Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger Design Software for ...

1 Int. J. Engng Ed. Vol. 14, No. 3, p. 217 224, 1998 0949-149X/91 $ + Printed in Great Britain. # 1998 TEMPUS Publications. Shell and Tube heat Exchanger Design Software for Educational Applications*. K. C. LEONG and K. C. TOH. School of Mechanical and Production engineering , Nanyang Technological University, Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798, Republic of Singapore. E-mail: Y. C. LEONG. Public Works Department, Ministry of National Development, 5 Maxwell Road, MND Building, Singapore 069110, Republic of Singapore A Software for the thermal and hydraulic Design of Shell and tube heat exchangers with flow- induced vibration checks has been developed in a Windows-based Delphi programming environ- ment.

2 Its user-friendly input format and excellent colour graphics features make it an excellent tool for the teaching, learning and preliminary Design of Shell and tube heat exchangers. Design methodology is based on the open literature Delaware method while flow-induced vibration calculations adhere closely to the methodology prescribed by the latest TEMA standards for industry practice. It is hoped that the Software will bridge the gap between the teaching of engineering fundamentals and the existing industry practice of Shell and tube heat Exchanger Design . INTRODUCTION and heat Transfer Research Inc.

3 (HTRI) and by computer service companies such as B-JAC Inter- Shell AND TUBE heat exchangers are national. These programs offer Design and cost commonly used as oil coolers, power condensers, analysis for all primary heat Exchanger types and preheaters and steam generators in both fossil fuel incorporate multiple Design codes and standards and nuclear-based energy production applications. from the American Society of Mechanical Engi- They are also widely used in process applications neers (ASME), Tubular Exchangers Manufac- and in the air conditioning and refrigeration indus- turers Association (TEMA) and the International try.

4 Although they are not specially compact, their Standards Organisation (ISO). However, these robustness and shape make them well suited for programs are application oriented and contain high pressure operations. In view of the diverse company proprietary data with little pedagogical engineering applications and basic configuration value to engineers with little or no knowledge of of Shell and tube heat exchangers, the thermal heat Exchanger Design and students in the mechan- analysis and Design of such exchangers form an ical and chemical engineering disciplines. This integral part of the undergraduate mechanical and paper describes a user-friendly computer Software chemical engineering curricula of most universities.

5 Developed for the thermal and hydraulic Design of Senior level or final year undergraduate courses Shell and tube heat exchangers based on the open often include an elective subject for thermal Design literature Delaware method. The use of this soft- of heat exchangers. ware will bridge the gap between engineering Reflecting the growing trend of using computers practice and teaching of Shell and tube heat for Design and teaching, recent heat transfer texts Exchanger Design . by Mills [1] and Incropera and DeWitt [2] incorp- orate computer Software for the Design and opti- mization of heat exchangers.

6 These Software are DESCRIPTION OF Software . written to reinforce fundamental concepts and ideas and allow Design calculations for generic The Shell and tube heat Exchanger Design soft- configurations with no reference to Design codes ware is developed for use in the teaching of thermal and standards used in the heat Exchanger industry. and hydraulic Design of Shell and tube heat exchan- For actual engineering applications, most Shell and gers usually at the senior undergraduate level of a tube heat exchangers are designed using commer- mechanical or chemical engineering course. It may cially available Software such as those developed also be used for the preliminary Design of Shell and by co-operative research organizations such as heat exchangers in actual industrial applications.

7 heat Transfer and Fluid Flow Service (HTFS) Developed in Borland International's Delphi programming environment with advanced graphics features, the Microsoft Windows-based * Accepted 5 February 1998. Software can be implemented on an IBM or 217. 218 K. C. Leong et al. compatible personal computer with at least a Fluid flow, inter-related with heat Exchanger 80386 microprocessor, 4 MB of RAM and at geometry, can cause heat Exchanger tubes to least 5 MB of free hard disk space. vibrate and cause possible damage to the Exchanger . The Vibration module developed Components of the Software based on the methodology outlined in the 1988.

8 The Software consists of four modules viz. edition of TEMA standards [4] allows the user to Sizing, Rating, Vibration and Tutorial. The check the extent of flow-induced vibration after Sizing module allows the size of a Shell and tube an Exchanger is sized. To the best of the authors'. heat Exchanger to be determined based on inputs knowledge, existing commercial flow-induced of fluids temperatures, flowrates and pressure drop vibration Software are offered separately from and dimensional constraints. The user can call out thermal and hydraulic Design Software . The inte- a graphics screen showing the different physical gration of the Vibration module in this Shell and configurations of Shell and tube heat exchangers heat Exchanger Design Software allows the user to based on the Standards of the Tubular Exchanger conveniently conduct flow induced vibration Manufacturers Association (TEMA) [3].

9 Thermo- checks on his Design . physical properties of common fluids are included The Tutorial module is a self-learning tool for in the Software and are automatically calculated the student and novice engineer. It introduces the based on input fluid temperatures. The existing basic construction of a Shell and tube heat exchan- database of fluid properties cater for water, air, ger, Exchanger selection and instructions on how to Freon-12, ethylene glycol, glycerine and mercury. use the various Software modules. The module allows for user input of thermo- Two other features set this Software apart from physical properties of fluids not found in the most Software developed for educational appli- database.

10 Figure 1 shows the user-friendly menu- cations. Firstly, calculated dimensions of the heat driven input format which accepts either SI, Exchanger can be saved into a text file which can be Imperial or a combination of both units. The conveniently incorporated into all commercially Imperial units option is built into the Software in available word processing Software . This feature recognition of the fact that a large number of heat is useful for the generation of Design reports. exchangers are designed, constructed and used in Secondly, detailed calculation steps are also the United States. Design results can be presented available to facilitate the understanding of in graphics showing a labelled and dimensioned concepts used in the Design .