Thermal-hydraulic Performance Analysis of Corrugated Plate Heat Exchanger

Abstract

Plate heat exchangers (PHEs) have been getting popularity in industries due to their low cost, high heat transfer efficiency and operational flexibility. Heat transfer enhancement could be achieved by using the PHE with corrugated plate configuration, which provides additional heat transfer area and increased turbulence in fluid flow. This work explored how complex corrugated plates with different chevron angles, channel depth and pitch in multi-segmented configuration could further improve thermal-hydraulic performance of the PHE. Water was used as the heat transfer fluid. Key geometrical parameters were first identified as different chevron angles (βhigh and βlow), corrugation aspect ratio (γ) and number of plate segments (NS). Then, thermal-hydraulic models for the PHE with a wide range of corrugation geometries have been proposed and validated. These models could accurately estimate heat transfer and flow friction loss of the PHE with different plate corrugation structures and provide deep insight into the influence of the corrugation geometries. They could be applied as a guide in PHE design, operational optimization and heat transfer network retrofit in industries.