1000 𝐿 60 𝑠 𝑚3 𝑘𝑔. 𝐾
𝑄ℎ = 412.5652 𝑊

**The calculation is then repeated for the Qh at different temperatures which gives 1237.6955W,
1994.0649W, 2131.5866W and 2131.5866W, respectively.

𝑄𝑐 = 𝑚𝑐 𝐶𝑝 ∆𝑇
2𝐿 1 𝑚3 1 𝑚𝑖𝑛 995.67 𝑘𝑔 4183 𝐽
𝑄𝑐 = 𝑥 𝑥 𝑥 𝑥 𝑥 (318.3 𝐾 − 304.7 𝐾)
𝑚𝑖𝑛 1000 𝐿 60 𝑠 𝑚3 𝑘𝑔. 𝐾
𝑄𝑐 = 1888.0824 𝑊

**The calculation is then repeated by using different flowrates of hot water which are 4, 6, 8 and
10 that gives Qc = 2387.8689W, 2498.9326W, 2776.5917W and 2637.7622W, respectively.
 𝐻𝑒𝑎𝑡 𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑠 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒 = 𝑄ℎ − 𝑄𝑐
𝐻𝑒𝑎𝑡 𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑠 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒 = 412.5652 − 1888.0324
𝐻𝑒𝑎𝑡 𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑠 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒 = −1475.4672𝑊

**The calculation is then repeated for each flowrate which gives the rate of heat loss
-1150.1734W, -504.8677W, -645.0051W and -506.1756W, respectively.

Sample calculation of the log mean temperature difference (LMTD)

∆𝑇2 − ∆𝑇1
∆𝑇𝑙𝑚 =
∆𝑇
ln ∆𝑇2
1

(48 − 45.3) − (47.4 − 31.7)

∆𝑇𝑙𝑚 =
(48 − 45.3)
ln
(47.4 − 31.7)
∆𝑇𝑙𝑚 = 7.38℃

**The calculation is then repeated to every flowrate that gives 12.19℃, 12.99℃, 14.83℃ and
12.85℃.
Sample calculation for Dimensionles number

A. At tube side: hot water-cooling process

2𝐿 1𝑚3 1 𝑚𝑖𝑛 𝑚3
𝑉̇ = × × = 3.3333 × 10−5
𝑚𝑖𝑛 1000 𝐿 60 𝑠 𝑠
0.305 𝑚
𝐷 = 0.04125 𝑓𝑡 × = 0.0126 𝑚
1 𝑓𝑡
𝑁𝑜. 𝑜𝑓 𝑡𝑢𝑏𝑒𝑠 × 𝑓𝑙𝑜𝑤 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑎 𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝑡𝑢𝑏𝑒
𝐴𝑡 =
𝑁𝑜. 𝑜𝑓 𝑡𝑢𝑏𝑒 𝑝𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑠
32 × 0.1924 𝑓𝑡 2
𝐴𝑡 =
2 × 144
(0.305𝑚)2
2
𝐴𝑡 = 0.02139 𝑓𝑡 × = 1.99𝑥10−3 𝑚2
1𝑓𝑡 2
𝑉
𝜗=
𝐴
3.3333 × 10−5 𝑚
𝜗= = 0.0168
1.99𝑥10−3 𝑠
𝜌𝑣𝐷
𝑅𝑒 =
𝜇
𝑘𝑔 𝑚
988.18 3 × 0.0168 𝑠 × 0.0126 𝑚
𝑅𝑒 = 𝑚 = 380.71
5.495𝑥10−4 𝑃𝑎. 𝑠
𝜇𝐶𝑝
Pr =
𝑘
4175 𝐽
5.495𝑥10−4 𝑃𝑎. 𝑠 ×
𝑘𝑔. 𝐾
𝑃𝑟 = = 3.56
𝑊
0.6436 𝑚. 𝐾

𝑁𝑢 = 0.023 𝑅𝑒 0.8 𝑃𝑟 0.33

𝑁𝑢 = 0.023 × (380.71)0.8 (3.56)0.33 = 4.06
𝑁𝑢. 𝑘
ℎ=
𝐷
𝑤
4.06 × 0.6436 𝑚. 𝐾 𝑊
ℎ= = 207.38
0.0126 𝑚 𝑚. 𝐾
**The calculation is then repeated for the shell side: cold-water heating process that gives:
⩒ = 3.3333 × 10−5 m3/s
D = 0.1541 𝑚
As = 0.00270 𝑚2
𝜗 = 0.0123 m/s
Re = 2356.97
Pr = 5.44
Nu = 20.06
h = 80.12 W/m.K

