Heat Transfer

Effectiveness NTU method

Analysis of Heat Exchangers

Log mean temperature difference (LMTD)
Effectiveness NTU method

Effectiveness-NTU Method
LMTD is useful in heat exchanger analysis when inlet and outlet

temperatures of the hot and cold fluids are known.

Once LMTD, the mass flow rate, and the overall heat transfer coefficient are available, the heat transfer surface of the exchanger can be determined from:

Thus, LMTD is very suitable for determining the size of a heat exchanger. Effectiveness NTU method is very useful when the outlet temperatures are not given.

Effectiveness-NTU Method
NTU: Number of Transfer Unit.

This kind of analysis is useful to compare the performances of various

types of heat exchangers for similar heat exchange. This is based on a dimensionless group called the heat transfer effectiveness.

Heat transfer effectiveness

Actual Heat Transfer rate

Effectiveness-NTU Method

To determine the maximum possible heat transfer rate in a heat exchanger, it is first to recognize the maximum temperature difference.

The fluid with the smaller heat capacity rate will experience a larger

temperature range.
Cmin fluid needs less energy for highest temperature change.

Effectiveness-NTU Method

The above is for parallel flow heat exchangers Effectiveness relations of the heat exchangers typically involve the dimensionless group UAs/Cmin. This quantity is called the Number of Transfer Units (NTU)

Effectiveness-NTU Method
NTU is an indication of the size of the heat exchanger.

As NTU is proportional to the As, for the specified values of U and Cmin.
In heat exchanger analysis, it is also convenient to define another dimensionless quantity called the capacity ratio, c as
Capacity ratio

Thus, collectively effectiveness of a heat exchanger is a function of the number of transfer units NTU and the capacity ratio

Effectiveness-NTU Method

Effectiveness-NTU Method

Effectiveness-NTU Method, Important Points

The values of the effectiveness ranges from 0 to 1. It increases rapidly

with NTU for small values (up to about NTU = 1.5) but rather slowly for
larger values. Therefore, the use of a heat exchanger with a large NTU (usually larger than 3) and thus a larger size cannot be justified

economically. A heat exchanger with a very high effectiveness may be

highly desirable from a heat transfer point of view but rather undesirable from an economical point of view. For a given NTU and capacity ratio, the counter flow heat exchangers has the highest effectiveness, followed by cross flow exchanger. The parallel flow exchangers have least effectiveness.

Ref: Heat transfer: A practical Approach by cengel, 2nd edition

Ref: Chemical Engineering vol 1 by Richardson and Coulson

Lecture from
Ref: Heat transfer: A practical Approach by cengel, 2nd

edition