Heat exchanger codes and standards

Construction and fabrication are governed and controlled by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).

By Jose R Rodriguez, Mike Sammut, and Arslan Asovic October 28, 2013

Regardless of the type of the heat exchanger used, construction and fabrication are governed by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) under BPV Code, Section VIII Division I: Design and Fabrication of Pressure Vessels. 

ASME codes use mandatory guides for fabrication of pressure vessels, which include rules and recommendations for material selection, design, testing, and inspection of the heat exchanger. The codes cover all aspects of the construction of heat exchangers except the types of service loads (other than pressure) and the thermal design. 

AHRI 400-2001 with Addenda 1 and 2: Liquid to Liquid Heat Exchangers was developed for plate and frame heat exchangers because many applications in commercial HVAC systems were designed with very close temperature approaches. AHRI developed testing requirements more stringent than those traditionally used, such as total heat transfer rate >= 95% of published and tested pressure drop <= 110% of published. 


Jose R. Rodriguez is a technical services engineer with Wallace Eannace Assocs. where he has more than 15 years of experience in HVAC and plumbing. Mike Sammut, partner at AKF Group, has more than 30 years of experience in HVAC. Arslan Asovic is project engineer at AKF Group and has more than 10 years of experience in HVAC.