Experimental Studies on Pressure Drop in a Sinusoidal Plate Heat Exchanger: Effect of Corrugation Angle

Abstract

The corrugated plate heat exchangers are widely used in food and pharmaceutical industries. Sinusoidal plate heat exchangers are one of the types of corrugated plate heat exchanger. Limited research work has been carried out in this type of plate heat exchanger. In the present investigation, experimental studies have been carried out in a sinusoidal corrugated plate heat exchanger with water as the test fluid. The plate heat exchanger is fabricated with two stainless steel sheets having a thickness of 1 mm forming a test channel with a clearance of 5 mm and of length 30cm. 3 such plate heat exchangers have been fabricated with corrugation angles of 30, 40 and 50 degrees. It has been observed from the experimental results that the corrugation angle is mainly affecting the pressure drop and the friction factor. As the corrugation angle is increases, the pressure drop of the fluid is found to increase, which results in decrease in friction factor. These observations have been discussed in the paper.