Heater Cooler

Table of Contents

Introduction

The heater cooler is a simple means to heat up or cool down a single stream.

Specifications

Three modes are available:

  • Supplied Duty - The value in the duty stream attached to the heater cooler is directly applied to the fluid.
  • Product Temp Spec - The fluid passing through the unit is heated or cooled to exactly the given temperature.
  • Duty Fluid - Models a very simple heating or cooling fluid.

Heater coolers are handy in small or simple cases, but are not recommended for larger realistic models. Why? They are very simple and lack the natural feedback mechanisms. For example, if the duty is fixed but the flow rate is cut, the temperature may go to extreme values. In general you should use the Heat Exchanger model.

A number of zones can be specified, which amounts to a number of holdups in series. One zone is recommended.

Heater coolers also have volume which can provide some transient effects. The volume can also be set to zero, though very very small non-zero volumes are not recommended.

The overall pressure drop can be made a specification by checking the checkbox for Overall Delta P. However, as discussed in the basics, this is unrealistic, and as such it is better to always use a pressure flow relationship by checking the Overall k option and supplying a value. Pressing Calculate K will calculate a k value from the current pressure drop and flows. For a newly created heater cooler, a sizing pressure drop can be provided by turning on the Overall Delta P option temporarily to specify a pressure drop to be used in the calculation.

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