UNIVERSITY OF LONDON

M.Eng EXAMINATION IN CHEMICAL ENGINEERING 2005

PARTS III AND IV and M.Sc. in ADVANCED CHEMICAL ENGINEERING AND ASSOCIATED M.Scs

For Internal Students of Imperial College London This paper is also taken for the relevant examination for the Associateship

PROCESS HEAT TRANSFER Tuesday 3 May 2005 14.00 15.30

Answer ALL PARTS of both questions All questions carry equal marks

THIS EXAMINATION PAPER HAS FIVE PAGES IN TOTAL WHICH INCLUDES THIS COVER SHEET TURN OVER FOR QUESTIONS

QUESTION 1 Air-cooled heat exchangers (a) What are the advantages and disadvantages of using air as a coolant? (4 marks) (b) A major problem with using air as a coolant is that its temperature varies from winter to summer. What means can be adopted in air-cooled heat exchangers to cope with this problem? (4 marks) (c) In an air-cooled heat exchanger, a bundle of finned tubes is used with the following specification: Tube outside (fin root) diameter (d): 25 mm Fin outside diameter (D): 50 mm Fin thickness (): 2 mm Fin frequency (nf): 200/m Tube pitch (p) 60 mm Tube layout: Square Number of transverse rows (nt): 12 Number of rows in flow direction (z): 8 Tube length (L): 10 m Air with the following physical properties: a = 1.2 kg m-3 , cpa = 1 kJ kg-1 K-1 a = 1.8 10-5 N s m-2 , a = 0.025 W m-1 K-1 is blown through the bundle at 25 kg s-1 . Here a , cpa , a and a are, respectively, the density, specific heat capacity, viscosity and thermal conductivity of the air. Calculate the heat transfer coefficient from the finned surface to the air using the Schmidt equation:
Nu = 0.30 Re 0.625 0.375 Pr 1 3

where:

Nu =

d a
Vmin d a

Re =

QUESTION 1 ((c) continued) 2

 = At Ao
Pr = c pa a

where Vmin is the air velocity at the point of minimum flow area, At the total external surface area of the finned tube bundle and Ao is the surface area of the tube without the fins (bare tube area). (10 marks) (d) An air cooled heat exchanger is used to condense steam at 1 atmosphere pressure and at a constant temperature of Th,in=Th,out=100 0C. The bundle has a total outside surface area (At) of 500 m2 and a bare tube outside area (Ao) of 60 m2. The surface area corresponding to the inside of the tubes (Ai) is 50 m2. The heat transfer coefficient () for the outer (air side) is 70 W m-2 K-1 and the heat transfer coefficient (i) for condensation on the inside of the tube is 5000 W m-2 K-1. The air inlet temperature (Tc,in) is 25 oC and the air outlet temperature (Tc,out) is 62 oC. The fouling and tube wall resistances are negligible and the mean temperature difference Tm is
given as the logarithmic mean value:

Tm =

[(T ln[(T

h ,in

Tc ,out ) (Th ,out T c ,in )]

h .in

Tc ,out ) (Th ,out Tc ,in )]

Assuming that the fin efficiency is unity (100%) and that the latent heat of vaporisation of steam under these conditions is 2257 kJ kg-1, calculate the steam condensation rate. (7 marks)

QUESTION 2 Plate-fin heat exchangers (a) Derive the following expression for the hydraulic diameter of the channels in a plate-fin heat exchanger:
dH = 2(b t f )(1 f n t f
n f

[1 + f (b 2t )]

where b is the distance between the plates, tf the fin thickness and fn the number of fins per unit width. (4 marks) (b) A plate-fin heat exchanger has serrated fins with a fin frequency (fn) of 709 fins/m, a fin thickness (tf) of 2.032 10-4 m and a plate spacing (b) of 0.00635 m. Calculate the heat transfer coefficient () for a fluid with a viscosity () of 52.2 N s m-2 , a specific heat capacity (cp) of 2.467 kJ kg-1 K-1 and a thermal conductivity () of

& 88 W m-1 K-1 flowing at a mass flux ( m ) of 20 kg m-2 s-1. The following relationships
may be used:

(Pr )2 3
for Re < 1500

& jmc p

j = 0.49 Re 0.486

j = 0.151 Re 0.517 for 1500 < Re < 6000 j = 0.755 Re 0.499 for Re > 6000

& where Re = md H / and Pr = c p / .

QUESTION 2 (continued) (c) A volumetric overall heat transfer coefficient (B) for plate-fin heat exchangers & may be defined such that the rate of heat transfer( Q )between two steams (1 and 2) in a volume V is: & Q = BV (T1 T2 )

where T1 and T2 are the temperatures of the respective streams. Derive the following expression for B:

s (t p + t f 1 2s 2s = + + B (auf 1 + f 1 a f 1 ) 1 (auf 2 + f 2 a f 2 ) 2 w

where s is the distance between centre lines of the adjacent channels between the plates. a uf 1 and a f 1 are the unfinned and finned surface areas per unit plate area for the channels carrying fluid 1 and a uf 2 and a f 2 are the unfinned and finned surface areas per unit plate area for the channels carrying fluid 2. 1 and 2 are the heat transfer coefficients for fluids 1 and 2 and f 1 and f 2 are the respective fin efficiencies. The plate thickness is tp and t f is defined as follows:
t f = (t f 1 + t f 2 ) / 2

where t f 1 and t f 2 are the thicknesses of the fins in the channels carrying the respective fluids. If the distance between the plates through which fluid 1 flows is b1 and that between the plates through which fluid 2 flows is b2 , then it follows that:
s = (b1 + b2 ) / 2 + t p

Finally, w is the thermal conductivity of the construction material (normally aluminium). (9 marks) (d) Calculate the value of B for a plate-fin heat exchanger with the following parameters:

1 = 1000 W m 2 K 1 , 2 = 60 W m 2 K 1 , a f 1 = a f 2 = 8.7 m2/m2, a uf 1 = a uf 2 = 1.77 m2/m2, b1 = b2 = 0.00635 m, w = 130 W m-1 K-1, t p = 0.0015 m,
t f 1 = t f 2 = 2.034 10 4 m, f 1 = 0.6 , f 2 = 0.8
(5 marks)