Rate, simulate, and design air coolers and economizers

Xace^® is an incremental program that rates, simulates, and designs crossflow heat exchangers, such as air coolers and heat recovery bundles. The heat transfer and pressure drop correlations are continually improved as a result of our ongoing research.

As a module in Xchanger Suite^®, Xace lets you quickly transfer applicable case data to other components like Xist^® or Xhpe^®.

Features

• Models virtually any bundle arrangement.
• 3D incrementation calculates localized profiles for heat transfer, pressure drop, and flow regimes.
• Detailed output reports provide overall and localized results.
• Extensive visualization tools show exactly how the exchanger is performing.
• Integrated physical property system eliminates requirement for additional property generation software. Xchanger Suite includes VMGThermo™, an extensive and rigorous fluid physical property generator from Virtual Materials Group, Inc.
• Includes built-in interface to most process simulators and mechanical design software.
• Can be embedded as a unit operation in any process simulator supporting CAPE-OPEN.
• Both input and output can be displayed in multiple unit sets, including user-defined sets. Dynamic display of values in all unit sets. 
• Integration with Exchanger Optimizer™ provides embedded costing features, which include fabrication, installation, and operational estimates for design cases.

Geometry Specifications

• Forced and induced draft, A-frame, and no fan configurations
• Horizontal, vertical, and inclined tubes
• Up to nine different tube geometries per bundle
• High-finned, low-finned, continuous-finned, stud-finned, and plain tubes
• Twisted tape inserts and internal microfin tubes
• Staggered and inline arrangements with any combination of transverse and longitudinal pitch
• Up to 99 tuberows per bundle
• Automatic or user-specified bundle layouts
• Single bundle, multiple bays, bundles in parallel, and multiple bundles/services options
• Split-pass headers with up to 24 tubepasses in each tuberow

Calculation Features

• Rigorous heat transfer and pressure drop calculations using a 3D incrementation scheme that divides the exchanger into a large number of zones
• Flexible process input allowing specification of known process information (temperature, weight fraction vapor, and/or flow rate) with the program calculating missing information based on energy balance
• Three modes: rating (known duty and geometry), simulation (unknown duty and known geometry), and design (known duty and unknown geometry)
• Forced- and natural-draft calculations
• Option to switch on/off effects of gray gas radiation 
• Airside flow and temperature maldistribution models
• Integrated vendor-supplied fan selection software
• HTRI research-based methods or ESCOA methods for high-finned tubes

Design Tools

• Automatic optimization of tuberows, bundle width, tubepasses, and airside face velocity
• Grid design option to vary geometry over user-specified ranges and step sizes
• Design constraints to prevent selection of undesirable designs

Outputs

• Extensive set of spreadsheet-style output reports can be printed or exported to Microsoft^® Excel^®
• Summary reports with overall results in one or two pages
• Detailed reports for local profiles of all important parameters (temperature, pressure, heat transfer coefficients, heat flux, etc.)
• Standard API 661/ISO 13706 style specification sheet
• 2D and 3D scaled drawings provide visual confirmation of exchanger geometry, allowing for quick identification of performance issues
• Bundle layout drawing illustrates exact tube placement, including tubepass and tube type
• User-defined graphs for easy accessibility