heat transfer coefficient parallel to pipe axis
heat transfer coefficient parallel to pipe axis
(OP)
Hello,
can I calculate heat transfer parallel to pipe axis with the same formulas as heat transfer along a flat plate? I was reading several articles and there is always just heat transfer perpendicular to pipe axis.
As the pipes are quite long, flow is turbulent, so I think, the HTC will be sufficient for what it does. And pressure drop is way smaller.
Cheers,
Steffen
can I calculate heat transfer parallel to pipe axis with the same formulas as heat transfer along a flat plate? I was reading several articles and there is always just heat transfer perpendicular to pipe axis.
As the pipes are quite long, flow is turbulent, so I think, the HTC will be sufficient for what it does. And pressure drop is way smaller.
Cheers,
Steffen





RE: heat transfer coefficient parallel to pipe axis
It sounds like you might be better off with a piecewise approximation, i.e. calculate the radial heat transfer for a meter or two, estimate the temperature change of the turbulent fluid along the length,
calculate the radial heat transfer for the next meter or two, estimate the temperature change for that distance, and keep doing it until you run out of pipe.
You can probably set it up nicely in a spreadsheet and beat on the problem until you have a better handle on it.
In fact, there are already a crapload of heat exchange spreadsheets available for the download; maybe you can find one that you can hack into what you think you need.
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: heat transfer coefficient parallel to pipe axis
RE: heat transfer coefficient parallel to pipe axis
There was some concern about temperature gradients around the periphery of the outer tube, e.g., if the flow were not forced into some semblance of uniform velocity all around, that areas with lower flow would get too hot and burn people. So we laser-cut some spacer rings with a circular array of orifices to be installed near the inlets and outlets of the jacket/shell. The pipes performed as intended, and made the customer happy, and we got paid. There was no CFD performed. We sized the orifices to produce a 1/2 psi drop at each stage at the design coolant flow.
... none of which is of great interest to you;
I just wanted to point out that even with a tube bundle within a long shell, the shell connections can't be axial, so the flow can't be assumed uniform over the transverse area, unless you force it with some sort of pierced baffle/ screen as generally described above.
Even if you do that, you will probably find density gradients and resulting velocity gradients and temperature gradients across the bundle when it exceeds some unknown minimum length, so you may need intermediate baffles to uniformly redistribute the flow, and don't forget that you need baffles or something to support the tubes to keep them from abrading each other.
Given that you need baffles to support the tubes anyway, it makes sense to turn them into partial baffles to induce crossflow, but maybe you can find a way around that.
Also don't forget the difference in thermal expansion between the tubes and the shell, which is likely to cause buckling of one or the other as the exchanger goes from dead cold to operating temperature and back. ... which is one very good argument for using u-shaped tubes with both ends anchored in the same tube sheet. If you use long straight tubes and two tube sheets, how do get the bundle into the shell? Not impossible, but it adds complexity.
There are valid reasons why heat exchangers have evolved to use a limited number of possible topologies. Exploration of some of the possible evolutionary branches happened a long, long time ago. If you look back far enough, you might find that someone has already been where you plan to go. ... but if their branch turned out to be a dead end, they had little incentive to record their adventure. It might be great fun to explore someone's library of engineering logbooks from a hundred years ago. ... if said library still exists, and you could gain access to it, and had the patience to wade through the chaff and misunderstanding.
Have fun with your adventure.
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: heat transfer coefficient parallel to pipe axis
I think there will be some device to redistribute here and there. But the current design is one baffle every 150mm/6 in, this is too much and pressure drop to high.
RE: heat transfer coefficient parallel to pipe axis
RE: heat transfer coefficient parallel to pipe axis
I don't know what your limit is to call 'too much'.
I have had occasion to measure or estimate the pressure drop across the main engine coolant heat exchanger on a bunch of boats. I can't recall any of them coming out >~2psi, except when fouled by barnacles.
