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There are two basic heat energy requirements to be considered in the sizing of heaters for a particular
application.
1. Start-Up Heat is the heat energy required to bring a 2. Operating Heat is the heat energy required to maintain
process up to operating temperature. Start-up heat the desired operating temperature through normal work
requirement calculations which include a material cycles. The larger of these two heat energy values will be
change of state should be calculated in three parts: the wattage required for the application.
1) Heat requirement from ambient temperature to A safety factor is usually added to allow for unknown or
change of state temperature unexpected operating conditions. The safety factor is
2) Heat requirement during change of state (latent heat) dependent on the accuracy of the wattage calculation. A
3) Heat requirement from change of state temperature to figure of 10% is adequate for small systems closely
operating temperature calculated, while 20% additional wattage is more
common, and figures of 25% to 35% should be considered
for larger systems with many unknown conditions
existing.
Start-Up Heat requirements will include one or more of the following seven (7) calculations, depending on the
application.
where
The heat transfer coefficient has SI units in watts per meter squared-kelvin [W/(m2K)].
There are numerous methods for calculating the heat transfer coefficient in different heat transfer modes,
different fluids, flow regimes, and under different thermohydraulic conditions. Often it can be estimated
by dividing the thermal conductivity of the convection fluid by a length scale. The heat transfer
coefficient is often calculated from the Nusselt number (a dimensionless number).
Q is the rate of heat transfer between the two fluids in the heat exchanger in But/hr,
and ∆Tlm is the log mean temperature difference in oF, calculated from the inlet and outlet
temperatures of both fluids.
For heat exchanger design, the basic heat exchanger equation can be used to calculate the required heat
exchanger area for known or estimated values of the other three parameters, Q, U, and ∆Tlm. Each of
those parameters will now be discussed briefly.
Log Mean Temperature Difference
The driving force for any heat flow process is a temperature difference.
For a heat exchanger, there are two fluids involved, with the temperatures of both changing as
Heat exchanger calculations require a value for the heat transfer rate, Q, which can be
calculated from the known flow rate of one of the fluids, its heat capacity, and the required
temperature change. Following is the equation to be used:
The required heat transfer rate can be determined from known flow rate, heat capacity and
temperature change for either the hot fluid or the cold fluid. Then either the flow rate of the
other fluid for a specified temperature change, or the outlet temperture for known flow rate and
inlet temperature can be calculated.
Overall Heat Transfer Coefficient, U
The overall heat transfer coefficient, U, depends on the conductivity through the heat transfer
wall separating the two fluids, and the convection coefficients on both
sides of the heat transfer wall. For a shell and tube heat exchanger, for example, there would
be an inside convective coefficient for the tube side fluid and an outside convective coefficient
for the shell side fluid. The heat transfer coefficient for a given heat exchanger is often
determined empirically by measuring all of the other parameters in the basic heat exchanger
equation and calculating U. Typical ranges of U values for various heat exchanger/fluid
combinations are available in textbooks, handbooks and on websites. A sampling is given in
the table at the right for shell and tube heat exchangers:
Summary
Preliminary heat exchanger design to estimate the required heat exchanger surface area can
be done using the basic heat exchanger equation, Q = U A ∆Tlm, if values are known or can be
estimated for Q, U and ∆Tlm.