Faculty of Engineering
Chemical Engineering Department
Heat Exchangers,
Types and Applications
Submitted to:
Dr. Osama Abdel-Bary
Chemical Engineering Department
Faculty of Engineering, University of Cairo
A heat exchanger is a device that is used for transfer of thermal energy (enthalpy)
between two or more fluids, between a solid surface and a fluid, or between solid
particulates and a fluid, at differing temperatures and in thermal contact, usually without
external heat and work interactions. The fluids may be single compounds or mixtures.
Typical applications involve heating or cooling of a fluid stream of concern, evaporation or
condensation of a single or multicomponent fluid stream, and heat recovery or heat
rejection from a system. In other applications, the objective may be to sterilize, pasteurize,
fractionate, distill, concentrate, crystallize, or control process fluid. In some heat
exchangers, the fluids exchanging heat are in direct contact. In other heat exchangers, heat
transfer between fluids takes place through a separating wall or into and out of a wall in a
transient manner.
In most heat exchangers, the fluids are separated by a heat transfer surface, and
ideally they do not mix. Such exchangers are referred to as the direct transfer type, or
simply recuperators. In contrast, exchangers in which there is an intermittent heat
exchange between the hot and cold fluids via thermal energy storage and rejection through
the exchanger surface or matrix—are referred to as the indirect transfer type or storage
type, or simply regenerators. Such exchangers usually have leakage and fluid carryover from
one stream to the other.
Heat exchangers may be classified according to transfer process, construction, flow
arrangement, surface compactness, number of fluids and heat transfer mechanisms or
according to process functions.
2. Shell and Tube Heat Exchangers
2.1. Overview
2.2. Illustration
2.3. Applications
They are extensively used as process heat exchangers in the petroleum-refining and
chemical industries; as steam generators, condensers, boiler feed water heaters and oil
coolers in power plants; as condensers and evaporators in some air-conditioning and
refrigeration applications; in waste heat recovery applications with heat recovery from
liquids and condensing fluids; and in environmental control.
3. Double Pipe Heat Exchangers
3.1. Overview
3.2. Illustration
The major use of double-pipe exchangers is for sensible heating or cooling of the
process fluid where small heat transfer areas (typically up to 50 m.) are required. They may
also be used for small amounts of boiling or condensation on the process fluid side. The
advantages of the double-pipe exchanger are largely in the flexibility of application and
piping arrangement, plus the fact that they can be erected quickly from standard
components by maintenance crews [3].
4.1. Overview
One variation of the fundamental compact exchanger element, the core, is shown in
Figure 5. The core consists of a pair of parallel plates with connecting metal members that
are bonded to the plates. The arrangement of plates and bonded members provides both a
fluid-flow channel and prime and extended surface. It is observed that if a plane were
drawn midway between the two plates, each half of the connecting metal members could
be considered as longitudinal fins [1].
Compact heat exchangers may be classified by the kinds of compact elements that
they employ. The compact elements usually fall into five classes:
a. Circular and flattened circular tubes.
b. Tubular surfaces.
c. Surfaces with flow normal to banks of smooth tubes.
d. Plate fin surfaces.
e. Finned-tube surfaces.
4.2. Illustration
4.3. Applications
Compact or plate-fin heat exchangers have a wide range of applications that include [4]:
• Natural gas liquefaction.
• Cryogenic air separation.
• Ammonia production.
• Offshore processing.
• Nuclear engineering.
• Syngas production.
5.1. Overview
These exchangers are usually built of thin plates (all prime surfaces). The plates are
either smooth or have some form of corrugations, and they are either flat or wound in an
exchanger. Generally, these exchangers cannot accommodate very high pressures,
temperatures, and pressure and temperature differentials. These exchangers may be
further classified as plate, spiral plate, lamella, and plate coil exchangers, as shown in Figure
9 the plate heat exchanger, being the most important of these, is described next.
