scholarly journals Selected studies of flow maldistribution in a minichannel plate heat exchanger

2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 135-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paweł Dąbrowski ◽  
Michał Klugmann ◽  
Dariusz Mikielewicz

Abstract Analysis of the state of-the-art in research of minichannel heat exchangers, especially on the topic of flow maldistribution in multiple channels, has been accomplished. Studies on minichannel plate heat exchanger with 51 parallel minichannels with four hydraulic diameters, i.e., 461 μm, 574 μm, 667 μm, and 750 μm have been presented. Flow at the instance of filling the microchannel with water at low flow rates has been visualized. The pressure drop characteristics for single minichannel plate have been presented along with the channels blockage, which occurred in several cases. The impact of the mass flow rate and channels’ cross-section dimensions on the flow maldistribution were illustrated.

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Faraz Afshari ◽  
Azim Doğuş Tuncer ◽  
Adnan Sözen ◽  
Halil Ibrahim Variyenli ◽  
Ataollah Khanlari ◽  
...  

Purpose Using suspended nanoparticles in the base fluid is known as one of the most efficient ways for heat transfer augmentation and improving the thermal efficiency of various heat exchangers. Different types of nanofluids are available and used in different applications. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of using hybrid nanofluid and number of plates on the performance of plate heat exchanger. In this study, TiO2/water single nanofluid and TiO2-Al2O3/water hybrid nanofluid with 1% particle weight ratio have been used to prepare hybrid nanofluid to use in plate type heat exchangers with three various number of plates including 8, 12 and 16. Design/methodology/approach The experiments have been conducted with the aim of examining the impact of plates number and used nanofluids on heat transfer enhancement. The performance tests have been done at 40°C, 45°C, 50°C and 55°C set outlet temperatures and in five various Reynolds numbers between 1,600 and 3,800. Also, numerical simulation has been applied to verify the heat and flow behavior inside the heat exchangers. Findings The results indicated that using both nanofluids raised the thermal performance of all tested exchangers which have a various number of plates. While the major outcomes of this study showed that TiO2-Al2O3/water hybrid nanofluid has priority when compared to TiO2/water single type nanofluid. Utilization of TiO2-Al2O3/water nanofluid led to obtaining an average improvement of 7.5%, 9.6% and 12.3% in heat transfer of heat exchangers with 8, 12 and 16 plates, respectively. Originality/value In the present work, experimental and numerical analyzes have been conducted to investigate the influence of using TiO2-Al2O3/water hybrid nanofluid in various plate heat exchangers. The attained findings showed successful utilization of TiO2-Al2O3/water nanofluid. Based on the obtained results increasing the number of plates in the heat exchanger caused to obtain more increment by using both types of nanofluids.


2004 ◽  
Vol 126 (4) ◽  
pp. 680-691 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Prabhakara Rao ◽  
Sarit K. Das

A detailed experimental study on flow maldistribution from port to channel of a plate heat exchanger is presented. In general, flow maldistribution brings about an increase in pressure drop across the heat exchanger. This increase is found to depend on flow rate, number of channels and port size. Experiments show that analytical predictions of pressure drop including maldistribution effect are quite accurate for practical purposes. The results indicate that under identical conditions, maldistribution is more severe in Z-type plate heat exchanger compared to U type. Experiments are also carried out under non-isothermal realistic operating conditions, which show increased flow maldistribution at elevated temperature. Finally predictions are made for industrial plate heat exchangers, which show the limitation of adding additional plates beyond a certain limit. An insight to the physical aspects of maldistribution and its possible reduction through proper design strategy is also indicated.


2009 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
K.Dheena Thayalan ◽  
Ponnusamy Kalaichelvi

The plate heat exchanger exhibits excellent heat transfer characteristic, which allows a very compact design with ease of maintenance and modification of heat transfer area by adding (or) removing plates. Constructional parameters such as flow path, trough angle and corrugation can affect the performance of plate heat exchangers by altering effectiveness (?) and number of transfer unit (NTU). Especially plate heat exchangers play a vital role in petroleum industries for wide range of temperature application. Hence, it was proposed to choose kerosene as cold fluid and hot water as hot fluid in this present investigation. A vertical type of plate heat exchanger, in which flow pattern is maintained as co-current, has been used to conduct the experimental runs. The numbers of plates in the plate heat exchanger used in the present study are 10. The number of flow channels (space maintained between two consecutive channels) allocated for both fluids are 9. Experimental runs have been conducted for different combinations of hot fluid flow rates and cold fluid flow rates for single phase flow, in which hot water is considered as hot streams and kerosene as cold fluid. The thermal performance of plate heat exchanger has been analyzed based on calculated parameters using experimental data set. A similar corrugated plate heat exchanger model having the same dimensions as that of the experimental one was developed with aid of CFD tool. The model was simulated at different operating conditions and compared with experimental results. The simulated results are in good agreement with experimental data. The percentage deviation between experimental results and simulation results for over all heat transfer coefficient is less than ±6%.


2008 ◽  
Vol 130 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Srihari ◽  
Sarit K. Das

Transient analysis helps us to predict the behavior of heat exchangers subjected to various operational disturbances due to sudden change in temperature or flow rates of the working fluids. The present experimental analysis deals with the effect of flow distribution on the transient temperature response for U-type and Z-type plate heat exchangers. The experiments have been carried out with uniform and nonuniform flow distributions for various flow rates. The temperature responses are analyzed for various transient characteristics, such as initial delay and time constant. It is also possible to observe the steady state characteristics after the responses reach asymptotic values. The experimental observations indicate that the Z-type flow configuration is more strongly affected by flow maldistribution compared to the U-type in both transient and steady state regimes. The comparison of the experimental results with numerical solution indicates that it is necessary to treat the flow maldistribution separately from axial thermal dispersion during modeling of plate heat exchanger dynamics.


