Logmeantemperaturedifference

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Thelogmeantemperaturedifference(alsoknownbyitsinitialismLMTD)isusedtodeterminethetemperaturedrivingforceforheat
transferinflowsystems,mostnotablyinheatexchangers.TheLMTDisalogarithmicaverageofthetemperaturedifferencebetweenthehot
andcoldstreamsateachendoftheexchanger.ThelargertheLMTD,themoreheatistransferred.TheuseoftheLMTDarises
straightforwardlyfromtheanalysisofaheatexchangerwithconstantflowrateandfluidthermalproperties.
Contents
1Definition
2Application
3Derivation
4AssumptionsandLimitations
5References
6Externallinks

Definition
Weassumethatagenericheatexchangerhastwoends(whichwecall"A"and"B")atwhichthehotandcoldstreamsenterorexitoneither
sidethen,theLMTDisdefinedbythelogarithmicmeanasfollows:

whereTAisthetemperaturedifferencebetweenthetwostreamsatendA,andTBisthetemperaturedifferencebetweenthetwostreams
atendB.
Thisequationisvalidbothforparallelflow,wherethestreamsenterfromthesameend,andforcountercurrentflow,wheretheyenterfrom
differentends.
Athirdtypeofflowiscrossflow,inwhichonesystem,usuallytheheatsink,hasthesamenominaltemperatureatallpointsontheheat
transfersurface.Thisfollowssimilarmathematics,initsdependenceontheLMTD,exceptthatacorrectionfactorFoftenneedstobe
includedintheheattransferrelationship.
TherearetimeswhenthefourtemperaturesusedtocalculatetheLMTDarenotavailable,andtheNTUmethodmaythenbepreferable.

Application
Oncecalculated,theLMTDisusuallyappliedtocalculatetheheattransferinanexchangeraccordingtothesimpleequation:

WhereQistheexchangedheatduty(inwatts),Uistheheattransfercoefficient(inwattsperkelvinpersquaremeter)andAistheexchange
area.Notethatestimatingtheheattransfercoefficientmaybequitecomplicated.

Derivation
Assumeheattransferisoccurringinaheatexchangeralonganaxisz,fromgenericcoordinateAtoB,betweentwofluids,identifiedas1and
2,whosetemperaturesalongzareT1(z)andT2(z).
ThetemperaturedifferencesareT(A)atpointAandT(B)atpointB,havingdefinedT(z)=T2(z)T1(z).
Notethatthedirectionoffluidflowdoesnotneedtobeconsidereditisalsounimportantwhichstreamisthehotandwhichisthecoldone,
asachangeofrolewillberepresentedbynegativenumbers.SinceLMTDistheaveragetemperaturedifferenceofthetwostreamsbetween
AandB,itisdefinedbythefollowingformula:

Assumption

Therateofchangeofthetemperatureofthetwofluidsisproportionaltothetemperaturedifferencebetweenthem:

Thisgives:

whereK=ka+kb.
WecannowexpressdzasafunctionofT:

SubstitutingthisexpressionbackintoourformulaforLMTD,wecanremovedzfromit:

Kisconstantandcanbesimplified.Integrationisatthispointtrivial,andfinallygives:

AssumptionsandLimitations
Ithasbeenassumedthattherateofchangeforthetemperatureofbothfluidsisproportionaltothetemperaturedifferencethis
assumptionisvalidforfluidswithaconstantspecificheat,whichisagooddescriptionoffluidschangingtemperatureoverarelatively
smallrange.However,ifthespecificheatchanges,theLMTDapproachwillnolongerbeaccurate.
AparticularcasewheretheLMTDisnotapplicablearecondensersandreboilers,wherethelatentheatassociatedtophasechange
makesthehypothesisinvalid.
Ithasalsobeenassumedthattheheattransfercoefficient(U)isconstant,andnotafunctionoftemperature.Ifthisisnotthecase,the
LMTDapproachwillagainbelessvalid
TheLMTDisasteadystateconcept,andcannotbeusedindynamicanalyses.Inparticular,iftheLMTDweretobeappliedona
transientinwhich,forabrieftime,thetemperaturedifferentialhaddifferentsignsonthetwosidesoftheexchanger,theargumenttothe
logarithmfunctionwouldbenegative,whichisnotallowable.

References
KayJM&NeddermanRM(1985)FluidMechanicsandTransferProcesses,CambridgeUniversityPress

Externallinks
Categories: Heattransfer
Thispagewaslastmodifiedon7February2012at15:28.

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