Step through the parts of the digital lab using the buttons in the top left. At each part, take the required measurements and complete the interactives to learn about heat exchangers.

The heat exchanger shown in the simulation is an example of a counter-current concentric tube heat exchanger. Inside, the process fluid (orange) runs anti-parallel to the service fluid (blue). At steady-state, the rate of heat transfer is proportional to the temperature difference of the two fluids at a location in the unit. Thus, the heat flux (\(\dot{q}\)) between the fluids can be expressed as $$\dot{q}=\epsilon U \Delta T$$ Where \(\epsilon\) is the effectiveness of the heat transfer, U is the inverse of (resistance times area) of the heat exchanger, and \(\Delta T\) is the temperature difference between the two fluids at the point.

Thus, the overall rate of heat transfer (\(\dot{Q}\)) can be expressed as $$ \dot{Q} = \epsilon UA \Delta T_\text{log mean} $$

This virtual lab was created in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, at University of Colorado Boulder for LearnChemE.com by Drew Smith under the direction of Professor John L. Falconer and Michelle Medlin. This virtual lab was prepared with financial support from the National Science Foundation and is based off of the Heat Exchanger experimental kit from Washington State University. Address any questions or comments to learncheme@gmail.com. All of our simulations are open source, and are available on our LearnChemE Github repository.

If this simulation is too big for your screen, zoom out using  +  on Mac or  +  on Windows. To zoom in, use  +  on Mac or  +  on Windows.