Performance Evaluation and Optimization of a Two Horse Power Concentric Tube Heat Exchanger

The aim of this research work was to improve the performance of a two horse power (2hp) shell and tube heat exchanger. The available area obtained from calculation is 3.77×10-³m2 and 383.75W/M²K. Overall heart transfer coefficient was obtained. The heat exchanger was satisfactory and consists of one pass copper tube of internal diameter 10mm and length 120mm. The shell length and internal diameter of the shell are 95mm and 60mm respectively. The concentric tube heat exchanger has a total length of 245mm and 136mm width. The hot fluid passes through the copper tube while the cold fluid move on the annulus made of mild steel. The results of the experiment shows that the heat was transferred from the hot fluid gradually move counter currently to the cold fluid in the same direction of flow. Mild steel was used for the construction of the shell while copper was used for the tube. The efficiency is 51.89% was obtained. This confirmed that the optimized equipment is more efficient than initial machine performance efficiency of 40.76%. Significantly, this equipment is of great need when vaporized liquid must be recovered back as liquid at specified conditions and also control the flow of thermal energy between two terminals.