Air Cooled Heat Exchangers are used in the plants to utilize the atmospheric air to cool the hydrocarbon , process and utility fluids by means of direct heat transfer from fluid (within tube) to be cooled by air circulated by means of forced/induced draft fan.
In Order to increase the heat transfer area, fins are also attached periphery of tubes. These heat exchangers are generally designed, inspected and tested as per EN-ISO 13706.
The purpose of this article is to provide guide lines for Piping Layout connected to Air Cooled Heat Exchanger (Fig. 1) or Air Fin Fan Coolers. Click here to have a brief idea for Air Cooled Heat Exchangers.
Types of Air cooled Heat exchanger:
There are three types of Air cooled heat exchanger
- Forced Draft
- Induced draft
- Natural Draft (Used only for applications like transformer Oil Cooling)
Different type of Construction Air cooled Heat exchanger:
- Single Pass Cooler
- Multipass Cooler
- U Tube Cooler
Considerations for Equipment layout:
- As this equipment needs good flow of air for the purpose of better cooling, the location of the air fin fan cooler has to be such that it is not directly crowded or surrounded by other structure or equipments which blocks the path of plenty air flow.
- This static equipment is generally installed on the top of pipe rack or other structure so that there is no difficulty or obstruction which can reduce proper air flow. Again by installing the air cooled heat exchangers on top of the rack, huge space on the ground can be saved and the plant will become more compact.
- Based on the width of the pipe rack or structure, normally the tube bundle length is fixed. Thus supporting legs of air cooler bundle comes on the main civil or structural beams, which simplifies the pipe rack design. At the same time it is desirable to adjust the pipe rack or the structure longitudinal column spacing based on the width of the air cooler bundle such that bundle legs straight away sit on top of the columns. Sometimes, This may not be possible to adjust as each tube bundle might have varied width depending on service condition and adjusting pipe rack columns for different width may not be feasible from structural design and detailing point of view.
- Walkways between two sets of air coolers are desired, which means if one cooler consists of ten bundles and other of five bundles then walkways has to be provided in between, after 10th bundle and before of next five bundles. This dimension of this walkway has to be minimum 1.5 to 2.0 m wide as this will be the only place at such elevation to keep tools and parts during maintenance.
- The air Fin Fan coolers on the pipe rack shall be located in such a way that the bundles are accessible with crane at least from one side.
- Air Fin Fan coolers must have access platforms mounted on the air cooled heat exchanger structure at least on the operating side. An all around platform is a better provision for maintenance.
- Air Fin coolers have motors hanging at the bottom of the coolers. Hence, It is required to give access platforms underneath the cooler for maintenance of the motors. Localized platform can also be used.
- A regular staircase is need to be provided for accessing the air fin cooler platforms or motor maintenance platforms.
- Normally Inlet piping of air cooler requires a symmetrical distribution and loops. The piping needs to be supported so either air cooler structural columns or pipe rack structure columns need to be extended upwards to properly support the piping. Such data has to be given at very early stage in the project as this needs to be considered during pipe rack design.
- If Air cooler is grade mounted then the area beneath the air cooler shall be paved to avoid the flow of sand/ dust on tubes.
For two fans per bay, the height of the underside of the fan inlet bell (on forced draft units) or of the underside of the bundle (on induced draft units) shall be at least 2 m or one fan diameter (whichever is the greater) above the ground level, elevated floor or pipe bridge. For three or more fans per bay, the height of the underside of the bundle shall be agreed with the Principal.
Major Considerations for Piping Layout:
The air coolers are normally used when a large quantity of vapour is required for condensation or a huge quantity of gas or liquid needs to be cooled. Such application is common in case of column overhead vapour condensation. The major points which need to be taken care while pipe routing or laying air fin cooler connected piping (Refer Fig. 2, Fig. 3, Fig. 4 and Fig. 5) are as follows:
- From center line of complete air cooler assembly, the piping distribution to the air cooler should be symmetrical.
- If the supply line has very low pressure, care needs to be taken to keep no. of bends or elbows to a minimum. But functionality and stress requirements has to be considered. Line sizing during the distribution has to be proper, if required the same has to be checked with process or operations department.
- The length of all branch pipes for all tube bundles from its header has to be more or less similar to keep pressure drop same and this will ensure equal distribution of fluids to all bundles.
- Normally inlet side header box is considered as fixed for piping connection and the other header is floating. But the bundle can move in transverse direction of tubes = 6 mm or if it is fixed at one edge then it can move by 13 mm in the other direction (as per API 661). This displacement is required for piping header expansion compensation.However the same has to be checked with air cooler vendor as they may provide other displacement provisions.
- The movement of tube bundles in transverse direction could occur only when the piping connected to equipment nozzles generate enough force to overcome the friction at the bundle supports that is why it is a common practise to provide SS or PTFE plate at the support point (but this must be consulted with the vendor) to ease the movement.
- The loads due to thermal expansion, pipe, insulation & fluid weight and inside pressure of piping created on the bundle nozzle shall be less than the limits given by EN-ISO 13706. Sometimes vendor allows a more allowable load (normally 2 times of the code). So discuss the same with vendor at initial stage of project.
I am a Mechanical Engineer turned into a Piping Engineer. Currently, I work in a reputed MNC as a Senior Piping Stress Engineer. I am very much passionate about blogging and always tried to do unique things. This website is my first venture into the world of blogging with the aim of connecting with other piping engineers around the world.