CL - 209

Ritik Raj
March 5, 2026

Process Equipment Design: Complete Formula Sheet

1. Pressure Vessel Design

1.1 Cylindrical & Spherical Vessels
• Design Pressure Calculation:

Pstatic = ρ · g · h (1)

Pdesign = Poperating + Pstatic + 0.05 · (Poperating + Pstatic ) (2)

• Cylindrical Shell Thickness (Outer Diameter Basis):

P · Do
t= +C (3)
2f J + P

• Spherical Vessel Pressure Handling Limit:

4f J(t − C)
P = (4)
Do − (t − C)

1.2 Vessel Enclosures (Heads)

• Ellipsoidal Head Thickness:
P · Rc · Cs
t= +C (5)
2f J + P (Cs − 0.2)

• Shape Factor for Ellipsoidal Head:

r !
1 Rc
Cs = 3+ (6)
4 Rk

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 Variables:
t: Thickness of the plate/shell (m or mm)
P : Design pressure (Pa or N/m2 )
Do : Outer diameter of the vessel (m)
f : Allowable design stress (N/m2 ); f = Y ieldStress/F OS
J: Joint efficiency factor
C: Corrosion allowance (m or mm)
Rc : Crown radius (m)
Rk : Knuckle radius (m) (Typically 6%Rc )

2. Heat Exchangers: General Fundamentals

• Mass Velocity Relation:
ṁ
G= (7)
A
• Heat Duty (Balance):

Q = ṁh · Cp,h · (T1 − T2 ) = ṁc · Cp,c · (t2 − t1 ) (8)

• Log Mean Temperature Difference (LMTD):

∆T2 − ∆T1
LM T D =   (9)
∆T2
ln ∆T 1

• Temperature Correction Ratios (For Ft Chart):

T1 − T2 t2 − t 1
R= , S= (10)
t2 − t 1 T1 − t1

• Corrected Temperature Difference:

∆Tm = Ft · LM T D (11)

• Required Heat Transfer Area:

Q
A= (12)
UD · ∆Tm

[Image of overall heat transfer coefficient thermal resistance circuit]

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2.1 Overall Heat Transfer Coefficient
• Basic Overall Heat Transfer Coefficient:
1 1 1
= + + Rf (13)
U hi ho

• Complete Overall Heat Transfer Coefficient (Referred to Outside

Area Uo ):
1 Do Do ln(Do /Di ) 1
= + + + Rf (14)
Uo Di hi 2kw ho
Variables:
G: Mass velocity (kg/m2 · s)
ṁ: Mass flow rate (kg/s)
A: Cross-sectional flow area (m2 )
U, Uo : Overall heat transfer coefficient (and referred to outside area)
hi , ho : Inside and outside convective heat transfer coefficients
kw : Thermal conductivity of the tube wall material
Rf : Total fouling factor/dirt resistance

[Image of double pipe heat exchanger hairpin configuration]

3. Double Pipe Heat Exchangers

• Heat Transfer Area & Length:
Ltotal
A = π · Do · Ltotal Nhairpins = (15)
2 · Lleg

• Flow Areas:
π 2 π 2 2
ap = D , aa = (D − Dinner,outer ) (16)
4 inner 4 outer,inner

• Equivalent Diameter (Annulus):

De = D2 − D1 (F orf rictionandheattransf er) (17)

• Pressure Drop (in psi using standard FPS units):

4 · f · G2 · L
∆Pp = (18)
2 · g · ρ2 · D

[Image of shell and tube heat exchanger internal baffles and tie rods]

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4. Shell & Tube Heat Exchangers (1-2 and 2-4
Configurations)
4.1 Tube-Side Heat Transfer
• Tube-Side Nusselt Number (Dittus-Boelter Equation):
N u = 0.023 · Re0.8 · P r0.4 (19)

• Tube-Side Heat Transfer Coefficient:

Nu · k
hi = (20)
Di
4.2 Shell-Side Geometry & Flow Areas
• Shell-Side Flow Area (as ):
IDshell · C ′ · B
as = (1 − 2Exchanger) (21)
144 · PT
IDshell · C ′ · B
 
