Process Equipment and Plant Design
In a shell and tube heat exchanger, the overall heat transfer co-efficient is proportional to the tube side (volumetric flow rate)0.8. This is valid, only when the ratio of the tube side film resistance to the total resistance is almost equal to
Plate tower is perferred, if interstage cooling is required to remove heats of reaction or solution
Plate tower is preferred over packed tower, if the operation involves liquids containing dispersed solids
In operations involving large temperature changes. (e.g. distillation), plate towers are preferred over packed towers as the packing may be crushed due to large temperature changes
The total weight of a dry plate tower is usually much more than that of a dry packed tower designed for the same duty