ChE 332 Washington State University

Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer Voiland School of Chemical Engineering

and Bioengineering
Spring, 2011 Richard L. Zollars

Problem 13.3, McCabe, Smith and Harriott

A horizontal shell-and-tube condenser is to be used to condense saturated ammonia vapor at

145 lbf/in.2 abs (Th = 82ºF). The condenser has 19 steel tubes (1.5-in. OD, 1.3-in. ID) 14 ft long
through which cooling water is flowing. The tubes are arranged hexagonally on 2-in. centers.
The latent heat of ammonia at these conditions may be taken as 500 BTU/lb. The cooling water
enters at 70ºF. Determine the capacity of the condenser for these conditions.

Additional Questions
1. Explain in words what drives the process of condensation.
2. Explain the various ways in which you might enhance condensation rate for a given fluid on
a cold surface.
3. For a given tube material surface characteristics and fluid, which orientation (horizontal or
vertical) will give the higher amount of condensate per unit time and why?

SOLUTION

The arrangement of the tubes would look something like the following

Thus the condenser could be envisioned as a vertical stack of five tubes, plus two vertical stacks
of four tubes, plus two vertical stacks of three tubes. If we want the maximum capacity of this
condenser we would want water running through the tubes at a very high velocity. This would
mean that the water temperature would not change significantly and that the heat transfer
coefficient from the water to the tube wall (hi) would be very large, i.e., there is negligible
resistance to heat transfer between the water and the inside wall of the tubes.

The heat transfer coefficient for a stack of N tubes is given by equation 13.17 from the text.
 1/ 4
 k 3f  2f g  
hN  0.729  
 N To Do  f 
 

To compute the heat transfer coefficient on the outside of the tubes we’ll need the thermal
conductivity of liquid ammonia, its density and viscosity, and the temperature drop across the
condensate film. The thermal conductivity (kf = 0.29BTU/hr·ft·ºF) and viscosity (μf = 0.1 cP at
80ºF) can be found in Appendices 13 and 9, respectively. The density of liquid ammonia is
ρf = 0.618 g/cm3 from Perry’s Handbook. We now have to determine a value for the temperature
drop across the condensate film. We know that the outer surface of the film will be at 82ºF. The
inner temperature of the film will be close to the water temperature but somewhat higher due to
the ΔT through the tube wall. Assume a ΔT of 2ºF through the tube wall (this will have to be
checked later). Thus the outer tube surface would be at a temperature of 72ºF and ΔTo = 82 – 72
= 10ºF. Thus the heat transfer coefficient for a stack of five tubes would be

1/ 4
 3 2 
1 hr   1lbm  30.48 cm   
3
 BTU g ft  BTU 
  0.29 hr  ft  F 3600 s   0.618 cm 3 453.593 g    32.174 2  500 
    ft    s  lbm
h5  0.729  
  1 ft   30.48 cm  
  
5 10  F 1.5 in
12 in
  0.1  10 2
cm
g
 s 453
1lbm
.593 g ft
 
    
 
BTU BTU
h5  0.303  1090
s  ft  F
2 
hr  ft 2  F

The same calculation can be repeated for the stack of four and three tubes to get h3 =
1239 BTU/hr·ft2·ºF and h4 = 1153 BTU/hr·ft2·ºF. We still need to include the resistance through
the tube wall. Start by getting an average heat transfer coefficient for a single pipe. Thus

h5 5 Asingle pipe   h4 8 Asingle pipe   h3 6 Asingle pipe 

h
5 Asingle pipe  8 Asingle pipe  6 Asingle pipe
 BTU   BTU   BTU 
5 1090   8 1153   6 1239 
 hr  ft  F 
2 
 hr  ft  F 
2 
 hr  ft  F 
2 
BTU
h  1164
19 hr  ft 2  F

Note that the average has been taken by weighting the heat transfer coefficients by the total area
over which that heat transfer coefficient is applicable. We now can compute an overall average
heat transfer coefficient
 1 ft
0.1in
1 x D  1 12 in 1.5 in 1
 w  o    
Uo k w  DL  h BTU   1164 BTU
26.2  
hr  ft  F  1.5 in  1.3 in 

hr  ft 2  F
 
 ln  1.5 in  
  1.3 in  
   
1 1 1 1
  
Uo BTU BTU BTU
2929 1164 833
hr  ft  F
2 
hr  ft  F
2 
hr  ft 2  F
BTU
Uo  833
hr  ft 2  F

The total rate of condensation then should equal the rate of heat transfer. So

m   U o Ahx T
 BTU    1 ft  
m  500   833
BTU
19  1.5 in
 
 14 ft  82  F  70  F 
 lbm  hr  ft  F 
2 
 12 in  
lb
m  2088 m
hr

We should check our assumption about ΔTo that was used to determine the heat transfer
coefficient for the tubes. Equating the heat transfer overall with that through the liquid gives

U o Ahx Tgas  Twater   h Ahx Tgas  Touter wall 

833
BTU
 
82  F  70  F  1164
BTU

82  F  Touter wall 
hr  ft  F
2 
hr  ft  F
2 

Touter wall  73.4  F

We had initially estimated this to be 72ºF. Thus the value for ΔTo is now 82ºF – 73.4ºF = 8.6ºF.
Using this value for ΔTo then gives values for h5, h4 and h3 of 1139, 1204, and
1294 BTU/hr·ft2·ºF, respectively. This gives an average heat transfer coefficient of
1215 BTU/hr·ft2·ºF and an average overall heat transfer coefficient of 859 BTU/hr·ft2·ºF. The
condensation rate then is 2150 lbm/hr. This allows us to recheck our assumption concerning ΔTo.

U o Ahx Tgas  Twater   h Ahx Tgas  Touter wall 

859
BTU
hr  ft  F
2 
 
82  F  70  F  1215
BTU
hr  ft  F
2 

82  F  Touter wall 
Touter wall  73.5  F
This is close enough to our prior estimate that we can accept the last result giving a capacity of
2150 lbm/hr for the condenser.

Additional Questions

1) As the temperature is lowered the vapor pressure of any material also goes down. When
the vapor pressure becomes equal to the partial pressure of that component in a gas the
component will condense. Before a vapor can condense, however, it must give up its
latent heat of vaporization. Thus condensation is ultimately driven by a lowering of the
total energy of the vapor.
2) There are a number of things that can be done to increase the rate of condensation,
increase the heat transfer coefficient, increase the area and increase the temperature
difference. The heat transfer coefficient can be increased by keeping the condensate film
as thin as possible. This can be done by using horizontal tubes rather than vertical,
treating the surface so that the condensing liquid does not wet the surface so that you get
dropwise condensation, or mechanically wiping the surface to remove the condensation.
3) Horizontal tubes will typically give greater condensation rates. This is because the fluid
flows off of the surface more rapidly, leaving a thinner condensate film and increasing
the heat transfer coefficient.