Mattu University

College of Engineering and Technology

Department pf chemical Engineering

Thermal and heat transfer Lab

1.Introduction
• Heat is energy in transit due to a temperature difference. Whenever there is
a temperature difference in one medium or among several media, heat
transfer occurs.
• A heat exchanger is any device where a heat exchange between two fluids
separated by a metal wall is verified. This metal wall represents the heat
transfer surface and its geometry can be of any shape.
• The shell and tube heat exchanger is the most widely used in industry.
• It adapts to fluids at high and low pressures, high and low temperatures and
constitutes the most important part of heat transfer equipment without
combustion in chemical processes plants.
• Besides, they are compact and efficient, and their high velocities improve
the heat transfer rate.
• There are three different types of heat transfer mode (processes):
conduction, convection and radiation.
Conduction
• It is the heat transfer through solids and stationary fluids.
• Conduction physical mechanism is the energy diffusion originated from the interaction
among molecules of the medium.
• The equation that quantifies Conduction Heat Transfer Processes is known as Fourier's
law.
• In one-dimensional and stationary cases, Heat Transfer Rate through a wall will be given
by the following expression:

• Where
q = Heat Transfer Rate (w)
K = thermal conductivity of the wall (w/m·k)
A = perpendicular area to the direction of heat flow (m 2)
x = Wall Thickness (m)
T2 = temperature on the cold surface of the wall (k)
T1 = temperature on the hot surface of the wall (k)
The negative sign indicates that the heat runs to the direction of decreasing temperatures.
Convection
• It is the heat transfer between a surface and a fluid in motion at different
temperatures. It is a consequence of the superposition of two physical phenomena,
energy transported by the random movement of the molecules (diffusion) and
energy transported by the macroscopic movement of the fluid (a great number of
molecules moving together).
• Regardless of whether there is a laminar or turbulent condition, the heat transfer
rate by convention between a surface and a fluid is given by Newton´s law of
cooling, expressed as:
Radiation

• It is the energy generated by changes in the electronic configuration of

atoms or molecules and transported by electromagnetic waves or
photons.
• Unlike conduction and convection, radiation is independent from
matter for its propagation, being more effective under vacuum
conditions.
Heat Exchanger
• A heat exchanger is a device designed by mankind for the heat transfer
between two fluids at different temperatures separated by a solid wall.
• There are several criteria (not just one) for heat exchangers
classification: their geometry, the types of flow, the flow conditions, etc.
• There is a brief classification of heat exchangers below:
According to their geometry
⁕ Concentric tubes heat exchanger.
⁕ Shell and tube heat exchanger.
⁕ Plate heat exchanger.
⁕ Coil heat exchanger.
⁕ Jacketed heat exchanger with stirrer.
⁕ Bayonet tube heat exchanger.
 According to the type of flow
⁕ Parallel flow exchanger.
⁕ Countercurrent flow exchanger.
⁕ Cross flow heat exchanger.
According to the flow conditions
⁕ Laminar flow exchanger.
⁕ Transient flow exchanger.
⁕ Turbulent flow exchanger
1.2 Thermal resistance
• Thermal resistance is a key concept in the evaluation of heat transfer. There is an
analogy between diffusion of heat and electric charge. As electric resistance is
associated with electric conduction, thermal resistance may be associated with
thermal conduction.
• Ohm's law defines resistance as:

• Where (V1 - V2) is the difference of electric potential (voltage) and I is the
electric current. In heat transfer we may consider thermal resistance to be:

• From Conduction equation, Thermal Resistance may be determined:

