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Heat & Mass Transfer
Dove Thermal Engineering are process heat transfer consultants. Thermal Design covers an exceptionally wide field, interacting within and across most other physical systems. The effective process heat transfer design of special heat exchangers and heat exchange equipment starts with a thorough comprehension of host processes and operational objectives. This website reflects the broad scope of thermal engineering, while the underlying maths and physics apply to all heat transfer operations. Heat & mass transfer mechanisms pervade direct contact systems such as gas scrubbing & quenching, evaporative cooling, product drying, psychrometric processes and heat exchange equipment in general. Solid, liquid and vapour phase systems are embodied within all natural and man-made systems - even those which might appear static or inert on a macroscopic scale. Host processes entailing process heat and mass transfer design are to be found within fluid flow, chemical, mechanical, electrical, structural and environmental schema - whenever and wherever energy flows, is stored or converted.
The Literature
While they have been mentioned elsewhere in this website, some references from the Literature are worth noting again. Perry & Chilton’s Chemical Engineers’ Handbook provides a comprehensive and concise review of thermal design topics, with a breadth of coverage not found in more specialist literature. Following a straightforward introduction of fundamental concepts, the thermal design of many types of special heat exchangers is described in accessible terms. Single- and multi-phase solid-, liquid- and gaseous operations are referred to the plant in which they are undertaken, while several types of surface equipment (heat exchangers, condensers, evaporators et al.) - along with direct contact systems towers and columns - are discussed in practical detail. For generations of heat transfer design engineers, other much-respected vade mecums in the field are: William H McAdams’ Heat Transmission, Donald Q Kern’s Process Heat Transfer, and Herman J Stoever’s Applied Heat Transmission – all giving a different slant on the subject from a common ground, essentially directed toward the design of shell and tube heat exchangers. McAdams and Kern have been our constant companions in over thirty years of providing heat transfer engineering services. The Industrial Cooling Tower by K K McKelvey and Maxey Brooke has probably not been bettered by the several titles since published dealing with mechanical and natural draught systems, although Jackson’s Cooling Towers with Special Reference to Mechanical-Draught Systems is a clear and direct primer on gas cooling columns and mass transfer equipment generally. Geoffrey F Hewitt’s loose-leaf Heat Exchanger Design Handbook has passed through many editions, and is the most exhaustive reference in its field, although - according to thermal design engineer M A Mehrabian – “much of design data for plate heat exchangers remain proprietary”.
Art & Science
That said, the calculation of heat exchangers characterises the iterative nature of Engineering Design very well. As remarked by the (unattributed) introduction to the topic in Perry & Chilton: “The proper use of basic heat transfer knowledge in the design of heat transfer equipment is an art. The designer must constantly be aware of the differences between the idealized conditions for and under which the basic knowledge was obtained, vs. the real conditions of the mechanical expression of his design and its environment. The result must satisfy process and operational requirements (such as availability, flexibility, and maintainability) and do so economically. An important part of any design process is to consider and offset the consequences of error in the basic knowledge, or its subsequent incorporation into the design method, or in the translation of design into equipment, or in the operation of the equipment and the process. Heat exchanger design is not a highly accurate art under the best of conditions." These words of experience reflect a procedure in which the heuristics of the design process and the empiricism of scientific method are qualified with as much knowledge and understanding of the field as may be brought to bear by the practicing heat transfer engineer.
Activities and Workscope
Dove Thermal’s background covers all aspects of process heat transfer design: the theoretical tools and practices by which they may be described, and the practical ability to resolve situations in which they are either not being understood or have been incorrectly applied. We research, design, investigate, model and create practical solutions to meet practical requirements, and have built many types of special heat exchangers for a wide application base. With 40+ years in the field, director Malcolm Robins can claim to be an independent heat transfer expert of some experience. Our past project activities underpin a broad range of manufacturing processes - and the means by which they may be realized. Dove Thermal Engineering has the capability to build, commission and maintain the production plant and services equipment to enable them.
Examples of completed Process Heat Transfer Design Projects:
Presssurized-air preheater with flash steam recovery for Glaxo Smith Kline
Re-engineering of Class 158 DMU HVAC systems for Metro-Cammell
Heat transfer design engineers for the Siberian Oil Lake Programme
Heat Transfer Consultants to the Design Council, PERA, and the DTI
Shell and tube heat exchangers for IAC thermal fluid heating plant
Large steam condensers and sugar boiling pans for Tate & Lyle
Heat exchange equipment for National Maritime College, RoI
Variable concentration batch heating for Banner Chemicals
R-R Fuel Test Rig Thermal Systems for Cullum Detuners
Regenerative furnace design for Stein Atkinson Stordy
Heat transfer design consultant to Spooner Industries
Cylinder block tempering for Jaguar Land Rover
Gas Quench column for Otto Simon
Dove Thermal Engineering Limited, Uttoxeter, ST14 8QX
Telephone: 01889 569933