Hydraulic oil tank cooling capacity

[VARUN555]

Hello,

I have a hydraulic oil 46 tank with capacity 330 gallon. The hydraulic oil tank is connected to a brazed plate heat exchanger (cooling capacity: 1710000 BTU/hr,50 plates, 150 gal) and it is cooled by a water cooling tower. How to calculate the size of the cooling system required to maintain the temperature of the hydraulic tank and how to calculate the total heat generated by the tank in BTU/Hr. Currently the temperature of hydraulic tank is 143F (it should be below 120F) and the temperature of oil coming out of the heat exchanger is 130F. The temperature of the water coming from the cooling tower is 106F and the water returning back to the cooling tower is 102F. The flow rate for the cooling tower water is 95 GPM. I want to replace this cooling tower by a chiller or more cooling capacity cooling tower so I wanted to know the total heat generated by the hydraulic tank to order the correct size chiller or cooling tower.

 

[pierreick]

Hi,
Something is weird with your temperature profile , the outlet temperature of the water cannot be less than the water temperature inlet !
make sure your temperature gauges are well calibrated to be able to perform an heat energy balance :
basic equations : Q= m*cp*Delta T and Q=U*A* (Delta T) ml .

https://www.graham-mfg.com/usr/pdf/TechLibHeatTransfer/16.PDF

Good luck
Pierre

 

[IRstuff]

You do not state what the oil flow rate is, nor do you state the specification for the heat exchanger. Oil has crap thermal conductivity, so it needs considerable amount of dwell time in a heat exchanger to actually get adequately cooled.

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[LittleInch]

Your data is a bit confusing, but assuming your current cooler is 171,000 BTu/hr at 150 GPM of cooling water (??) then it seems the current heat removal by the water is 106 to 102 F is around 25kW / 85,000 BTU/hr, so about half the rated power. Now why is a question only you can decide - Is the HX fouled? Was it based on lower incoming water temp? Is the 150 GPM the water flow or the oil flow?

So at the moment you are going from a tank temp of 143F to 130 and you want to get to 120 for the whole tank so maybe need three times your current cooling capacity. So 75kW of cooling from your chillers - 7 tons of refrigeration.



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