Counter Flow Heat Exchanger Diagram

A heat exchanger can have several different flow patterns.

Counter flow heat exchanger diagram.

A double pipe heat exchanger consists of one pipe inside another. In counter flow heat exchangers the fluids enter the exchanger from opposite ends. A counterflow heat exchanger will require less heat exchange surface area than a parallel flow heat exchanger for the same heat transfer rate and the same inlet and outlet temperatures for the fluids. Countercurrent exchange is a mechanism occurring in nature and mimicked in industry and engineering in which there is a crossover of some property usually heat or some chemical between two flowing bodies flowing in opposite directions to each other.

In parallel flow heat exchangers the two fluids enter the exchanger at the same end and travel in parallel to one another to the other side. For example in a distillation column the vapors. The main difference is that the tubeside fluid enters the exchanger at the opposite end of the shellside fluid. In a parallel flow exchanger both fluids in the heat exchanger flow in the same direction.

Shell and coil heat exchanger diagram spiral plate heat exchanger. It is a form of a plate heat exchanger usually made of stainless steel. It can be operated as a parallel flow or as a counterflow heat exchanger. Generally in this type of heat exchanger the counter flow arrangement is used.

The flowing bodies can be liquids gases or even solid powders or any combination of those. The counter current design is the most efficient in that it can transfer. We combine these two types together with an index n to indicate the flow direction of fluid 2. A counter flow or countercurrent shell and tube heat exchanger s construction is in many ways identical to that of a parallel flow shell and tube heat exchanger.

There are three primary classifications of heat exchangers according to their flow arrangement. Crossflow parallel flow and counterflow heat exchanger configurations are three examples. It is often used in cellulose industries where the heat exchanger is subjected to severe fouling and corrosion. Consider a parallel flow or counterflow heat exchanger consisting of fluid 1 fluid 2 and the wall separating these two fluids.

Counter flow shell and tube heat exchangers. The most common arrangements for flow paths within a heat exchanger are counter flow and parallel flow.