A Technical Review on Design of Coil Finned-Tube Type Heat Exchanger for Helium Liquefaction Plant

Heat exchanger is the most crucial component in cryogenic processes, for improving efficiency and decreasing cost of the whole plant. The selected dissertation problem is focuses on design of coil finned-tube type cryogenic heat exchanger used for helium liquefaction system. So, first heat exchanger in Collins cycle has been selected for the dissertation work. The main reason for using this configuration is the inherent requirements of cryogenic heat exchangers; one is high heat transfer effectiveness and second is low pressure drops in both of the streams. The effectiveness and pressure drop of heat exchanger drives the performance of the whole liquefaction system. Coil finned tube type of heat exchangers provides high crossflow heat transfer coefficient on shell side which is a governing parameter to decide overall heat transfer coefficient. Moreover it provides very low shell side pressure drops and high overall effectiveness of counter flow. The geometrical parameters can be manipulated to adjust the thermal performance as well as pressure drop performance of heat exchanger. The clearance between the walls of shell and fin is very important parameter to adjust the performance.