DESIGN AND BUILDING OF A SMALL SHELL AND TUBE HEAT EXCHANGER USING ALGORITHM

Description

CHAPTER ONE

• INTRODUCTION

This research work is on Design and building of a small shell and tube heat exchanger using algorithm. A heat exchanger is a piece of equipment built for efficient heat transfer from one fluid to another. Just like a radiator in a car engine, as the car runs, a coolant stored in the radiator circulates through the engine blocks where it picks up heat and then returns back to the radiator, a fan draws air across the radiator where the heat is transferred to the air. Heat has been transferred from the hot engine to the coolant and from the coolant into the air again. This is an example of a heat exchanger.

The most commonly used heat exchanger is the shell and tube heat exchanger. In a shell and tube heat exchanger, one of the fluids usually passes next to the other fluid through a series of pipes or tubes, the two fluids never come in contact with each other, heat transfer through the walls from the hotter fluid to the cooler fluid. Shell and tube heat exchangers are used extensively in engineering applications like power generators, refrigeration and air conditioning, petrochemical industries etc. These heat exchangers can be designed for almost any capacity.

The main purpose in the heat exchanger design is given task for heat transfer measurement to govern the overall cost of the heat exchanger. Heat exchangers are important in the oil and gas sector to increase process efficiency, to reduce maintenance, conserve energy and for employee safety. We commonly use the term heat exchanger to describe different types of equipment used in heat transfer, these heat transfer equipment include; cooler, condenser, vaporizer, reboiler and chiller. The steadily increasing use of shell-and-tube heat exchangers and greater demands on accuracy of performance prediction for a growing variety of process conditions resulted in the explosion of research activities. These included not only shell side flow but also, equally important, calculations of true mean temperature difference and strength calculations of construction elements, in particular tube sheets.

• SCOPE OF THE PROJECT

The scope of the project is to make a design for a shell and tube heat exchanger and a paper work for construction. The design covers the selection and sizing methods for a shell and tube heat exchanger which will be based on the Tabular Exchanger manufacturers association (TEMA) standards. It also covers the manual calculations for the log mean temperature difference method, the number of transfer units method and also calculation of heat transfer co-efficient.

• OBJECTIVES

The objectives of this project are:

1. To formulate a design algorithm for a shell and tube heat exchanger
2. To obtained the best specifications of heat exchangers.
3. To design and build a small shell and tube heat exchanger
4. To optimize procedure for a shell and tube heat exchanger