Introduction

Heat exchangers are devices that allow heat from a fluid either a liquid or a gas to pass to a
second fluid without the two fluids having to mix together or come into direct contact. Heat
exchangers are commonly used in practice in a wide range of applications, from heating and air-
conditioning systems in a household, to chemical processing and power production in large
plants. Heat exchangers differ from mixing chambers in that they do not allow the two fluids
involved to mix. There are few types of heat exchanger in terms of design which are the
concentric tube heat exchanger, compact heat exchanger, shell-and-tube heat exchanger and
more. We are using the first type which is concentric tube heat exchanger for this experiment.
This type of heat exchanger basically consists of two concentric tubes or pipes with different
diameters. One fluid in a double-pipe heat exchanger flows through the smaller pipe while the
other fluid flows through the annular space between the two pipes. The fluids involve in this
experiment are hot water and room temperature water. Two types of flow arrangement are
possible in a double-pipe heat exchanger which are parallel flow and counter flow. In parallel
flow, both the hot and cold fluids enter the heat exchanger at the same end and move in the same
direction. While in counter flow, the hot and cold fluids enter the heat exchanger at opposite ends
and flow in opposite directions.

For this experiment, the equipment involve is Concentric Tube Heat Exchanger Model FF104.
This model is able to illustrate the working mechanism as the one use as industrial heat
exchanger. This equipment consist of a cold water supply, hot water system, single phase
electrical outlet and a concentric tube exchanger in the form of a 'U' mounted on a support frame.
The external surface of the exchanger is insulated. To minimize losses in the system, the hot
water is fed through the inner pipe, with the cold water in the outer annulus. Six temperature
measuring devices are installed on the tubes to measure the temperature of fluids accurately.
Control valves are incorporated in each of the two streams to regulate the flow either to be
parallel flow or counter flow. The flow rates for hot water and cold water are measured using
independent flow meters installed in each line.
Theory

As we know, there are two types of flow of this heat exchanger which are parallel flow and
counter flow. The graphs and pictures below shows the difference between parallel flow and
counter flow:

For the analysis of this heat exchanger we will need to find important quantities such as
the heat transfer coefficient, power emitted, absorbed, and lost, the log mean temperature
difference (LMTD), and the overall efficiency to compare the two types of flow.

The first Law of Thermodynamics (conservation of energy principle), in rate form, applied to a
control volume (CV), can be expressed as

Q surr in m
h out m
h E st (1)

where stands for mass-flow rate (e.g., 1bm/min or kg/min) crossing the CV boundaries, h is

specific enthalpy (energy/mass), surr is the rate of heat transfer from the CV to its surroundings,
and st is the rate of change of energy stored in the CV. This simplified form of the First Law
assumes no work- producing processes, no energy generation inside the CV, and negligible
kinetic and potential energy in the fluid streams entering and leaving the CV. In steady state
operation the energy residing in the CV is constant, meaning that st=0. If, furthermore, the

boundary of the CV is adiabatic, then surr =0. Under these circumstances Eq. (1) reduces to a
simple balance of enthalpy inflow and enthalpy outflow

in
h out m
m h (2)

Applied to a heat exchanger with two streams passing through it, Eq. (2) can be rearranged to
give

h(hh,i-h h,o )= c(hc,o-hc,i) (3)

hCp,h(Th,i-T h,o )= cCp,c (Tc,o-Tc,i) (4)

We can also write the left and right hand side of equation (4) as

Qemitted = hCp,h(Th,i-T h,o ) (5)

and

Qabsorbed = cCp,c (Tc,o-Tc,i) (6)

If we not assuming that the exchanger is adiabatic, we have

Power lost = Qemitted - Qabsorbed (7)

Finally, we can find the efficiency of the heat exchanger by,

Qabsorbed
x100% (8)
Qemitted
The overall heat transfer coefficient, although very important in heat exchanger analysis, can
also be difficult to obtain experimentally. To find the overall heat transfer coefficient for this
experiment we will employ the equation,
(9)

where Tlm is the log mean temperature difference, U is the overall heat transfer coefficient, and
As is the heat transfer area.. Because the temperatures at the inlet and exit for the hot and cold
fluids are normally readily available, we must find an expression for Tlm in terms of these inlet
and exit temperatures.

If you follow the derivation in the reference using the log mean temperature difference analysis,
you will find that,

T1 T2
T1 m (10)
ln( T1 / T2 )

For the parallel flow exchanger we will have,

T1 Th,i Tc ,i (11)

T2 Th ,e Tc ,e (12)

and for the counter flow heat exchanger we will have,

T1 Th ,i Tc ,e (13)

T2 Th ,e Tc ,i (14)

Solving for the overall heat transfer coefficient in Equation (1) we now obtain

Qabs
U (15)
AT1m

Where A= Surface area of contact