DESIGN AND FABRICATION OF AIR COOLED

CONDENSER
A MINI PROJECT REPORT

Submitted by

GOPINATH.S(Reg. No. 16108039)

JAYAKUMAR.S(Reg. No. 16108047)
KARTHIKEYAN.M(Reg. No. 16108057)
ABISSHEK.J(Reg. No. 16108801)

in partial fulfillment for the award of the degree

of

BACHELOR OF ENGINEERING

in

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

HINDUSTHAN COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHOLOGY

Approved by AICTE, New Delhi, Accredited with ‘A’ Grade by NAAC

(An Autonomous Institution, Affiliated to Anna University, Chennai)

COIMBATORE - 641032

APRIL 2019

1
 HINDUSTHAN COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND
TECHOLOGY
Approved by AICTE, New Delhi, Accredited with ‘A’ Grade by NAAC

(An Autonomous Institution, Affiliated to Anna University, Chennai)

BONAFIDE CERTIFICATE

Certified that this Report titled“DESIGN AND FABRICATION OF AIR

COOLED CONDENSER”is the bonafide work of GOPINATH (16108039),
JAYAKUMAR.S(16108047), KARTHIKEYAN.M(16108057),
ABISSHEK.J(16108801)who carried out the work under my supervision.
Certified further that to the best of my knowledge the work reported herein does
not form part of any other thesis or dissertation on the basis of which a degree or
award was conferred on an earlier occasion on this or any other candidate.

SUPERVISOR HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT

Dr.K.Siva M.Tech, P.hD., Dr.K.Siva M.Tech, P.hD.,
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Hindusthan College of Engineering and Hindusthan College of Engineering and
Technology, Coimbatore-32 Technology, Coimbatore-32

This project report submitted for the Autonomous UG Design and

Fabrication Project Viva-voce examination held on____________

INTERNAL EXAMINER EXTERNAL EXAMINER

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I express my sincere thanks to our almighty God, the guiding light of my life
for giving me the potential and courage to complete this project successfully.

I extent my sincere thanks to the Managing Trustee of Hindusthan

Educational and Charitable Trust, Smt. Sarasuwathi Khannaiyann for providing
essential infrastructure.

I would like to extent my special thanks to the college Advisor,

Dr.S.Annadurai M.E., M.E., Ph.D. for provided to make my project in this
institution.

I would like to express my gratitude to the Principal,

Dr.T.Kannadasan M.Tech., Ph.D. for the encouragement and the facilities
provided to complete the project successfully and for strengthening the ray of
hope.

I am highly indebted to Professor and Head of the Department

Dr.K.Siva M.Tech., Ph.D. for his suggestion that have been valuable for the
project development and improvement.

I would like to extent thanks to Dr.R.Arulkumar M.E., Ph.D. my project

coordinator for his support and constructive criticism.

I would like to extent a hearty thanks to Dr.M.Mohanraj M.E., Ph.D. my

guide for his guidance and constructive criticism.

I owe debt of gratitude to all the staff in Department of Mechanical

Engineering for helping throughout the course of project work.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER NO. TITLE PAGE NO.

