Mechanical design of Heat Exchangers

Chemical Engineering Apparatus Design (ChEg 4191)

4th year sec-III Mr. Asrat A. (Lec.) Email: [email protected]

Hawassa University (HU), Institute of Technology (IoT)

Chemical engineering department
 MECHANICAL DESIGN OF SHELL AND TUBE HEAT EXCHANGER
1. MECHANICAL DESIGN STANDARDS OF SHELL AND TUBE HEAT EXCHANGERS
2. DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
A. Design pressure and temperature
B. Materials of construction
C. Design components
 Shell diameter and thickness
 Shell cover
 Channel covers diameter and thickness
 Pass partition plate
 Tube sheet thickness
 Impingement plates or baffles
 Nozzles and branch pipes
 Gaskets
 Bolts design
 Design of flange
 Design of supports
D. SOLVED EXAMPLE
MECHANICAL DESIGN STANDARDS OF SHELL AND TUBE HEAT EXCHANGERS

• Mechanical design of heat exchangers includes design of various pressure and non pressure parts.

• The structural rigidity and satisfactory service of heat exchangers depends on the appropriate
mechanical design.

• Mechanical design is generally performed according to the design standards and codes.

• Some mechanical design standards used in heat exchanger design are:

• TEMA (United States),

• IS:4503-1967 (India);

• BS: 3274 (United Kingdom) and BS: 20414 (United Kingdom).

• Most countries of the world follow the TEMA (Tubular Exchanger Manufacturers Association)
standards for the mechanical design of unfired shell and tube heat exchangers.
 Cont.…
• Three basic classes of TEMA standards
are: ‘C’, ‘B’ and ‘R’.
• The class ‘C’ specifies the
standards for general service
exchangers.
• The class ‘B’ specifies the
standards of heat exchangers for
chemical services.
• The class ‘R’ specifies the
standards of heat exchangers for
more severe application in
petroleum and related processes.
• Seven types of shells are standardized by
the TEMA.
• The TEMA standards also specify the
types of front-end, shell, and rear-end of
shell and tube exchangers
 Components of shell and tube heat exchanger

Fixed-tube heat exchanger Removable U-tube heat exchanger

Floating-head heat exchanger (non-pull through type)

 Cont..

An example of a fixed tube sheet heat exchanger.

This U-tube exchanger represents a kettle type reboiler

Cont...
 DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
Design pressure and temperature
• Design pressure of a heat exchanger is the gage pressure at the top of the vessel and is used to determine the
minimum wall thickness of the various pressure parts. Usually a 10% higher value is used.

• The maximum permissible stresses for various heat exchanger components should not be exceeded at the
allowable pressure.

• The design temperature is used to determine the minimum wall thickness of various parts of the exchanger for a
specified design pressure. It is normally 10ºC greater than the maximum allowable temperature.
Materials of construction

• All materials used for the construction of shell and tube heat exchangers for pressure parts must have
the appropriate specification and should be compatible with process fluids and others parts of
materials and also should be cost effective.
 Materials of construction
• High chrome-Mo-Ni alloys (Cr content 12-27%) can be used for high temperature services up to
2100°C. Use of any carbon or low alloy steel is not recommended for the construction of heat
exchangers for the service below 0°C.

• The maximum permitted operating fluid temperatures should not exceeds for the various pressure-
retaining components as specified by IS:4503 given in Table below.
Materials of construction Allowable fluid temperature, °C
Carbon steel 540
C-Mo steel 590
Cr-Mo steel 650
Low alloy steel (< 6 % Cr) 590
Alloy steel (<17 % Cr) 590
Austenitic Cr-Ni steel 650
Cast iron 200
Brass 200
 Design Components
Design components
1. Shell diameter and thickness

• Shell is the container for the shell fluid and the tube bundle is
placed inside the shell. Shell diameter should be selected in
such a way to give a close fit of the tube bundle.
• The shell thickness (𝑡𝑠) can be calculated from the equation
below based on the maximum allowable stress and corrected
for joint efficiency
𝑝𝐷 𝑠 𝑡𝑠=shell thickness
𝑡 𝑠=
𝑓𝐽 −0.6 𝑝
𝑝= design pressure
𝐷𝑠= Shell ID
𝑓=Maximum allowable stress of the material of construction
𝐽=Joint efficiency (usually varies from 0.7 to 0.9)
 cont.…
2. Shell cover

• There are different types shell covers used in shell and tube heat exchangers: flat, torispherical,
hemispherical, conical and ellipsoidal.

