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HEAT EXCHANGERS, STRAINERS AND SEPERATORS
HEAT EXCHANGERS:
A heat exchanger is a device for transferring heat from one fluid to
another, such that fluids are kept separated. They are widely used in
refrigeration, air-conditioning, industrial heating, power production or
chemical and petrochemical industries in various processing. A radiator in
a car is a heat exchanger in which hot radiator fluid is cooled by the flow
of air over the radiator surface.
Broadly heat exchangers may be classified according
A) Their make type
1) Shell & Tube type
2) Plate type
3) Finned tube type
B) flow arrangements:
1) Parallel flow,
2) Counter flow or cross flow,
C) type of heat exchangers tubes
1) straight tube
2) U-tube
D) Type of tube sheets:
1) floating tube type
2) fixed tube and
E) Number of passes
1) one pass
2) Multy-pass
F) Flow of liquids
1) Single flow
2) Split flow or divided flow.
The two fluid in heat exchanger may be both liquid or one liquid and
another gas or both gas. For better efficiency heat exchangers are
designed to maximize the surface area between the two fluids, contact
period of two fluid while minimizing resistance to their flow. A typical heat

exchanger is the shell and tube heat exchanger in which one fluid flow in
the tube and the other fluid flows in the shell.
A heat exchanger may be used to cool the discharge gas of
compressor as an interstage cooler or to produce steam by the waste heat
of flue gas of process as a waste heat boiler. Condenser or cooler are
basically heat exchangers but name has been given as per the service.
The international standards for Heat Exchangers is TEMA (Tubular
Exchanger Manufacturer Association) which define the type of the heat
exchangers, design factor, fabrication etc.
In General a heat exchanger consists of following parts:
i)
Shell
ii)
Tubes or Tube bundle
iii)
Tube sheets
iv)
Baffle Plates
v)
Tie-rods
vi)
Inlet Nozzle
vii)
Outlet Nozzle
viii)
End channel covers Plenums
ix)
Floating head etc.

TEMA NOMENECLATURE:
It is recommended by TEMA that heat exchanger size and type be
designated by number and letters. And shall be a part of equipment name
plate. TEMA nomenclature represents not only the type of heat exchanger
but also give size of exchangers. e.g. dia of the tube sheet, length of tubes
etc. Examples of TEMA nomenclature:
SIZE 23-192 TYPE AES means split ring floating head exchangers with
removel channel and cover ,single pass shell size 23 inside diameter with
192 long tube.

SIZE 17-192 TYPE CEN means fixed tube heat exchanger having stationery
and rear heads integral with tube sheets, Single pass shell, 17 inside
diameter with 192 inch (16, ft) tube length
SIZE 19-84 TYPE BGV mean U- tube exchanger with bonnet type
stationery head split flow shell 19 inside dia with 84 tube length.
The material of the heat exchanger may be carbon steel, stainless steel
or alloy steel and the material of the tubes may be carbon steel alloy
steel, stainless steel, copper etc. depending up on the service condition
requirement. Heat exchanger design depend upon fluid parameters
(corrosive or non corrosive) temperature, pressure, or phase of fluid etc.
There are certain compact design which may be used where area
constrain is observed.
Heat exchanger tubes are of different types. For better efficiency, finned
tubes can be used. Finning of tubes also help in making heat exchangers
compact. Finning may be inside of the tube or out side or both side,
depending on the service requirement.
During fabrication, all NDT are followed as per QAPs but as a safety
measure

and

reliability

improvement,

all

heat

exchangers

are

hydrostatically tested in accordance with ASME code.


The TEMA standards for Class R heat exchangers

specify design,

fabrication and materials standard of un-fired shell and tube heat


exchangers for the general service requirement of petrochemical and
related processing application . Safety and durability are also covered
under this standard. Heat exchangers shall comply with the ASME, Boiler
and pressure vessel code, section VIII Div. I.
FOULING :- During service , slight deposition of coating on the tube
greatly reduces its efficiency and this is indicated by pressure drop or
reduction in performance. The deposition of un-wanted coating is called
fouling. Fouling takes place on the path of flow of one of the fluids. It is a
common phenomenon in heat exchangers. Exchanger subject to fouling or
scaling should be cleaned periodically depending on the service
conditions. Air or vapor binding also reduces the performance. Air or vapor
binding happened when foaming fluids flows through the exchangers. For
the purpose, depending on the service conditions fouling factors are taken
in to consideration while designing the heat exchangers.

