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Surface condenser design calculation 3

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mortezanazari

Mechanical
Jun 22, 2019
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Dear friends,

I want to learn to design surface condenser base on HEI standard, I would be very grateful if someone can tell me how I should start learning it?
Is there any software for designing surface condenser based on HEI standard (Like HTRI or Aspen EDR that are based on TEMA Standard)? ( I googled it but I could not find anything)
Does the HEI standard is enough for design calculation or I need another reference (book or handbook) ?( if another reference is necessary please let me know)
It would be very helpful if you could send me an example of designing surface condenser because I really don't know what I should do or what book or Handbook I should read.

Best regard,

Morteza
 
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All that you need is the current HEI standard.
While it has all of the information it does not explain the background very well.
I simply use excel to do the math, though it is simple enough that many people just do it by hand.
When you work through the HEI you will see that for the heat transfer part it is all correction factors.
The baseline design is a specific size and gauge of brass tubing (water temp, velocity and steam conditions are also fixed).
So every time that you change a material or condition you use correction factors.
I don't know how good it is about the mechanical design, I have not worked on that side.
Good luck.

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P.E. Metallurgy, Plymouth Tube
 
Realize that the design of your steam surface condenser must fit into the thermal design of your plant.

The thermal design of the typical steam plant is done by analysis developed specifically for power plant design. This software incorporates many of the thermal conditions of specific steam turbines as well as various types ultimate cooling systems ( i.e. lake, river, cooling towers etc). Based on this overall model and based on your selection of tube materials, various condenser performance requirements can be determined.



Physically, the condenser must be mated to the specific steam turbine and have acceptable provisions for venting of non-condensibles, steam dump abilities, vacuum generation and meet the physical support requirements of the plant layout.

Steam surface condensers are COMPLETELY different than process chemical condensers

MJCronin
Sr. Process Engineer
 
The mechanical issues are at least as important as the heat transfer issues. There were many condenser tube failures durign initial commissioning of the condenser steam dump system on US surface conddensers in the 2000-2015 time period due to incorrect mechanical design.

In the US elect power industry, full capapcity steam dumps were uncommon until the advent of the gas fired combined cycle plants. The US designers did not consider the fact that the steam to be condensed during 100% MCR steam discharge leads to 140% MCR steam flow after attemporation and that the steam flow was focused on a particular zone of the tubing- the tube vibration supports spacing was based on uniform steam flow over all tubes at only 100% MCR steam flow, and the result was destruction of the first 3 rows of tubes in the vicinity of the steam dump system within the first 2 hrs of operation.

"...when logic, and proportion, have fallen, sloppy dead..." Grace Slick
 
mort,

Can you tell us more about the type of Power Plant that your Steam Surface Condenser will be installed into ?

Davefitz gives good advice..... Bear in mind that a SSC is an important unique type of heat exchanger that will strongly control the efficiency

MJCronin
Sr. Process Engineer
 
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