Design And Fabrication Of Shell And Corrugated Helical Tube Heat Exchanger

The particular interest on the energy side of mechanical engineering, specially thermodynamics and heat transfer are what made this topic for the final year project. In this project, we are intended towards design and fabrication of a helical corrugated tubes Heat Exchanger. A heat ex

Project Title

Design And Fabrication Of Shell And Corrugated Helical Tube Heat Exchanger

Project Area of Specialization

Mechanical Engineering

Project Summary

The particular interest on the energy side of mechanical engineering, specially thermodynamics and heat transfer are what made this topic for the final year project. In this project, we are intended towards design and fabrication of a helical corrugated tubes Heat Exchanger. A heat exchanger is a vital component in many various application, which requires to transfer or exchange heat (internal thermal energy to be more precise) from one matter to another. Although there are different types of heat exchanger available in the market, each having specific classifications based on the specifications, construction, fluid flow, pass arrangement, and phase of fluid. Basically the heat exchanger are in the form of tubes which might be straight or coiled. In this project of heat exchanger, we are proposing a new design having helical tubes. In addition to that we will use the corrugated tubes. When selecting a heat exchanger for a particular application the two main issues that needs to be addressed are,

1.         The efficiency and the effectiveness of the heat exchanger.

2.         Overall Size (dimensions) of the heat exchanger.

As per given problems, by using the helical tubes the
fluid flowing through the tube will have to move a long path as path length increases which will increases the fluid flow timing inside the shell which causes the heat transfer rate to increase because the cold water has enough time to absorb the heat from the hot fluid. Thus the heat transfer effectiveness is increased. The large ratio of heat transfer area to volume is provided by the helical tubes heat
exchanger.Great flexibility is always provided by helical
tube heat exchangers to meet almost any service requirement. Shell and tube heat exchanger can be
designed for high pressure relative to the environment and high pressure difference between the fluid streams.

Also by using the corrugated tubes, the turbulence of the flow will increased and more heat drop will occur. As a result of which better heat exchange will be possible as the hot fluid will flow through corrugated tubes and cold fluid exchange heat by flowing through shell. Hence the effectiveness of the heat exchanger will be improved. The flow of fluid in our project will be counter flow. We will use copper tubes and mild steel for shell. Copper tubes have high conductivity to transfer heat flow and mild steel have greater resistance against scaling and fouling.  Increasing the surface contact-ability and reducing the total overall size/area of  heat exchanger, which will result in a low cost that need to spend on the construction material of our heat exchanger. We should identify whether the specific application requires a liquid-liquid , liquid-gas and gas-gas phase fluids accordingly. Along with this, for measuring temperature, pressure, and flow rate, the temperature, pressure guages and flow meter will be used.

  

Project Objectives

The main outcomes/objectives of the above project are as follows.

• To Increase the overall Heat Transfer rate (Q) in a helical corrugated tube Heat exchanger.
• To maximize the effectiveness of the helical corrugated tube heat exchanger.
• To make the flow an approaching counter flow instead of a cross flow.  
• Proposing a new design for the conventional shell and tube heat exchanger.

Maintain the same dimension of the heat exchanger and increase the capacity of the heat exchanger, enabling to increase the production if necessary.

Project Implementation Method

A heat transfer performance testing system is presented with its hardware structure, operation principle, and software control and measurement system.

• Initially the relevant data/information of the conventional shell and tube heat exchanger was collected.
• Once it was done, we started working on the design of heat exchanger with helical corrugated tube. It was done using the Solidworks Software.
• Working fluids of the subsystem include thermal conducting oil, compressed air, glycol water solution and water as the heating fluids, and air and water as the cooling fluids.

Using the standard formulae and back calculations, existing dimensions of the existing conventional shell and tube heat exchanger and the existing readings ( such as the pressure drop, associated flow rates and the relevant inlet and outlet temperatures), a helical corrugated tube heat exchanger was designed and fabricated. The main parameters/variables that are considered and measured in the project will be the flow rates (Both shell and tube side), inlet & outlet temperatures (both hot and cold fluid side) and the pressures involved. Using various manufacturing processes such as welding, brazing, mechanical assemblies ,soldering is considered under this factor.

