Tempco Blog articles

Heat exchangers

05/03/2012

Plate heat exchangers

The heat exchanger is a device which is needed to transfer thermal energy (heat) between two liquids with different temperatures

There are many types of heat exchangers which vary depending on the different type of liquid used to transmit and exchange heat.
Heat exchangers are “passive” devices that do not generate heat. They simply transfer it.
There are mixing and surface heat exchangers: quite a few of the latter type are on the market and are classified depending on the building type.

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The expansion vessel

02/03/2012

When we talked about storage tanks in thermal plants we meant of course open tanks.

Storage tanks also function as “expansion vessels”. The expansion tank has a dual function: thermal and hydraulic.

From a thermal point of view its function is to allow water, which is an incompressible fluid, to expand or contract. In order for this to be possible it is necessary for the fluid to be in contact with a gas that can compensate for the expansions and contractions of the fluid.

There are three possible configurations:

  • open atmosphere vessel;
  • closed vessel, containing water and air (or other inert gas) without any for of separation (self-pressurization or pressurization with air or gas that is inserted from the outside);
  • closed vessel with a separating membrane between the water and an inert gas (nitrogen)

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How does a cooling tower work and how much water does it use?

01/03/2012

induced cooling tower

The evaporative cooler is a very simple device, which serves to cool water by direct exchange with air.

There are different types of evaporative towers:

  • induced, with suction fans
  • forced, using forced ventilation
  • counter flow, with countercurrent water and air flow
  • cross flow, that uses a crossing flow of water and air

in any case all of these machines work using the same concept.

The counter-flow type is the most widely used, whether it be forced or induced, because it presents greater functioning efficiency.

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Heat exchanger calculation

29/02/2012

recovery_2.jpg

The calculation of a heat exchanger, is all in all a fairly simple exercise. It involves applying a mathematical formula using a set of pre-established data and coefficients.

Obviously this is assuming we limit ourselves to the calculation of the exchange surface which is required for a certain type of thermal work.

A series of factors come into place to establish the actual size of a heat exchanger

  • construction type
  • limited project conditions
  • internal heat flow
  • turbulence
  • etc…

These factors determine the actual size of the exchanger and as a result they become the essence of the project.

It is not my intention here to dwell upon complex issues but I do wish to summarize some fundamental concepts regarding heat and its transmission to the basic dimensions of a heat exchanger.

The following are some excerpts from the document that can be easily downloaded.

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TEMPCO researches and develops systems and solutions for cooling, heating, control temperature and heat exchange in different industrial processes.

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