What we’re about.

Concept Engineering International is at its core a heat transfer enhancement solutions company and its product line reflects that.

Broadly speaking, in the heat exchanger world there are two sides to the heat transfer story, the tubeside and the shell/airside depending on the equipment.

We have the widest range of in-tube and on-tube heat transfer enhancement solutions; the entire range of Turbulators and Pin Fin Tubes.

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We also have the ability to size equipment using either our Turbulators or Finned Tubes or both as thermal correlations for them have been mined and analysed from the CEI Thermodynamics Research Division. For a detailed overview visit the Research section.

All our data and performance curves are harmonized and easily inputtable into major heat transfer software and usable for proprietary calculations.

Get in touch with the Applications Engineers at CEI for assistance.

Because when we say ‘Heat Transfer. Optimized.’, we mean it.

Markets we occupy.

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90% of our production is exported to The USA, Mexico, The UK, Austria, Germany, Norway, Turkey, France, Russia, The UAE, Oman, Bahrain, The Phillipines, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand.

This is an ever-expanding list as we’re always on the lookout for strategic partnerships the world over.

The two beasts for in-tube and on-tube heat transfer maximization.

Turbulators:

A turbulator works on the principle of flow agitation and is especially useful in viscous fluids or in applications where the tubeside coefficient is lower than the shellside or airside coefficient. Its in-tube effect is an increase in Colburn J Factor, thanks to its peculiar design, which transitions the flow from laminar to turbulent. The end result is an enormous increase in heat transfer per length of tube for an increase in pressure drop. Get an in depth look in the Turbulator section.

Pin Fin Tubes:

Pin Fin Tubes are a tube-surface extension where the wire loops provide maximum turbulation to the air flow which is much higher than is the case with normal helical fins. The fact that the fins are soldered gives close to 100% bonding to the tube which not only increases the net heat transfer but ensures that the fin tubes can withstand high pressure cleaning. Get an in depth look in the Pin Fin Tube section.

Data and Thermodynamic Correlations.

The CEI Thermodynamics Research Division was set up to generate thermal correlations for all our products.

It houses a fully automated SCADA controlled turbulator test rig and wind tunnel to test wire wound fin tubes.

To date, we’ve taken 250,000+ data points on all our insert geometries and this data has not only gone through multi-stage validations but is easily inputtable into major heat transfer software. Details on performance curves and data sharing protocols under NDAs are touched upon in The Research section of this website.

Turbulator Test Rig

  1. Consists of a 3 meter long pipe-in-pipe or shell and tube exchanger with water on the shellside and hot oil on the tubeside. Oil currently used is MAK 220 hydraulic oil. There are 6 interchangable heat exchangers covering tube sizes 1.5”, 1.25”, 1”, 3/4”, 5/8” and 3/8”.
  2. On the oilside, there is a 150 kg boiler, 300 litre insulated hot oil tank, 125 LPM gear pump, flowmeter, temperature sensors in the oil tank, at exchanger inlet and outlet as well as a differential pressure gauge to record pressure between inlet and outlet.
  3. On the water side, there is a 2,000 litre ambient water tank, 500 LPM pump, flow meter as well as temperature sensors at the inlet and outlet.
  4. The SCADA system does the test typically in the following steps. These steps can be changed by changing the recipe.
    1. Raise the oil temperature in 7 steps from 60 to 120 degrees in 10 degree increments.
    2. At each preset temperature raise the flowrate from 10 lpm to 90 lpm in 5 litre increments.
    3. At each combination of temperature and flow rate preset after stabilization of flow, take 60 readings at a preset time interval (say 5 seconds).
    4. Keep raising the flow rate and taking the readings till a pressure drop limit is reached.
  5. This data is transferred to the Thermodynamics Research Division cloud. It is then analysed and the plots and power curves developed. These are made in a form inputtable into major heat transfer software.
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Wind Tunnel

The wind tunnel is 22 feet long and is induced draft. It also has the full complement of controls and sensors and records the data on temperature, pressure and velocity. The fluid on the tubeside is 3 bar steam. The fan speed is varied in increments and the temperature and pressure readings are taken.

What the Product Pre-selector is.

Over the course of collecting 250,000+ data points on various turbulator geometries through our Thermodynamics Research Division, we have provided for (in the Product Preselector section) a proprietary tool to allow our customers and would-be customers a way to preselect the turbulator best suited for their application. All they need to do is input some basic specifics of their application along with equipment dimensions and the Product Pre-selector will identify suitable standard models that can get the job done in terms of both heat transfer and pressure drop.

Currently, the selector works only for our Flexible Turbulators but in time we will be adding the Rigid Turbulator and Wire Wound Fin Tube (Pin Fin Tube) functionality.