Concentric October 27

Tube Heat 2010

Exchanger
Formal Lab Report

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Index

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1. Objective

 “A heat exchanger is an instrument which transfers the heat from one medium
to another without mixing.” The two mediums are separated by a solid wall to
prevent mixing of both mediums. A car radiator is the basic example of heat
exchanger.
 This experiment helps to understand co-current and counter-current flow
operation for simple heat transfer operation.
 Both the flows i.e. counter-current and co-current helps to evaluate for simple
heat transfer co-relations.
 The “concentric tube heat exchanger” has very simple design with the
movement of the cold and hot fluid flows in the opposite direction or the same
direction.
 The heat exchanger is commonly used in chemical plants, petrochemical
refineries, etc.
 Heat can also be termed as “Therm”
 There are majorly 3 types of heat exchanger:
A) Double pipe,
B) Plat heat exchanger,
C) Shell and Tube heat exchanger.

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2. Description

 This simple thermal exchanger is manufactured by a company named

Arm field HT4 Limited which is situated in Ringwood Hampshire in
England.
 The double pipe thermal exchanger consists of two concentric pipes
from which one has small diameter than another. With limited heat
transfer areas and pure counter-current flow is generated by this
exchanger which helps to achieve greater co-efficient.
 Heat exchanger is a device in which heat transfers between two fluids
from hot fluid to cold fluid with different temperatures in entrance and
exits. The driving force is temperature gradient.
 The flow pattern can be any for example hot fluid enters from the
smaller diameter pipe and cold fluid enters through the space between
the outer diameter of inner pipe and the inner diameter of the outside
pipe or visa-versa. This space between two pipes is known as annulus.
 Thermal exchangers depend on the motion of the direction of the fluids.
 There are two main types of flow patterns; when the two fluids (i.e. hot
and cold) flow in same direction then it is known as co-current flow or
when fluids flow in opposite direction is known as counter-current flow.
(It’s shown in the figure).

Figure 1: Co-Current Flow Figure 2: Counter-Current Flow

The heat load “Q” is calculated in two ways and both has temperature
gradient; either from increase in temperature of cold water or decrease in
temperature of hot water the equation of “Q” is as follows:

Q=

If the two values of temperature are similar but not identical then take “Q” as
the average of the two. The thermal duty is directly proportional to the log
mean temperature difference.

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The equation of log mean temperature difference “ΔTlm” for counter-current
flow pattern is:

The equation of log mean temperature difference “ΔTlm” for co-current flow
pattern is:

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 3. Apparatus:

The experimental apparatus consists of a set of tube heat exchanger, hot and cold
fluid supply assembly and a stop watch, the thermocouples or thermometers
mounted at various points on the tubes helps to generate the reading of different
temperatures which is very useful for thermal studies. The picture of the
experimental assembly is as follows:

Figure1: Flow diagrams. Figure 2: tube heat exchanger.

Figure 3: Switch. Figure 4: Volumetric Flow Rate.

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 Figure5: Diagram of Concentric tube heat exchanger.

Figure 6: Co-current (Valve Position) Figure7: Counter-current (Valve Position)

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4. Practical Method

 Before starting the experiment laboratory coat and safety glasses must
be worn then check the position of valves and water tap connections.
 The water tap connection should be connected properly and valve
should be closed. Fig 6: shows the co-current valve position and fig 7:
shows the counter-current valve position.
 In the counter-current flow operation switch on the heating element and
heat the fluid first than change the condition of valve, after that set the
water temperature at 60⁰C.
 The rate of flow of hot water is put to 2 minutes and the rate of flow of
cold water is put to 1 minute.
 Now heated them up to 10 to 15 minutes till temperature reaches to
60⁰C. When temperature reaches to the 60⁰C than started taking
readings for 5 minutes for all the 6 temperatures and then check the
rate of flow too.
 The same procedure repeat for Co-current flow heat exchanger and
the position of the valves are also changed.
 The same method is repeated for 75⁰C run in the same experiment for
both co-current and counter-current flow operation and change valve
positions too.
 At the end of the experiment switched off the instrument and switched
on the water flow rate meter.
 These six readings and two flow rates for co-current and counter-
current flow are helpful for getting the results.

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5. Outcomes

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6. Sample Calculation

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7. Discussion

 These Results shows that the experiment is done in a right way and we
have achieved success.
 The average counter-current duty for 60⁰C run in counter-current flow
is bigger than the average co-current duty.
 The same results are obtained in 75⁰C run.
 The overall log mean temperature difference for co-current flow is
lower than that of counter-current flow.
 The experiment that we have performed gives us that, when the
volumetric flow rate of the hot fluid is increased its overall heat transfer
co-efficient is also increased.
 From the experiment which we have performed shows us that the
value of overall counter-current heat transfer co-efficient is lower than
that of overall co-current heat transfer co-efficient value.

8. Conclusions

 Therefore we have concluded that the flow of fluids is more accurate in

counter-current operation than that of co-current.
 The driving force is higher in counter-current and lower in co-current
operation.
 For the overall heat transfer co-efficient is lower in counter-current and
higher in co-current operation, this may be because of the error while
doing the experiment that may cause heat loss.
 For getting more accurate reading the experimental apparatus should
be more accurate.
 Final conclusion about this experiment is that it was completed and the
final values of heat transfer co-efficient are obtained but it’s still needed
to do something for its improvement.
 It is not showing the accurate heat transfer from one medium to another
as it has to be.

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9. Bibliography

[1] Kirk-Othmer, “Encyclopaedia of chemical engineering”, Volume 7, 5th edition,

2007, Wiley

[2] Perry, R.H. and Green, D.W, “Chemical Engineering handbook”, 8th Edition,
McGraw Hill, 2007

10. List of Symbols

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11. Appendices

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