TIVAC Computer Controlled Steam to Water Heat Exchanger

The Computer Controlled Steam to Water Heat Exchanger, "TIVAC", is a unit designed to study condensation phenomena in shell and tube heat exchangers.

It mainly consists of a steam chamber, which is a vertical cylinder made of resistant glass. The helical heating element is located at the bottom. It provides heat to a given volume of water contained in the chamber.

The condenser is located at the upper side of the chamber. It is formed by a group of four U-shape copper tubes arranged in series. The way of configuring the condenser in one, two, three or four passes is easily changed with manual valves.

The cooling fluid (tap water) that will be heated in the condensation process passes through this system of tubes of the condenser. For a constant cooling water flow, the heat transfer surface will increase as the number of passes in the condenser increases.

The steam generated in the chamber by the heating element rises towards the tubes of the condenser, where it is condensed on the external surface of those tubes. Once condensed, it drops to the bottom of the steam chamber, where it is evaporated again.

The unit includes a vacuum system (water jet pump) to boost the evaporation. This system makes it possible to reach a negative pressure in the steam chamber, decreasing the water boiling temperature. Likewise, this system assists the process by extracting the air initially contained in the chamber, so that there will be only water and steam in the chamber.

This Computer Controlled Unit is supplied with the EDIBON Computer Control System (SCADA), and includes: The unit itself + a Control Interface Box + a Data Acquisition Board + Computer Control, Data Acquisition and Data Management Software Packages, for controlling the process and all parameters involved in the process.