• Out of various types of head covers, torispherical head is the most widely used in chemical industries
for operating pressure up to 200psi.

• The thickness of formed head is smaller than the flat for the same service.

• According to the IS: 4503, the minimum thickness of the shell cover should be at least equal to the
thickness of the shell.

• The required thickness of a torispherical head (th) can be determined by:

Cs = stress concentration factor for torispherical head =
𝑝 𝑅𝑐 𝐶𝑠
𝑡 h= +𝐶 Rc = crown radius
2 𝑓𝐽 − 0.2𝑝
Rk = knuckle radius
 Cont.…
3. Channel covers diameter and thickness

• The outside diameter of the channel shall be the same as that of the shell. The thickness of the channel
shall be greater of the two values: (i) shell thickness or (ii) thickness calculated on the basis of the design
shown below pressure.
• The effective channel cover thickness (𝑡𝑐𝑐 in mm) is calculated from the formula (IS:4503)

𝐷𝑐= diameter of the cover [mm] usually same as the outside shell diameter
𝐶1 = a factor which is 0.25 when the cover is bolted with full faced gaskets and
0.3 when bolted with narrow faced or ring type gaskets
𝑝= design pressure in kgf/cm2 and
𝑓= allowable stress value in kgf/mm2 at design temperature

4. Pass partition plate

IS: 4503, specifies that the minimum thickness of channel pass partition plates including corrosion
allowance should be 10 mm for both carbon steel and alloy up to channel size of 600 mm. For higher
channel size, the same should be 13 mm carbon steel and 10 mm for alloy.
 Cont.…
5. Tube sheet thickness

Tube sheet is a circular flat plate with regular pattern drilled holes according to the tube sheet layouts.
The open end of the tubes is connected to the tube sheet.

The tube sheet is fixed with the shell and channel to form the main barrier for shell and tube side fluids.
The tube sheet is attached either by welding (called integral construction) or bolting (called gasketed
construction) or a combination of both types.

The minimum tube-sheet thickness (TEMA standard) to ‘resist bending’ can be

calculated by • Where, 𝐹=1 for fixed tube and floating type tube sheet; 𝐹=1.25 for U-tube tube sheet
𝐺𝑝 =diameter over which pressure is acting

For fixed tube sheet heat exchanger 𝐺𝑝=𝐷𝑠, shell ID;

𝐺𝑝 is port inside diameter for kettle type, for floating tube sheet
𝑓= allowable stress for the tube sheet material
k = mean ligament efficiency
 Cont...
For triangular pitch, For square or rotated pitch,

• The effective pressure, 𝑃 = 𝑃𝑠 + 𝑃𝑏 or 𝑃 = 𝑃𝑡 + 𝑃𝑏 when the tube sheet is extended as a flange for bolting heads.

• 𝑃𝑠 = shell side pressure, 𝑃𝑡= tube side pressure, 𝑃𝑏 = equivalent bolting pressure
• For fixed tube sheet and U-tube tube sheet, 𝑃 is effective shell side or effective tube side pressure as
defined by TEMA standards
The effective tube sheet to ‘resist shear’ is given by:

Where, ] is the equivalent diameter of the perforated tube sheet

𝐶 is the perimeter measured by connecting the center to center of the outermost tubes of
tube layout.
𝐴 is total area enclosed by 𝐶
The shear formula does not control the tube sheet thickness when:
• IS:4503 specifies that the minimum tube sheet thickness should be between 6 and 25.4 mm based on the outside
tube diameter.
 Cont...
6. Impingement plates of heat exchanger tube bank
• Impingement plates are fixed on the tube side between the tube bundle and inlet nozzle to deflect the liquid or
vapor-liquid mixture to protect the tubes from erosion.

• According to the IS:4503, the protection against impingement may not be required for the services involving
non-corrosive, non-abrasive, single phase fluids having entrance line values of 𝜌
𝑢2 <125, where 𝑢 is the linear
velocity of the fluid in m/s and 𝜌 is the density in g/cm3.

• In all other cases, the tube bundle at the entrance against impinging fluids should be protected. Usually a metal
plate about 6 mm thick is used as the impingement plate.
 Cont...
7. Nozzles and branch pipes

• The wall thickness of nozzles and other connections shall be not less than that defined for the
applicable loadings, namely, pressure temperature, bending and static loads (IS:4503).