5.2. Illustration
These exchangers are relatively compact and lightweight heat transfer surfaces,
making them attractive for use in confined or weight-sensitive locations such as on board
ships and oil production platforms. Pressures and temperatures are limited to
comparatively low values because of the gasket materials and the construction.
They are typically used for exchanging heat between two liquid streams in turbulent
flow. They are occasionally used as condensers for fairly dense vapors (e.g., ammonia) or as
vaporizers as for a reboiler. They are used in the food processing industry because they can
be disassembled for cleaning and sterilization.
6. Spiral Heat Exchangers
6.1. Overview
Several different versions of the spiral plate exchanger are available. This exchanger
is formed by rolling two long, parallel plates into a spiral using a mandrel and then suitably
welding the alternate edges of adjacent plates to form the channels. The plates are held
apart by raised bosses on one of the plates. The open sides of the channels are sealed off
against bypassing by cover plates (with gaskets) held in place by the bolted clamps around
the periphery [3].
Connections are made at the center of the coil to each channel to act as inlet in one
case and outlet in the other. Similar connections are made at the outer end of each
channel. The spiral exchanger can be enclosed in a pressure vessel, or the outer panel can
be incorporated to form the outside of the unit. The exchanger is closed top and bottom
with covers bolted to the outer shell of the exchanger.
6.2. Illustration
By virtue of the removable top and bottom covers, this exchanger is easily cleaned
and is therefore ideal for applications involving a high degree of fouling. Indeed, it is widely
used for the heating and cooling of slurries [3].
7.1. Overview
7.2. Illustration
8.1. Overview
8.2. Illustration
8.3. Applications
9.1. Overview
Pipes, tubes, and cast tubular sections with external transverse high fins have been
used extensively for heating, cooling, and dehumidifying air and other gases. The fins are
preferably called transverse rather than radial because they need not be circular, as the
latter term implies, and are often helical. The air-fin cooler is a device in which hot-process
fluids, usually liquids, flow inside extended surface tubes and atmospheric air is circulated
outside the tubes by forced or induced draft over the extended surface.
High-fin tubes can also be extruded directly from the tube-wall metal, as in the case
of integral low-fin tubing. However, it becomes increasingly difficult to extrude a high fin
from ferrous alloys as hard as those required for high-temperature services, which are
often amenable to work hardening while the fin is being formed. Whether fins are attached
by arc welding or resistance welding, the fin-to-tube attachment for all practical design
considerations introduces a neglible bond or contact resistance.
9.2. Illustration
Figure 16, typical high-finned tube used in air-cooled heat exchangers [3].
9.3. Applications
The large majority of applications are for transferring heat to atmospheric air. Finned
tubes may be used in: water cooling of product, and air cooling of product, oil – air
exchangers and oil, industrial and residential air heaters using burned gas heat, steam, hot
water or resistance heating elements rolled inside finned tube, cooling and food processing
industry and automotive industry.
10. Conclusion
Heat Exchangers have numerous different types and applications as discussed in the
report. Each type selection can only be determined by the application the device will be
used for. The general design process can be summarized in the calculation of the required
area to transfer heat from one fluid to another by that the designer can determine the
actual mechanical design parameters knowing the physical and chemical behavior of the
fluids to be used.
The report discussed the most famous types of industrially used heat exchangers
such as Shell-and-Tube heat exchangers, which are the most commonly used ones, that can
withstand high pressures with moderate area to volume ratio and Double-Pipe heat
exchangers which are the simplest type in design and maintenance but they have relatively
low area of heat transfer. Compact heat exchangers which are famous of their capability to
use different phases of fluids and Plate-and-Frame type that has very high area to volume
ratio in addition to Spiral, Regenerative or Matrix, Scraped-Surface and High and Low-
finned types.
General design considerations are routing of fluids and the suitability of the
calculated area of heat transfer according to fouling factor and other important parameters
like baffles arrangement to meet with the maximum pressure loss requirement in shell-an-
tube heat exchanger.
References