1
as = · (2 − 4Exchanger) (22)
2 144 · PT
• Tube-Side Flow Area (at ):
Nt · ai
at = (23)
144 · n
• Equivalent Diameter (Square Pitch):
πD 2
 
4 PT2 − 4 o
De = (24)
πDo
• Equivalent Diameter (Triangular Pitch):


1.10 PT2 − 0.917Do2
De = (25)
Do
4.3 Shell-Side Heat Transfer Correlations
• Shell-Side Heat Transfer Coefficient (Using Colburn j-factor):
 1/3
k Cp µ
ho = jH · · · ϕs (26)
De k
• Tube Wall Temperature (Iterative):
ho
tw = tc + (Te − tc ) (27)
hio + ho
• Viscosity Correction Factor:
 0.14
µ
ϕs = (28)
µw

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4.4 Pressure Drop Equations (Kern’s Method - FPS units)
• Shell-Side Pressure Drop:

f · G2s · Ds · (N + 1)
∆Ps = (29)
5.22 × 1010 · De · s · ϕs

• Tube-Side Pressure Drop:

f · G2t · L · n
∆Pt = (30)
5.22 × 1010 · D · s · ϕt

• Return Pressure Drop (per pass):

4n v 2
 
∆Pr = (31)
s 2g ′

• Total Tube-Side Pressure Drop:

∆PT = ∆Pt + ∆Pr (32)

Variables:
C ′ : Clearance between adjacent tubes (PT − Do )
B: Baffle spacing
Nt : Total number of tubes
n: Number of tube passes
N : Number of baffles (N + 1 = times fluid crosses bundle)
s: Specific gravity of the fluid
jH : Colburn heat transfer factor (from charts)

[Image of plate heat exchanger flow arrangement]

5. Plate Heat Exchangers

• Number of Transfer Units (NTU) & Corrected ∆Tm :

Th1 − Th2
NTU = (33)
∆Tlm
∆Tm = F · ∆Tlm (whereF isf oundf romN T U charts) (34)

• Geometry & Channels:

A Np − 1
Np = , Nch = (35)
Ap 2

Ac = w · b, De = 2 · b (36)

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 • Heat Transfer (Nusselt relation for plates):

N u = 0.26 · Re0.65 · P r0.4 (37)

Nu · k
h= (38)
De
• Pressure Drop in Plates:

jf = 0.6 · Re−0.3 (39)

!
ρ · u2p
 
Lpath
∆Pp = 8 · jf · · (40)
De 2

Variables:
Ap : Effective area per plate (m2 )
b: Plate spacing (channel gap) (m)
w: Plate width (m)
up , upt : Fluid velocity inside the channel and port velocity respectively (m/s)

[Image of condensation on horizontal tubes]

6. Condenser Design
• Condenser Heat Load:

Q = ṁvap · ∆Hvap = mwater · Cp · ∆T (41)

• Condensation Heat Transfer Coefficient (Nusselt Equation for

Shell-Side):
 1/3
ρl (ρl − ρv )g
hc = 0.95 · Kl Nr−1/6 (42)
µl · Γ

• Condenser Shell-Side Pressure Drop:

Ds L ρv · v 2
 
1
∆Ps = 8·f · · · (43)
2 De LB 2

Variables:
∆Hvap : Latent heat of vaporization (J/kg)
Γ: Tube loading
Nr : Average number of tubes in a vertical column

[Image of vertical thermosyphon reboiler diagram]

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7. Reboiler Design
• Reduced Temperature (Thermosyphon Reboiler):

Tsteam − Tb
Tr = (44)
Tb + 273

• Heat Duty & Vaporization Rate:

Q = ṅ · λ (45)

• Area Required (Based on Heat Flux):

Q
A= (46)
q

• Tube Bundle Diameter:

 1/n1
Nt
Db = do (47)
K1

Variables:
ṅ: Molar vaporization rate (kmol/hr)
λ: Molar latent heat of vaporization (kJ/kmol)
q: Design heat flux (W/m2 ) obtained from standard charts based on Tr
K1 , n1 : Empirical constants based on pass configuration and pitch layout