ISTR from very long ago that the 'laminar sublayer' was the greatest impediment to heat flow, and that direction changes tended to reduce its thickness. Am I remembering wrong?
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: heat transfer coefficient parallel to pipe axis
RE: heat transfer coefficient parallel to pipe axis
The tubes have fins and if I use the formulas for flat plate, flow along the tubes is turbulent, so heat transfer should be ok.
RE: heat transfer coefficient parallel to pipe axis
Can you find a real HX, remove the tubes, model that, actually test it, and validate your modeling technique?
I'd sure want to do that...
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: heat transfer coefficient parallel to pipe axis
Without the baffles would be easier to build and less pressure drop. So, if the HTC would besufficient in colinear flow, it would save lots of headache.
check this out:
http://www.embaffle.com/technology/case-studies/cr...
mesh baffle instead of zigzag. Removes dead zones, reduces pressure drop, turns it into longitudinal flow.
RE: heat transfer coefficient parallel to pipe axis
Separated from the condenser space by a floor of sorts?
Intended to cool the condensate?
Producing a sharp gradient in shell temperature at the floor?
Has this ever worked In Real Life, or is the whole thing new?
Why are you bothering to model the flow without the tubes?
Would it work as well without the floor?
I.e., with a weir around the drain,
and with the tubes just sitting in the pooled condensate?
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: heat transfer coefficient parallel to pipe axis
It works with all these baffles, but its 24 pieces and a pain to assemble. With the baffles the liquid takes 10 s to get through, because there is lots of dead zones, so it accelerates and just slaloms through. Without the baffles its 15 sec.
I did not model the tubes, its 51 off. Would take forever to calculate.
RE: heat transfer coefficient parallel to pipe axis
Have you got a mentor nearby?
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: heat transfer coefficient parallel to pipe axis
We built some of these and it works, the liquid gets a bit cooler.
Its just troublesome to build, lots of little baffles and the ceiling. Longitudinal flow would just have 2 tubesupports, not 24 baffles.Pressure drop would be 1/4 of the cross flow design or even better.
I am just curious, if there is a way to calculate the expected performance. What I found so far is tubes in cross flow, formulas with a bunch of factors. If I could calculate heat transfer coefficient in longitutinal flow based on flow across a flat plate.
I dont want to do the CFD with 51 tubes, gigantic mesh. And without tubes its already obvious that the fluid stays in there for longer.
Heat transfer coefficient is based on velocity, so longitudinal has slower velocity and should have lower HTC. But the flow is still turbulent. For crossflow I got insane heat transfer coefficients.
10 or 15 seconds will not make much difference on the heat transfer, because the difference in temperature is fairly small.
RE: heat transfer coefficient parallel to pipe axis
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: heat transfer coefficient parallel to pipe axis
Handbook for Heat Exchangers and Tube Banks design - Donatello Annaratone
Heat Exchanger Design Handbook - E. U. Schlunder
Heat Exchanger Design Handbook 2nd ed - Kuppan Thulukkanam
and this one has something on heat exchangers, too
Fundamentals of Heat and Mass Transfer 7th - Incropera, DeWitt, Bergman, Lavine
still reading
"As reported in Refs. [55,56], RODbaffle exchanger heat transfer rates compare favorably with dou-
ble segmental plate baffle exchangers and are generally higher than that in comparable triple seg-
mental plate baffle and “NTIW” designs. Shellside pressure losses in RODbaffle exchangers are
lower because neither bundle crossflow form drag nor repeated flow reversal effects are present."
RE: heat transfer coefficient parallel to pipe axis
RE: heat transfer coefficient parallel to pipe axis
Hence, would imagine the net result is that you may find the heat transfer behavior is dominated by the fluid resistances ( in cross flow or parallel flow) with only a small contribution from the resistance across or through the metal wall.
RE: heat transfer coefficient parallel to pipe axis
Seems srfshs book is the only one, that has an answer, any other one I found so far only got xflow. Even that is more a cookbook, lots of factors to choose from, Nusselt numbers from 400 to 800 easily for same initial values....