Received: 14 August 2017 | Revised: 1 November 2017 | Accepted: 3 November 2017

DOI: 10.1111/jfpe.12658

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Designing and application of a shell and tube heat exchanger

for nanofluid thermal processing of liquid food products

Seid Mahdi Jafari | Farinaz Saramnejad | Danial Dehnad

Department of Food Materials and Process

Design Engineering, Gorgan University of
Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources,
Gorgan, Iran
Correspondence
Seid Mahdi Jafari, Department of Food
Materials and Process Design Engineering,
Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences
and Natural Resources, Gorgan, Iran.
Email: smjafari@gau.ac.ir
Funding information
Iran National Science Foundation (INSF)
Abstract
One of the most commonly used types of heat exchangers is the shell and tube heat exchanger. It
has been well established that applications of nanofluids in shell and tube heat exchangers are a
competitive alternative for common industrial fluids such as hot water. However, conventional
applications of nanofluids are restricted to nonfood industries. So, for the first time, this study
aimed to design a shell and tube heat exchanger through Kern method for food applications and
involving different equations and calculations in detail, to deploy intelligent thermal equipment and
PLC section for controlling the performance of shell and tube heat exchanger, and finally, to apply
that heat exchanger for two food products, that is, watermelon and tomato juice, in order to sur-
vey the extent to which this equipment, by using nanofluids rather than common hot water
systems, can improve temperature–time profile of food systems and diminish their energy con-
sumption. Kern method could accurately estimate the number of tubes, tube pitch, baffle spacing,
tubes per pass, as well as shell-side, tube-side, and overall heat transfer coefficients while main-
taining pressure drops in acceptable ranges. Application of 2 and 4% alumina nanofluids, instead of
hot water, decreased thermal processing time of watermelon juice by 24.14 and 51.72%; similarly,
these reduction rates were 22.3 and 48.76% for tomato juice processing. Consequently, energy
consumption rates of watermelon juice processing dwindled to 24.64 and 48.34% and of tomato
juice to 22.3 and 48.76% through deployment of 2 and 4% Al2O3, compared to hot water,
respectively.

Practical applications
Fluids with suspended particles of nanometals or oxidized metals benefit from better heat transfer
properties. There is limited research dealing with effects of adding nanoparticles to conventional
thermal fluids for fruit juices processing. So, the goal of this research was to introduce nanofluid
technology for thermal processing of food products, increasing heat transfer efficiency in shell and
tube exchangers by nanofluids and frugality in energy consumption for pasteurization, reducing
thermal processing duration and better quality retention of food products.

1 | INTRODUCTION
Researches carried out recently in the field of fluids containing solid
nanoparticles reveal an increase in heat transfer coefficient by the addi-
tion of small solid particles to fluids. Diverse definitions have been
introduced for nanoparticles; however, in particular, nanoparticles own
diameters between 1 and 250 nm (Choi, Zhang, Yu, Lockwood, &
Grulke, 2001). Diverse materials show distinct and unique characteris-
tics to themselves in this scale. As an example, tiny size of nanopar-
ticles make surfaces possible to be polished more delicately, and since
there is not extensive disorders in them, very resistant and harsh met-
als could be made from them.
A nanofluid is a suspension of nano-structures in a conventional
base fluid (homogenous suspension), which can significantly enhance
heat transfer rate in different heat processing equipment (Kang, Kim, &
Oh, 2006). Water, ethyleneglycol and oil are often used as the base-
fluid and different nanoparticles such as TiO2, Al2O3, and CuO are dis-
persed in the basefluid (Hojjat, Etemad, Bagheri, & Thibault, 2011). The
most important use of these tiny nanoparticles is as heating or cooling
media, especially in heat exchangers. Peyghambarzadeh, Hashemabadi,

J Food Process Eng. 2017;e12658. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jfpe V

