Masongsong, Von Karlo G.

CHE131L A03

Effectiveness-NTU Method

LMTD method is useful for determining the overall heat transfer coefficient U based on experimental values
of the inlet and outlet temperatures and the fluid flow rates. However, this method is not very convenient for
prediction of outlet temperatures if the inlet temperatures and Overall U are known. A more convenient method for
predicting the outlet temperatures is the effectiveness- NTU method. This method can be derived from the LMTD
method without introducing any additional assumptions. Therefore, the effectiveness-NTU and LMTD methods are
equivalent. An advantage of the effectiveness-NTU method is its ability to predict the outlet temperatures without
resorting to a numerical iterative solution of a system of nonlinear equations.

The heat-exchanger effectiveness is defined as,

= (equation 1)

where q is the actual rate of heat transfer from the hot to cold fluid and is the maximum possible rate of heat
transfer for a given inlet temperatures of the fluids,

= (, , ) (equation 2)

Here, is the smaller of the two heat capacity rates and . If heat exchanger effectiveness is known, one
can readily obtain q from equations 1 and 2. After that, the outlet temperature can be obtained from the energy
balance.

The efficiency depends on the heat exchanger geometry, flow pattern (parallel flow, counter flow, cross
flow etc.) and the number of transfer units

= (equation 3)

Relationships between the effectiveness and NTU have been established for a large variety of heat exchanger
configurations. Most of these relationships involve the ratio = / of the smaller and the larger of the
heat capacity rates and . For example, for a single pass heat exchanger in the parallel flow regime,

1exp( (1+ ))
= (equation 4)
1+

And for a single pass heat exchanger in the counter flow regime,

1exp((1 ))
= < 1 (equation 5)
1 exp((1 ))

= = 1 (equation 6)
1+

Sedimentation process in gold extraction

Miners drill gold bearing rocks in mining sites. The identified ores containing gold is milled to reduce the
size of the large rocks to the texture of beach sand. After pulverization, the extracted ores are dissolved in water
and cyanide solution, which is then grinded again to produce a mud like pulp. After that, the mud formed is sent to
a settling tank, where the wet solids sink to the bottom due to the influence of gravity. The recovered solids are sent
to various treatment processes to isolate the gold from the impurities.

References

F. P. Incropera, D. P. DeWitt, T. L. Bergman, and A. S. Lavine, Fundamentals of Heat and

Mass Transfer, 6th ed. (Wiley, 2007).

Virtual Museum of Canada (n.d.) Extracting the gold. Retrieved from http://novascotiagold.ca