A heat exchanger is a system made for transferring thermal energy from one fluid to another without mixing them. Heat exchangers are used to heat, cool, condense a gas or evaporate a liquid.
OPERATION OF A HEAT EXCHANGER
In order to ensure heat transfer between two fluids without mixing them, the heat exchanger has two separate chambers with a common wall. The fluids circulate through their respective chambers and exchange their thermal energy through this wall, conventionally corresponding to the exchange surface.
Thermal energy is transmitted from one fluid to another by convective and conductive transfer in the most common applications, and by radiative transfer in more specific fields (very low temperature and vacuum, high temperature and infrared sensitive gases, …).
WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF HEAT EXCHANGERS ?
The main technologies used in the industrial sector are plate and shell and tube heat exchangers.
Although the tubular heat exchanger is based on older technology, it is suitable for a wider range of applications (e.g. gas to liquid, gas to gas or water to air heat exchangers). More robust than its successor in terms of resistance to large temperature variations and pressure, tube heat exchangers remain essential for high pressure and fouling fluids.
The multi-tube heat exchanger is particularly well suited when there are several service and operating constraints :
- Significant clogging (therefore need of cleaning)
- A pressure/temperature pair requiring substantial wall thicknesses
- Metallurgies adapted and compatible with the nature of the fluids
- Environmentally hazardous fluids
HOW IS THE DESIGN OF A HEAT EXCHANGER CARRIED OUT ?
The design and manufacture of an industrial heat exchanger is a much more complex process than it seems. Numerous factors must be taken into account in order to create an efficient and economically optimized heat exchanger, such as optimizing the exchange surface by maximizing the exchange coefficients, reducing the size of the device and controlling pressure drops.
In practice, the intended application (condenser, evaporative cooler or steam generator for example) will determine the orientation taken from the outset for the design and manufacture of the exchanger.
QUIRI, EXPERT IN THE DESIGN AND MANUFACTURE OF HEAT EXCHANGERS
With many years of experience in the design and manufacture of shell and tube heat exchangers and pressure vessels, Quiri is able to carry out the most complex heat exchanger projects and is acknowledged by many major players in the fields of energy, nuclear or petrochemicals. For more information about our tubular heat exchangers and heat exchanger parts, please do not hesitate to contact our experts.
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