Generally tubes are cleaned by mechanical methods or by chemical


treatment depending upon the nature of scaling and accessibility. High
pressure hydrojetting is the common procedure of de-scalling of industrial
heat exchangers.
LEAKAGES :- Heat exchangers in services poses problems in form of
leakages of fluids and thus two fluids get mixed. Leakages are of two
types.
1) Tube to tube sheet joint leakage
2) Tube leakage
Leaking of tubes is a common phenomenon and this is indicated by the
mixing of two fluid in service and also reduction in performance. e.g. in an
oil cooler with water in the tubes and oil is circulated in the shell at higher
pressure than cooling water in the tubes and if any tube leak then trace of
oil will be found in the cooling water or vice versa. Similarly in CO2 gas
cooler with gas on tube side and the pressure in the tube is greater than
cooling water in the shell and if tubes leak then CO2 gas will enter in the
cooling water which in turns will reduce the Ph of the water.
The solution to this problem is either the leaky tubes should be replaced
which is very difficult in a process plant or the leak tube may be isolated
by plugging from both the ends.
In general there is margin of approx 10% of total tubes in the heat
exchangers which can be plugged if required during the service. When
plugging of tubes exceeds this numbers tube bundles are replaced.
Another problem associated with heat exchangers is the corrosion of
channel covers on cooling water side. Galvanic corrosion is taken care by
providing the sacrificial anodic metal coupons in the channel covers.
Corrosion is taken care by the protective coating of suitable paint.
STRAINERS : Strainers are device which helps in arresting or restricting
flow of unwanted foreign particles like pipeline debris or seal/jointing
compound, weld metal,scaling and other solids in flowing liquids or gases,
which may damage the down stream equipment or reduce the efficiency.
A pump or compressor shall have suction strainers so that clean fluid
enters into the system. A strainer should be fitted at upstream of every
steam trap, flow meter and control valve to avoid malfunctioning.
Strainers can be classified according to their body configuration or shape:
e.g.
1) Y-type
2) Basket type or Tee type

3) Bucket type
4) Conical etc.
Y- TYPE STRAINERS:
These look as if horizontal Y shape fitting has been installed in the
pipeline. These strainers have lower dirt holding capacity than basket type
strainer. On application where significant amount of debris are expected a
blow down valve can usually be fitted in the strainer cap, which enables
the strainers to use the pressure of the fluid to be cleaned and without
having the system shutdown. Y-type strainer in horizontal steam or gas
lines should be installed in such a manner so that the pocket is in the
horizontal plane. This stops water collecting in the pocket helping to
prevent water droplets being carried over which can cause erosion and
affect heat transfer processes.
On liquid system however the pocket should point vertically down wards,
this ensures that the removed debris is not drawn back into the upstream
pipeline during low flow conditions. Installation of Y-type strainer is not
possible in case of vertical line upward flow but in vertical line down ward
flow it is possible and very effective.

BASKET TYPE STRAINER:These strainers are more suitable where flow is very high. These can be
installed in horizontal pipe line or vertical line in down ward flow only. In
case of steam line if basket or bucket type strainer are installed, a
significant amount of condensate may be formed and which shall be
removed by drain plug or steam trap. Basket type strainer has a greater
free straining area and also the pressure drop across the strainer is less
then Y-type strainer.

BUCKET TYPE Strainers:


Bucket type stainers are more suitable for thin or low viscocity fluids or
gases. They provide higher straining areas than any other type of
strainers. These strainers can be installed in horizontal lines only. Rate of
increase of pressure drop is normally very slow as compares to conical
strainers.

CONICAL STRAINERS:
These are conical in shape and can be installed in either direction, over
the cone or under the cone. These strainers can be installed in any
pipelines and are preferred in case of gases where flow is very high.
Because they helps in stream lining the inlet flow to any machine.
Disadvantage is that, a spool piece is required to be opened for cleaning
of this type of strainers.

