College of Engineering and Computer Science

Mechanical Engineering Department

Mechanical Engineering 375

Heat Transfer
Spring 2007 Number 17629 Instructor: Larry Caretto

Exercise Ten Solutions Heat Exchangers

1. A shell-and-tube heat exchanger
with 2-shell passes and 8-tube
passes is used to heat ethyl
alcohol (cp = 2670 J/kgoC) in the
tubes from 25oC to 70oC at a rate
of 2.1 kg/s. The heating is to be
done by water (cp = 4190
J/kgoC) that enters the shell side
at 95oC and leaves at 45oC. If the
overall heat transfer coefficient
is 950 W/m2oC, determine the
heat transfer and surface area of
the heat exchanger. (Problem
and figure P9.63 from engel,
Heat and Mass Transfer.)
We can solve this problem by finding the heat transfer from the first law energy balance on ethyl
alcohol. We have sufficient data to do so; we cannot do this for water because we do not have
the mass flow rate for water. If we wanted to, we could find it from the heat transfer. We will then
use the other given data to compute the log-mean temperature difference and the correction
factor for the 2-shell-pass-8-tube-pass heat exchanger. Once we have these items we can
compute the surface area from the equation

Q UAFTlm .

For the ethyl alcohol, the cold fluid, our energy balance gives.

2.1 kg 2650 J
0.001 kW s
= 252.3 kW
Q m c c p, c Tc, out Tc, in
70 o C 25o C
o
s kg C
J
We compute the log-mean temperature difference for a counter-flow heat exchanger (the basis
for the correction factor method) as follows.

Tln

Th,out Tc,in Th,in Tc,out 45o C 25o C 95o C 70 o C

22.4 o C
Th,out Tc,in

ln
T T

c,out
h,in

45 o C 25 o C

ln o
95 C 70 o C

We have to compute the ratios R and P to determine the correction factor.

P
R

Ttube,out Ttube,in
Tshell,in Ttube,in
Tshell,in Ttube,in
Ttube,out Ttube,in

Jacaranda (Engineering) 3333

E-mail: lcaretto@csun.edu

t 2 t1 70 o F 25 o F

0.64
T1 t1 95 o F 25 o F
T T
95 o F 45 o F
1 2 o
1.1
t 2 t1 70 F 25 o F

Mail Code
8348

Phone: 818.677.6448
Fax: 818.677.7062

Exercise ten solutions

ME 375, L. S. Caretto, Spring 2007

Page 2

From Figure 11.18(8) for two shell passes and any multiple of 4 tube passes we find F = 0.82 for
these values of R and P. Solving

Q UAFTlm for the area and substituting the given data and

intermediate results gives the desired area.

1000 W

252.3 kW

Q
kW
A

14.5 m2
950 W
UFTlm
o
0.8 22.4 C
m 2 o C

2. Water (cp = 4180 J/kgoC) is to be heated by solar-heated hot air (cp =1010 J/kgoC) in a
double-pipe counterflow heat exchanger. Air enters the heat exchanger at 90oC at a rate of
0.3 kg/s, while water enters at 22oC at a rate of 0.1 kg/s. The overall heat transfer
coefficient based on the inner side of the tube is given to be 80 W/m 2oC. The length of the
tube is 12 m and the internal diameter of the tube is 1.2 cm. Determine the outlet
temperatures of the water and the air.
Since we only know the inlet temperatures here, we have to apply the effectiveness-NTU method.
We start by computing the mass-flow-times-heat-capacity products and determine which of the
two is smaller.

C h m h c p,h
Cc m c c p ,c

0.3 kg 1010 kJ 1 kW s 303 W

o
s kg o C kJ
C
0.1 kg 4180 kJ 1 kW s 418 W
o
s
kJ
kg o C
C

So Cmin = Cc = 303 W/oC. We use this to compute the maximum heat transfer.

303 W
Q max C min Th,in Tc,in o
90 o C 22 o C 2.060 x10 4 W
C
In order to find the heat transfer we have to find the heat exchanger effectiveness. We do this by
computing the NTU and using the charts that give the effectiveness as a function of NTU and the
ratio of Cmin/Cmax. The surface area is required to compute the NTU. For this simple, counterflow heat exchanger, the total heat transfer surface area is found as follows.

As DL 120.012 m12 m 0.45 m 2

0.45 m
C

80 W
NTU

UAs
m
303 W
C min
o
C
2 o

303 W

0.119

o
C min
C 0.725

418 W
C max
o
C

For these values of NTU and c = Cmin./Cmax, we can use the equation for effectiveness of
counterflow heat exchangers to find .

1 e NTU 1c
1 e 0.11910.725

0.108
1 ce NTU 1c 1 0.119e 0.11910.725
The actual heat transfer is the product of the maximum heat transfer and the heat exchanger
effectiveness.

Exercise ten solutions

ME 375, L. S. Caretto, Spring 2007

Q Q max 0.108 2.060 x10 4 W = 2225 W

We find the outlet temperatures from the first law mass balances.

Q Cc Tc,out Tc,in Tc,out Tc,in

Q
Cc

22 o C

2225 W
= 27.3oC
418 W
o

2225 W
Q
= 82.7oC
Q C h Th,in Th,out Th,out Th,in
90 o C
303
W
Cc
o
C

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