Development of Plate-Type Heat Exchanger for Exhaust Gas Heat Recovery System
In this paper, an exhaust gas heat recuperation unit for use with a boiler is developed to improve the overall thermal efficiency of integral system. The heat recuperation unit includes a plate-type heat exchanger for exhaust gas heat recovery for exchanging heat between an exhaust gas and combustion air. A proto-type heat exchanger is designed and manufactured with a series of exhaust gas plates stacked alternatively with, and parallel to, a series of air plates. Each of the exhaust gas plates and air plates contain ridges to form a substantially sinusoidal path for directing the respective gas therealong. The combustion air flown in a countercurrent to the exhaust gas to facilitate maximum heat transfer. The heat exchanger is connected to exhaust gas inlet and outlet conduits and combustion air inlet and outlet conduits. Proper number of plates for the heat exchanger is selected to obtain laminar flow through plate flow channels, producing a low gas pressure drop in each channel. Using the proto-type heat exchanger, experimental work was primarily performed to measure temperature and pressure changes of exhaust gas and combustion air at various boiler firing conditions. These test results are compared with those obtained from numerical (CFD) and analytical works. The approximate analytical model developed in this work is used to investigate the effects of exchanger design parameters on the system performance, and eventually to develop the exchanger design curves for the optimal selection of exchanger design values.