What is the difference between a Pressure Vessel and a Heat Exchanger?
Well!!! Both are not so close to be differentiated.. A pressure vessel is a closed container designed to hold gases or liquids at a pressure different from the ambient pressure. The Pressure may vary from 1.1 bar (a) to 5000 bar (a) [in some cases!!]. A common design is a cylinder with hemispherical end caps called heads. Pressure vessels are used in a variety of applications like road vehicle airbrake reservoir and storage vessels for liquified gases such as ammonia, chlorine, propane, butane and LPG. On the other hand,... A Heat Exchanger is a device built for efficient heat transfer from one medium to another, whether the media are separated by a solid wall so that they never mix, or the media are in direct contact. One common example of a heat exchanger is the radiator in a car, in which the heat source, being a hot engine-cooling fluid, water, transfers heat to air flowing through the radiator [i.e. the heat transfer medium]. They are widely used in refrigeration, air conditioning, power plants,etc.
Um, Difference? Yeah, they're different all right. One contains fluid at a relatively high pressure, and the other exchanges heat between two different fluids without letting the fluids mix. A better question would be are there any similarities between them? Only one I can think of; they both contain fluids.
A heat exchanger is like a radiator. A pressure vessel is like a gas tank. Hope this properly answers your question
A pressure vessel holds or contains a fluid. A heat exchanger heats or cool fluids. The temperature of either can be extremely hot to very cold. Or somewhere in between. Most heat exchangers are also pressure vessels and pressure vessels can be heat exchanger. How is that for a contradiction?
Maybe when the Heat Exchanger connected to a close loop circuit and containing a cooling and heating fluid medium whether it is liquid or gas form then I agree this will be consider as a pressure vessel because I m sure it will be equipped will pressure relief valve.
