ddot
Mechanical
- May 30, 2006
- 16
Hi all, I'm looking at material selection for an ammonia and salt water heat exchanger application. The working temperatures are relatively ambient with a low approach (temperature difference is less than 10 degrees C), and the pressures don't go above 13 bar (188 psi). I was thinking, therefore, that plastics might be an alternative except for their low thermal conductivity (anyone know of some newer plastics manufacturers that are ramping up production of improved heat exchangers?). I was also looking at aluminum, but I don’t know how it performs relative to steels. Steels are probably not as ideal as titanium because of their general higher susceptibility to corrosion effects, however, I'm not familiar with all steels relative to titanium and a cost per performance analysis might be in order. Copper alloys or aluminum-copper alloys seem to be out because of coppers reactivity with ammonia. However, I don’t want to rule out any ideas, these are just my initial thoughts. Again, cost relative to titanium is the biggest issue at this point since titanium is otherwise somewhat ideal. Any help would be greatly appreciated!