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BILKENT UNIVERSITY
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT




ME 212: Thermo fluid Engineering II
Experiment # 3

Calculation of Effectiveness and NTU of a Shell-and-tube
Heat Exchanger

Student Name: Damla zkapc 21101584
Assistant: Alican zkan
Submitted by: Damla zkapc
Submission Date: 07 May 2014

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Contents

Abstract 3

Nomenclature 4

1 Objective 5
2 Introduction 5
3 Theory and Experimental Procedure 5
4 Data and Sample Calclations 7
5 Results and Discussion 12
6 Conclusion 13

References 14

APPENDIX
A. Sample Matlab Code for Calculations 15











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Abstract
The main purpose of the experiment is to calculate effectiveness () and the number of
transfer units (NTU) for a shell-and-tube counter flow heat exchanger. Maximum heat transfer
rate occurring in the heat exchanger , UA of the exchanger and the heat transferred from the
hot fluid to the colder fluid and from the heat exchanger to the surroundings are also
calculated. As a result of the experiment, it is observed that effectiveness depends on
exchangers geometry, the type of the flow, and number of transfer units. As effectiveness
increase, the size of the exchanger also increases, and heat transfer rate increases if number of
transfer units (NTU) increases. As a result of calculations, heat transfferred from the cold
fluid is higher than the heat transferred to the hot fluid, which must eb same in theory. Hence,
it is possible some errors occurred during the experiment.


















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Nomenclature

Viscosity
Density

Reynold Number
C Heat Capacity Rate
Mass Flow Rate
Ra Rayleigh number
NTU Number of Transfer Units
Effectiveness

Specic heat

Heat Transfer Rate

Log-mean temperature
U Overall Heat Tansfer Coefcient











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1 Objective
The purpose of the experiment is to calculate effectiveness () and number of transfer
units (NTU) for a recuperator type counter flow single pass Shell-and-tube heat exchanger.

2 Introduction
Heat exchangers are devices that are used to transfer heat from a hotter fluid to a
colder fluid. There are three basic types of heat exchangers which are named as recuperators,
regenerators and direct contact heat exchangers.
Regenerators are type of a heat exchanger in which hotter fluid is stored alternately in
heat exchangers core and then heat is transferred to the colder fluid.
In direct contact heat exchangers, heat is transferred between hot and cold fluids
without a separating wall, so hot and cold fluid has direct contact to each other.
In this experiment shell and tube cross flow recuperator type of heat exchanger is
used. Recuperator heat exchanger has a solid surface that separates two fluids. Consequently
heat is transferred by convection from both sides of the wall and conduction trough the wall.
The surface area of the wall and accordingly the heat transfer rate can be increased by using
extended surfaces such as fins on the wall.
In this report, firstly basic theories of the experiment and the experimental procedure
and the equipment used will be discussed. Secondly, heat transferred from the hot fluid to the
cold fluid and from the heat exchanger to the surrounding will be calculated. Additionally,
effectiveness () and the number of transfer units (NTU) for the heat exchanger will be
determined. Finally, analysis and some discussion based on the results and causes of possible
errors will be covered.
3 Theory and Experimental Procedure
In shell-and-tube heat exchanger, hot fluid flows through tubes locating inside the
shell and cold fluid flows outside of the tubes. The flow directions of the two fluids are
opposite to each other, so there is a counter flow. Hot water is heated by resistance heaters
and pumped through the tubes from the hot water storage tank. After flowing through the
tubes inside the shell, it goes back to the storage tank. Therefore hot water cycles in a closed
loop. However, cold water circulates in an open loop since the water exiting from the shell is
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collected outside of the system and does not return to the tank. Heat is transferred from the
fluid with higher temperature to the fluid with lower temperature by convection from both
sides of the tube and conduction through the wall of tube. Consequently, hotter fluid is cooled
and the colder fluid is heated, thus the heat is exchanged between two fluids.
As the purpose of the experiment, effectiveness () of the heat exchanger and the
number of transfer units (NTU) should be calculated. NTU method will be used to
calculate these values. In order to define effectiveness, maximum achievable heat transfer rate
in the heat exchanger should be also defined. Maximum heat transfer rate is achieved when a
highest possible temperature rise or drop occurs in one of the fluids, which is the difference
between the inlet temperatures of the hot and cold fluid. At this point, heat capacity rate (C)
for both fluids should be determined (See Eqn 16-17). Consequently, from the conservation of
energy law it will be observed that maximum possible heat transfer occur in the fluid which
has minimum heat capacity rate (C
min
) [1].
Effectiveness directly depends on the ratio between maximum and minimum heat
capacity rate (C
*
), geometry of heat exchanger, type of the flow (counter, parallel, cross flow,
etc.), the number of passes and whether a flow is mixed or unmixed, and number of transfer
units (NTU). NTU represents a dimensionless number and imply the thermal size of a heat
exchanger [1]. It will be calculated in Data and Sample Calculations part.
Experimental set up consists of single shell-and-tube heat exchanger, hot and cold
water circulation units, thermocouples (to measure surface temperature at 5 different points),
thermometers (to measure the ambient temperature and inlet and exit temperatures of the
fluids) and data acquisition system as shown in Figure 1.






