U Tube Heat Exchangers

Introduction

U tube heat exchanger is a kind of tube and shell heat exchanger, belongs to the petroleum and chemical equipment. This kind of heat exchanger is named after the‘U’shape tube.  U tube heat exchanger is composed of some main components like the tube box, shell, and tube buddle. What’s more, it is easy to drying after the U tube heat exchanger hydro-test.

Process

U-tube heat exchangers [UTHX] have been commonly used in Industries over the year. The main objective in any design of heat exchanger is the estimation of the minimum heat transfer area required for a given heat duty (q), as it governs the overall cost of heat exchanger. U-tube heat exchanger [UTHX] in which u–shaped tube use and it is counter flow type heat exchanger. In this heat exchanger, tube side fluid is hot water as hot fluid and shell side fluid is cold water as cold fluid is used.

In this work I do comparative study on Thermal designing and analysis of U-tube Heat Exchanger [UTHX] with Plain tube and Corrugated tube by doing firstly thermal designing calculation by TEMA [Tubular Exchanger Manufacturer Association] Standard of U-tube Heat Exchanger. And then this type of U-tube heat exchanger with Plain tube compare with Corrugated-tube for different characteristics parameters like heat transfer rate, overall heat transfer coefficient, efficiency, effectiveness, pressure drop etc. in order to increase heat transfer rate, efficiency, heat transfer area and reduce pressure drop. Corrugated tubes have different characteristics parameters which are Height to Diameter ratio (e/DH), Relative pitch ratio (p/e), Relative helix angle (β).

U Tube Heat Exchangers Advantages

• wide variety of engineering designs
• wide variety of materials for optimal thermal conductivity
• cost-effective calculations for optimal capacity
• space saving designs

U Tube Heat Exchangers Design

The biggest difference about u tube heat exchanger compared with other types of heat exchanger is the tube buddle structure, the longer the tube diameter is , the longer the minimum bending radius is. And the u tube heat exchanger bending radius should not less than two times the outer diameter of the heat exchanger tube.
U tube heat exchanger usually designed according to the ASME Code, Section VIII, Division 1. This high load U tube heat exchanger can prevent the stress damage caused by container inflation during the process of heating or cooling. As one end of the tube bundle is float, the heat exchanger can be guaranteed safety even under the extreme heat cycle. It is a ideal design method when the heat medium is steam.
ANSON can manufacture U tube heat exchanger in accordance with the ASME standard, TEMA, and API for 1, 2, or 4 pass U tube heat exchanger, other special requirements are also available.

Example industries for u-tube heat exchangers are:

• Industrial waste heat recovery solutions
• Energy
• Oil and gas industry
• Chemical industry

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