Tube pitch, heat exchanger

Example 3.11 Atmospheric air (p = 0.1 MPa) is to be heated in a tube bundle heat exchanger from 10 °C to 30 °C. The exchanger consists of 4 neighbouring rows and zr rows of tubes aligned one behind the other. The outer diameter of the tubes is 25 mm, their length 1.5m, the longitudinal pitch is the same as the transverse pitch s /d = sq/d = 2. The wall temperature of the tubes is 80 °C with an initial velocity of the air of 4m/s. Calculate the required number zr of tube rows. 

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. 

The simplest unit employing vacuum fractionation is that designed by Canadian Badger for Dominion Tar and Chemical Company (now Rttgers VFT Inc.) at Hamilton, Ontario (13). In this plant, the tar is dehydrated in the usual manner by heat exchange and injection into a dehydrator. The dry tar is then heated under pressure in an oil-fired hehcal-tube heater and injected directly into the vacuum fractionating column from which a benzole fraction, overhead fraction, various oil fractions as side streams, and a pitch base product are taken. Some alterations were made to the plant in 1991, which allows some pitch properties to be controlled because pitch is the only product the distillate oils are used as fuel. 

Variables It is possible to identify a large number of variables that influence the design and performance of a chemical reactor with heat transfer, from the vessel size and type catalyst distribution among the beds catalyst type, size, and porosity to the geometry of the heat-transfer surface, such as tube diameter, length, pitch, and so on. Experience has shown, however, that the reactor temperature, and often also the pressure, are the primary variables feed compositions and velocities are of secondary importance and the geometric characteristics of the catalyst and heat-exchange provisions are tertiary factors. Tertiary factors are usually set by standard plant practice. Many of the major optimization studies cited by Westerterp et al. (1984), for instance, are devoted to reactor temperature as a means of optimization. 

The layout of the heat exchanger tubesheet determines the number of tubes of a selected size and pitch that will fit into a given diameter of shell. The number of tubes that will fit the shell varies depending upon the number of tube-side passes and even upon whether there is a shell-side pass baffle that divides the shell itself into two or more parts. 

TWo tubular heat exchangers are available each with a 0.44 m i.d. shell fitted with 166 tubes, 19.0 mm o.d. and 15.0 mm i.d., each 5.0 m long. The tubes are arranged in two passes on 25 mm square pitch with a baffle spacing of 150 mm. There are two passes on the shell side and operation is to be countercurrent. With benzene passing through the tubes, the anticipated film coefficient on the tube side is 1000 W/m2K. 

Fins are used to increase the effective surface area of heat-exchanger tubing. Many different types of fin have been developed, but the plain transverse fin shown in Figure 12.66 is the most commonly used type for process heat exchangers. Typical fin dimensions are pitch 2.0 to 4.0 mm, height 12 to 16 mm ratio of fin area to bare tube area 15 1 to 20 1. 

Steady two-phase flow. In rod (or tube) bundles, such as one usually encounters in reactor cores or heat exchangers, the pressure drop calculations use the correlations for flow in tubes by applying the equivalent diameter concept. Thus, in a square-pitched four-rod cell (Fig. 3.51), the equivalent diameter is given by... 

Find a shell diameter from Table 8.13 corresponding to the selections of tube diameter, length, pitch, and number of passes made thus far for the required surface. As a guide, many heat exchangers have length to shell diameter ratios between 6 and 8. 

Optimization of the coiled-tube heat exchanger is quite complex. There are numerous variables, such as tube and shell flow velocities, tube diameter, tube pitch, and layer spacing. Other considerations include single-phase and two-phase flow, condensation on either the tube or shell side, and boiling or evaporation on either the tube or shell side. Additional complications come into play when multicomponent streams are present, as in natural gas liquefaction, since mass transfer accompanies the heat transfer in the two-phase region. 

U-tube heat exchanger with 1-in. tubes x 1-in. square pitch and 16-ft bundles operating at 150 psi. 

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