Shell-and-tube, plate, and air-cooled exchanger types, the LMTD design procedure, why the overall heat transfer coefficient is usually dominated by the worst-performing side, fouling factors as a real design allowance, and pinch analysis basics for heat exchanger networks.
A typical process plant runs more heat exchangers than reactors or columns, and heat transfer is often its single largest energy cost — which is why this module treats exchanger design as a full discipline: which exchanger type fits a given service, the log-mean temperature difference method used to size the required area, and the resistances-in-series thinking that explains why improving the better-performing side of an exchanger barely changes its overall performance.
By the end of this module you should be able to explain why a fouling allowance sized too generously can make an exchanger foul faster rather than slower, and how pinch analysis extends single-exchanger sizing into whole-plant heat integration by identifying the pinch point and the three rules — no cooling above it, no heating below it, no heat transfer across it — that govern a correctly designed exchanger network.