• But in no case, the wall thickness of ferrous piping, excluding the corrosion allowance shall be less
than (0.04𝑑𝑜𝑐 + 2.5) mm, where 𝑑𝑜𝑐 is the outside diameter of the connection. The typical nozzle size
with shell ID is provided in Table below.
Shell ID, mm Nozzle ID, mm
<12 2
12 to 17.25 3
19.25 to 21.25 4
23.23 to 29 6
31-38 8
>39 10
 Cont...
8. Gaskets

• Gaskets are used to make the metal to metal surfaces leak-proof. Gaskets are elasto-plastic materials and
relatively softer than the flange materials.

• Deformation of gaskets under load seals the surface irregularities between metal to metal surfaces and prevents
leakage of the fluid.

• For design pressures<16 kgf/cm2 and when there is no contact with oil or oil vapor, the compressed asbestos
fiber, natural or synthetic rubber or other suitable gasket and packing materials having the appropriate
mechanical and corrosion resisting properties may be used (IS:4503).

• A preliminary estimation of gaskets is done using following expression:

• 𝑅𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑔𝑎𝑠𝑘𝑒𝑡 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑐𝑒 = 𝐺𝑎𝑠𝑘𝑒𝑡 𝑠𝑒𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑐𝑒 – (𝐻𝑦𝑑𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑐 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑐𝑒)

• The residual gasket force should be greater than that required to prevent the leakage of the internal fluid.
 Cont...
• This condition results the final expression in the form of:
𝐷𝑂𝐺=outside gasket diameter [mm]
𝐷𝐼𝐺=inside gasket diameter [mm]; usually, 𝐷𝐼𝐺=𝐷𝑠+0.25
𝑝=design pressure
Y= maximum design seating stress
𝑚= gasket factor
• Gasket width, 𝑁 = (𝐷𝑂𝐺 − 𝐷𝐼𝐺)/2
 Cont...

9. Bolts design
The bolt design procedure is as follows:

 The minimum initial bolt load (𝑊𝑚1) at atmospheric pressure and atmospheric temperature is given by: W m1 =
bGY,

where G (mean gasket diameter) =

b (effective gasket seating width) = bo for bo < 6mm and = 0.5 for bo > 6mm

bo (basic gasket seating width) = for flat flange

 The gasket is compressed under tight pressure. The required bolt load (𝑊𝑚2) is given by:

Wm2 = Hp+H

Where Hp (total joint contact surface compression load) = 2bGmp and

2
 Cont...

 Determine the controlling load: the greater value of 𝑊𝑚2 or 𝑊𝑚1

 Calculate the required (minimum) bolt cross sectional area (𝐴𝑚) based on the controlling load:
𝑓𝑏= allowable bolt stress at design temperature,
Am = or
𝑓𝑎= allowable bolt stress at ambient temperature
 Select the number of bolts (usually a multiple of 4 is used), bolt circle diameter (𝐶𝑏), root diameter

(𝑑𝑏𝑟 ) and bolt edge distance (𝐸) (follow IS: 4864-1968, to select bolts details).

 From the number of bolts chosen, find out the actual bolt area (𝐴𝑏). Always Ab should be greater

than Am.

 Check for the minimum gasket width, 𝑁 should be greater than 𝑁 𝑚𝑖𝑛.
 Cont...
10. Design of flange

 Calculation of flange forces

i. Hydrostatic end force on area inside of the flange (HD) =

Where 𝐵 is the center line to center line bolt-spacing

ii. Pressure force on the flange face (HT) = H – HD

iii. Gasket load under operating conditions (HG) = W – H

For gasket seating condition, 𝐻𝐺 = 𝑊

 Calculation of flange moment:

i. Calculate the summation of flange moments for the operating

 condition,
Moment dueMf =toM
𝐻D𝐺+, 𝑀
MT =+𝐻
MGh ; where h =
𝐺 𝐺 G G

 Moment due to 𝐻𝐷, 𝑀𝐷 = 𝐻𝐷hD; where hD =

 Moment due to 𝐻 , 𝑀 = 𝐻 h ; where h =

 Cont...

• The flange bolt load (W) = for gasket seating condition

= Wm2 for the operating condition

ii. Calculate the flange moment for the gasket seating condition:

iii. Calculate the flange thickness (𝑡𝑓) based on the maximum value for the gasket seating condition
or operating condition given by:

which one is greater 𝑓𝑓= allowable flange stress at design temperature,

𝑓𝑓𝑎 = allowable flange stress at ambient temperature.

 Cont...
11. Design of supports

• Horizontal heat exchanger units shall be provided with at least two supporting saddles with
holes for anchor bolts.

• The vertical units shall be provided with at least two supports of sufficient size to carry the
unit in a supporting structure of sufficient width to clear shell flanges.
Cont...