This MATLAB simulation solves for the hot (solid red lines) and cold (solid blue lines) fluid temperatures as a function of normalized position x/L along the length of a heat exchanger for both counterflow (left plot) and parallel flow (right plot) configurations. Here, L is the length of the heat exchanger. Adjust the hot and cold fluid inlet temperatures T_h,i and T_c,i, the overall heat transfer coefficient U, the length of the heat exchanger L, and the hot and cold fluid heat capacity rates C_h and C_c using the slider bars. The total heat transferred by the fluids for counterflow and parallel flow q_CF and q_PF and the hot and cold fluid outlet temperatures T_h,o and T_c,o are indicated in the schematic.

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This simulation requires MATLAB.

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This simulation was made at the University of Colorado Boulder, Department of Mechanical Engineering.  Author: Keith Regner