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Procedia Engineering 174 (2017) 188 – 194

13th Global Congress on Manufacturing and Management, GCMM 2016

A Study on 3D Numerical Model for Plate Heat Exchanger

Ya-Nan Wanga, Jong-Pyo Leea, Min-Ho Parka, Byeong-Ju Jina, Tae-Jong Yuna, Young-
Ho Songb, Ill-Soo Kim1a,*
a
Mokpo National University, 1666 Yeongsan-Ro Chonggye-Myun Muan-Gum Jeonnam. Muan 58554, Korea
b
DHP Engineering Co., Ltd, G, 105, 1022 Beon-gil, Gimhae-daero, Hallim-myeon, Gimhae-si, Gyeongnam, Gimhae 50850, Korea

Abstract

Generally, heat exchanger is a thermodynamic system which has been employed to transfer thermal energy between two or more
fluids, between a solid surface and a fluid, or between solid particulates and a fluid, at different temperatures and in thermal contact.
Recently, the growing requirements to save energy and reduce overall environmental impacts has placed greater emphasis on the
use of heat exchangers with better thermal efficiency. Therefore, the plate-type heat exchanger that uses metal plates to transfer
heat between two fluids has a major advantage over a conventional heat exchanger in which the fluids are exposed to a much larger
surface area because the fluids spread out over the plates. However, fouling with the flow of fluid for a long period occurs on the
plate surface. So, it might be necessary to carry out numerical simulation for the hot and cold fluid flow model which can reflect
the real situation of hot and cold fluid heat transfer. In this paper, plate-type heat exchanger is simulated which based on the
computational fluid dynamics method. The calculated model is established for fluid flow and heat transfer in cold and hot flow
channels of a chevron-type plate-type heat exchanger. The flow pattern and heat transfer effect of the cold and hot fluids are
analyzed under the water-to-water heat transfer by using the simulation software, ANSYS. At the same time, 3D numerical model
of the local computation domains for the plate-type heat exchanger are simulated at different parameters which included the
corrugated angle, corrugated depth and corrugated pitch. With the development of CFD(Computational Fluid Dynamics)
technology, numerical guidance can be provided for the improvement of plate-type heat exchanger and optimization of the design.
© 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
© 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of the 13th Global Congress on Manufacturing and Management.
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of the 13th Global Congress on Manufacturing and Management
Keywords: Plate-type heat exchanger; Fluid flow, Heat transfer; Design of optimization; 3D Numerical model

* Corresponding Ill-Soo Kim. Tel.:+82-061-454-3455; fax: +82-061-452-6376.

E-mail address: ilsookim@mokpo.ac.kr

1877-7058 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of the 13th Global Congress on Manufacturing and Management
doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2017.01.203
 Ya-Nan Wang et al. / Procedia Engineering 174 (2017) 188 – 194 189

1. Introduction

Heat exchangers are commonly employed in a wide range of applications from heating and air-conditioning systems
in a household to chemical processing and power production in large plants. In recent years, the energy crisis and the
thrust for energy conservation have driven the development for high efficiency heat exchangers. Therefore, the related
researches are being conducted in accordance with the requirements for economical, lightweight, and spaces saving
heat exchangers.

Nomenclature
u Velocity components in the x, y, z directions ‫ܥ‬ଵ ,‫ܥ‬ଶ ,‫ܥ‬ଷ Constant
ܻெ Fluctuations due to excessive diffusion in the compressive turbulent flow ȝ Corrugated angle
Gk Turbulent kinetic energy produce by the velocity gradient of the laminar flow h Corrugated depth
Gb Turbulent kinetic energy generated by buoyancy ɉ Corrugated pitch
x, y, z Three directions of Cartesian coordinates ȟ’ Pressure drop
ɂ Turbulent Prandtl number ܵ௞ ,ܵఌ Corrugated pitch
Ƚ Thermal conductivity ɏ Density
ɋ Viscosity ’ Pressure
t Temperature

