×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

Heat Exchanger Pass Partition Confinement
2

Heat Exchanger Pass Partition Confinement

Heat Exchanger Pass Partition Confinement

(OP)
Are there any cases aside from TEMA "R" where it is considered good practice to confine the pass partition on a heat exchanger?  i.e. high pressure or high temperature designs

Thanks

RE: Heat Exchanger Pass Partition Confinement

It's a good idea to use confined gaskets in multipass exchangers where there is 1) a high pressure drop, and 2) a large diameter. Reason being that the these exchangers are susceptible to pass partition bypass at the gasket joints, so adding a groove would provide extra stability.

-Christine

RE: Heat Exchanger Pass Partition Confinement

Another reason would be high pressure per se (as opposed to and in addition to high pressure drop) because as the channel deflects with pressure difference the pass partition plate is trying to act like a gusset and prevent the channel from deflecting.  Lots of stresses get transmitted to the gaskets in the process.

An old Civil Engineering buddy of mine who didn't know much about heat transfer none the less recognized what the stresses and deflections were on the head of a HP heat exchanger that was his responsibility.  He taught this old ME a trick or two about how that head deflected from no pressure to full pressure (5K psi in his case).

If you have a really High pressure, in addition to the gasket question you pose, you should also consider full pen welds to the channel head or barrel or both depending on your channel design.

rmw

RE: Heat Exchanger Pass Partition Confinement

I generally doubt there is any good reason NOT to confine the pass rib gasket. I have seen the gasket ribs washed out from under the pass plates before.

Regards,

Mike

RE: Heat Exchanger Pass Partition Confinement

For assembly purposes it is always a good idea for the pass partition groove to be at least 1/16" deeper than the gasket thickness.  The groove will hold the gasket during assembly and the extra depth helps the assembler align the pass partition plate into the groove.  If the depth is less than or equal to the gasket thickness, you may misalign the pass partition plate when assembling and not compress the gasket at all, or worse yet do some damage.

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources