About ethylene glycol
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This post was last edited by chenbinhuai2013 on 2015-6-3 17:42. When using ethylene glycol instead of water as the coolant, is it necessary to increase the heat exchange area when selecting a shell-and-tube condenser? By what percentage needs to it be increased?
First of all, it’s impossible for anyone to tell you exactly how much the heat exchange area has changed, as no parameters have been provided for comparison. However, considering solely the factor that the inlet temperature of the ethylene glycol cooling source is lower than that of the circulating water, with the parameters of the hot material remaining unchanged, the logarithmic temperature difference should theoretically increase; thus, the heat exchange area should theoretically decrease.
No change is needed; ethylene glycol is a commonly used coolant, which is the antifreeze added to vehicles. But generally, with whom is it used? In your case, there is no need to change the existing heat exchanger.
The thermal conductivity is different. Therefore, the heat exchange area needs to change. It is also necessary to consider what the concentration of ethylene glycol is.