C 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. | 1 of 10
https://doi.org/10.1111/jfpe.12658
2 of 10 | JAFARI
Hoseini, and Seifi Jamnani (2011) carried out an experimental study of
heat transfer enhancement using water/ethylene glycol based nano-
fluids as a new coolant for car radiators. The results demonstrated that
0–1 (vol %) nanofluids (g-Al2O3) clearly enhanced heat transfer com-
pared with the base fluid and, in the best conditions, the heat transfer
enhancement reached nearly 40% of the original rate. Zeinali Heris,
Noie, Talaii, and Sargolzaei (2011) investigated laminar flow-forced
convective heat transfer of Al2O3/water nanofluid in a triangular duct
under constant wall temperature condition. Their results indicated that
the addition of nanoparticles to base fluid led to the thermal conductiv-
ity increment and heat transfer enhancement. The results obtained by
the numerical solutions showed that increasing the nanoparticles
concentration raised Nusselt number at a constant particle size, and
lowering the nanoparticle size escalated Nusselt number at a specific
concentration.
Nasiri, Etemad, and Bagheri (2011) compared heat transfer per-
formance of Al2O3/H2O and TiO2/H2O nonofluids through an annular
channel under turbulent flow regime. Based on their experimental
results, for any specific Peclet number, Nusselt number of nanofluids
was higher than that of the base fluid while there was no significant
difference between heat transfer enhancement rates of nanofluids.
Pandey and Nema (2012) inspected effects of nanofluid (Al2O3 in
water 2, 3, and 4 vol %) and water as coolants on heat transfer, fric-
tional losses, and exergy loss in a counter flow corrugated plate heat
exchanger; in summary, heat transfer characteristics improved with an
increase in Reynolds or Peclet number and with a decrease in nanofluid
concentration. Besides, for a given thermal load, the nanofluid required
lower flow rate but culminated in higher pressure drop than pure
water. Mare et al. (2011) compared thermal performances of two types
of commercial nanofluids alumina (Al2O3) and carbon nanotubes
(CNTs) dispersed in water under a laminar out-flow mode. Their results
showed an improvement in laminar mode of the convective heat trans-
fer coefficient by 42 and 50% for Al2O3 and CNTs, compared with
pure water, for the same Re number, respectively. They reported that
both nanoparticles revealed better thermal-hydraulic performances in
terms of the balance between heat transfer enhancement and pumping
power loss in comparison with pure water.
Constructing components of a shell and tube heat exchangers are:
tubes, shell, front head, back head and baffles. Type of tubes should be
selected so that they are suitable conductors of heat as well as being
very strong. In the food industry, heat exchangers are made from 316L
stainless steel to maintain hygienic issues and prevent corrosion. In
shell and tube heat exchangers, two sheets of metal type are placed in
the entrance and exit of the exchanger and the number of holes cre-
ated on the sheet is equal to the number of tubes within the
exchanger. The fluid which passes through the shell should be directed
so that it has the highest contact with the external surface of tubes
and heat transfer processing occurs in the best way. To achieve this
goal, baffles are used in the system. These baffles create cross flows
and increase heat transfer. Raising heat transfer coefficient in industrial
processes is very important to achieve smaller dimensions, increasing
thermodynamic efficiency and decreasing pumping power required.
ET AL.
Generally, heat transfer could be enhanced through active or pas-
sive techniques. While active methods involve external forces, such as
acoustic, surface vibration, and electronic fields, passive approaches
need additives or special surface geometries, for example, expanding
exchange surface or application of fluids with great thermophysical
properties (Huminic & Huminic, 2012; Kahani, Heris, & Mousavi, 2013).
Most surveyed methods in this field are based on changes in equip-
ment structures, such as increasing heating surface (vanes), shaking
heating surfaces, fluid injection or suction, and application of electrical
or magnetic fields. These techniques hardly ever respond increasing
demands to high heat transfer systems enabling producers to keep
food product quality as high as possible and optimize energy
consumption.
Despite outstanding performance of nanofluids in heat exchang-
ers, as discussed earlier, they have not been used in the food indus-
try yet, although conventional thermal pasteurization, HTST,
guarantees safety and long shelf life of fruit juices, it usually results
in sensible changes in their sensory, nutritional, and qualitative prop-