 1.3 Overall heat transfer coefficient
• To represent the overall heat transfer phenomenon between the fluids in the exchanger,
the thermal resistances from each medium must be taken into account.
 Cont…
• The heat flow, in its way from the hot fluid to the cold fluid, has to
overcome the resistance exerted by the boundary layer of the hot fluid,
the resistance exerted by the separation wall and the resistance exerted
by the boundary layer of the cold fluid, as it can be observed in figure 1.
• These three resistances arranged in series form a total resistance (Rt),
which is the addition of each one.
Where:
Ah = area of the tube surface in contact with the hot fluid (m 2).
Ac = area of the tube surface in contact with the cold fluid (m 2).
T∞,c = mean temperature of the hot fluid (K).
T∞,f = mean temperature of the cold fluid (K).
Ts,c = temperature of the surface of the tube in contact with the hot fluid (K).
Ts,f = temperature of the surface of the tube in contact with the cold fluid (K).
hh = convection coefficient of the hot fluid (W/m 2 K).
 Cont…
hc = convection coefficient of the cold fluid (W/m2 K).
k = thermal conductivity of copper (W/m K).
A = mean area of the copper tube (m2).
x = thickness of the copper tube wall (m).
The heat transfer rate will be:
 Cont…
• The overall heat transfer coefficient, U, is defined as a factor that for a given
geometrical and hydrodynamic configuration provides the value of the total heat
transferred, multiplying it by the exchange area and the mean temperature
difference between the hot and cold fluid.
1.4 Types of flow in a heat exchanger
• There are different types of flow in a heat exchanger:
⁕ Parallel flow.
⁕ Countercurrent flow.
⁕ Cross flow.
• In parallel flow, the hot and cold fluids enter and leave through the
same end and circulate in the same direction. On the other hand, in
countercurrent flow, the fluids enter and leave through opposite ends
and circulate in opposite directions. Figure 2 shows both types of flow.
1.5 Temperature distribution in exchangers
 Cont…
Where:
Tc,e = temperature of the hot fluid at the inlet of the exchanger.
Tc,s = temperature of the hot fluid at the outlet of the exchanger.
Tf,e = temperature of the cold fluid at the inlet of the exchanger.
Tf,s = temperature of the cold fluid at the outlet of the exchanger .
In the parallel flow exchanger, the hottest zone of the hot fluid
exchanges heat with the coolest zone of the cold fluid at the inlet area.
• At the beginning the heat transfer is big, since the temperature
difference is great; but this difference falls very quickly along the
exchanger, approaching asymptotically to zero.
• It is important to say that, for this type of exchangers, the outlet
temperature of the cold fluid never exceeds the outlet temperature of
the hot fluid.
Cont…

• In countercurrent flow, the hottest zone of the hot fluid exchanges heat
with the hottest zone of the cold fluid and the coldest zone of the hot fluid
with the coldest zone of the cold fluid. This configuration gives a good
heat transfer both between the hot parts of both fluids at one end and the
cold parts at the other end. Besides, the outlet temperature of the cold fluid
may exceed the outlet temperature of the hot fluid.
1.6 Logarithmic mean temperature difference
• As it has been seen, the temperature difference between the fluids changes
along the exchanger.
• From the analysis developed in most books about heat transfer, we can
find that the appropriated mean temperature difference is a logarithmic
mean temperature difference (ΔTlm), defined in the following equation:
Cont…
1.7 Calculation of the heat transfer coefficient from the rate of heat transfer
• Two important relations for the analysis of a heat exchanger are the overall energy
balances, both of the hot fluid and the cold fluid. Neglecting the changes of potential
and kinetic energy along the exchanger, we have:
General heat transfer rate from the hot fluid:
qc = mc Cpc (Tc,e - Tc,s)
General heat transfer rate from the cold fluid:
qf = mf Cpf (Tf,s - Tf,e)
Where:
mc = mass flow of the hot fluid (g/s).
mf = mass flow of the cold fluid (g/s).
Cpc = specific heat capacity of the hot fluid (J/g.K).
Cpf = specific heat capacity of the cold fluid (J/g.K).
Tc,e = temperature of the hot fluid at the inlet of the exchanger.
Tc,s = temperature of the hot fluid at the outlet of the exchanger.
Tf,e = temperature of the cold fluid at the inlet of the exchanger.
 Cont…
• In theory, qc should be the same as qf but as heat transfer is performed from the
hot fluid to the cold fluid the value of qc will be used to calculate the overall heat
transfer coefficient.
qc = UAΔTlm
1.8 Calculation of the heat transfer coefficient by convection (h)
• To deal with the calculation of the coefficient h, we have to take into account the
dimensional analysis of the equations of Navier Stokes of fluids mechanics.
• These results indicate that the dimensionless temperature is a function of
Reynolds number (NRe), Prandtl number (NPr) and the dimensionless geometry.
• If Nusselt number (NNu) is defined as the dimensionless temperature gradient on
the surface, NNu = f (NRe, NPr, dimensionless geometry)
 Cont…
Where:
ρ = density of the fluid (kg/m3)
u = mean velocity of the fluid in the cross section of the tube (m/s)
D = diameter of the tube (m)
μ = dynamic viscosity of the fluid (kg/m s)
ν = kinematic viscosity of the fluid (m2/s)
α = thermal diffusivity of the fluid (m2/s)
Cp = specific heat capacity of the fluid (kJ/kg K)
kf = thermal conductivity of the fluid (W/m K)
• From Newton’s law of cooling and the dimensionless analysis the N Nu can be related to the
coefficient h:
1.9 Obtaining Nusselt number

• NNu = C (NRe)m (NPr)n , since NNu = f (NRe, NPr, dimensionless geometry)

• The values of C, m and n are independent of the fluid nature, but they
change with the nature of the surface geometry and the type of flow of
the exchanger.
• The correlations most used in bibliography are based on the type of
geometry of the exchangers and on the flow conditions for each type
of exchanger. A classification of the empirical correlations is
expressed below.
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