Maximum Flowrate Through Heat Exchanger 1

[ghamsa]

We have a heat exchanger, typ AES, that is designed to cool about 1000,000 lb/hr of light hydrocarbon liquid in the shell side with pressure drop of 3 psi. The cooling media is sea water, which is placed in the tube side.

My question:
How can I estimate the maximum hydrocarbon flow rate that I can cool through the heat exchanger? what the relationship bewteen flow rate and pressure drop in a heat exchanger?

Many thanks

 

[Christine74]

For sensible heating and cooling, a good rule of thumb is that the pressure drop will increase with the square of the flow rate. This is only appoximate but works reasonably well for both the shell side and the tube side.

Thus, if you doubled your flow rate, your pressure drop would be about four times greater.

-Christine

 

[Christine74]

Actually I just checked my GPSA Data Book (good to have on hand) and they state that the pressure drop ratio dP2/dP1 is proportional to (G2/G1)^1.85 on the shell side and (G2/G1)^1.8 for the tube side.

-Christine