HEAT TRANSFER

(PCC-CH204)
Prepared by
Dr. Chandrakant R. Khudsange
 AIM
To study the heat exchangers and their design. The following are the points which cover the
topic.

1) Introduction

2) Basic types of heat exchangers

3) Log mean temperature difference (LMTD)

4) LMTD in single pass and multi-pass flow arrangement

5) NTU-Effectiveness method for parallel and counter flow heat exchangers

6) General design aspects of heat exchanger

Heat Exchangers Part 2:

Analysis of Heat Exchangers:

Heat exchangers are commonly used in practice, and an engineer often finds himself or herself in
a position to select a heat exchanger that will achieve a specified temperature change in a fluid
stream of known mass flow rate, or to predict the outlet temperatures of the hot and cold fluid
streams in a specified heat exchanger. In this section, we will discuss the two methods used in
the analysis of heat exchangers.
1) Log mean temperature difference (or LMTD)
2) Effectiveness–NTU method
Of these, the log mean temperature difference (or LMTD) method is best suited for the first task
and the effectiveness–NTU method for the second task as just stated. But first we present some
general considerations.
Heat exchangers usually operate for long periods of time with no change in their
operating conditions. Therefore, they can be modeled as steady-flow devices. As such, the mass
flow rate of each fluid remains constant, and the fluid properties such as temperature and
velocity at any inlet or outlet remain the same. Also, the fluid streams experience little or no
change in their velocities and elevations, and thus the kinetic and potential energy changes are
negligible. The specific heat of a fluid, in general, changes with temperature.
In a specified temperature range, it can be treated as a constant at some average value
with little loss in accuracy. Axial heat conduction along the tube is usually insignificant and can
be considered negligible. Finally, the outer surface of the heat exchanger is assumed to be
perfectly insulated, so that there is no heat loss to the surrounding medium, and any heat transfer
occurs between the two fluids only.
The idealizations stated above are closely approximated in practice, and they greatly simplify the
analysis of a heat exchanger with little sacrifice of accuracy. Therefore, they are commonly used.
Under these assumptions, the first law of thermodynamics requires that the rate of heat transfer
from the hot fluid be equal to the rate of heat transfer to the cold one and is given by
For cold fluid:
For hot fluid:

Note that the heat transfer rate Q is taken to be a positive quantity, and its direction is understood
to be from the hot fluid to the cold one in accordance with the second law of thermodynamics.
In heat exchanger analysis, it is often convenient to combine the product of the mass flow rate
and the specific heat of a fluid into a single quantity. This quantity is called the heat capacity
rate and is defined for the hot and cold fluid streams as

The heat capacity rate of a fluid stream represents the rate of heat transfer needed to change the
temperature of the fluid stream by 1°C as it flows through a heat exchanger. Note that in a heat
exchanger, the fluid with a large heat capacity rate will experience a small temperature change,
and the fluid with a small heat capacity rate will experience a large temperature change.
Therefore, doubling the mass flow rate of a fluid while leaving everything else unchanged will
halve the temperature change of that fluid. With the definition of the heat capacity rate above, the
rate of heat transfer for cold and hot fluid can also be expressed as
For cold fluid:

For hot fluid:

That is, the heat transfer rate in a heat exchanger is equal to the heat capacity rate of either fluid
multiplied by the temperature change of that fluid. Note that the only time the temperature rise of
a cold fluid is equal to the temperature drop of the hot fluid is when the heat capacity rates of the
two fluids are equal to each other as shown in the figure below.
Two special types of heat exchangers commonly used in practice are condensers and boilers.
One of the fluids in a condenser or a boiler undergoes a phase-change process, and the rate of
heat transfer is expressed as

where m is the rate of evaporation or condensation of the fluid and hfg is the enthalpy of
vaporization of the fluid at the specified temperature or pressure.
An ordinary fluid absorbs or releases a large amount of heat essentially at constant temperature
during a phase-change process, as shown in Figure.
The heat capacity rate of a fluid during a phase-change process must approach infinity since the
temperature change is practically zero. That is,
C = m Cp →  when T → 0, so that the heat transfer rate Q = m Cp T is a finite quantity.
Therefore, in heat exchanger analysis, a condensing or boiling fluid is conveniently modeled as a
fluid whose heat capacity rate is infinity.
The rate of heat transfer in a heat exchanger can also be expressed in an analogous manner to
Newton’s law of cooling as

