Design of Heat Exchanger to Improve Process Efficiency

Mechanical Engineering

Heat exchanger is a pressure vessel that allows transfer of energy between two media that may or not be separated by a wall. Heat exchangers are used in industries for any process which involve cooling, heating, condensation, boiling or evaporation. This paper discusses an industrial problem to design a heat exchanger for a specific problem. Shell and Tube heat exchangers are widely used in process applications as well as the refrigeration and air conditioning industry. The basic configuration, design and analysis of shell and tube heat exchangers form an indispensable part of mechanical, thermal and chemical engineering scholars. Types of shell and tube heat exchangers are discussed briefly. The process stream is simulated using Design II software to obtain the design parameters and the process datasheet is prepared. The parameters from the datasheet is used to design the heat exchanger. The basic thermal design considerations and design process for a shell and tube heat exchanger is discussed. The mechanical design considerations and design procedure is done. The main objective in any heat exchanger design is to estimate the minimum heat transfer area required to give a specified heat duty. This is important since it governs the overall cost of the heat exchanger. Many configurations with various design variables such as outer diameter, pitch, and length of the tubes; tube passes; baffle spacing; baffle cut, tube thickness etc. are possible. Aspen EDR Software is employed in finding the optimum heat exchanger performance at minimum cost.

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