GUIDELINES FOR ALLOCATION OF STREAMS IN

SHELL AND TUBE EXCHANGER

The primary goal of a process designer is to design an exchanger with the required thermal
duty with the LOWEST COST yet provide EXCELLENT IN-SERVICE RELIABILITY. Stream
allocation is an important decision in this process. Usually, common sense is a reliable guide
when deciding which fluid belongs on the shell side and which on the tube side. Following
considerations have a strong influence in deciding the stream allocation.

1. FOULING TENDENCIES (CLEAN/ DIRTY)

Fouling on tubes greatly reduces the thermal performance of the heat exchanger. Also, fouling
causes an increase in the pressure drop.

In exchangers handling DIRTY FLUIDS, or streams that are otherwise likely to cause fouling, the
exchanger design is dominated by features which seek:

1. to minimize fouling (e.g. high velocity, avoidance of dead or eddy flow regions)
2. to facilitate cleaning (fouling fluid on tube-side, wide pitch and rotated square layout if
shell-side fluid is fouling)
3. to extend operational life by multiple units.

Exchangers subject to fouling or scaling must be cleaned periodically. It is easier to clean the
tubeside than the shellside. Sometimes you can just open the ‘head’ of the exchanger and
hydro-blast each tube, instead of having to remove the entire tube bundle out of the shell.
Also, the inside of tubes is an easier surface to deal with then the complex surface of the tube
bundle outside and shell inside. The shell is harder to clean mechanically and chemical
cleaning is usually the only option.

Therefore, it is preferred that any fouling/ viscous/ solid-carrying/ dirty streams go into the
tubeside. As the allowable velocity in the tubes is usually higher than at the shellside and a
high fluid velocity causes attrition of the deposits, it is possible to reduce fouling by design.

In a fixed tubesheet exchanger, the cleaner fluid should be on the shell side and the dirty fluid
which is likely to cause fouling should go on the tube side.

2. CORROSION
Corrosive fluids can cause severe damage to the heat exchanger. Corrosive services demand
for use of expensive, exotic metals that can withstand corrosion better than plain old carbon
steel. Generally, the corrosive fluid will be placed in the tubes so that at least the shell need
not be made of corrosion resistant material. Only the tubes, tube sheets, heads, and channels
require the corrosion-resistant alloys. If you put a corrosive fluid on the shell side, you would
need to use the corrosion resistant material on both the shellside and tubeside.

If the corrosion cannot be effectively prevented but only slowed by choice of material, a
design must be chosen in which corrodable components can be easily replaced.

Cooling water is generally kept on the tubeside because it tends to corrode carbon steel and
form scale.

3. CONTAINMENT OF EXPENSIVE/ LETHAL/ TOXIC/ HAZARDOUS FLUIDS

‘Critical’ fluids (i.e. Expensive/ Lethal/ Toxic/ Hazardous) should be positively contained to
prevent leaks. This means that heat exchanger designs that feature girth flanges or floating
heads, the shellside is not a suitable location for such critical fluids because the risk of leaks is
too high. Such fluids should therefore normally go on the tubeside. Exchangers featuring all-
welded construction can safely carry hazardous fluids on the shellside, though you should
remember the difficulty of cleaning the shellside.

4. PHYSICAL STATE OF FLUID (LIQUID, GAS, MIXTURE)

The shellside tends to be preferred for services with phase changes.

The shellside offers a larger cross-section for vapor flow, and hence lower pressure drops.
Process vapors to be condensed are therefore normally placed on the shellside, though the
tubeside is generally used for condensing steam.

5. OPERATING PRESSURE & TEMPERATURE

Extreme pressures and temperatures (high or low) can increase the metal thickness or cost of
the materials of construction required.

If one of the streams is at a high pressure-temperature, it is desirable to put that stream inside
the tubes because they are likely to require a greater metal thickness or more expensive
materials of construction. The tubes, being smaller in diameter than the shell, withstand higher
pressures. In this case, only the tubes and the tube-side fittings need be designed to
withstand the high pressure, whereas the shell may be made of lighter weight metal.

