HTRI Xchanger Suite, the most advanced tool for the design, rating, and simulation of heat exchangers, brings our rigorous research to end users in an integrated graphical environment. With the addition of our latest component—Xspe—HTRI’s premier technology and expertise are available in a full complement of products for all your engineering needs.
HTRI Xchanger Suite components share many common features.
Supporting Data
Since 1962, HTRI has collected and analyzed data from industrial-sized units. These data have been used to develop the methods and correlations integral to our software. Heat transfer and pressure drop correlations are continually reviewed and updated as part of our ongoing research program.
A partial list of HTRI data banks follows:
high-finned tubes
shellside single-phase
shellside flow boiling
plate heat exchangers
tubeside boiling
shellside pool boiling
shellside condensation
tubeside condensation (horizontal, inclined, vertical, and reflux)
tubeside single-phase
Input/Output
Each Xchanger Suite component accepts data and can provide output in SI, U.S. Customary, MKH, and user-specified units. Most components have identical input structure: process conditions and physical properties are entered in the same way, using the same input panels. You can set units across an entire case or item-by-item.
Output from the various components also is similar. Process conditions, geometry, nozzles, and other common elements print in the same areas of reports.
Documentation
All components fully incorporate documentation as online help. You can instantaneously access explanatory text, helpful illustrations, and reference information, as well as learn how to enter specific cases.
Interfaces
Xchanger Suite components link to other software, including process simulators, mechanical design programs, physical property data banks and systems, and integrated engineering software. Direct connections are provided to some software from the graphical interface; in other cases, components create an output file specifically tailored for input to database software. All components are designed to connect easily with many applications.
HTRI Xchanger Suite is CAPE-OPEN–compliant. You can insert an air cooler, a heat recovery bundle, a shell-and-tube, or a plate-and-frame heat exchanger into any process simulator that supports the CAPE-OPEN 1.0 standard, giving you instant access to HTRI’s technology while running the simulation.
All fluid property input panels have property grid input options that can interface with process simulator programs. Because Xchanger Suite is an automation server, other applications such as Microsoft Excel can call the exchanger modules (e.g., Xist) directly. Xace, Xist, and Xphe also have a DLL interface that can call these modules.
Xist operates directly with process simulators such as HYSYS®, PRO/II, UniSim® Design, Petro-SIM, and VMGSim, as well as with Aspen Plus through CAPE-OPEN. Xchanger Suite also links to VMGThermo™ (included with Xchanger Suite), PPDS™, HYSYS, PRO/II, UniSim Design, and REFPROP for generation of physical properties and heat release curves. Further, Xchanger Suite can open HYSYS, UniSim Design, Petro-SIM, and PRO/II simulation files and load the heat exchangers for detailed analysis.
Through our contract services, HTRI can assist members in developing special interfaces to our software.
Testing
To ensure the highest quality product, each new component and all modifications to existing components undergo extensive testing against
applicable HTRI research data
cases designed to test all options and basic correlations and to ensure reasonable extrapolation
cases with reported limitations
all cases sent in as part of customer service inquiries
Our test sets are very large. For example, the test set for Xist contains more than 11500 cases, and the test set for Xace contains more than 6500 cases.