s, Esteve, & Frígola, 2008). In our recent studies, possibil-
erties (Corte
ity of nanofluids applications for thermal processing of food products
was evaluated with very promising results including shortening the
process duration to almost half-time compared with normal hot water
processing which could be very important in terms of both energy
consumption and nutritional properties (Jafari, Jabari, Dehnad, &
Shahidi, 2017a, 2017b; Jafari, Saremnejad, & Dehnad, 2017; Jafari,
Saremnejad, Dehnad, & Rashidi, 2017). This study was undertaken to
design a shell and tube heat exchanger with alumina–water nano-
fluids to increase heat transfer in food products, and to survey
changes in temperature–time profile and energy consumption rates
during the process of two food products with the designed heat
exchanger working with nanofluids.
2 | MATERIALS AND METHODS
For the design of a heat exchanger to transfer thermal energy between
a hot and a cold fluid flow with given characteristics, geometric fea-
tures of shell and tubes should be determined in such a way that after
calculating heat transfer coefficients by their equations, Fourier equa-
tion (Q5UADT) will remain correct for the system. In this study, for the
design of heat exchanger, Kern’s algorithm of design was used through
following steps as shown in Figure 1 (Kern, 1983).
2.1 | Specifying physical parameters of the heat
exchanger system
As can be seen in Table 1, heat capacity, viscosity, thermal conductivity
and density of heating fluid and food fluid were among those factors
estimated in the first step. Two shell passes were applied and 1.25 tri-
angular pitch, distance between tube centers, was selected for the
design. Since the square or rotated square arrangements are used for
heavily fouling fluids, the triangular pattern, providing high heat trans-
fer rates, was chosen.
JAFARI ET AL. | 3 of 10

FIGURE 1 Design procedure for shell and tube heat exchangers based on Kern’s method

2.2 | Setting up an energy balance for the system ðTc2 2Tc1 Þ 90225
R5 5 54:33
ðTh1 2Th2 Þ 110295
At first, heat transfer rates of hot or cold streams need to be calculated
ðTh1 2Th2 Þ 110295
by factors assumed in the first step through the following equation S5 5 5 0:23
ðTc2 2Tc1 Þ 90225
(where 1 and 2 stand for input and output ones, respectively):
Based on relevant graphs, the correction factor was about 0.85.
_ h Cph ðTh1 2Th2 Þ
heat load ðQÞ 5m So, the true temperature difference was obtained around 338C:
50:145 kg=s34:2 kJ=kg= C3ð110–95Þ  C5 9:135 kJ=s
DTm 50:85339:912  C533:925  C
Since the cold and hot stream heat loads were equal, food fluid
flow rate was obtained: The results of this step are represented in Table 2.
Q 9:135
_ C5
m 5 50:0357 kg=s
CPC ðTc2 2Tc1 Þ 3:94ð90225Þ 2.3 | Assumption of the overall heat transfer
Then, “logarithmic mean temperature difference” (LMTD) was cal- coefficient
culated as We knew typical overall coefficients of shell and tube heat exchangers
. T 2T for water (hot fluid) water (cold fluid) are between 800 and
h2 c1
DTLMTD 5ðTh2 2Tc1 Þ2ðTh1 2Tc2 Þ ln
Th1 2Tc2 1,500 W/m2 8C (Kern, 1983); but, since our cold fluid was going to be
. 95225
5ð95225Þ2ð110290Þ ln 539:912  C a food system and its heat transfer rates are assumed to be less than
110290
water, we selected the minimum quantity of 800 W/m2 8C as our trial
The usual practice in the design of shell & tube exchangers is to
value to start a detailed thermal design.
estimate the “true temperature difference” from the logarithmic mean
temperature by applying a correction factor to allow for the departure
from true counter-current flow: 2.4 | Calculation of the tube numbers and shell
DTm 5Ft DTLMTD
diameter

where DTm is the true temperature difference and Ft is the tempera- First, total outside surface area of tubes was calculated:

ture correction factor. The latter factor is a function of the shell and
Q 9:13531000
tube fluid temperatures, and the number of tube and shell passes, A5 5 50:3366 m2
UDTM 800333:92
normally calculated as a function of two dimensionless temperature
ratios: Then, surface area of one tube was computed:

TA BL E 1 Characteristics of heating (water) and food fluids, assumed for the design of shell and tube heat exchanger in this study

Cp (kJ/kg/ 8C) T1 ( 8C) T2 ( 8C) l (Pa s) k (W/m 8C) q (kg/m3)

Shell side (food fluid) 3.94 25 90 1.60 0.55 1,000

Tube side (heating fluid) 4.20 110 95 0.80 0.59 995

4 of 10 | JAFARI ET AL.

TA BL E 2 Parameters of heating and food fluid flows supposed for the design of shell and tube heat exchanger

m (kg/s)
Q (kJ/s) Shell side (food fluid) Tube side (heating fluid) DTlm ( 8C) R S Ft DTm ( 8C)

9.135 0.0357 0.145 39.912 4.33 0.23 0.85 33.925

A5pDL50:831031023 3p50:025 m2 p 2 p
tube cross2sectional area5 Din 5 0:0082 5 0:0000502 m2
4 4
Thus, the number of tubes should be
Total flow area56:723ð0:0000502Þ50:0003375 m2
number of tubes 5 total surface area of tubes=surface area of
Then, mass flux and linear velocities were obtained:
0:3366
one tube 5 513:45
0:025 heaing fluid flow rate
heating fluid mass flux5
So, 13 tubes were applied in the system. An estimate of the bundle total flow area
0:145
diameter Db can be obtained from the equation below, which is an 5 5 429:61 kg=s=m2
0:0003375
empirical equation based on standard tube layouts.
 n1 heaing fluid mass velocity
heating fluid linear velocity5
Nt 1 heating fluid density
Db 5Dout
K1 429:61
5 5 0:432 m=s
995
where Db is bundle diameter in mm, Dout tube outside diameter in mm,
and Nt number of tubes. Constants of K1 and n1 are known to be The equation below has been adapted from data given by Eagle
0.249 and 2.207 for triangular pitch with two passes (Kern, 1983), and Ferguson (1930) to incorporate correlation of physical properties
respectively: into the equation:
  1 4; 200ð1:3510:02T Þu0:8 4; 200ð1:3510:023102:5Þ0:43 0:8
13:45 2:207 hi 5 5
Db 510 560:95 mm
0:249 di 0:2 80:2
5 4812 W=m2  C
We used a split-ring floating head type; thus, bundle diametrical
clearance was obtained as 40 mm for this bundle diameter from the where hi is the internal heat transfer coefficient for water (W/m2 8C),

relevant figures. The shell diameter is the sum of bundle diameter and T is the water temperature (8C), u is the water linear velocity (m/s), and

clearance, so: di is the tube inside diameter (mm).

Ds 5Db 1C560:951405100:95 mm

Thus, the inputs and outputs of this step are gathered in Table 3.
2.5.2 | Shell-side heat transfer coefficient
First, baffle spacing, tube pitch and cross-flow area were calculated

baffle spacing ðlb Þ50:2Ds 50:23100:82 5 20:189 mm

2.5 | Determination of tube- and shell-side heat
transfer coefficients tube pitch ðPt Þ51:25D0 51:25310 5 12:5 mm

