Suitability of some commonly available software for unconventional condenser analysis

• The goal is to assess suitability of common SW tools for unconventional geometries.
• Review of available methods for calculation of filmwise condensation is provided.
• SW tools are compared via thermal-hydraulic analysis of an industrial condenser.
• Results obtained during simulations are compared to experimental data.
• There is a lack of flexible tools capable of evaluating non-standard geometries.

Computer aided design of heat transfer equipment, i.e., thermal-hydraulic design of process and power apparatuses for heat exchange, is an essential part of industrial practice. There are several world-renowned software tools of which the most-used ones are those developed by Heat Transfer Research, Inc. (HTRI® Xchanger Suite®), Aspen Technology, Inc. (Aspen Exchanger Design & Rating), and Chemstations, Inc. (CHEMCAD™). Advantages of these sophisticated software systems are unquestionable particularly in the field of conventional heat exchanger solutions. This paper, however, aims to compare and discuss features of the above-mentioned packages in case of unconventional equipment via a specific industrial problem in which components having common geometries could not be used.For this purpose, thermal-hydraulic analyses of an unconventional steam condenser is performed using educational versions of the three packages with operating parameters at the inlet of the apparatus, thermo-physical properties of streams, and geometry of the apparatus being taken from the operator of the condenser. Based on comparison of the obtained results and condenser operating data it can be seen that although some of the available software tools offer relatively large sets of functionalities, there still is opportunity for development of flexible tools – especially those capable of evaluating non-standard geometries.