ChE 332

Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer

Washington State University

Voiland School of Chemical Engineering
and Bioengineering
Richard L. Zollars

Spring, 2011
Problem 11.3, McCabe, Smith and Harriott

Aniline is to be cooled from 200 to 150F in a double-pipe heat exchanger having a total outside
area of 70 ft2. For cooling, a stream of toluene amounts to 8,600 lb/h at a temperature of 100F is
available. The exchanger consists of 1 -in Schedule 40 pipe in 2-in Schedule 40 pipe. The
aniline flow rate is 10,000 lb/h. (a) If flow is countercurrent, what are the toluene outlet
temperature, the LMTD, and the overall heat-transfer coefficient? (b) What are they if the flow is
parallel? c) What differences are there in the answers between parts a) and b)? Why do these
differences arise? d) If the overall heat transfer coefficient was constant between counter flow
and parallel flow which geometry would require a larger heat transfer area? Why?
SOLUTION
(a) To cool the aniline from 200 to 150F requires the following amount of heat transfer
q aniline m C p T 10,000

lbm
h

BTU
BTU
0.54
150 F 200 F 2.70 10 5

h
lbm F

where the heat capacity of aniline was obtained from Appendix 15 using the average
temperature of the aniline (150F). The negative sign indicates that the heat is being
transferred out of the aniline. This same amount of heat must be transferred to the toluene so
qtoluene 2.70 10 5

lb
BTU
m C p T 8,600 m
h
h

BTU
0.44
Ttol , out 100 F

lb

F
m

Ttol , out 171 F

The specific heat used above was at a temperature of 125F. This is close enough to the
average temperature of the toluene (135.5F) that we do not need to go through another
iteration. Thus the log-mean temperature difference would be

LMTD

T2 T1 Taniline , in Ttol , out Taniline , out Ttol , in 200 171 150 100

38.6 F

Taniline , in Ttol , out

T2
200 171

ln
ln
ln

150
100

T
T

1
tol , in
aniline , out

The overall heat transfer coefficient then is

q U o Ao TL

BTU
U o 70 ft 2 38.6 F
h
BTU `
U o 100. 2
ft h F
2.70 10 5

(b) If the flow is parallel the same inlet and outlet temperatures still hold. Now, however, the
double pipe heat exchanger would look like the following.

Ttoluene, in = 100F

Taniline, in = 200F

Ttoluene, in = 171F

Taniline, in = 150F

Note that the cold fluid (toluene) now has an exit temperature higher than the hot fluid
(aniline). This is not possible so it is not possible to compute a LMTD or an overall heat
transfer coefficient.
(c) The inlet and outlet temperatures for both the hot and cold streams do not change. The
difference lies in the LMTD and Uo values. The outlet temperature of the toluene was
calculated by equating the amount of heat that had to be removed from the aniline with the
amount of heat that needed to be transferred to the toluene. In the case of counterflow this
gave temperature approaches of 29F at the hot fluid inlet side and 50F at the hot fluid outlet
side. Both of these are possible. Because of the temperature rise in the cold fluid needed to
cool the aniline the approaches for parallel flow are 100F and -21F. This latter value is not
physically possible.
(d) Typically the required area for parallel flow would be larger because the LMTD is smaller
for parallel flow than it is for counterflow.