where U is the overall heat transfer coefficient, As is the heat transfer area, and Tm is an
appropriate average temperature difference between the two fluids.
Here the surface area As can be determined precisely using the dimensions of the heat exchanger.
However, the overall heat transfer coefficient U and the temperature difference T between the
hot and cold fluids, in general, are not constant and vary along the heat exchanger.
The average value of the overall heat transfer coefficient can be determined as described in the
preceding section by using the average convection coefficients for each fluid. It turns out that the
appropriate form of the mean temperature difference between the two fluids is logarithmic in
nature, and its determination is presented in Section below.
1) THE LOG MEAN TEMPERATURE DIFFERENCE METHOD
Earlier, we mentioned that the temperature difference between the hot and cold fluids varies
along the heat exchanger, and it is convenient to have a mean temperature difference _Tm for use
in the relation Q=U As Tm.
In order to develop a relation for the equivalent average temperature difference between the two
fluids, consider the parallel-flow double-pipe heat exchanger shown in Figure below. Note that
the temperature difference T between the hot and cold fluids is large at the inlet of the heat
exchanger but decreases exponentially toward the outlet. As you would expect, the temperature
of the hot fluid decreases and the temperature of the cold fluid increases along the heat
exchanger, but the temperature of the cold fluid can never exceed that of the hot fluid no matter
how long the heat exchanger is.

Assuming the outer surface of the heat exchanger to be well insulated so that any heat transfer
occurs between the two fluids, and disregarding any changes in kinetic and potential energy, an
energy balance on each fluid in a differential section of the heat exchanger can be expressed as
 ….…….. (1)
And

………….. (2)
That is, the rate of heat loss from the hot fluid at any section of a heat exchanger is equal to the
rate of heat gain by the cold fluid in that section. The temperature change of the hot fluid is a
negative quantity, and so a negative sign is added to Eq. (1) to make the heat transfer rate Q a
positive quantity.
Solving the equations above for dTh and dTc gives

…………… (3)
And

…………….. (4)
Subtract Eq. (4) from Eq. (3), we get

……….. (5)
The rate of heat transfer in the differential section of the heat exchanger can also be expressed as

……………… (6)
Substituting above equation into Eq. (5) and rearranging gives

…………. (7)
Integrating from the inlet of the heat exchanger to its outlet, we obtain

………… (8)
We have,
For cold fluid:

………….. (9)
For hat fluid:

………….. (10)
Finally, solving Eqs. (9) and (10) for mcCpc and mhCph and substituting into Eq. (8) gives, after
some rearrangement,

is the log mean temperature difference, which is the suitable form of the average temperature
difference for use in the analysis of heat exchangers. Here T1 and T2 represent the temperature
difference between the two fluids at the two ends (inlet and outlet) of the heat exchanger. It
makes no difference which end of the heat exchanger is designated as the inlet or the outlet as
shown in figure below
The temperature difference between the two fluids decreases from T1 at the inlet to T2 at the
outlet. Thus, it is tempting to use the arithmetic mean temperature Tam =(T1 +T2)/2 as the
average temperature difference. The logarithmic mean temperature difference Tlm is obtained
by tracing the actual temperature profile of the fluids along the heat exchanger and is an exact
representation of the average temperature difference between the hot and cold fluids. It truly
reflects the exponential decay of the local temperature difference.
Note that Tlm is always less than Tam. Therefore, using Tam in calculations instead of Tlm
will overestimate the rate of heat transfer in a heat exchanger between the two fluids. When T1
differs from T2 by no more than 40 percent, the error in using the arithmetic mean temperature
difference is less than 1 percent. But the error increases to undesirable levels when T1 differs
from T2 by greater amounts. Therefore, we should always use the logarithmic mean
temperature difference when determining the rate of heat transfer in a heat exchanger.

Counter-Flow Heat Exchangers:

The variation of temperatures of hot and cold fluids in a counter-flow heat exchanger is given in
Figure below. Note that the hot and cold fluids enter the heat exchanger from opposite ends, and
the outlet temperature of the cold fluid in this case may exceed the outlet temperature of the hot
fluid. In the limiting case, the cold fluid will be heated to the inlet temperature of the hot fluid.
However, the outlet temperature of the cold fluid can never exceed the inlet temperature of the
hot fluid, since this would be a violation of the second law of thermodynamics.
The relation above for the log mean temperature difference is developed using a parallel-
flow heat exchanger, but we can show by repeating the analysis above for a counter-flow heat
exchanger that is also applicable to counterflow heat exchangers.
For specified inlet and outlet temperatures, the log mean temperature difference for a counter-
flow heat exchanger is always greater than that for a parallel-flow heat exchanger. That is,
Tlm,CF > Tlm,PF, and thus a smaller surface area (and thus a smaller heat exchanger) is needed
to achieve a specified heat transfer rate in a counter-flow heat exchanger. Therefore, it is
common practice to use counter-flow arrangements in heat exchangers.
In a counter-flow heat exchanger, the temperature difference between the hot and the cold fluids
will remain constant along the heat exchanger when the heat capacity rates of the two fluids are
equal (that is, T = constant when Ch = Cc or mhCph = mcCpc). Then we have T1 = T2, and the
last log mean temperature difference relation gives Tlm = 0/0, which is indeterminate.
It can be shown by the application of l’Hôpital’s rule that in this case we have
Tlm = T1 = T2, as expected. A condenser or a boiler can be considered to be either a parallel-
or counterflow heat exchanger since both approaches give the same result.

Multipass and Cross-Flow Heat Exchangers: Use of a Correction Factor

The log mean temperature difference Tlm relation developed earlier is limited to
parallel-flow and counter-flow heat exchangers only. Similar relations are also developed for
cross-flow and multipass shell-and-tube heat exchangers, but the resulting expressions are too
complicated because of the complex flow conditions.
In such cases, it is convenient to relate the equivalent temperature difference to the log mean
temperature difference relation for the counter-flow case as

where F is the correction factor, which depends on the geometry of the heat exchanger and the
inlet and outlet temperatures of the hot and cold fluid streams. The Tlm,CF is the log mean
temperature difference for the case of a counter-flow heat exchanger with the same inlet and
outlet temperatures. The correction factor is less than unity for a cross-flow and multipass
shelland- tube heat exchanger. That is, F ≤ 1. The limiting value of F = 1 corresponds to the
counter-flow heat exchanger. Thus, the correction factor F for a heat exchanger is a measure of
deviation of the Tlm from the corresponding values for the counter-flow case.
Numerical 1:
Steam in the condenser of a power plant is to be condensed at a temperature of 30°C with
cooling water from a nearby lake, which enters the tubes of the condenser at 14°C and leaves at
22°C. The surface area of the tubes is 45 m2, and the overall heat transfer coefficient is 2100
W/m2· C. Determine the mass flow rate of the cooling water needed and the rate of condensation
of the steam in the condenser.
The heat of vaporization of water at 30°C is hfg = 2431 kJ/kg and the specific heat of cold water
at the average temperature of 18°C is Cp = 4184 J/kg · °C
Solution:
To determine the mass flow rate of cooling water (mcooling water) = ?
To determine rate of steam condensation (msteam) = ?
The schematic of the condenser is given in Figure. The condenser can be treated as a counter-
flow heat exchanger since the temperature of one of the fluids (the steam) remains constant.

The temperature difference between the steam and the cooling water at the two ends of the
condenser is
That is, the temperature difference between the two fluids varies from 8°C at one end to 16°C at
the other. The proper average temperature difference between the two fluids is the logarithmic
mean temperature difference (not the arithmetic), which is determined from

This is a little less than the arithmetic mean temperature difference of (8 +16)/2 = 12°C. Then
the heat transfer rate in the condenser is determined from

Therefore, the steam will lose heat at a rate of 1,087 kW as it flows through the condenser, and
the cooling water will gain practically all of it, since the condenser is well insulated.
The mass flow rate of the cooling water and the rate of the condensation of the steam are
determined from Q as below
Q = [m · Cp (Tout - Tin)]cooling water = (m · hfg)steam

and
Numerical 2:
A counter-flow double-pipe heat exchanger is to heat water from 20°C to 80°C at a rate of 1.2
kg/s. The heating is to be accomplished by geothermal water available at 160°C at a mass flow
rate of 2 kg/s. The inner tube is thin-walled and has a diameter of 1.5 cm. If the overall heat
transfer coefficient of the heat exchanger is 640 W/m2 · °C, determine the length of the heat
exchanger required to achieve the desired heating. The specific heats of water and geothermal
fluid to be 4.18 and 4.31 kJ/kg · °C, respectively.

Solution:
To determine the length of heat exchanger (L) = ?
The schematic of the heat exchanger is given in Figure.

The rate of heat transfer in the heat exchanger can be determined from

The outlet temperature of the geothermal water is determined to be

Knowing the inlet and outlet temperatures of both fluids, the logarithmic mean temperature
difference for this counter-flow heat exchanger becomes

And

Then the surface area of the heat exchanger is determined to be