The Delaware method, as originally developed and on which the method presented here is based, is more or less explicitly confined to the design of fully-tubed E-shell configurations using plain tubes. However, there are many process reasons-better balance required between the shell-side and the tube-side heat transfer coefficients, vibration problems, more effective use of available shell-side pressure drop in low-pressure-drop cases, etc. — that lead to the importance of applying the method to variant configurations.

The most important alternative geometries and how the method can be adapted to them are dealt with in this section. However, only a few can be described explicitly at this time. Others are explained only qualitatively, as additional correlational work is necessary. It is foreseen that these will be included in a forthcoming supplement.

For detailed description of the various shell and bundle geometries, refer to Section 4.2.

A. Divided flow, TEMA J shell

A diagramatic sketch of this arrangement is shown in Figure 1 with a single inlet nozzle and two outlet nozzles.