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Counterflow: The Same Area Does More When the Streams Run Opposite
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Emma

Criado por

Emma

27. setembro 2026SE
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Counterflow: The Same Area Does More When the Streams Run Opposite

Every heat exchanger in this batch — the economiser, the condenser, the plate exchanger — is built to one rule: make the hot and cold streams run in opposite directions. It is the single cheapest improvement in heat transfer, because it costs no extra metal. Run the same way, two streams approach a common middle temperature and stop; the cold one can never leave hotter than the hot one does. Run opposite, the cold stream meets the hottest fluid just as it leaves, and can come out warmer than the hot stream exits. This rung builds a tube-in-tube exchanger from a copper tube inside a hose, logs four temperatures with an Arduino, and runs it both ways to measure the difference.
Intermediário
About 5 hours

Instruções

1

Parallel against counterflow, in numbers

A carregar o notebook Jupyter…
2

Build a tube-in-tube exchanger

Take 2 m of 10 mm copper tube and slide it inside 2 m of clear vinyl tube with a bore comfortably larger — the annulus between them is the second channel. At each end fit a tee from the PVC fittings kit: the copper passes straight through the tee and is sealed where it exits with silicone; the tee's side branch is the jacket connection. You now have two independent channels: inside the copper, and between copper and vinyl. Coil the whole thing loosely and insulate it with glass wool, leaving the four connections free. Push a waterproof temperature probe into each of the four connections through a hole sealed with silicone.

Materiais para este passo:

Tubo de cobre de 10 mmTubo de cobre de 10 mm2 metros
Tubo de vinil transparenteTubo de vinil transparente2.5 metros
Sortido de acessórios para tubo de PVCSortido de acessórios para tubo de PVC1 conjunto
Vedante de siliconeVedante de silicone1 peça
Isolamento de lã de vidroIsolamento de lã de vidro1 sqm
Sortido de abraçadeiras de mangueiraSortido de abraçadeiras de mangueira1 conjunto
Temperature Sensor - Waterproof (DS18B20)Temperature Sensor - Waterproof (DS18B20)4 peças

Ferramentas necessárias:

Corta-tubosCorta-tubos
Berbequim sem fiosBerbequim sem fios
Jogo de brocasJogo de brocas
Luvas de trabalho em couroLuvas de trabalho em couro
3

The logger

Four DS18B20 probes on a single data wire, logging hot in, hot out, cold in and cold out every few seconds as comma-separated lines you can paste into the notebook or a spreadsheet.
hx_logger.inoarduino
/*
  hx_logger.ino -- log the four temperatures of a tube-in-tube heat exchanger.

  Four DS18B20 waterproof probes on ONE data wire: hot in, hot out, cold in,
  cold out. Libraries (Library Manager): "OneWire" and "DallasTemperature".
  Wiring: all probes' red -> 5V, black -> GND, yellow (data) -> D2.
          Pull-up between D2 and 5V of about 4.7 k: two 10 k resistors in
          parallel give 5 k, which works on short leads.
  First run prints each probe's address: label the probes in that order.
*/
#include <OneWire.h>
#include <DallasTemperature.h>

const int PIN_BUS = 2;
OneWire bus(PIN_BUS);
DallasTemperature sensors(&bus);
DeviceAddress addr[4];
const char* NAMES[4] = {"hot_in", "hot_out", "cold_in", "cold_out"};
int found = 0;

void printAddress(DeviceAddress a) {
  for (int i = 0; i < 8; i++) {
    if (a[i] < 16) Serial.print('0');
    Serial.print(a[i], HEX);
  }
}

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(9600);
  sensors.begin();
  found = sensors.getDeviceCount();
  if (found > 4) found = 4;
  for (int i = 0; i < found; i++) {
    sensors.getAddress(addr[i], i);
    sensors.setResolution(addr[i], 12);
    Serial.print(F("# probe ")); Serial.print(i); Serial.print(F(" = "));
    printAddress(addr[i]); Serial.print(F(" -> ")); Serial.println(NAMES[i]);
  }
  Serial.println(F("seconds,hot_in,hot_out,cold_in,cold_out"));
}

void loop() {
  sensors.requestTemperatures();          // ~750 ms at 12-bit resolution
  Serial.print(millis() / 1000);
  for (int i = 0; i < found; i++) {
    Serial.print(',');
    Serial.print(sensors.getTempC(addr[i]), 2);
  }
  Serial.println();
  delay(4000);
}

/*
  The heat each side carried, from the logged steady values:
     Q_hot  = m_hot  * 4186 * (hot_in  - hot_out)    watts, m in kg/s
     Q_cold = m_cold * 4186 * (cold_out - cold_in)
  They should agree within a few per cent. If Q_hot is much larger, heat is
  leaking out of the jacket to the room: insulate it.
*/

Materiais para este passo:

Arduino Uno R3Arduino Uno R31 peça
Resistor de 10 quilo-ohmsResistor de 10 quilo-ohms2 peças
Fios de ligaçãoFios de ligação1 conjunto

Ferramentas necessárias:

Computador com o IDE ArduinoComputador com o IDE Arduino
4

Run it both ways

Feed the copper with hot water from a bucket on a shelf — about 60 °C from a kettle topped up with cold — and the jacket with cold tap water. Set both flows to the same rate by timing each outlet into a measuring jug (aim for about 1 litre per minute). **Parallel:** both streams enter at the same end. Let the logger settle for five minutes and note the four temperatures. **Counterflow:** swap the jacket's hoses so the cold enters at the far end. Keep both flows the same. Settle and note. Compare the cold outlet in the two runs. In counterflow it comes out noticeably warmer — often warmer than the hot outlet — with no change to the hardware except which way one hose points. Work out the heat each side carried; they should agree within a few per cent.

Materiais para este passo:

ÁguaÁgua40 litros

Ferramentas necessárias:

Jarro elétrico de vidroJarro elétrico de vidro
BaldeBalde
Jarro medidorJarro medidor
CronómetroCronómetro
Termómetro de cozinhaTermómetro de cozinha
5

Context

A practice rung: no patent anchors counterflow — it is physics that engineers learned and wrote into every exchanger. The effectiveness–NTU method used in the notebook was set out in the mid-twentieth century and is how exchangers are sized today. Where it shows up in this catalogue: the economiser meets the coolest gas with the coldest water; the Stirling engine's regenerator and a rocket's regenerative cooling both depend on it; the Linde air liquefier works only because its counterflow exchanger lets the cold returning gas pre-cool the incoming gas. **Honest limits.** Counterflow gains most when you want the streams to approach each other's temperatures; for a small temperature change on one side it matters less. And it cannot beat the laws: with equal flows even a perfect counterflow exchanger only approaches 100 % effectiveness as its area goes to infinity.

Materiais

11

Ferramentas necessárias

10
Total estimado
O que quem fez comprou. Os materiais sem preço obtêm-se onde os comprares.
R$196.12

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