A plate-fin heat exchanger is used to condense a | StudySoup

Textbook Solutions for Fundamentals of Heat and Mass Transfer

Chapter 11 Problem 11.48

Question

A plate-fin heat exchanger is used to condense a satu-rated refrigerant vapor in an air-conditioning system.The vapor has a saturation temperature of 45?C, and acondensation rate of 0.015 kg/s is dictated by systemperformance requirements. The frontal area of thecondenser is fixed at Afr?0.25 m2by installationrequirements, and a value of hfg?135 kJ/kg may beassumed for the refrigerant.(a) The condenser design is to be based on a nominalair inlet temperature of Tc,i?30?C and nominal airinlet velocity of V?2 m/s for which the manufac-turer of the heat exchanger core indicates an over-all coefficient of U?50 W/m2?K. What is thecorresponding value of the heat transfer surfacearea required to achieve the prescribed condensa-tion rate? What is the air outlet temperature?(b) From the manufacturer of the heat exchangercore, it is also known that U?V0.7. During daily operation the air inlet temperature is notcontrollable and may vary from 27 to 38?C. If the heat exchanger area is fixed by the result ofpart (a), what is the range of air velocities neededto maintain the prescribed condensation rate? Plot the velocity as a function of the air inlet temperature.

Solution

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The first step in solving 11 problem number 48 trying to solve the problem we have to refer to the textbook question: A plate-fin heat exchanger is used to condense a satu-rated refrigerant vapor in an air-conditioning system.The vapor has a saturation temperature of 45?C, and acondensation rate of 0.015 kg/s is dictated by systemperformance requirements. The frontal area of thecondenser is fixed at Afr?0.25 m2by installationrequirements, and a value of hfg?135 kJ/kg may beassumed for the refrigerant.(a) The condenser design is to be based on a nominalair inlet temperature of Tc,i?30?C and nominal airinlet velocity of V?2 m/s for which the manufac-turer of the heat exchanger core indicates an over-all coefficient of U?50 W/m2?K. What is thecorresponding value of the heat transfer surfacearea required to achieve the prescribed condensa-tion rate? What is the air outlet temperature?(b) From the manufacturer of the heat exchangercore, it is also known that U?V0.7. During daily operation the air inlet temperature is notcontrollable and may vary from 27 to 38?C. If the heat exchanger area is fixed by the result ofpart (a), what is the range of air velocities neededto maintain the prescribed condensation rate? Plot the velocity as a function of the air inlet temperature.
From the textbook chapter Heat Exchangers you will find a few key concepts needed to solve this.

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full solution

Title Fundamentals of Heat and Mass Transfer 7 
Author Theodore L. Bergman; Adrienne S. Lavine; Frank P. Incropera; David P. DeWitt
ISBN 9780470501979

A plate-fin heat exchanger is used to condense a

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