ABSTRACT
LIST OF TABLES

LIST OF FIGURES

1. INTRODUCTION 09

1.1. METHODOLOGY

2. LITERATURE REVIEW 11

3. DESCRIPTION OF AIR COOLED 13

CONDENSER

3.1. Air cooled condenser

3.2. Analysis of condenser

4. 3D MODELING OF COMPONENTS 22

4.1 Design of Equipment and Draw

4.2 orthographic view of air

cooled condenser

5. WORKING PRINCIPLE 24

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 6. MERITS AND DEMERITS 25

6.1 Advantages

6.2 Disadvantages

7. APPLICATIONS 26

8. MATERIAL SELECTION 27

9 COST ESTIMATION 28

9.1 Cost Estimation

10. CONCLUSION 29

REFERANCE 30

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LIST OF FIGURES

S.NO TITLE PAGE NO

1 Natural convection type 14

2 Forced convection type 16

3 3D model of frame 22

4 3D model of fan 22

5 Orthographic view 23

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 LIST OF TABLES

S.NO TITLE PAGE NO

1 Literature 12

Survey

2 Cost 28

Estimation

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 ABSTRACT

Air Cooled condensers were first introduced in US power industry in early

1970’s, but only during last 10-15 years number of installations greatly
increased largely due to growing attention being paid to environmental
safety. Also, growing demand for water for both domestic and industrial use
has brought an increased interest in use of Air Cooled condensers. This is a
review paper which studies the performance of Air-cooled condenser under
various operating conditions it is found that there is degradation in
performance of air cooled condenser under high ambient temperatures and
windy conditions. The heat rejection rate of ACC also depends on surface
condition of fins and thus its performance is reduced due to external fouling
of finned tubes due to weather conditions and by internal fouling from
condensate (Ammonia corrosion). A Hybrid (dry/wet) dephlegmator
achieves major enhancement in performance when ambient temperatures are
high. Also shading of condensers is done for air-conditioning units to
mitigate the adverse effect of high ambient temperatures due to solar
radiation. Now a day’s wind walls are used to reduce the effect of high wind
velocity .second option is to increase the fan speed Fin cleaning plays an
important role in heat rejection. External cleaning improves air side heat
transfer coefficient. In order to improve the performance of an ACC Flat
tubes inclined at some angle to horizontal can also be used in place of
conventional circular horizontal tubes so that an improvement in heat
transfer rate occurs.
Keywords: Air cooled condensers, Ambient temperatures, Fin cleaning,
Heat transfer. Performance analysis,

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 CHAPTER-1

INTRODUCTION

A condenser is a heat transfer device or unit used to condense a substance from its
gaseous to its liquid state, typically by cooling it. In doing so, the latent heat is
given up by the substance, and will transfer to the condenser coolant. Condensers
are typically heat exchangers which have various designs and come in many sizes
ranging from rather small (hand-held) to very large industrial-scale units used in
plant processes. For example, a refrigerator uses a Condenser to get rid of heat
extracted from the interior of the unit to the outside air. Condensers are used in air
conditioning, industrial chemical processes .Such as distillation, steam power
plants and other heat-exchange systems. Use of cooling water or surrounding air as
the coolant is common in many condensers. The main use of a condenser is to
receive exhausted steam from a steam engine or turbine and condense the steam.
The benefit being that the energy which would be exhausted to the atmosphere is
utilized .A steam condenser generally condenses the steam to a pressure
significantly below atmospheric. This allows the turbine or engine to do more
work. The condenser also converts the discharge steam back to feed water which is
returned to the steam generator or boiler. In the condenser the latent heat of
condensation is conducted to the cooling medium flowing through the cooling
tubes.

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1.1. METHODOLOGY

 The ACC unit is design in multiple of module. Each module consists of a

number of finned tube bundles.
 The bundles are arranged in frame. Each module is served by one axial flow
fan driven by an electrical motor.

 The mechanical equipment is located underneath the tube bundles,

delivering cooling air in forced draft mode.

 The air cooled condenser is a heat exchanger that removes the heat from
the vapour refrigerant.

 It is based on the principle of exchanging the heat through the surface area
of the condenser

The project consist of following part

1. Cooling Fan
2. Condenser Coil
3. Frame
4. Fins

This condenser is used for different application in thermal studies as follows

1. It is used to convert the fluid from vapour state into liquid state
2. It is also used for remove the excess heat form the system

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 CHAPTER-2

LITERATURE SURVE

 Generally, Optimization includes the action of making the best or most

effective use of a situation or resource.
 As the efficiency of thermal power plant lies between 33% to 48%.
 The increment in efficiency can also be obtained by changing components of
the power plant or using same components in a most effective way such that
it gives higher output results in an exchange of low inputs.
 Hence the main objective of this literature survey is to determine the factors
which are responsible for an efficient performance of thermal power station
inclusive of optimization application to the components and their designs.
 Also to get a detailed knowledge and information about air-cooled
condensers and its support structure which is required to step ahead in the
process of optimization.

