Transient Simulation and Experimental Verification of Gas-Steam and Liquid-Steam, Shell, and Tube Type Heat Exchangers

The condensing steam heaters dynamically modeled in this work are shell and tube type heat exchangers with the condensing steam on the shell side. Two variations of the model are developed, one for heating a gas stream where the thermal mass of the gas is very small, and one for heating a liquid stream where the thermal mass of the heated fluid is appreciable. Predictions from the gas heater model compare excellently with data collected from transient experiments on two industrial heat exchangers at the General Electric Coal Gasification Process Evaluation Facility. These two heat exchangers differ widely in their design and operating conditions. Consequently, the good agreement that was found between the model predictions and experimental data show the wide applicability of the model.