Air Cooled Heat Exchangers

In petrochemical plants, fans are most commonly used ia air-cooled heat exchangers that can be described as overgrown automobile radiators (see HeaT-EXCHANGEtechnology). Process fluid ia the finned tubes is cooled usually by two fans, either forced draft (fans below the bundle) or iaduced draft (fans above the bundles). Normally, one fan is a fixed pitch and one is variable pitch to control the process outlet temperature within a closely controlled set poiat. A temperature iadicating controller (TIC) measures the outlet fluid temperature and controls the variable pitch fan to maintain the set poiat temperature to within a few degrees. 

Air-Cooled Heat Exchangers for General Eefinery Service, API 661, American Petroleum Institute, Washington, D.C., Apr. 1992. 

Transverse fins upon tubes are used in low-pressure gas sei vices. The primary application is in air-cooled heat exchangers (as discussed under that heading), but shell-and-tube exchangers with these tubes are in sei vice. 

Air-cooled heat exchangers include a tube bundle, which generally has spiral-wound fins upon the tubes, and a fan, which moves air across the tubes and is provided with a driver. Electric motors are the most commonly usea drivers typical drive arrangements require a V belt or a direc t right-angle gear. A plenum and structural supports are basic components. Louvers are often used ... 

Both the quantity of air and the developed static pressure of fans in air-cooled heat exchangers are lower than indicated by fan manufacturers test data, which are applicable to testing-facility tolerances and not to heat-exchanger constructions. 

Trim Coolers Conventional air-cooled heat exchangers can cool the process fluid to within 8.3°C (15°F) of the design dry-biilb temperature. When a lower process outlet temperature is required, a trim cooler is installed in series with the air-cooled heat exchanger. The water-cooled trim cooler can be designed for a 5.6 to 11.1°C (10 to 20°F) approach to the wet-biilb temperature (which in the United States is about 8.3°C (15°F) less than the diy-bulb temperature). In arid areas the difference between diy- and wet-bulb temperatures is much greater. 

HumidiRcation Chambers The air-cooled heat exchanger is provided with humidification chambers in which the air is cooled to a close approach to the wet-bulb temperature before entering the finned-tube bundle of the heat exchanger. 

Air recirculation. Prevailing winds and the locations and elevations of buildings, equipment, fired heaters, etc., require consideration. All air-cooled heat exchangers in a bank are of one type, i.e., all forced-draft or all induced-draft. Banks of air-cooled exchangers must be placed far enough apart to minimize air recirculation. 

Pipe-rack-mounted air-cooled heat exchangers with flammable fluids generally have concrete fire decks which isolate the exchangers from the piping. 

Atmospheric corrosion. Air-cooled heat exchangers should not be located where corrosive vapors and fumes from vent stacks will pass through them. 

Operating co.sts. Power requirements for air-cooled heat exchangers can be lower than at the summer design condition provided that an adequate means of air-flow control is used. The annual power requirement for an exchanger is a function of the means of airflow control, the exchanger seiwice, the air-temperature rise, and the approach temperature. 

When the mean annual temperature is 16.7°C (30°F) lower than the design dry-bulb temperature and when both fans in a bay have automatically controllable pitch of fan blades, annual power required has been found to be 22, 36, and 54 percent respectively of that needed at the design condition for three process services [Frank L. Rubin, Tower Requirements Are Lower for Air-Cooled Heat Exchangers with AV Fans, Oil Gas J., 165-167 (Oct. 11, 1982)]. Alternatively, when fans have two-speed motors, these dehver one-half of the design flow of air at half speed and use only one-eighth of the power of the full-speed condition. 

Typical Transfer Coefficients for Air-Cooled Heat Exchangers... 

Overall Transfer Rates For Air-Cooled Heat Exchanger... 

Air-cooled Heat Exchangers Forced vs Induced Draft... 

Advantages and disadvantages of forced and induced draft air-cooled heat exchangers ai e shown here to aid in selection. 

Air-cooled Heat Exchangers Pressure Drop Air Side... 

Calculate horsepower per fan from the previous section, Air-cooled Heat Exchangers, Pressure Drop, Air Side. 

Here are three primary means of controlling temperature for air-cooled heat exchangers. 

For air-cooled heat exchangers, recirculation is more difficult to define or relate to standard practices. Banks of air-coolers are installed in a variety of configurations so, for a particular proposed installation, a study by specialists may be required. This study of recirculation would probably be done later in the projeet even though the results impact costs. There is a practical limit to the number of front-end studies and this is one that can be deferred until geometry is better defined. 

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