ðpt 2d0 Þ
In this stage, tube- and shell-side heat transfer coefficients were cross2flow area ðAs Þ5 D s lb
pt
calculated separately: ð12:5210Þ
5 100:95320:1931026 50:00041 m2
12:5
2.5.1 | Tube-side heat transfer coefficient Now, shell-side heat transfer coefficient could be worked out as
Since having two tubes passes, we divided the total numbers of tubes following:
by two to find the number of tubes per pass:  0:14
hs de l
Nu5 5jh Re Pr1=3
13:45 kf lw
tubes per pass 5 5 6:72
2
For this purpose, first, shell equivalent diameter (hydraulic diame-
Total flow area is equal to number of tubes per pass multiplied by
ter) was obtained by following equation for an equilateral triangular
tube cross-sectional area:
pitch arrangement:

TA BL E 3 Geometrical features required for shell and tube sides of 1:10  2  1:10  
de 5 pt 20:917dout 2 5 12:52 20:9173102 57:1 mm
the heat exchanger dout 10

A A1 Dout Din L Db Ds To obtain Re number:

(m2) (m2) N (mm) (mm) (mm) (mm) (mm)
_s
m 1:392
Gs 5 5 53; 415 kg=s=m2
0.3366 0.025 13.45 10 8 0.8 6.95 100.95 As 0:00041
JAFARI ET AL. | 5 of 10

Gs 3; 415 So, since the pressure drop in tube side ðDPt Þ is low, increasing the
us 5 5 53:415 m=s
q 1; 000 number of tube passes could be considered. Then, the pressure drop in
_ s is the fluid flow-rate
where Gs is the shell-side mass flux (kg=s=m ), m 2 shell side ðDPs Þ should be computed according to the following equa-
on the shell-side (kg/s), u is the linear velocity (m=s), and q is the shell- tion (jf was determined from relevant graphs):
side fluid density (kg/m3). Here, both Re and Pr numbers were 
  2
L qut
Ds
DPs 58jf
reckoned Ls 2
de
  
100:94 0:8 ð1; 000Þ3:4152
qus de Gs de 3; 41537:100531023 5 8ð0:045Þ
Re5 5 5 515; 154:64 7:1 0:126 2
l l 1:631023
5 1; 182:49 Pa 5 1:182 kPa
Cp l 3:943103 31:631023
Pr5 5 5 11:46 Clearly, the pressure drop is not high for our operation. Besides,
kf 0:55
this rate could be strengthened by decreasing the baffle pitch. How-
Now, it just leaves jh uncalculated. For this purpose, knowing baffle
ever, it should not be left unsaid that low pressure drops, obtained in
cuts percent (25) and having Re number, we can obtain its value from
this study, could be a great advantage of our designed system. One of
relevant graphs as 0.045:
rare applications of nanofluids in food industry is a recent work by
 
 0:14 hs 7:100531023 Taghizadeh-Tabari, Zeinali Heris, Moradi, and Kahani (2016) who added
hs de l
Nu5 5jh Re Pr1=3 5 TiO2 to distilled water to enhance heat transfer but reported that
kf lw 0:55
 0:14 nanofluid at all concentrations (having 0.25, 0.35, or 0.8% nanopar-
1=3 l
50:045315; 154:643ð11:46Þ
lw ticles) showed higher transfer rate than basefluid but greater pressure
drop which could be regarded as a disadvantage.
hs 5118; 130:7 W=m2  C
After obtaining shell-side and tube-side heat transfer coefficients,
All results of this stage are represented in Table 4. we could calculate overall heat transfer coefficient in this way:

1 1 1 d0 r0 ln ðr0 =ri Þ
5 1 1
U h0 hi di k
2.6 | Estimating the pressure drop and comparison of
1 1 10 0:05ln ð5=4Þ
the overall heat transfer coefficient 5 1 1 5988 W=m2  C
118; 131 10; 415 8 15

First, we should check the pressure drop in both tube-side and shell-side
since their extremely (low or) high rates are not suitable for the design: 3 | CONSTRUCTION OF A HEATING
   2m  2 SYSTEM FOR PASTEURIZATION AT
L l qut
DPt 5Np 8jf 12:5 PILOT SCALE
di lw 2
   