2012 ◽  
Vol 629 ◽  
pp. 699-703
Author(s):  
Chun Sheng Guo ◽  
Wen Jing Du ◽  
Lin Cheng

The entransy loss minimization approach for the heat exchanger optimization design was established by Guo Z Y; the study based Guo Z Y’s works, found relationship between the entransy loss uniformity and the heat exchanger performance and the expression of the local entransy loss rate for heat convection was derived, numerical results of the heat transfer in a chevron plate heat exchanger and helix baffle heat exchanger show that the larger entransy loss uniformity factor appear in about Re=2000 and the entransy loss uniformity factor of chevron plate heat exchanges higher than helix baffle one.


2010 ◽  
Vol 132 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
M. J. White ◽  
G. F. Nellis ◽  
S. A. Klein ◽  
W. Zhu ◽  
Y. Gianchandani

Cryogenic and high-temperature systems often require compact heat exchangers with a high resistance to axial conduction in order to control the heat transfer induced by axial temperature differences. One attractive design for such applications is a perforated plate heat exchanger that utilizes high conductivity perforated plates to provide the stream-to-stream heat transfer and low conductivity spacers to prevent axial conduction between the perforated plates. This paper presents a numerical model of a perforated plate heat exchanger that accounts for axial conduction, external parasitic heat loads, variable fluid and material properties, and conduction to and from the ends of the heat exchanger. The numerical model is validated by experimentally testing several perforated plate heat exchangers that are fabricated using microelectromechanical systems based manufacturing methods. This type of heat exchanger was investigated for potential use in a cryosurgical probe. One of these heat exchangers included perforated plates with integrated platinum resistance thermometers. These plates provided in situ measurements of the internal temperature distribution in addition to the temperature, pressure, and flow rate measured at the inlet and exit ports of the device. The platinum wires were deposited between the fluid passages on the perforated plate and are used to measure the temperature at the interface between the wall material and the flowing fluid. The experimental testing demonstrates the ability of the numerical model to accurately predict both the overall performance and the internal temperature distribution of perforated plate heat exchangers over a range of geometry and operating conditions. The parameters that were varied include the axial length, temperature range, mass flow rate, and working fluid.


Volume 1 ◽  
2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Shokouhmand ◽  
N. Khareghani

In this paper, transient response of plate heat exchangers under flow maldistribution and viscosity variations is discussed. This transient response is compared with the response achieved from uniform flow and constant viscosity through the exchanger. Flow maldistribution (unequal flow in channels) is calculated for U and Z types of plate heat exchangers. This flow maldistribution along with viscosity variations, during the growth of the temperature profile in each channel, affect the convective heat transfer coefficient in the transient period of heat transfer, and make it to be different from that of the other channels. These conditions make the transient response of a plate heat exchanger to have some deviations from the uniform flow and constant viscosity model response, which is discussed in this paper. The governing equations of heat transfer are solved using finite difference methods. Frequency response as well as step response of the heat exchanger is implemented as a time dependent initial conditions.


Author(s):  
Prabhakara Rao Bobbili ◽  
Bengt Sunden

An experimental investigation has been carried out to find the nature of temperature profiles of the process and cooling fluids during steam condensation across the port to channel in plate heat exchangers (PHEs). In the present study, low corrugation angle (30°) plates have been used for different plate package of PHEs with 41 and 81 plates. The process steam entered at 1 bar with a small degree of superheat. Water has been used as the cold fluid. A traverse temperature probe is inserted into both inlet and outlet ports of the plate heat exchanger. The temperature of the process steam and cooling fluid have been measured and recorded at the location of first, middle and last channels for different inlet and exit flow conditions for each plate package of the heat exchanger. Also, the overall pressure drop has been measured at different conditions at the outlet of the process steam, i.e., full and partial condensation. The traverse temperature measurements have indicated that there is a considerable variation in temperature along inlets and outlets of process steam and cooling fluid, due to flow maldistribution. The experimental data has been analyzed to show how the flow distribution on the cooling side affects the condensation of steam in plate heat exchangers. The present results will help to study further the nature of steam condensation in parallel channels of heat exchangers.


2013 ◽  
Vol 459 ◽  
pp. 153-158
Author(s):  
Xiao Qiang Wen

Fouling characteristic of plate heat exchanger was studied through the experimental system, with the Songhua River water as working fluid. Several water quality parameters: pH value, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, hardness, alkalinity, chloride ion, iron ion, chemical oxygen demand, total bacterial count, which had great influence on the formation of fouling, as well as running condition, fouling resistance and other parameters were measured through the experimental system built. A group of fouling data of the typical water quality was obtained. Two prediction models of fouling characteristics of the plate heat exchanger were built based on partial least squares algorithm (PLS) and support vector regression machine (SVR) with water quality parameters as independent variables and fouling resistance as dependent variable, and the impact of water quality parameter on predicting accuracy was analyzed. Research results showed that: the prediction accuracy of two methods could be controlled within 12.5% and meet the requirements of the project. Through the comparison of the prediction results, it was proved that the SVR method was better than the method of PLS. The impact of the water quality parameters on prediction model was discussed by the means of deleting the water quality parameters one by one.


1999 ◽  
Vol 121 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Z. Wang ◽  
J. Y. Wu ◽  
Y. X. Xu

Spiral plate heat exchangers as adsorbers have been proposed, and a prototype heat regenerative adsorption refrigerator using activated carbon-methanol pair has been developed and tested. Various improvements have been made, at last we get a specific cooling power for 2.6 kg-ice/day-kg adsorbent at the condition of generation temperature lower than 100°C. Discussions on the arrangements of thermal cycles and influences of design are shown.


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