Figure 1 Experimental Setup
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During the experiment, mass flow rates of both fluids are measured. Rotameter is used
to measure the flow rate at hot side. The cold sides mass flow rate is determined by
collecting water in a cup in 10 seconds time interval and then the weight of the collected
water is measured.
4 Data and Sample Calculations
Volumetric flow rate of the hot fluid (

) is read as

from the
rotameter. Inlet and outlet temperatures of the hot water are given in Table 1.

Table-1 Inlet and outlet temperatures of hot and cold fluid (in Celcius)

42.4 39.5 14 41


Density and the

values of the hot water are evaluated at its mean temperature

which is calculated in equation 1.

Accordingly, the density of hot water at 40.95 C is found 991.8

and

is found
4175

from Table A-6 in the book. Then the mass flow rate of the hot water is calculated
as

below.

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In the same way density of cold water is 996.3

and

is 4177

at 27.5 C.
Accordingly, mass flow rate of the cold fluid is calculated as 0.0261

below.

Finally, heat transferred from hot fluid to cold fluid is calculated as 2201.2 W in equation 4.

)

During the experiment, surface temperature of the shell is measured at 5 different
points by thermocouples. The average of these temperatures is taken in order to find surface
temperature.

Table-2 Temperature Readings from Computer (in Celsius)
T1 T2 T3 T4 T5
26.3 26.9 28.1 28.8 27.9

The ambient temperature is read as 25 by the thermometer. Since it is a natural
convection, the Rayleigh number should be calculated first. The fluid properties of air at 27.6
are shown in Table 3 below.


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Table-3 Properties of Air at 27.6

Pr ( )
1.1774 1.846

0.708 0.0033


Length of the shell is 1.95 m, so the Rayleigh number (Ra) is calculated as

below.

Since shell has a horizontal geometry and

, the related Nusselt

number is 151.5 as calculated in equation 7.

In order to find the diameter of the shell, the average of perimeters which are
measured at 4 different points on the shell is calculated and the average perimeter is found.
Measured perimeter values can be seen in the table below.

Table-4 Perimeter of the shell at 4 points

(m)

(m)

(m)

(m)

(m)
0.83 0.95 0.92 0.98 0.92



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The diameter (D) is found by the below equation.

The area of the shell is calculated as 1.8 m
2
by Equation 9.



Convective heat transfer coefficient is calculated below.

So, heat transferred from the heat exchanger to the surroundings is 63.3 W as seen by
equation 11.

)

As a next step, to determine UA the log mean temperature (

) should be calculated first.

and

is calculated in equation 13 and 14.

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As a result, log mean temperature (

) is

The UA can be found from Equation 15 by taking F as 1.

Later,

and

are found as 759.14 below.

Since

is less than

equals to

. Then, number of transfer units

(NTU) is found by the equation 18.

is calculated as 3100 W by equation 19.

