Experimental and Numerical Study on Hydraulic Performance of Chevron Brazed Plate Heat Exchanger at Low Reynolds Number

Abstract

Few experiments have been performed to investigate the hydraulic performance in a chevron brazed plate heat exchanger (BPHE) with the narrow channel at lower Reynolds number. The hydraulic characteristics of seven types of chevron BPHEs were investigated experimentally and numerical simulation revealed the effects of structural parameters on hydraulic performances. The correlations between friction factor f and Re were fitted out based on more than 500 sets of pressure drop data. The research results show that there is a power-law between f and Re; which has a similar trend but a different amplitude for different plates, and the exponent of the power-law could be approximate to a constant. Numerical results show that the pressure drop Δp is positively correlated with the corrugated angle and spacing, however, negatively correlated with the corrugated height. Research on the hydraulic performance is significant for the optimal design of BPHE.

Model Validation for the Heat Transfer in Gasket Plate Heat Exchangers Working with Vegetable Oils

“…Thus, Gut and Pinto [11] developed a model including six constructive parameters of PHEs, and their simulations results are: the temperature profile and the distribution of the overall heat transfer coefficients in the apparatus, the thermal effectiveness, the pressure drop. Zhong et al [19] established the governing equation for the flow in channels, developed the correlation for f as function of Re, at Re < 50 and validated the model with their own experimental data.…”

“…For convenience, in many studies, the experimental fluid is hot water/cold water. Rarely, other fluids are considered, e.g., high viscosity refrigeration liquids [19,22], salt solutions [15] or unspecified (mineral or vegetable) oil [16].…”

Characterization of brazed plate heat exchanger performance based on experimental and coupled heat-fluid-solid numerical simulation

“…They compared the simulated and experimental data and concluded that there was a deviation of 25% in the heat transfer prediction, and the pressure drop was reduced by about 20% compared to the experimental data, with the difference becoming more pronounced as the mass flow rate in the channel. Zhong and Deng [11] concluded from experimental and numerical simulations of the BPHE that the pressure drop increased with the increase of corrugation spacing and decreased with the increase of corrugation height. Liu [12] proposed a simplified calculation method for heat exchanger stress based on the theory of elastic base circular plate from a simplified calculation equation.…”