Plate-type heat exchanger, one of the best devices for the advancement and technological development in compact
heat exchanger consists of a stack of stamped heat exchange plates which are either brazed together or bolted together
in a frame with gaskets due to its high thermal efficiency [1-2]. The plates of these heat exchangers comprise of some
form of near-sinusoidal corrugations in a chevron pattern, a design commonly used for PHE(Plate Heat Exchanger)
as it is considered the most successful type [3]. It is known that the number of plates is determined by the flow rate,
physical properties of the fluids, pressure drop and temperature program [4]. The plate corrugations promote fluid
turbulence and support the plates against differential pressure. The plate and the pressure plate are suspended from an
upper carrying bar and located by a lower guiding bar, both of which are fixed to a support column. Connections are
located in the frame plate in the frame and pressure plates. Nevertheless, the Reynolds numbers used in this type of
equipment due to the relatively high pressure drop must be lower than those for shell and tube heat exchangers for
equivalent flow rates. Furthermore, the applicable Reynolds numbers must be less than 2,000 as this equipment is used
as a reflux condenser. On the other hand, the high fluid velocity inside the passage has the opposite result on fouling
as it promotes particle detachment. Thus, the lack of resources in literature has taken place in direction for the
development of an artificial design model for a PHE, even though there are studies referring to the effect of several
geometrical parameters on the heat transfer coefficient and the friction factor [5, 6]. Mehrabian and Poulter [7] studied
the flow inside a PHE with corrugations, while Hossain and Sadrul Islam [8] researched similar control volumes for
three different corrugation shapes. In recent years, the developed computational fluid dynamics have been
concentrated on the development of an effective tool for evaluating the performance of heat exchangers. In the
literature, most works have conducted numerical analysis of the plate-type heat exchanger. However, this assumption
is not realistic in general applications. Furthermore, the works of numerical simulation documented in the literature
are limited because the plate-type heat exchanger is very difficult to be reproduced accurately. In this paper, plate-
type heat exchanger is simulated based on the computational fluid dynamics method, and calculation model is
established for fluid flow and heat transfer in cold and hot flow channels of a chevron-type plate heat exchanger by
using the simulation software, ANSYS. At the same time, with the development of CFD technology for the plate-type
heat exchanger are simulation at three different process parameters (corrugated angle, corrugated depth and corrugated
pitch), to provide numerical guidance for the improvement of plate-type heat exchanger and the optimization design
by discussion for the pressure distribution and pressure drop.
190 Ya-Nan Wang et al. / Procedia Engineering 174 (2017) 188 – 194

2. Development of Finite Element Method(FEM) Model

In the development of the physical model, it should be considered three parameters such as corrugated angle β and
corrugated depth h, corrugated pitch λ which have great influence on the plate-type heat exchanger. The numerical
simulation is performed to explore the relationships between three process parameters and performances of the plate-
type heat exchanger in this study. Considering the relationship between accuracy and efficiency of numerical
simulation, this paper only analyzes the pressure distributions of the plate-type heat exchanger. A physical model of
plate-type heat exchanger is shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1 Physical model of plate-type heat exchanger

Equations and formulae should be typed in Mathtype, and numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals in
parentheses on the right hand side of the page (if referred to explicitly in the text). They should also be separated from
the surrounding text by one space.

2.1. Assumptions and mathematic models

Since the heat transfer process is water-water heat exchanger, so there is no phase transition, and the small temper
ature difference within the flow path. The assumptions for this study are as following;

(1) The physical quantities of fluid will not change with time, so as a single-phase fluid and steady flow.
(2) The fluid is incompressible Newtonian fluid.
(3) The influence of gravity and buoyancy is negligible.
(4) Ignored thermal effect generated by Viscous dissipation when fluid flow.

