Design of Printed Circuit Heat Exchanger (PCHE) for LNG Re-Gasification System

Abstract

In this paper, we present the ongoing process of the research and development of the Printed Circuit Heat Exchanger (PCHE) on Floating Storage Regasification Unit (FSRU). We performed a structural simulation work to find the optimal design of fluid channels on heat transfer plates, fabricated the heat transfer plates, and calculated the capacity of the PCHE using our analytical tool. In the simulation work, the plates having channels of 1 mm semicircular cross section were designed by varying the wall thickness between channels. At a temperature, 1373 K, compressing pressures were varied as 30, 85.7, and 500 bars. Based on the simulation results, we fabricated and bonded heat transfer plates using the diffusion bonding equipment which our department developed. Then, the sizing of PCHE was done with analytical calculation for the developing PCHE on FSRU.

Technical Characteristics and Development Trend of Printed Circuit Heat Exchanger Applied in Floating Liquefied Natural Gas

“…The existing research studies on the PCHE applied in FLNG mainly include the mechanical performance, the thermal-hydraulic performance under stable conditions, and the thermal-hydraulic performance under sloshing conditions. The mechanical performance is the key factor to evaluate the reliability of PCHE, and the optimizations of the mechanical performance of PCHE have been performed based on the deformation analysis in the process of diffusion bonding under high-temperature conditions by former researchers (Yoon et al, 2017;Xu et al, 2022). The thermal-hydraulic performance under stable conditions is the basis of the PCHE design, and the related research studies cover the quantitative analysis of thermal-hydraulic characteristics of PCHEs with various structural parameters and the correlation development of thermal-hydraulic characteristics (Shin and No, 2017;Popov et al, 2019;Bohong Wang et al, 2021;Li and Yu, 2021;Jin et al, 2022;Yang et al, 2022;Zhou et al, 2022).…”

Numerical investigation on flow and heat transfer characteristics of supercritical methane–ethane mixture in a straight channel

“…It was found that specific heat and mass flow rate of both two fluids are revealed to have the most important impact on local thermal characteristics. Yoon et al [31] performed a structural simulation to find the optimal design of channels for developing PCHE on floating storage and regasification units. The results indicated that the deformation caused from the diffusion bonding process at high temperature was predicted through analysis.…”