LECTURE 4

External Forced Convection

Flow Across Tube Banks/Bundles

Lesson Outcomes
At the end of this lecture, students should be able to :

Understand the basic principle of flow across tube banks/tube

bundles
Understand the characteristics of aligned and staggered
arrangement in tube banks
Solve a problem in flow across tube banks/tube bundles

Flow Across Tube Banks/Bundles

Heat transfer in flow across a bank of tubes is of
particular importance in the design of heat exchangers.
Heat exchangers are found in numerous industrial
applications, such as steam generation in a boiler or air
cooling in the coil of an air conditioner.

Flow Across Tube Banks/Bundles

Flow Across Tube Banks/Bundles

Flow Across Tube Banks/Bundles

Flow Across Tube Banks/Bundles

Flow Across Tube Banks/Bundles

All properties, are evaluated at the mean temperature :

(Ti Te )
Tm
2

Ti

Ts
Ts
8

Te

Flow Across Tube Banks/Bundles

The tubes in a tube bank are usually arranged either
in-line/aligned or staggered in the direction of fluid flow.
The characteristic length of tube bundle is the outer tube
diameter, D
The number of row and column in a tube bank are
defined as longitudinal direction, NL (row) and transverse
direction, NT (column), respectively
The total number of tubes in bank = N

Flow Across Tube Banks/Bundles

In-line/Aligned

Staggered

Transverse, NT = 6

Transverse, NT = 5

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Flow Across Tube Banks/Bundles

NT = ?
NL = ?

NT = ?
NL = ?

NT = ?
NL = ?

= ?

= ?

= ?
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Flow Across Tube Banks/Bundles

NT = 6
NL = 4

NT = 3
NL = 5

NT = 5
NL = -

= 24

= 15

= 22
12

Flow Across Tube Banks/Bundles

Total surface area in tube bundles : As (DL) N

Ti

Te

Ts
Ts

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Flow Across Tube Banks/Bundles

In aligned tubes :
- transverse pitch
- longitudinal pitch
- transverse plane

(ST)
(SL)
(A1)

In staggered tubes :
-

transverse pitch
longitudinal pitch
diagonal pitch
transverse plane
diagonal plane

(ST)
(SL)
(SD)
(A1)
(A2)
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In-line/Aligned Tubes

A1 = ST - D

D = tube diameter
SL = longitudinal pitch

ST = transverse pitch
A1 = transverse plane
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Staggered Tubes
A1 = ST - D
A2 = SD - D

D = tube diameter
SL = longitudinal pitch
A1 = transverse plane

ST = transverse pitch
SD = diagonal pitch
A2 = diagonal plane
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Flow Across Tube Banks/Bundles

Heating Process boiler

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Flow Across Tube Banks/Bundles

Heating Process

Ts = 20C

Ti = 100C
Te = 80C

Tm = 90C
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Flow Across Tube Banks/Bundles

Heating Process boiler

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Flow Across Tube Banks/Bundles

Cooling Process

Ti = 20C

Ts = 100C

Tm = 30C
20

Te = 40C

Flow Across Tube Banks/Bundles

Cooling Process heat exchanger

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Flow Across Tube Banks/Bundles

Ti

Ts

Te
Te

Ti

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Flow Across Tube Banks/Bundles

Logarithmic mean
temperature difference

Te Ti
Tln
ln(Te / Ti )

Te Ts Te and Ti Ts Ti
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Flow Across Tube Banks/Bundles

Logarithmic mean
temperature difference

Te Ti
Tln
ln(Te / Ti )

Heat transfer rate in tube banks :

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Flow Across Tube Banks/Bundles

Mass flow rate of fluid: m
air VNT ST L

* Properties of fluid is evaluated at an inlet temperature

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Flow Across Tube Banks/Bundles

Reynolds Number :

Re = VmaxD /

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