0:8 995ð0:43Þ2
52 8ð0:006Þ 12:5
830:001 2 In this project, a heating system including four main sections of
51; 361 Pa51:361 kPa mechanical, electrical, digital, and programmatic elements was designed
and used to evaluate nanofluids performance in optimization of energy
consumption and improvement of food quality.
TA BL E 4 Factors of the sixth design step calculated in this
The shell & tube heat exchanger had 13 tubes in five rows in triangu-
research
lar arrangement. There are three usual arrangements of tubes in a bundle
Parameter Tube side (heating fluid) Shell side (fod fluid) (complex of tubes, baffles, and holding plates): triangular (30), square (90),
Pt (mm) 12.5 and square (45) among which, triangular was used in this research since
it brings about various merits including creation of more turbulence in
lb (mm) 20.189
the flow and, as a result, increasing heat transfer coefficient more than
Tavg ( 8C) 57.5 102.5
other.
Across-section (m2) 0.0000502 In order to compensate for trembling of tubes, holding plates with
Np 6.72 the same diameter as shells were used. Furthermore, in order to regulate

Atotal (m2) 0.0003375 the direction of flow and strengthen heat transfer rates, baffles at certain
flow
intervals were used along the bundle. Baffles are holding plates 25% of
G (kg/s/m2) 429.61 3,415
which has been cut to create turbulent flows and have been located
u (m/s) 0.432 3.415 alternatively with 1808 angle to each other (Figure 2). Figure 2 shows
de (mm) 7.1 main components of the shell and tube heat exchanger all of which were
Re 1,374 1,515.64 made from 316L stainless steel due to sensitive identity of food products.
Other sections of the system, including pipes of fluid flow and fluid con-
Pr 11.46 –
tainers, were also made from 316L stainless steel. The shortest way with
h (W/m2 8C) 4,812 4,821
the least joints were predicted for pipes of fluid flow to cut down
6 of 10 | JAFARI
FIGURE 2 (a) Style of baffles and position of tubes in a bundle
made from 316L stainless steel. (b) Components of the shell and
tube heat exchanger: (1) tubes (seamless), (2) baffles, (3) holding
plates, (4) shell (seamless), (5) gasket, (6) entrance, (7) exit locations
of fluids, and (8) location of sensors
expenses and pressure drops. All sections of the system were insulated
by aluminum foils to prevent heating and energy losses.
To monitor temperature profiles of fluids, PT100 sensors were
installed on appropriate points. To provide required energy and com-
pensate for pressure drop, stainless steel centrifugal pumps (Western
electric) with 1 hp power were used. For the purpose of reducing
energy consumption and more control over pump performances, axial
inverters (N700E; Hyundai, South Korea[AQ]) were applied. A digital
contour (Evan1010, Iran[AQ]) was deployed to monitor energy con-
sumption rate of the system (Figure 3).
4 | SIMULATION OF NANO-FLUID
THERMAL PROCESSING SYSTEM BY PLC
In the circuits designed for this system (Figure 4), PT100 temperature
sensors were connected to the microcontroller entries. These control-
lers worked at 12 MHZ frequency and were connected to the monitor-
ing system of the equipment by a USB port. For transmitting orders to
ET AL.
FIGURE 3 Intelligent thermal equipment for food fluids
processing by nanofluids: (1) shell and tube heat exchanger, (2)
PT100 sensors, (3) reservoir having nanofluid heater, (4) food fluid
reservoir, (5) centrifugal pump, (6) N700E axial inverters, (7)
electricity digital contour, (8) simulation of the equipment on
computer, (9) entrance of three-phase electricity for pumps, and
(10) designed control unit
relays, top flow exits (L298) were used: one of them for transmitting
order to relays of pumps and another one to relays of the heater.
Also, a program in Basic language was written to relate diverse
sections of this system to each other and control operational condi-
tions more precisely. Then, this program was conveyed to the
microcontroller (ATMEGA32A, ATMEL) by a compiler (BASCOM-
AVR 2.0.7.5). Transmitting orders, recording of data and depicting
online figures in PLC were carried out by Visual Studio 2012 soft-
ware (Microsoft Company[AQ]) (Figure 5); in fact, different parts of
Figure 3 could also be found in Figure 5 simulated by computer
software.
5 | APPLICATION OF THE DESIGNED
SHELL AND TUBE HEAT EXCHANGER
FOR FOOD SAMPLES
5.1 | Preparation of food samples
Fresh watermelons (Citrulus lanatus) were purchased from a local
market (Gorgan, Iran) and stored in a cool and dark place. Waterme-
lon rinds were washed with pure ethanol before juice extraction.
Watermelons were cut into two parts, and the flesh was scooped
out and cut into small cubes. The cubes were placed in a juice proc-
essor (Hamilton model No. FH-145). Extracted juice was filtered
through six layers of cheese cloth (VWR, West Chester, PA), proc-
essed immediately by the designed thermal processing unit, and then
placed inside an ice bath (Alam, Hoque, Morshed, Shahriar, & Begum,
2012). Fresh tomatoes were purchased from a local fruit market
JAFARI ET AL. | 7 of 10