Under the literature survey, the research paper regarding thermal power
station, air cooled condensers, stack like support structure, and also cooling
tower (to get exposure about efficiency as compared to ACC) are
contemplated.
The detailed descriptions of literature paper are presented below.
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S.No Title Author Name Information

1 Refrigeration and air C.P. Arora Project study

conditioning

2 Refrigeration and air C.P. Arora Design

conditioning Modeling

&

Calculations.

3 Fabrication
Performance A. Rupeshkumar
Characteristics of an V. Ramani,
Air-Cooled Condenser B. Amitesh Paul
under Ambient
Conditions

Table 2.1. Literature Survey

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 CHAPTER-3

DESCRIPTION OF AIR COOLED CONDENSER

3.1. Air-cooled condensers:

As the name implies, in air-cooled condensers air is the external fluid, i.e., the
refrigerant rejects heat to air flowing over the condenser. Air-cooled condensers
can be further classified into natural convection type or forced convection type.

Natural convection type:

 In natural convection type, heat transfer from the condenser is by buoyancy

induced natural convection and radiation.
 Since the flow rate of air is small and the radiation heat transfer is also not
very high, the combined heat transfer coefficient in these condensers is
small.
 As a result, a relatively large condensing surface is required to reject a given
amount of heat. Hence these condensers are used for small capacity
refrigeration systems like household refrigerators and freezers.
 The natural convection type condensers are either plate surface type or
finned tube type.
 In plate surface type condensers used in small refrigerators and freezers, the
refrigerant carrying tubes are attached to the outer walls of the refrigerator.
 The whole body of the refrigerator (except the door) acts like a fin.
 Insulation is provided between the outer cover that acts like fin and the inner
plastic cover of the refrigerator. It is for this reason that outer body of the
refrigerator is always warm.
 Since the surface is warm, the problem of moisture condensation on the
walls of the refrigerator does not arise in these systems. These condensers
are sometimes called as flat back condensers.
 The finned type condensers are mounted either below the refrigerator at an
angle or on the backside of the refrigerator. In case, it is mounted below,
then the warm air rises up and to assist it an air envelope is formed by
providing a jacket on backside of the refrigerator. The fin spacing is kept

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 large to minimize the effect of fouling by dust and to allow air to flow freely
with little resistance.
 In the older designs, the condenser tube (in serpentine form) was attached to
a plate and the plate was mounted on the backside of the refrigerator. The
plate acted like a fin and warm air rose up along it.
 In another common design, thin wires are welded to the serpentine tube coil.
The wires act like fins for increased heat transfer area. Figure1.0 shows the
schematic of a wire-and-tube type condenser commonly used in domestic
refrigerators.
 Regardless of the type, refrigerators employing natural convection condenser
should be located in such a way that air can flow freely over the condenser
surface.

FIG 1.0: Schematic of a wire-and-tube type condenser used in small refrigeration

systems

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Forced convection type:

 In forced convection type condensers, the circulation of air over the

condenser surface is maintained by using a fan or a blower.
 These condensers normally use fins on air-side for good heat transfer.
 The fins can be either plate type or annular type. Figure 1.1 shows the
schematic of a plate-fin type condenser.
 Forced convection type condensers are commonly used in window air
conditioners, water coolers and packaged air conditioning plants.
 These are either chassis mounted or remote mounted. In chassis mounted
type, the compressor, induction motor, condenser with condenser fan,
accumulator, HP/LP cut- out switch and pressure gauges are mounted on a
single chassis. It is called condensing unit of rated capacity.
 The components are matched to condense the required mass flow rate of
refrigerant to meet the rated cooling capacity.
 The remote mounted type, is either vertical or roof mounted horizontal type.
 Typically the air velocity varies between 2 m/s to 3.5 m/s for economic
design with airflow rates of 12 to 20 cmm per ton of refrigeration (TR).
3
 The air specific heat is 1.005 kJ/kg-K and density is 1.2 kg/m . Therefore for
o
1 TR the temperature rise Δta = 3.5167/(1.2x1.005 x 16/60) = 10.9 C for
average air flow rate of 16 cmm.
o o
 Hence, the air temperature rises by 10 to 15 C as compared to 3 to 6 C for
water in water cooled condensers.

