Simulation of heat transfer in the convection section of fired process heaters

Heat transfer analysis of the radiation section in a fired process heater was carried out in order to determine the flue gas and process fluid temperatures in the zone separating the convection and the radiation sections. Such a determination is a pre-requisite for the heat transfer analysis of the convection section. A Matlab computer programme for the heat transfer analysis of the convection section was written and the results presented graphically including process heat load, the amount of absorbed heat per layer in the convection section and the temperature profiles of combustion gases, tube wall and process fluid

Matlab program computes thermal efficiency of fired heater

Two basic methods are normally employed for the calculation and estimation of the thermal efficiency of fired heaters, viz. the direct and the indirect methods, where the net calorific value is used in the former and the gross calorific value is used in the latter. Two Matlab programmes based on these methods were written and applied for the calculation of the thermal efficiency of a crude oil heater. The results are presented in the form of Sankey diagrams