TITLE:
Design and Off-Design Performance Evaluation of Heat Exchanger in an Offshore Process Configuration
AUTHORS:
Sidum Adumene, Thaddeus C. Nwaoha, Garrick P. Ombor, Joshua T. Abam
KEYWORDS:
Heat Exchanger, Effectiveness, Heat Duty, Fouling Factor, Performance, LMTD
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Access Library Journal,
Vol.3 No.6,
June
17,
2016
ABSTRACT: This research evaluates the thermal performance of an industrial heat
exchanger for process in the offshore industry. Steady state monitoring and
performance data were collected from 3-E-401 heat exchanger in an offshore
environment. Design and off-design evaluation was carried out using capacity
ratio, effectiveness, Log Mean Temperature Difference (LMTD), heat duty, and
overall heat transfer coefficient as performance indicators. Three scenarios
were presented and Hysys® V8.7 software was used to model the
process. The results showed that the best thermal performance of the heat
exchanger in terms of capacity ratio, effectiveness, heat duty, LMTD, and
overall heat transfer coefficient is 94%, 85.5%, 88%, 88.7% and 71%
respectively, of the design values. This best performance was reached at 9.9%
fouling and heat loss reduction in the heat exchange process. An increase in
fouling and heat loss gradually reduced the thermal performance of the heat
exchanger. Therefore a proactive maintenance action and condition monitoring in
every eight weeks is required to sustain and improve the performance as
evaluated.