I have a question about convective heat transfer coefficients. I am trying to figure out how much steam I can condense in this specific heat exchanger.
Steam at 9 MPa is condensed in a 1 shell pass, two tube pass type heat exchanger which contains a total of 280 U shaped tubes inside the shell.
The steam is condensed in the shell. I know the geometry of the tubes. The saturation temp at this pressure is 307 C.
The resistance in the system is the sum of steam convection, wall conduction and water convection.
I am not sure how to compute $h_o$, the convective heat transfer coefficient on the steam side since I am trying to calculate how much flow I can use, and $h_o$ depends on the steam flow rate (or velocity).
Best Answer
Convective heat transfer is an engineering topic and is subject to much uncertainty. Heat transfer coefficients are normally obtained from correlations based on experimental data and backed up with theoretical analysis. If you have no other source of information, I suggest you start by taking a look at Thermopedia : http://www.thermopedia.com/content/652/