Development of VB Based Software For Design And Analysis of Heat Exchangers

The exchange of heat is one of the most important processes in the mechanical industry and heat exchanger is the major equipment used to transfer heat from one medium to another. This project work on the Computer Aided Design (CAD) of shell and tube, double pipe and spiral coil heat exchanger aims to provide an easy way to design it. A case study question was taken and all the necessary calculations in the thermal design are carried out using standard method of heat exchanger design. The thermal design is then used as a guide to the computer aided design using computer codes. The computer software program used is the Visual Basic called Visual Basic 6.0 (VB 6) because of its numerous advantages over the other software programmes. The result gotten from the computer aided design was compared to the result from the thermal design. The computer aided design software was equally used to test other problems on shell and tube, double pipe and spiral coil heat exchanger. Because the computer aided design was found to be more accurate, quicker and more efficient, it was recommended for use in companies and industries.