Monday 23 March 2015

About Air Cooled Heat Exchangers (Fin Fan Coolers, Air Fin Coolers)

Air cooled heat exchangers, also called Fin Fan Cooler, Air Fin Coolers, are used to reject heat from a fluid, directly to ambient air. Generally they consist of finned tube bundles and one or more fans.  As the working fluid passes through the finned tubes, the fan blows ambient air across the tubes to cool the working fluid.  The simplest (and smallest) example of an air cooled heat exchanger would be an automobile radiator, however on industrial plants these heat exchangers can be up to 90ft wide by 180 feet long.  Some key components of an Air Cooled Heat Exchanger are explained as follows:

Tube Bundle:  These are normally finned to increase the heat exchange area and efficiency.
Air moving device: Generally a fan or blower (forced or induced draft).  In some cases natural draft is possible.  If an air moving device is used it will require some type of driver.



Support structure: Suitably sized to allow sufficient air flow to/from the entry/exit from the cooler.
Air Cooled Heat Exchangers are commonly used in the oil and gas, petrochemical and power industries. For Oil and Gas and Petrochemical Applications, air cooled heat exchangers are designed and built to API 661 (which provides recommendations for the design, materials, fabrication, inspection, testing, and preparation for shipment of air-cooled heat exchangers for use in the petroleum, petrochemical, and natural gas industries).  EngineeringCircle has assessed major air cooled heat exchanger manufacturers from across the globe and brings our users the worlds best suppliers.

When designing and purchasing air cooled heat exchangers, purchasers will need to consider the following factors, which are usually expressed in the form of a technical data sheet (available upon request from EngineeringCircle.com):

Design code (API 661, ASME BPVC Sec VIII)
Forced Draft or Induced draft fan
Type of finned tubes:
Grooved Type,
L Type,
Extruded Type,
Embedded type,
Knurled Type,
Wrap on Type,
Header Type:
Plug Header
Cover Plate Header
Pipe Header
Welded Bonnet Header
Manifold Header
Design conditions, including the working fluid and ambient air design conditions

2 comments:

  1. This is most informative and also this post most user friendly and super navigation to all posts. Thank you so much for giving this information to me.
    Fin Fan Cooler

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