Sample Calculation of heat transfer coefficient

𝑄ℎ
𝑈=
𝐴∆𝑇𝑙𝑚
𝐴 = 𝜋 𝑥 𝑡𝑢𝑏𝑒 𝑂. 𝐷. 𝑥 𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑡ℎ
𝐴 = 𝜋 𝑥 0.00953 𝑥 0.5
𝐴 = 0.015 𝑚2
412.5652
𝑈=
0.015 𝑥 7.38
𝑈 = 3726.88

**The calculation is then repeated for every flowrate which are 4, 6, 8 and 10 that gives
U=6763.36, 10225.97, 9601.74 and 11044.5, respectively.
 9. DISCUSSIONS

This experiment is conducted using SOLTEQ Heat Exchangers Training apparatus which is
used as cooling device. In this shell and heat pump exchanger, cold water flows through the outer
pipe (the shell) while hot water will flow through the inner pipe (in the tube). Heat will be transfer
from high temperature (hot water stream) to low temperature (cold water stream). This causes hot
water to decrease in temperature while cold water to increase in temperature until both hot and
cold-water streams have the same temperature (Exchanger & Indicators, n.d.). The purpose of this
experiment includes to study the performance of heat exchanger as well as the heat transfer in the
system.

It is found that the calculated values of Qh and Qc are not really satisfied the theory since
supposedly, the ratio of Qc/Qh is unity means the ideal condition is the value of Qc should be closed
to the value of Qh, but in the calculated results, both values has a big difference which is normal
meaning that it is hard to achieve ideal system in real life. We also calculate Reynolds number at
the shell and tube heat exchanger and measure and determine the shell and tube side pressure drop.
The final trend that can be noted in the experiment was with the heat transfer coefficient (U). The
heat transfer coefficient is a quantitative characteristic of convective heat transfer between a fluid
medium and the surface the fluid flows over. U represents how well heat is conducted by a
medium. In theory, these U values should be equal to each other because the system remained the
same (Guche et al., 2016) but from the calculations the results were not the same to each other.

We started the experiment by putting the volumetric flow rates of hot water in constant which
is 10 LPM. Meanwhile the volumetric flow rates of cold water are changed every 10 minutes from
2 LPM to 10 LPM by adding 2 LPM for every 10 minutes. In this experiment the highest rat of
heat loss is at 2LPM which is -1475.4672W, and at the same flowrate it also has the lowest log
mean temperature difference which is 7.38℃ and the Qh at 2LPM is 412.5652W. Meanwhile for
the lower heat loss rate is at 6LPM which is -504.8677, its log mean temperature difference is
second highest which is 12.99℃ and the Qh is 1994.0649W. From overall discussion, we conclude
that we met all the objectives even though there are some errors and precautions that we need to
improve.
 10. CONCLUSION

Based on the experiment, the main objective is to evaluate and study the overall heat transfer
coefficient, LMTD, heat transfer and heat loss for energy balance as well as to evaluate and study
the performance of shell and tube heat exchanger at various operating condition. In this shell and
tube heat exchanger, the fluids flow in counter-current flow which results in faster heat exchange.
The basic theory in this experiment is Qh=Qc, which the amount of heat release by hot water is
equal or close to the amount of heat absorb by cold water. However, the results are different than
the basic theory where the amount of heat release by hot water is not equal and has huge difference
to the amount of heat absorb by cold water. This is probably due to some errors during conducting
this experiment which are the presence of bubbles in tube where the hot water flows, or the system
is not in the equilibrium state yet while we were collecting data. The presence of these bubbles can
cause corrosion and disturb the process of heat transfer. Although the results are not following the
basic theory, this experiment can be said as successful because objectives of this experiment were
already achieved.
 11. RECOMMENDATIONS

There are a few recommendations that can be taken to ensure the successfulness of this experiment.
Based on (Cycle, You, & Him, n.d.) stated that in order to have a optimum heat exchanger
performance, operate the shell and tube heat exchanger at approximately 75% for sufficient heat
transfer and economic efficiency. We also could monitor the pressure gauge at low steam rates to
prevent vacuum from happening.
 12. REFERENCES

Classification, H. E. (1998). Chapter 5 Heat Exchangers, 71–90.

Cycle, X. X., You, M., & Him, H. (n.d.). Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger.

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13. APPENDICES