Lube Oil Coolers

[praphulla.phirke]

Hi Sirs,
Can anyone of you explain me in details why generally oil is on shell side and water is on tube side ? Why oil should not be on tube side ?

Thanks
Praphulla

[mskhadke]

Oil cooler use the raw cooling water as a heat rejection media. Hence probability of HX fouling is more on cooling water side. It is very easy to clean HX on tube side, therefore cooling water used at tube side.
Good Luck

[A.Venugopal]

The reply by Mr MS Khadke is correct, the cleaner of the two fluids will be on the shell side in a shell and tube heat exchanger. Mr Khadke may advise what is HX , fouling material ?

Best regards

Venugopal

[praphulla.phirke]

Oil cooler use the raw cooling water as a heat rejection media. Hence probability of HX fouling is more on cooling water side. It is very easy to clean HX on tube side, therefore cooling water used at tube side.
Good Luck

Thanks a lot Mr Khadke...
Any other issue apart from this?? If I used good quality water ,then any heat transfer issues if water on shell side??

Thanks
Praphulla

[praphulla.phirke]

Oil cooler use the raw cooling water as a heat rejection media. Hence probability of HX fouling is more on cooling water side. It is very easy to clean HX on tube side, therefore cooling water used at tube side.
Good Luck

Thanks a lot Mr Khadke...
Any other issue apart from this?? If I used good quality water ,then any heat transfer issues if water on shell side??

Thanks
Praphulla

[raj_dhamelia]

Generally water used is salt cooling water which has more fouling tendency than refined lube oil and tube side is easier to clean than shell side.
Secondly lube oil are more viscous and thus if put on shell side will have higher heat transfer coefficient due to vortex shredding and higher turbulence on shell side thus resulting in smaller( and cheaper) heat exchanger.

[raj_dhamelia]

Generally water used is salt cooling water which has more fouling tendency than refined lube oil and tube side is easier to clean than shell side.
Secondly lube oil are more viscous and thus if put on shell side will have higher heat transfer coefficient due to vortex shredding and higher turbulence on shell side thus resulting in smaller( and cheaper) heat exchanger.

[mskhadke]

Praphulla,
If you have DM water as a cooling media then you can put it on shell side. In fact this arrangement will reduce the pressure drop across the heat exchanger on shell as well as on tube side . This mean that saving in pumping power as well as small HX. You find this kind of arrangement in typical large diesel generator power plants.

[mskhadke]

Praphulla,
If you have DM water as a cooling media then you can put it on shell side. In fact this arrangement will reduce the pressure drop across the heat exchanger on shell as well as on tube side . This mean that saving in pumping power as well as small HX. You find this kind of arrangement in typical large diesel generator power plants.

[A.Venugopal]

1. One consideration experts cite is that water is more corrosive than lube oils and is hence best chosen as tube side fluid . ( especially at higher temperatures due to inherent gases and air dissolved in water ) . Most often tubes can be replaced . Superior MOC for tubes like SS or admirality can be considered . Tube sheet and channels can be provided with some what liberal corrsion allowance , or they can be of cast iron or cast steel . But heat exchaner Shell material in refineries being generally carbon steel, possible shell corrosion due to use of water as shell side fluid is unwelcome .
2. Regarding Thermal considerations - experts advise is that the designer should better check the overall heat transfer coefficient in both the cases , with hot fluid on shell side and also on tube side and adopt the one that gives higher U,

3. Experts further advise is that the better choice for water is generally tube side due to its thermal conductivity.

I hope this bit of additional reading supplements the good advises of Mr Khadke and Mr Dhamelia

Best regards to all

Venugopal

[praphulla.phirke]

Thanks a lot Mr Raj, Mr. Khadke & Mr. Venugopal for your valuable reply.

Regards
Praphulla

[praphulla.phirke]

Thanks a lot Mr Raj, Mr. Khadke & Mr. Venugopal for your valuable reply.

Regards
Praphulla