F I G U R E 4 Circuit designed to connect different parts of the system: (1) temperature sensors, (2) relay creator IC, (3) relays of pumps and
heaters, and (4) USB port to monitoring system

(Gorgan, Iran) and stored at 3 6 18C. At the appropriate time, they 5.2 | Nanofluid preparation
were crushed using a domestic juice extractor (MJW176P; Pana-
Alumina nanoparticles (particle size of 50 nm) with 99% purity (US
sonic, Japan[AQ]). The juice was filtered on a sterile double-layer
Research Nano-materials, Inc.[AQ]) were purchased and dispersed with
cheese cloth to remove seeds from the juice and processed subse-
different volume concentrations of 0, 2, and 4% wt/vol in deionized
quently (Adekunte, Tiwari, Cullen, Scannell, & O’donnell, 2010).
distilled water. Then, it was stirred completely for an hour with a

FIGURE 5 PLC section: simulation of different parts of the shell and tube heat exchanger in a computer
8 of 10 | JAFARI ET AL.

nanofluids, respectively. These drops in processing time for nanofluids

FIGURE 6 Comparison of processing time, both first and second
stages, for nanofluids (having 2 and 4% alumina nanoparticles) and
water in thermal processing of watermelon juice (WJ) and tomato
juice (TJ)
heater-stirrer at 1,500 rpm (258C) in order to ensure nano-fluid stabil-
ity. No sedimentation was observed in the prepared nanofluid after
24 hr.
5.3 | Effect of nanofluid application on process time
and energy consumption
Figure 6 shows process times required for nanofluid/water processing
of watermelon and tomato juices. Addition of alumina nanoparticle to
working fluid accelerated the temperature increase due to a raise in
thermal conductivity, which decreased process duration. Increasing
nanoparticle concentration decreased process time more sensibly. In
detail, as an example, process duration of watermelon juice was 58, 44,
and 28 min for hot water, 2 and 4% nanofluids, respectively, and using
nanofluids decreased process time by 24.88 and 51.63% for 2 and 4%
nanofluids, respectively. Similar reduction percent of 22.23 and 46.29
were observed for thermal processing of tomato juice by 2 and 4%
hinge upon their heat transfer properties, which are dependent on
thermal conductivity, heat capacity of fluids and nanoparticles, viscosity
of nanofluids, volume fraction of suspended particles, figure, and
dimension of particles.
The whole thermal processing stage could be divided into two
parts based on energy consumption pattern: First stage allocated to
warming working fluid, when heater is on and pumps are off; second
stage when there is a process of heat exchanging, temperature of prod-
uct rises, pumps of working fluid and food product are on, and con-
sumption rate of heaters is very low. Energy consumption rates for
water, 2 and 4% nanofluids in thermal processing of watermelon and
tomato juices have been displayed for these two stages separately in
Table 5. For watermelon juice processing, application of 2 and 4%
nanofluids, compared to water, diminished total energy consumption
rates by 25 and 46%, respectively. Similarly, 22.3 and 48.76% improve-
ments were achieved after deploying 2 and 4% nanofluids, instead of
hot water, for thermal processing of tomato juice, respectively. All in
all, interestingly, a twofold increase in concentration of nanofluid
decreased energy consumption rate by nearly half in the first stage,
second stage, or total for both products applied. As the reason,
Keblinski, Phillpot, Choi, and Eastman (2002) expressed that a growth
in conductive heat transfer coefficient of fluids, which occurred in this
research, can lead to an intensification in in their thermal conductivity,
turbulence intensification, stopping boundary layer growth, and distri-
bution of suspended particles and their chaotic movements.
6 | CONCLUSION
Heat exchanger design could be a demanding task. However, this arti-
cle showed how Kern method of design helps us to model a shell and
tube heat exchanger with satisfactory mass flux (429.61 kg/s/ m2) and
linear mass velocity (0.432 m/s) and achieve high rates of overall heat
transfer coefficients (approximately 800 W/m2 8C) for processing of
food products. The designed system was composed of a shell (with a
diameter of 0.101 m) and 13 pipes (with a diameter 0f 0.008 and