Finally, effectiveness () is found as 0.7101 by the below equation.
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5 Results and Discussion
As a result of the experiment, it is seen that when there is a temperature difference
between two fluids, heat transfer occurs, and heat flows from the hotter fluid to the colder
fluid. In shell-and-tube counter flow heat exchanger, heat is transferred by convection of two
fluids and the conduction through the wall of the tube. Thus while the hotter fluid is cooling,
the colder fluid is heating.
It is also observed that maximum possible temperature change and accordingly
maximum heat transfer occurs in the colder fluid since it has a lower heat capacity rate than
the hotter fluid.
As a result of calculations, it is seen that heat transferred from colder fluid to the hotter
fluid is larger than the heat transferred from hotter fluid to the colder fluid. However they
would be expected to be same. Hence, there may be some factors causing to an error.
First of all, rotameter which is used to measure the mass flow rate of the hot water was
old, so the values it measures may not be so reliable. Secondly, there was a loss of heat due to
the natural convection and also leakage of hot and cold water at the inlet of the hot water
stream, which may lead to errors in calculations. Lastly, there may be some human errors.
During the experiment, the temperature values of hot and cold water and the ambient
temperature are read by thermometers, so it is possible that there are reading errors.
6 Conclusion
The main purpose of a heat exchanger is to transfer heat from one fluid to another. It
controls the temperature of a system by adding or removing thermal energy [2]. In theory, the
heat transferred from the hotter fluid must be equal to the heat transferred to the colder fluid,
however in this experiment heat transfer rates are not equal due to the possible errors
discussed in Results and Discussion part.
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Heat transfer rate in a heat exchanger depends largely on the properties of the fluid
flowing inside, such as density, specific heat, thermal conductivity and dynamic viscosity.
An exchangers effectiveness () is the ratio of the actual heat transferred to the
maximum heat that could be transferred by a heat exchanger. As effectiveness of heat
exchanger approaches 1, the size of the heat exchanger approaches infinity asymptotically.
Hence increasing the effectiveness of an exchanger even from 0.7 to 0.8 may cost too much
since the area of the heat exchanger considerably rises. In an ideal heat exchanger,
effectiveness is equal to 1.
Effectiveness of a heat exchanger depends on the geometry, type of flow inside the
exchanger and the number of transfer units. Number of transfer units (NTU) is a
dimensionless parameter and its magnitude affects the performance of a heat exchanger. As
number of transfer units increases, heat transfer rate also increases.
In order to increase the performance of the system, smaller tubes can be used inside
the shell, because as the volume decreases the thermal performance of the heat exchanger
increases [2]. However, in this case the effects of fouling and the possibility of particulates
that may accumulate in the small tubes should also be considered. Secondly, better insulation
can be used at the outer surface of the shell in order to prevent heat loss to the environment.
Lastly temperature values for hot and cold water can be measured by sensors instead of
thermometers to increase the reliability of measurements.








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References
[1] Deborah A. Kaminski and Michael K. Jensen, Introduction to Thermal and Fluids
Engineering. Wiley, 2005.
[2] A. Bartlett. The Fundamentals of Heat Exchangers. [Online]. Available:
http://www.aip.org/tip/INPHFA/vol-2/iss-4/p18.pdf


















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APPENDIX
A. Sample Matlab Code for Calculations
clear;
clc;
%Question 1:
VolFR=11*10^-3/60; %m^3/s
Tho=39.5;
Thi=42.4;
Th=(Thi+Tho)/2; %average temperature
rho=991.8; %(kg/m^3)
m_dot=rho*VolFR; %(kg/s)
cp_h=4175; %(J/kg*K)
Q_dot=m_dot*cp_h*(Thi-Tho) %(W)

%Question 2:
T_inf=25 ;%C
T_s=(26.3+26.9+28.1+28.8+27.9)/5; %C
T_m=((T_inf+T_s)/2)+273;

%Ra=g*bheta*rho^2*(Ts-Tf)*L^3*Pr/mu^2
beta=1/T_m;%1/K
rho=1.1774; %(kg/m^3)
L=1.95;
mu=1.846*10^-5; %(N*s/m^2)
Pr=0.708; %Prandtl number
Rayleigh=(9.81*beta*rho^2*(T_s-T_inf)*L^3*Pr)/mu^2;
Nu=0.125*Rayleigh^0.333;
D=(0.83+0.95+0.92+0.98)/(4*pi);
k=0.02624;
h=(Nu*k)/D;
Q_convection=h*pi*D*L*(T_s-T_inf)%(W)

%Question 3:
Tci=14;
Tco=41;
T1=Thi-Tco;
T2=Tho-Tci;
F=1;
lm=(T2-T1)/log10(T2/T1);
UA=Q_dot/(F*(lm))%(W/K)

%Question 4:
C_h=m_dot*cp_h;
rho_c=996.3;
VFR_c=0.5*10^-3/19.06;
m_dot_c=rho_c*VFR_c;
cp_c=4177;
C_c=m_dot_c*cp_c;
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C_min=min(C_h,C_c);
Q_maximum=C_min*(Thi-Tci)%(W)


%Question 5:
E=Q_dot/Q_maximum

%Question 6:
NTU=UA/C_min



















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