(Shell & Tube HEs)

Unit III
Niteen R Yeole

Most widely used chemical industry

Parts- standardized in size
Design TEMA standards
IS: 4503 Equivalent Indian Std

Std sizes of shell, tubes, tierods etc

Max allowable baffle spacing, minimum tube
sheet thickness, baffle thickness, no. of tierods
etc.
For mechanical design and fabrication, in
addition to TEMA std, ASME Code Section VIII
Div. I is used.

Class R- severe duties in hydrocarbon industry

Class B chemical process industries not
involving severe duties
Class C commercial and in less important
process applications

HTRI: Heat Transfer Research Institute, USA

HTFS : Heat Transfer Fluid Flow Services, UK
BJAC, USA
HEI: Heat Exchange Institute, USA
For ht without phase change-design methods
used by these softwares are based on Tinkers
flow model.

Costliest part
Size range (TEMA) 6 in to 60 in
Std pipes available upto 24 in
Above 24 in to be fabricated by rolling a plate
Fixed tube sheet STHE gap between shell &
bundle is minimum (10 to 20 mm)
Floating head HE gap is max (90-100 mm)

1. Based on actual tube sheet layout drawing

6 Parameters to be fixed
OD of tube
No of tube side pases
Tube pitch
Tube arrangement
No of tubes
Type of HE fixed tube, U tube or floating
head

2 Use of standard tables

Max no of tubes shell (6 in 120 in), tube side
passes, tube pitch, arrangement of tubes.

3 Use of approximate equations

Shell dia or tube bundle dia can be found out
Db = d0 (Nt/k1)1/n1
where Db = Tube bundle dia, mm
d0 = Tube OD, mm
Nt = Total no. of tubes
k1 & n1 are constants
Above equation is used for fixed tube sheet
type and floating head shell and tube heat
exchangers.

Single pass shell is used in the most of the

cases.

Direct the fluid stream across the tubes

Increase the fluid velocity
Increase the turbulence
Increase the rate of ht
Indirectly support the tubes and thereby
reduce the vibration in tubes
Most commonly used type-segmental baffle

Size range 0.25 -2.5

For std tubes size ie equal to tube OD
Tube thickness Birmingham Wire Gauge
(BWG)
As BWG increases thickness decreases.
For no phase change HEs & condensers, in
(19.05 mm) OD tube is widely used.
For Reboiler, 1 in (25.4 mm) OD is common.
Std lengths-6 ft, 8 ft, 12 ft, 16 ft & 6m.

Tube side passes are provided to decrease the

tube side flow area and to increase tube side
fluid velocity thereby to improve the tube side
htc at the expense of pressure drop.

1.
2.

3.
4.

5.

6.

Calculation of heat duty

Selection of Cooling medium or heating
medium
Fluid Allocation
Establishment of energy balance or heat duty
balance/ finding of the mass flow rate of
heating medium or cooling medium required
Calculation of Mean temperature difference
Estimation of overall heat transfer coefficient

7. Finding shell diameter

8. Calculation of tube side htc
9. Calculation of tube side pressure drop
10. Calculation of shell side htc
11. Calculation of shell side pressure drop
12. Calculation of the overall htc
13. Calculation of heat transfer area

More versatile than fixed tube and U-tube

exchangers.
Suitable for high temperature differentials
Easier to clean and can be used for fouling
liquids.

Triangular and rotated square patterns give

higher heat transfer rates but at the expense of
a higher pressure drop than the square pattern.
A square or rotated square arrangement , is
used for heavily fouling fluids where it is
necessary to mechanically clean the outside of
the tubes.
Recommended tube pitch (distance between
tube centres) is 1.25 times the tube OD

No of passes is selected to give the required

tube side design velocity.
Exchangers are built from 1-16 tube passes.

m/n
m-no of shell passes
n-no of tube passes

Baffle cut specifies the dimensions.

It is expressed as a percentage of the baffle disc
diameter.
Baffle cuts from 15 to 45 % are used.
Optimum cut- 20 to 25 %
Spacing- 0.2 to 1.0 times shell diameter
Optimum spacing- 0.3 to 0.5 times shell
diameter

Gas oil at 2000C is to be cooled to 400C. The oil

flow rate is 50000 kg/hr. The cooling water is
available at 250C and the temperature rise is
limited to 300C . The pressure drop allowance
on shell side is 100 kN/m2. Calculate the shell
side heat transfer coefficient as well as the
pressure drop. Neglect the viscosity correction
on shell side.

Data:
1] Properties of Gas Oil at 1200C
Specific heat capacity (Cp) = 2.28 KJ/(Kg 0C)
Thermal conductivity (k) = 0.125 W/(m0C)
Dynamic Viscocity () = 0.17 mN/(m2 s)
Density = 850 kg/m3

2] Tube Dimensions & Thermal conductivity

Outside diameter (d0) = 20 mm
Inside diameter (di) = 16 mm
Length = 4 m
Thermal conductivity = 50 W/(m0C)
Pitch = Triangular (Pt = 1.25 d0 )

3] Baffle details
Type = Segmental
Cut = 25%
Spacing = 0.5* Shell inside diameter
4] Exchanger Type
1-4, Split-ring floating head