Numerical study on heat transfer and fluid dynamics in plate heat exchangers: Effects of chevron angle and aspect ratio

Year 2024, Volume: 10 Issue: 3, 638 - 656, 21.05.2024

Sami Kaplan , Kubilay Bayramoğlu , Mehmet Sarıkanat , Lütfiye Altay

Abstract

Determination of the geometrical parameters of the heat exchanger has important effects on the thermohydraulic performance of the heat exchanger. In this study, the effects of geometric parameters of a plate heat exchanger on thermohydraulic performance have been extensively investigated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Parametric studies were performed on 8 different corrugated channel geometries with various chevron angles (β) and aspect ratios (2b/λ) for Reynolds numbers ranging from 500 to 3000. An entire fluid channel was numerically studied using the same mass flow rate and the Reynolds number. As results of the study, temperature distribution, pressure gradient, velocity, turbulent kinetic energy distribution, Nusselt number, friction factor, and flow properties were evaluated comparatively for each case. It was determined that the sinusoidal corrugations promote the turbulence intensity and the swirling flow which leads to thermal boundary layer mitigation and enhanced convection heat transfer in response to the increasing of aspect ratio. The results of the study show that the (CFD) model is a reasonable and effective technique for displaying 3D contour plots, streamlines, and determining performance parameters.

Keywords

Aspect Ratio, Chevron Angle; Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), Friction Factor; Heat Transfer, Nusselt Number; Plate Heat Exchanger, Thermohydraulic Performance; Turbulence Enhancement