TA BL E 5 Comparison of energy requirements for nanofluid/water processing of watermelon juice (WJ) and tomato juice (TJ)

First stage Second stage Both stages

Nanofluid percentage 0 2 4 0 2 4 0 2 4

Heater
WJ 800 600 433 – – – 800 600 433
TJ 733 567 433 534 417 234 1,267 984 667

Thermal fluid pump

WJ – – – 153 117 67 153 117 67
TJ – – – 144 112 63 144 112 63

Food fluid pump

WJ – – – 102 78 45 102 78 45
TJ – – – 96 75 42 96 75 42

Total consumption
WJ 800 600 433 255 195 112 1,055 795 545
TJ 733 567 433 774 604 339 1,,507 1,171 772
JAFARI ET AL. | 9 of 10

0.01 m length) used to cut down processing time and energy require- Pr Prandtl number
ments. A twofold increase (from 1 to 2%) in the concentration of nano- Re Reynolds number
fluid decreased energy consumption rate, when processing watermelon
Jh heat transfer factor
or tomato juice, by nearly half; we observed an average 47% reduction
Jf friction factor
in energy consumption for the thermal processing of watermelon or hi tube-side heat transfer coefficient (W/m2 8C)
tomato juice by applying 2% nanofluids as the heating medium. So, this ho shell-side heat transfer coefficient
research shows that application of nanofluids through shell and tube
K thermal conductivity (W/m 8C)
heat exchangers might be carried out successfully with substantial U overall heat transfer coefficient (W/m2 8C)
reduction in processing time and energy, and as a consequence, consid- DP pressure drop (Pa)
erable increase in quality or nutritional parameters in food products
could be achieved since long thermal processing could damage their
structure easily, denature proteins or destabilize some soluble Subscripts
ingredients extensively. h hot
c cold
AC KNOW LEDG EME NT f fluid
It is necessary to appreciate Iran National Science Foundation (INSF) t tube-side
for the financial support. s shell-side
m mean

NOMENC LAT UR E w wall

i inside
Cp heat capacity (kJ/kg/8C)
o outside
T1 input temperature (8C)
T2 output temperature (8C)
l viscosity (Pa.s) ORC ID
Q heat load (kJ/s) Seid Mahdi Jafari http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6877-9549
_
m mass flow rate (kg/s)
DTlm logarithmic mean temperature difference (8C) R EFE R ENC E S
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How to cite this article: Jafari SM, Saramnejad F, Dehnad D.
Designing and application of a shell and tube heat exchanger
for nanofluid thermal processing of liquid food products. J Food
Process Eng. 2017;e12658. https://doi.org/10.1111/jfpe.12658