Heat Exchanger Design Project 2026: Shell-and-Tube Exchanger HE2 to Cool a Light Oil Stream with Water

This heat transfer design project puts students in the role of an engineer at a process company who must size a new shell-and-tube heat exchanger, HE2, to cool a light-oil process stream with water. Students either design HE2 on its own or run it together with an existing 1-shell-pass 2-tube-pass unit, HE1, and then iterate on the overall heat transfer coefficient until the design checks out.

Heat Exchanger Design Project

This is an individual assignment. You are an engineer working for Company XYZ. You are tasked to design a shell-and-tube heat exchanger HE2 to cool a given process stream. HE2 can either be a 1-shell-pass 2-tube-pass or a 1-shell-pass 4-tube-pass heat exchanger. The company has an existing 1-shell-pass 2-tube-pass heat exchanger, HE1, which you can use.

• Option 1: if you do not choose to use the existing heat exchanger HE1, design a new one that will meet the heat transfer requirements.
• Option 2: if you choose to use HE1, design a new exchanger that will work together with HE1. The two heat exchangers must be connected as shown in the brief’s flow diagram (process stream conditions are given in that figure).

In Your Summary, State (for the New Heat Exchanger HE2)

1. (If you chose Option 2) the values of m1, m2, m3, T1, T2 and T3.
2. 1 shell pass 2 tube passes, or 1 shell pass 4 tube passes.
3. Tube size (ID, OD, length per pass) and the number of tubes needed per pass.
4. Shell diameter and baffle spacing.
5. Overall heat transfer coefficient U.
6. Heat transfer area based on the outside diameter.

When the Design Fails

The design will be considered a failure under any of the following conditions: impractical temperature profiles, impractical velocities, incorrect calculations, incorrect placement of streams, or an impractical size of heat exchanger.

Design Procedure for HE2

1. Choose Option 1 or Option 2.
2. If you do not use HE1 (Option 1), skip to step 4.
3. If you use HE1 (Option 2), calculate m1, m2, m3, T1, T2 and T3. m2 does not need to equal m3, and T2 does not need to equal T3. Neither T2 nor T3 needs to be 160 °C, but when the two outlet water streams are combined, the resulting temperature must be 160 °C.
4. Estimate the overall heat transfer coefficient U of the new exchanger using the table of typical U values.
5. Choose a tube size (ID, OD, length) from the standard steel tube table; lengths are per pass (1.83, 2.44, 3.66, 4.88, 6.10 or 7.32 m).
6. Calculate the number of tubes (Y) needed.
7. Use a triangular tube arrangement with a recommended pitch (Pt) of 1.25 × OD.
8. Decide between a 1-shell-pass 2-tube-pass and a 1-shell-pass 4-tube-pass exchanger.
9. Calculate the bundle diameter: D_b (mm) = OD (nN/K₁)^1/n₁, where n is the number of passes, N is the number of tubes per pass (N = Y/n), and K₁ and n₁ come from the constants table.
10. Calculate the shell diameter (split-ring floating head): D_s (mm) = D_b + 0.02857 D_b + 44.2857.
11. Calculate the tube-side convection coefficient h_i.
12. Choose the baffle spacing B = kD_s with 0.2 ≤ k ≤ 1.
13. Calculate the shell-side cross-flow area: A_cfs = (P_t − OD) D_s B / P_t.
14. Calculate the shell-side fluid velocity using A_cfs.
15. Calculate the shell-side convection coefficient h_o using the correlation given in the lecture notes.
16. Estimate tube-side and shell-side fouling coefficients from the fouling factor table (use the highest value in the range for each stream) and take k = 50 W/m·K for the tube wall.
17. Calculate the overall heat transfer coefficient U.
18. Calculate the percentage error ε = (U_calculated − U_assumed) / U_assumed × 100%. If 0% ≤ ε ≤ +20%, stop: the design is good. If ε < 0% or ε > +20%, choose a new U and repeat all steps.
19. Summarise your results.

Reference tables supplied with the brief: typical overall heat transfer coefficients, standard dimensions for steel tubes, the triangular tube pattern, K₁ and n₁ values, and typical fouling factors.

Get Expert Help with Your Shell-and-Tube Heat Exchanger Design

This project is an iteration exercise, so set it up to converge. Fix the duty first from the oil-side energy balance, then the water flow and outlet temperatures, and check the LMTD correction factor F before you size the area. Keep tube-side water velocity roughly in the 1 to 2.5 m/s range and the shell-side velocity realistic, because impractical velocities fail the design. When ε falls outside 0 to +20%, change the assumed U, tube length or number of passes rather than only the baffle spacing.

Our engineering assignment help in Singapore can guide your energy balance and design iterations, and our coursework writing help can check that your summary reports every value the brief asks for. For another engineering brief, see the EG7060 engineering management coursework.

For study reference, see the shell-and-tube heat exchanger design sample and our guide on how to approach the heat exchanger design project.