Fixed tube sheet heat exchanger
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Recently, the process engineering department proposed a requirement for heat exchangers: to change vertical fixed-plate heat exchangers to those placed at an angle of 30° to the horizontal. Is this arrangement feasible, and could it cause any problems?
This post was last edited by chenbinhuai2013 on 2015-6-16 09:24. What is the basis for this decision: spatial location or process requirements? It should not have a significant impact on the equipment strength calculations; it is more conservative to proceed with the calculations as if it were a vertical heat exchanger. But how is the support of this device maintained? @gjyzb @wiseboy @TaihuFishMan @lj_1993 @great.wang
I’ve seen heat exchangers that are slightly tilted, by about 1° I think. I’ve really never seen such a large tilt angle. With such a large angle of tilt, the saddle probably won’t work, right?
The horizontal inclined design is generally used for gas condensers, as it facilitates liquid drainage. The maximum inclination angle of the surface I have designed is 15 degrees. As for the support factors mentioned above, they are not a problem; simply raise one end.
Recompute the strength and verify the bearing thickness as well as the shell thickness near the shims
The strength should be fine; for vertical units, there’s no need to consider exhaust vents. But if you want to design it this way, then you’ll need to take into account the exhaust ports on the shell side.
It’s okay if the heat exchange tubes are short. For longer heat exchangers, with such a large angle, how much will the height difference between the two saddles be? In that case, it might need to be supported on two structures with a height difference, right?
For vertical shell sides, exhaust and drainage must be considered, and this also applies even when the shell side is inclined.
The process team ultimately decided to change it to a 30° inclined position without the need for an exhaust or vent opening, which isn’t very reasonable. Although this was pointed out, the process team insisted on keeping the original design, so there’s nothing that can be done
Since the manufacturing process insists on this, you need to keep the relevant response documents as a basis for the design.