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FIG 1.1 : Forced convection, Plate fin and tube type condenser.

 The area of the condenser seen from outside in the airflow direction is called
face area. The velocity at the face is called face velocity.
 This is given by the volume flow rate divided by the face area. The face
velocity is usually around 2m/s to 3.5 m/s to limit the pressure drop due to
frictional resistance.
 The coils of the tube in the flow direction are called rows. A condenser may
have two to eight
 Version 1 ME, IIT Kharagpur 6rows of the tubes carrying the refrigerant.
 The moist air flows over the fins while the refrigerant flows inside the tubes.
The fins are usually of aluminum and tubes are made of copper.
 Holes of diameter slightly less than the tube diameter are punched in the
plates and plates are slid over the tube bank.

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  Then the copper tubes are pressurized which expands the tubes and makes a
good thermal contact between the tube and fins.
 This process is also known as bulleting. For ammonia condensers mild steel
tubes with mild steel fins are used.
 In this case the fins are either welded or galvanizing is done to make a good
thermal contact between fin and tube.
 In case of ammonia, annular crimpled spiral fins are also used over
individual tubes instead of flat-plate fins.
 In finned tube heat exchangers the fin spacing may vary from 3 to 7 fins per
cm.
 The secondary surface area is 10 to 30 times the bare pipe area hence; the
finned coils are very compact and have smaller weight.

3.2.Analysis of condensers:

Thus the air cooled condenser get analysed through the

corrolations as belows:

o Density
o Kinematic viscosity
o Prandtl number
o Specific heat
o Thermal conductivity
o Absolute viscosity

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 CHAPTER-4

3D MODELING OF COMPONENT

4.1 Design of Equipment and Drawing

The 3D view of the Air Cooled Condenser parts are as follows:

 Fan
 Fin
 Frame

FIG 4.1: FRAME FIG 4.2 : FAN

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4.2.Orthographic view of air cooled condenser

FIG 4.3.: 2D view of air cooled condenser

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 CHAPTER-5

WORKING PRINCIPLE

An Air cooled condenser, is simply a pressure vessel which cools a

circulating fluid within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior
of the tubes.
A common example of an Air cooled condenser is car radiator Air cooled
heat exchangers are used for two primary reasons
i. They increase plant efficiency
ii. They are a good solution as compared to cooling towers and
shell and tube heat exchangers because they do not require
an auxiliary water supply (water lost due to drift and
evaporation, plus no water treatment chemicals are
required).

An air-cooled heat exchanger can be as small as your car radiator or large

enough to cover several acres of land, as is the case on air coolers for large power
plants the air-cooled heat exchangers are mostly used when the plant location and
the ambient Conditions do not allow an easy and economic use of other cooling
systems

o The ACC unit designed in multiple of modules. Each module consists

of a number of finned tube bandles.
o The bundles are arranged in A- frame shape. Each module is served
by one axial flow fan driven by an electric motor via a gear box.

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 o The mechanical equipment is located underneath the tube bundles,
delivering cooling air in forced draft mode.
 In general, the primary module / secondary module surface ratio is 83: 17.
However, this ratio is subject to change depending upon ambient conditions.
 The non –condensable are removed at the top of the secondary modules.
 The condensate is drained from the bottom headers through condensate drain
lines to the condensate storage receiver.
 The condensate is pumped back to the deaerator by condensate extraction
pump.

