Plate dependent heat transfer modelling of plate heat exchangers

Plate Heat Exchangers are used in many commercial applications like heating, cooling, air conditioning, sterilization and pasteurization. In this study, a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model is developed in order to determine the thermal and hydraulic performances of a commercially used Plate Heat Exchanger. The developed CFD method is validated with experimental data and then used to design new plate geometries. This method is used to examine the effects of geometric parameters like channel gap, wave amplitude and distribution channels on the thermal and hydraulic performances of plates. As the result of the analyses; the thermal performance improves with higher wave amplitude values, lower channel gap values and new distribution channel configurations. The pressure drop values increases at the same rate as the increase of the heat performance with higher wave amplitude. The pressure drop values of the newly designed distribution channels are much higher while the increment in thermal performance is very small. The absence of distribution channels causes a decrement in pressure drop values and thermal performance. Channel gap has the biggest effect on the thermal performance and pressure drop values among the analyzed geometrical parameters. Channel gap can be set to desired values with the help of gasket which is used as leakproofing element to obtain the desired performance values.