References

• [1] Kanaris AG, Mouza AA, Paras SV. Flow and heat transfer in narrow channels with corrugated walls a CFD code application. Chem Engineer Res Des 2005;83:460–468. [CrossRef]
• [2] Bamorovat Abadi G, Moon C, Kim KC. Experimental study on single-phase heat transfer and pressure drop of refrigerants in a plate heat exchanger with metal-foam-filled channels. Appl Therm Eng 2016;102:423–431. [CrossRef]
• [3] Kumar B, Soni A, Singh SN. Effect of geometrical parameters on the performance of Chevron type plate heat exchanger. Exp Therm Fluid Sci 2018;91:126–133. [CrossRef]
• [4] Dovic D, Svaic S. Experimental and numerical study of the flow and heat transfer in plate heat exchanger channels. Int Refrig Air Cond Conf Purdue 2004;1–8.
• [5] Turk C, Aradag S, Kakac S. Experimental analysis of a mixed-plate gasketed plate heat exchanger and artificial neural net estimations of the performance as an alternative to classical correlations. Int J Therm Sci 2016;109:263–269. [CrossRef]
• [6] Gullapalli VS, Sundén B. CFD simulation of heat transfer and pressure drop in compact brazed plate heat exchangers. Heat Transf Engineer 2014;35:358–366. [CrossRef]
• [7] Kanaris AG, Mouza AA, Paras SV. Flow and heat transfer prediction in a corrugated plate heat exchanger using a CFD code. Chem Engineer Technol 2006;29:923–930. [CrossRef]
• [8] Septet C, El Achkar G, Le Metayer O, Hugo JM. Experimental investigation of two-phase liquid–vapor flows in additive manufactured heat exchanger. Appl Therm Engineer 2020;179:115638. [CrossRef]
• [9] Gherasim I, Taws M, Galanis N, Nguyen CT. Heat transfer and fluid flow in a plate heat exchanger Part I. Experimental investigation. Int J Therm Sci 2011;50:1492–1498. [CrossRef]
• [10] Yang J, Jacobi A, Liu W. Heat transfer correlations for single-phase flow in plate heat exchangers based on experimental data. Appl Therm Engineer 2017;113:1547–1557. [CrossRef]
• [11] Khan TS, Khan MS, Chyu MC, Ayub ZH. Experimental investigation of single phase convective heat transfer coefficient in a corrugated plate heat exchanger for multiple plate configurations. Appl Therm Engineer 2010;30:1058–1065. [CrossRef]
• [12] Gherasim I, Galanis N, Nguyen CT. Heat transfer and fluid flow in a plate heat exchanger. Part II: Assessment of laminar and two-equation turbulent models. Int J Therm Sci 2011;50:1499–1511. [CrossRef]
• [13] Arsenyeva O, Kapustenko P, Tovazhnyanskyy L, Khavin G. The influence of plate corrugations geometry on plate heat exchanger performance in specified process conditions. Energy 2013;57:201–207. [CrossRef]
• [14] Wang YN, Lee JP, Park MH, Jin BJ. A study on 3D numerical model for plate heat exchanger. Procedia Engineer 2017;174:188–194. [CrossRef]
• [15] Longo GA, Mancin S, Righetti G, Zilio C, Ortombina L, Zigliotto M. Application of an artificial neural network (ANN) for predicting low-GWP refrigerant boiling heat transfer inside brazed plate heat exchangers (BPHE). Int J Heat Mass Transf 2020;160:120204. [CrossRef]
• [16] Fernández-Seara J, Uhía FJ, Sieres J, Campo A. A general review of the Wilson plot method and its modifications to determine convection coefficients in heat exchange devices. Appl Therm Engineer 2007;27:2745–2757. [CrossRef]
• [17] Lotfi B, Sundén B. Development of new finned tube heat exchanger: Innovative tube-bank design and thermohydraulic performance. Heat Transf Engineer 2020;41:1209–1231. [CrossRef]
• [18] Han W, Saleh K, Aute V, Ding G. Numerical simulation and optimization of single-phase turbulent flow in chevron-type plate heat exchanger with sinusoidal corrugations. HVAC R Res 2011;17:186–197. [CrossRef]
• [19] Tsai YC, Liu FB, Shen PT. Investigations of the pressure drop and flow distribution in a chevron-type plate heat exchanger. Int Comm Heat Mass Transf 2009;36:574–578. [CrossRef]
• [20] Aradag S, Genc Y, Turk C. Comparative gasketed plate heat exchanger performance prediction with computations, experiments, correlations and artificial neural network estimations. Engineer Appl Comput Fluid Mech 2017;11:467–482. [CrossRef]
• [21] Chien NB, Jong-Taek O, Asano H, Tomiyama Y. Investigation of experiment and simulation of a plate heat exchanger. Energy Procedia 2019;158:5635–5640. [CrossRef]
• [22] Raja BD, Jhala RL, Patel V. Thermal-hydraulic optimization of plate heat exchanger: A multi-objective approach. Int J Therm Sci 2018;124:522–535. [CrossRef]
• [23] Krishna Z, Sasanapuri A, Parkhi G, Varghese A. Ansys mosaic poly-hexcore mesh for high-lift aircraft configuration. 21st Annual CFD Symposium; 2019. pp. 1–11.
• [24] Akkoca A, Sahin B, Tutar M. Effect of different wall functions on the prediction of flow and heat transfer characteristics in plate fin and tube heat exchangers. SUJEST 2005;20:77–86.
• [25] Sarraf K, Launay S, Tadrist L. Complex 3D-flow analysis and corrugation angle effect in plate heat exchangers. Int J Therm Sci 2015;94:126–138. [CrossRef]
• [26] Rios-Iribe EY, Cervantes-Gaxiola ME, Rubio-Castro E, Hernández-Calderón OM. Heat transfer analysis of a non-Newtonian fluid flowing through a plate heat exchanger using CFD. Appl Therm Engineer 2016;101:262–272. [CrossRef]
• [27] Ansys. 5.2.1 Heat Transfer Theory. Available at: https://www.afs.enea.it/project/neptunius/docs/fluent/html/th/node107.htm. Accessed May 6, 2024.
• [28] Muley A, Manglik RM, Metwally HM. Enhanced heat transfer characteristics of viscous liquid flows in a chevron plate heat exchanger. J Heat Transf 1999;121:1011–1017. [CrossRef]
• [29] Moffat RJ. Describing the uncertainties in experimental results. Exp Therm Fluid Sci 1988;1:3–17. [CrossRef]