CHAPTER-6

MERITS AND DEMERITS

6.1 Advantages

 No problem arising from thermal and chemical pollution of cooling fluids

 Flexibility for any plant location and plot plan arrangement because
equipment requiring cooling need not be near a supply of cooling water.
 Reduction of maintenance costs
 Easy installation
 Lower environmental impact than water cooled condenser due to the
elimination of an auxiliary water supply resulting in water saving
 No use of water treatment chemicals and no need for fire protection system.

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6.2 Disadvantages

 To improve the heat removal capacity of an air-cooled condenser

under conditions of high ambient air temperature, operators will
sometimes spray water on the heat exchanger to reduce surface
temperature. Unfortunately, depending on the quality of water
used, this sometimes leads to new scale formation on the tube fins
and, again, reduces the heat transfer rate if the deposits are allowed
to accumulate
 Deposition of Dust influences in condenser and leads to some
efficiency losses.

CHAPTER-7
APPLICATIONS

 Refrigeration system
 Super market refrigeration system
 Ice factory refrigeration system
 Dairy factories
 Steam power plants
 Automobile radiators

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 CHAPTER-8

MATERIAL SELECTION

The air cooled condenser simply employs air as the condensing medium where
the water cooled condenser utilizes water as the condensing medium.

Evaporative condenser use both air and water as medium.

Selection of condenser is depending upon the,

 Cooling load
 Refrigerant used
 Operating pressure

It is necessary to have the following information to select a proper condenser

 Total KiloWatt
 Evaporative temperature
 Condensing temperature
 Air inlet temperature
 Air outlet temperature
 Type of refrigerant used

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 CHAPTER-9

COST ESTIMATION

9.1 Cost Estimation

The details of components with exact quantity and its cost are mentioned clearly in
the table.

COMPONENTS QUANTITY COST

Condenser 1 3000

Cooling fan 1 1250

Frames 1 200

Bolt & nuts 6 50

Fabrication cost 500

TOTAL 5000

Table No: 9.1 Cost Estimation

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 CHAPTER-10

CONCLUSION

The project carried out to make an impressing task in the field of Thermal

and refrigeration systems. It is very usefully in the ice and dairy factories.

This project has also reduced the cost involved in the concern. Project has

been designed to perform the entire requirement task which has also been

provided.

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 REFERENCES

 R1 : DRY COOL-03 ©2004 Marley Cooling Technologies, Inc. | Printed in

USA/ 7401 W. 129 Street // Overland Park, KS USA 66213 // 800 462 7539
// info@marleyct.spx.com // www.marleyct.com
 R2 : WHY EVERY AIR COOLED CONDENSER NEEDS A COOLING
TOWER By Luc De Backer and William M. Wurtz, Presented at the 2003
Cooling Technology Institute Annual Conference/ San Antonio, Texas –
February 10-13, 2003
 R3 : GEA Power Cooling, Inc./143 Union Blvd., Ste. 400; Lakewood, CO
80228; tel: (303) 987-0123.
 R4 : Klickitat County Economic Development/ Link to Source:
mailto:Business@co.klickitat.wa.us ;
 R5 : HAMON DRY COOLING, SPX Cooling Technologies Belgium
S.A./N.V. , Rue Neerveld 107, 1200 Brussels, Belgium / Tel + 32 (0) 2 761
61 11 / Fax + 32 (0) 2 761 61 86;
 R6 : Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics 93 (2005)
509–520 / Wind tunnel simulation on re-circulation of air-cooled condensers
of a power plant / Zhifu Gua,_, Hui Lia, Wenhong Zhanga, Yan Lia, Jiye
Pengb;
 R7 : Geothermal Resources Council Transactions, Vol. 25, August 26-
29,2001 / IMPROVING AIR-COOLED CONDENSER PERFORMANCE
USING WINGLETS AND OVAL TUBES IN A GEOTHERMAL POWER
PLANT; M. S. Sohal and J. E. O’Brien ; Idaho National Engineering and
Environmental Laboratory ;
 P. O. Box 1625 / Idaho Falls, ID 83415-3815 / Sohalms@inel.gov;

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