Basically a strainer consists of a screen, which screened the fluid. There


Screens are of three following types:
a) PERFORATED SCREEN :-These are screen with a large number of
holes in a flat sheet of required material and of required hole size. The
perforated sheet is them rolled or fabricated into required profile.
Mesh Screen:
Fine wire is formed into a grid or mesh arrangement. This is then
commonly layered over a perforated screen, which acts as a support cage
for
the
mesh.
By using a mesh screen, it is possible to produce much smaller hole sizes
than with perforated screens. Hole sizes as small as 0.07 mm are
achievable. Subsequently, they are used to remove smaller particles
which would otherwise pass through a perforated screen. Mesh screens
are usually specified in terms of 'mesh'; which represents the number of
openings per linear inch of screen, measured from the centre line of the
wire. Figure shows a 3 mesh screen
The corresponding hole size in the mesh screen is determined from
knowledge of the wire diameter and the mesh size; it is usually specified
by the manufacturer. The maximum particle size that will be allowed to
pass through the screen can be determined using geometry. If, for
example, a 200 mesh screen is specified and the manufacturer's
specifications stated that the hole size is 0.076 mm, then the maximum
particle size that will pass through the screen can be found using
Pythagoras' theorem: where C = maximum particle size
C2 = A 2 + B 2

b) WOVEN SCREEN :- Mesh or Grid is formed by woven wires.

c) NOTCH WIRE SCREEN:The notch wire element is manufactured by wrapping specially treated
thin stainless steel wire(special cross section wire called notch wire)
around the cylindrical filter frame. It has a simple structure and robust
form, allowing very accurate setting of the filtering passage size. In
addition, because the element is not subject to corrosion or deterioration,
and impurities adhered to the element can easily be eliminated by
backwashing or air blowing, the element requires no replacement and has
a semi-permanent service life. Because of its high reliability . Notch wire
mesh provides more area of opening per unit area of the mesh as
compared to woven mesh
FILTER :- Very fine strainers are called filters. Strainer are generally used
in process fluids just before the rotary machines while Filter remove very
fine particles from the fluid and are used in lubrication system and or fuel
gas and instrument air system. Generally a strainer is installed in the
suction of a pump or compressor where as filter are installed in discharge
of the pumps of lubrication system etc.
SEPARATORS: To separate two different fluids from each other while in flow and thus to
move unwanted or damaging suspended fluid from gas stream separator
are used. In case of steam water droplets are separated from steam , in
case of oil mixed gas oil is separated from the gas or condensate is
separated from the gas. Separator are must required to separate out
these suspended fluid from the gaseous stream as these fluid contents
may damage the equipment/system (condensate in case of compressor)
or may be re-used later (incase of oil which is reused again). In process
also it become desirable to separate out oil from the gas as oil may
damage the catalyst.
These separators are basically liquid traps.
In case of steam there is always water droplets, which eventually
gravitate towards the bottom of the pipe, which affect the system as
below:
Water droplets works as an extremely effective barrier for heat
transfer .
Water droplets traveling at high velocity will erode the pipe , valve
seat or fittings and also increase the corrosion rate if any.

Increased volume of condensate may cause water hammer, a deadly


process for any piping.
Increased of scaling.
May damage the rotating part like steam turbines etc.
There are basically three type of separator
i)BAFFLE TYPE :- In case of baffle type separator number of baffle plates
are there which change or reverses the direction of flow of the main fluid
in the separator body. Thus the greater mass (water droplets in case of
steam or air and oil in case of gas) fluid collects on the baffles, which is
then collected in the bottom and drained away.There is a resulting
reduction in the speed of the fluid.This reduces kinetic energy of the
droplets and most of them will fall out of suspension.In case of steam
condensate will collects at the bottom of the separator which will be
drained away through steam trap.

ii)CYCLONIC TYPE : The cyclonic or centrifugal type separator uses a


series of fins to generate high speed cyclonic flow which throw the heavier
suspended fluid to the wall of the separator which is then collected in the
bottom and drained.

iii)COALESCENCE TYPE :- This type of separator provide an obstruction


by wire mesh pad which is called demister pad upon which suspended
fluid droplets get entrapped. These suspended fluid particles tend to
coalesce, producing droplets that are too large to be carried further by the
gas. As the size of the droplets increases they become too heavy and
ultimately fall into the bottom of the separator.
The pressure drop across a baffle type separator is very low due to the
reduction in the velocity, which is created by the large increase in cross
sectional area provided by the separator body. The pressure drop across a
cyclonic type separator is somewhat higher, as the velocity of the fluid
has to be maintained to generate the cyclonic effect.

The selection of separator depends upon the velocity of the fluid, size of
the pipeline, pressure drop allowable and the type of the fluid. By proper
selection of separator maximum efficiency can be achieved. Operating
pressure and flow rate of the fluid are also a criteria for selection of
separators.

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