The plate heat transfer is 3D heat conduction along the thickness direction, and the calculation formula is as follow
s:

Continuity equation:

డೠೣ డೠ೤ డೠ೥

൅ ൅ ൌͲ (1)
డೣ డ೤ డ೥

Momentum equations:

డೠ డೠ డೠ ଵ డ೛ డమ ೠ೔ డమ ೠ೔ డమ ೠ೔
‫ݑ‬௫ ೔
൅ ‫ݑ‬௬ ೔
൅ ‫ݑ‬௭ ೔
ൌെ ൅ߥቆ ൅ ൅ ቇ (2)
డೣ డ೤ డ೥ ఘ డ ೣ೔ డೣ మ డ೤మ డ೥మ
 Ya-Nan Wang et al. / Procedia Engineering 174 (2017) 188 – 194 191

Energy equation:

డ೟ డ೟ డ೟ பమ ౪ பమ ౪ பమ ౪
‫ݑ‬௫ ൅ ‫ݑ‬௬ ൅ ‫ݑ‬௭ ൌ ߙቆ ൅ ൅ ቇ (3)
డೣ డ೤ డ೥ ப౮మ ப౯మ ப౰మ

RNG Ɉ-ɂ equation:

డ డ డ డೖ
ሺߩߢሻ ൅ ሺߩߢ‫ݑ‬௜ ሻ ൌ ൬ߙ௞ ‫ݑ‬௘௙௙ ൰ ൅ ‫ܩ‬௞ ൅ ‫ܩ‬௕ െ ߩߝ െ ܻெ ൅ ܵ௞ (4)
డ೟ డೣ ೔ డೣ ೔ డೣ
೔

ப ப ப ப಍ க கమ
ሺɏɂሻ ൅ ሺɏ—୧ ሻ ൌ ቆȽக —ୣ୤୤ ቇ ൅ ଵக ሺ
୩ ൅ ଷக
ୠ ሻ െ ଶக ɏ െ  க ൅ க (5)
ப౪ ப ౮౟ ப౮ౠ ப౮
ౠ
୩ ୩

2.2. Boundary conditions

Due to computational limitations, only the smallest unit (1plate and 2 fluid bodies) of the plate-type heat exchanger,
which behaved as a complete heat exchanger itself, was taken as the calculation element. Using velocity-inlet
condition, inlet temperature of cold and hot fluid was selected 55o C and 30oC. The pressure-outlet is used, and the
outlet pressure of cold and hot fluid is set to air pressure. The outer boundary condition is the no slip velocity boundary
condition, and the surface of the hot and cold channel is set to the heat transfer surface. The other surface is set to the
adiabatic boundary condition. The rest of conditions can be defined by default. Fig.2 is indicated the main flow area
of plate-type heat exchanger in this study.

Fig. 2 Main flow area of plate-type heat exchanger

2.3. Mesh generation

The three zones (1plate and 2 fluid bodies) initially connected in the numerical model which generated a tetrahedral
mesh as presented in Fig. 3. Due to the complex structure of the plate-type heat exchanger, the unstructured tetrahedral
mesh is adopted. The unstructured tetrahedral mesh to pursue better quality of the mesh precision has been employed.
192 Ya-Nan Wang et al. / Procedia Engineering 174 (2017) 188 – 194

G G

Fig. 3 Mesh of plate heat exchanger domain flow area

3. Results and Discussion

3.1. The influence of process parameters on pressure distributions

The plate geometry parameters with different corrugated angle β, corrugated depth h and corrugated pitch λ, are
shown as follow Table 1.

Table 1 Corrugated plates parameters and their levels

Level
-1 0 1
Parameter
Corrugated angleȾ(Ԩሻ 65 69 73
Corrugated depth݄(mm) 2 2.5 3
Corrugated pitchɉ(mm) 11 12 13

