Heat Exchanger

Heat Exchanger

 

Heat Exchanger

Heat exchanger is equipment widely used both upstream and downstream facilities, built for efficient heat transfer from one medium to another. Heat exchangers are classified by flow arrangement, parallel flow and counterflow. Parallel flow (cocurrent) is flow when two fluids enter the exchanger at the same end and travel parallel to one another to the other side. Counterflow (countercurrent) is when two fluids enter the exchanger from opposite ends.

In oil and gas facilities, following types are commonly used:

Uses of heat exchangers may vary depending on the process requirements, such as heat and cool fluids, heat recovery, separation, reboiling, condensing

Shell And Tube Heat Exchanger

Shell and tube heat exchangers are mainly used in industrial fields, especially in industries such as chemical, petroleum, pharmaceutical, food processing, and energy.

Shell and tube heat exchanger consist of a bundle of tubes and shell. Heat transfer occurs when one fluid that needs to be heated or cooled flows through the tubes and the second fluids runs over the tubes that provides the heat or absorbs the heat required.

Performance advantages

1.Stable and reliable structure: The shell and tube heat exchanger adopts a structure composed of tubes and a shell. Heat exchange occurs between the fluid inside the tubes and the fluid outside the shell. The structure is stable and reliable, capable of withstanding high pressure and temperature.

2.Strong adaptability: The shell and tube heat exchanger can adapt to different process requirements and operating conditions. It can handle different types of fluids, including liquids, gases, and steam.

3.High efficiency: The shell and tube heat exchanger has high heat transfer efficiency, enabling efficient heat transfer, improving energy utilization, and reducing energy consumption.

4.Convenient maintenance: The structure of the shell and tube heat exchanger is relatively simple, making it easy to clean and maintain. This helps reduce downtime and maintenance costs.

5.Strong corrosion resistance: Since corrosive media often need to be handled in industrial applications, the shell and tube heat exchanger is usually made of corrosion-resistant materials. It can effectively resist corrosion and prolong service life

Configuration

Shell and tube heat exchanger is composed of shell, heat transfer tube bundle, tube sheet, baffle plate and channel. Several baffles are usually installed in the shell. The baffle can increase the fluid velocity on the shell side, forcing the fluid to pass through the tube bundle multiple times in a prescribed way, and enhance the fluid turbulence degree. The heat exchange tubes can be arranged in equilateral triangle or square on the tube sheet. The equilateral triangle arrangement is relatively compact, the turbulent degree of fluid outside the tube is high, and the heat transfer coefficient is large; the square arrangement makes the tube easy to clean and suitable for the fluid which is easy to scale.

Configuration depends on each process requirements. Main consideration for the design should be fluid involved, corrosion potential, problems of cleaning, pressure drop, heat transfer efficiency, tubes usually 20 ft. and 20ft.

Working principle:

Shell and tube heat exchanger is dividing wall type heat exchanger, the fluid channel formed in the heat exchange tube is called the tube side, and the fluid channel formed outside the heat exchange tube is called the shell side. When the tube side and the shell side pass through two different temperature fluids respectively, the higher-temperature fluid transmits heat to the lower-temperature fluid through the heat exchange tube wall, the higher-temperature fluid is cooled while the lower-temperature fluid is heated, thus realizing the purpose of two-fluid heat exchange process.