6. ALLOWABLE PRESSURE DROPS

Streams with low allowable pressure drop should usually be placed on the tube side because
tubes facilitate a streamlined flow, lower turbulence.
7. HIGH VISCOSITY OR LOW FLOWRATES
To obtain an economic design, high heat transfer coefficients are required. As heat transfer
coefficients are much higher for turbulent flow this is the most important aspect to look into.
For a highly viscous medium or a low flowrate turbulent flow can be obtained easier at the
shell side. If the Reynolds number at the shell side is below 200, however, it will probably be
cheaper to allocate this fluid to the tube side and use a high number of tube passes to
increase the velocity and turbulence.

The baffles on the shellside help to ensure good mixing, which reduces the effects of laminar
flow and therefore tends to increase heat-transfer coefficients. Hence you will get better heat
transfer if viscous fluids are kept on the shellside.

8. FLUID VELOCITY
Fluids that need to be kept at a consistently high velocity, such as water or propylene glycol
for cooling, should be kept on the tubeside.

High speeds increase the heat transfer coefficient but are associated with potential pressure
drop. Another advantage of high speeds is reduced tube fouling, which increases the thermal
transfer as well.

9. LOW HEAT TRANSFER COEFFICIENT

If one stream has an inherently low heat transfer coefficient such as low pressure gases or
viscous liquids, this stream is preferentially put on the shell-side so that extended surface may
be used to reduce the total cost of the heat exchanger. Finned tubes can be used to increase
the effective surface area the shell-side fluid sees, letting you increase the heat transfer
effectiveness on this side.

Cross flow gives higher heat transfer coefficients than in plane tubes, hence put fluid with
lowest heat transfer coefficient on the shell side.

Viscous fluids require a judgment call. Placing the more viscous fluid on the shell side will
improve heat transfer but using the tube side will lead to lower pressure drop.

There are more variables you can “play” with in the shellside, allowing you more options to
deal with high pressure drops or low heat transfer coefficients and to target certain values
more precisely. For example, tube baffle support spacing can be changed in small increments.
This flexibility tends to favor putting the fluid with poor heat transfer properties on the
shellside.

With the tubeside usually all you can do is alter the number of tube passes to an even
number (2, 4, 6, etc.). Going from 2 to 4 passes will roughly double the velocity and increase
the pressure drop by a factor of eight. (ΔP is proportional to Length and to Velocity squared,
and doubling the tube passes doubles both L and V values)

Film resistance / laminar flow is more easily overcome on the shellside. The shellside tends to
experience vortex shedding, and rapid changes in direction due to tube support baffles. These
factors promote mixing between “layers” of fluid. This means that often, from a heat transfer
perspective, you would prefer to put viscous fluids in the shell-side

Twisted tubes, static mixers or tube inserts increase turbulence and thus heat-transfer
coefficients on the tubeside by reducing the effects of laminar flow.

10. THERMAL EXPANSION

Thermal expansion may be an issue if one of the fluids undergoes a temperature change of
more than 150°C. In such case, you would normally put the high temperature change fluid on
the shellside, which is better able to handle large temperature changes in certain exchanger
designs.

In summary, the fluids preferred on the tubeside are the following:

• Fouling, erosive or corrosive fluid

• Toxic, Lethal or valuable fluid
• Fluid at higher pressure
• Hotter fluid
• Stream with less available pressure drop
• Less-viscous fluid
• Stream with smaller volumetric flowrate
• Cooling water

In summary, the fluids preferred on the shellside are the following:

• Viscous fluid
• Fluid with higher flow rate
• High temperature change fluid

While deciding the fluid allocation, many trade-offs are made in heat transfer coefficients,
pressure drop, fouling tendencies, etc. None of the suggestions above are definitive, use them
as a starting point.