I am tasked with evaluating the performance of several condensers around my unit and plan to compare my calculated overall heat transfer coefficients to clean U values.
I have the cooling water flow rate, inlet/outlet temperatures of both streams, the composition of the vapor that is to be condensed, and the total tube area. With this information I can calculate the total duty transferred, and back calculate the flow rate of the condensing stream (assuming complete condensing, which should be true for this stream)
From schooling I remember you can calculate the overall heat transfer coefficient U using
U=Q/(A*(LMTD))
but for this scenario I expect the Log Mean Temperature Difference will be skewed as the hot side inlet and outlet temperature will be very close, assuming the hot side outlet is not sub cooled.
Are there any other equations I should be using to arrive at my U value or any correction factors that are needed when dealing with condensing streams?