The heat transfer performance testing of heat exchangers can be conducted not only for a conventional one heating fluid to one cooling fluid, but also for a compound air cooling heat exchanger with two or three heating fluids in parallel or in series. The control and measurement system is implemented based on a LabView software platform, consisting of the data acquisition and process system, and the automotive operation and control system. By using advanced measuring instruments combined with sound computer software control, the testing system has characteristics of a compact structure, high accuracy, a wide range of testing scope and a friendly operation interface. The uncertainty of the total heat transfer coefficient K is less than 5%. The testing system provides a reliable performance testing platform for designing and developing new heat exchangers. The environmental inputs was reduced by having several readings in the same environment and by having proper measurement system. Cost was also considered, where different alternatives are available to come up with better economic analysis.

Benefits of the Project

The projects cover a lots of applications in industrial and commercial sector, but some of the major benefits of this project, based on what this project was chosen to work on are,

• This heat exchanger was designed and fabricated for the treatment of commercial or residential water treatment to make it less prone to water-borne diseases. As the water that is available for drinking contains impurities and microorganisms, as water pollution seems to be a major problem in world today. By supplying heat to contaminated water in specific vessel or container and boilng it to a particular temperature for a particular time result in killing of microorganism and by using filters and  operation principle of Osmosis and diffusion, water will be allowed to come out and then heat is extracted from hot water and make ready for the incoming cold water which is unpurified, and clean water is subjected to flow outward to use for a particular application, i-e ; drinking, sterilization of equipments etc. By having cyclic process result in less external workdone, and energy is reused for particular application. 
• This project is also covering the goal of sustainable development to meet the energy demands of 21st century.
• One of the greatest benefit of this modern heat exchanger is that it do not rely on additional equipment, such as an air conditioning or air compressing unit, to operate. Therefore, they use significantly less energy and produce little or no pollution compared to more conventional cooling methods.
• This heat exchanger can be used to regulate fluid temperatures in processing systems to meet requirements for pasteurization, filling operations, and food safety. Food, beverages and pharmaceuticals processing systems require the addition and removal of heat in order to function properly, and processes must be carefully controlled to maintain proper temperatures.
• Applications destined for the Chemical and Petrochemical Industry (Oil and Gas), textile, printing presses ,whereby high priority has been given to ensure long life and high reliability.

• One of the most popular industry which uses the process of heat transfer is HEATING,VENTILATION AND AIR CONDITIONING. So this design better effectiveness result in lower capital cost. Another popular industry which uses heat transfer processes is the Steam generation industry. Steam generation industry incorporates large pressure vessels such as Boilers which are used to obtain steam through the process of boiling water.

• This Heat Exchanger has got its applications for thermal comfort, semi-conductor industries, Photographic materials, mining purpose, Steel Industry ( spot cooling ). 

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

This section specifies information necessary for the design and specification for fabrication of the heat exchanger components such as tubesheet, shell, covers, etc.

- Design temperature
- Material of tubes, shell, shell cover, floating head cover, channel cover, floating, baffle
- Number of tubesheet
- Tube diameter, length
- Tube thickness
- Type of joint
- Type of gasket
- Connection of shell/channel inlet and outlet,
- Corrosion allowance
- Code requirement

• This section separately specifies the performance and condition of the fluid in shell and tube side of the exchanger.

Fluid allocation for exchanger i.e. which fluid on shell side and which on tube side;

- Total mass flow of fluids on shell and tube sides
- Design and test pressures
- Characteristics of the fluids: gravity, viscosity, thermal conductivity, specific heat etc.
- Temperature profile of the fluids: inlet and outlet temperature
- Operating pressure of exchanger in tube side and shell side
- Number passes per shell
- Shell side baffle spacing
- Allowable and calculated pressure drop
- Fouling resistance on shell and tube sides
- Heat exchanged, also called heat duty

So the final deliverable contains;

• The tubes -copper tubes
• Baffles – made from mild steel plates
• Shell side inlet and outlet sockets
• Shell Body
• Shell separating/dividing plate-
•  tube inlet and outlet plate
• End cap
• Tube plate
• Bore plate
• Temperature guages
• Pressure guages
• Pumps
• Flow Meter
• Test Bench 
• Piping Circuit
• Nuts

Final Deliverable of the Project

Hardware System

Core Industry

Energy

Other Industries

Education , Medical , Petroleum , Agriculture , Food , Transportation , Health

Core Technology

Clean Tech

Other Technologies

Shared Economy, Others

Sustainable Development Goals

Good Health and Well-Being for People, Clean Water and Sanitation, Affordable and Clean Energy, Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, Responsible Consumption and Production

Required Resources

If you need this project, please contact me on contact@adikhanofficial.com