The pressure distributions with different corrugated angle£ for plate-type heat exchanger were described in Fig.
4. The pressure gradient decreases with the decrease of £, when £ > ǔ69Ǖ^0, while the pressure gradient increases
again with the increase of £, which is mainly due to a component of tangential force and the main stream is the
reverse, resulting in increasing pressure loss. Therefore, it might be concluded that not only the higher heat transfer
coefficient in the design of plate-type heat exchanger should be demanded, but also considering the pressure drop.
The influence of corrugated depth on pressure distributions is further seen in Fig. 5, where pressure gradient changes
slowly when h changes. It shows that h has little influence on the flow resistance for plate-type heat exchanger, not
main reason for the plate pressure drop. The effects of corrugated pitch on the pressure distributions are seen in Fig.
6, where the pressure gradient changes dramatically when the corrugated pitch increases. The influence of corrugated
pitch on the pressure distributions is the main process parameters. The value corrugated pitch is bigger, and the
pressure variations are smaller between plates. This is mainly due to the reduction of the contacts between the plates
and the reduction of the resistance. But at the same time, the resistance decreases, which results in the decrease of the
degree of fluid turbulence and the difference of the heat transfer effect.
 Ya-Nan Wang et al. / Procedia Engineering 174 (2017) 188 – 194 193

(a) Ⱦ ൌ ͸ͷ௢ (b) Ⱦ ൌ ͸ͻ௢ (c) Ⱦ ൌ ͹͵௢

Fig. 4 Pressure distributions with different corrugated angle β

(a) h=2mm (b) h=2.5mm (c) h=3mm

Fig. 5 Pressure Distributions with Different Corrugated Depth h

(a) ɉ ൌ ͳͳ (b) ɉ ൌ ͳʹ (c) ɉ ൌ ͳ͵

Fig. 6 Pressure distributions with different corrugated pitch ɉ

3.2. The influence of process parameter on flow resistance

The changing curve of pressure drop with different corrugated angle is seen in Fig. 7-(a), corrugated angle gradually
increases, the flow resistance losses also increased. The main pressure changes are that the increase of the corrugated
angle leads to the decrease of the contacted points between the plates. When the contacted points between the plates
are reduced, the interference current weakens, so that the heat transfer effect becomes worse, and the resistance
becomes smaller. The changing curve of pressure drop with different corrugated depth is observed in Fig. 7-(b).
Pressure drop ο although continues to increase but the trend of change more slowly. In the actual work of the plate-
type heat exchanger, corrugation depth is smaller, the less fouling, so that using smaller ݄ corrugated plates is
conductive to play the role of cleaning can effectively reduce precipitation fouling. The changing curve of pressure
drop with different corrugated pitch is graphically shown in Fig. 7-(c). When the corrugated pitchɉ increases, ȟ
194 Ya-Nan Wang et al. / Procedia Engineering 174 (2017) 188 – 194

gradient changes large. Combined with the corrugated depth effects on the flow resistance analysis, the corrugation
parameters density rather than considering single corrugated depth should be taken into account in the design of plate
heat exchanger.

(a) Corrugated ‰Ž‡Ⱦ (b) Corrugated Depth h (c) Corrugated Pitch λ

Fig. 7 Variations of ΔP according to different process parameters

4. Results and Discussion

The 3D numerical model to effectively solve the problems of optimization design of plate-type heat exchanger has
been developed. In the design process of plate-type heat exchanger, not only the heat transfer coefficient, but also the
pressure drop has been considered to find the best collocation. So when £=ǔ69Ǖ^o, the heat transfer effect is best
because pressure change is uniform. Although the corrugated depth has little effect on the pressure drop, it is easy to
measure scale in fluid flow to bring trouble to clean if the corrugated depth is big. So in the three different corrugated
depths of the plate, the corrugated depth h=2.5mm is the best choice. The contacted points are reduced between plates
when the corrugated pitch increases. Contacted points are important factor that affects heat transfer. When the
contacted points are reduced the effect of heat transfer is bad. Although the corrugated pitch becomes smaller, the
contacted points become more, but it will increase the flow resistance. So the heat transfer effect is best when pitch is
11mm. The future design of the plate-type heat exchanger, we should consider the influence of other process parameter
on the heat transfer performance through the experiment and improve the heat transfer efficiency.

Acknowledgements

This material is based upon work supported by the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy(MOTIE, Korea) under
Industrial Technology Innovation Program. No.10060210, “Development of titanium plate type heat exchanger on
25bar level resisting pressure performance applied welding technology”.

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