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An experimental investigation on the heat transfer and friction coefficients of a small plate heat exchanger with chevron angle

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Abstract

In the present study, a small brazed and commercial plate heat exchanger (PHE) with chevron angle 60° and symmetrical layout, was experimentally investigated. New correlations for calculating heat transfer and friction coefficients of hot flow channels were presented. Few studies have been done on the small PHEs and due to the industrial needs, it is necessary to conduct new researches in this field. For this purpose, an experimental model was designed to calculate the single-phase water flow, heat transfer, and friction coefficients. The previously presented correlations were not successful in predicting the mentioned coefficients for the small PHEs and showed a 34% difference with the results of this study. Chevron grooves on the PHE plate can enhance the heat transfer as well as increasing the pressure drop. Defining \( \left(\frac{j}{f}\right) \) factor, it was revealed that with the increase of Reynolds number, heat transfer increased more than friction. In previous studies, with increasing Reynolds, \( \left(\frac{j}{f}\right) \) factor is almost constant in large PHEs but the results of the present study showed that this increase may be 5-fold higher in the small PHEs as compared with the larger ones. As there was no temperature and heat transfer coefficient value in the hot flow channels of PHE, the Nusselt number was calculated by the modified Wilson plot method.

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Abbreviations

A :

area (m2)

A c :

cross-sectional area (m2)

b :

corrugation depth (m)

C:

heat capacity rate (W/K), \( \dot{m}{c}_p \)

c p :

specific heat (J/kgK)

D:

hydraulic diameter (m), \( \frac{2b}{\varphi } \)

f :

friction coefficient

G:

optional function

h :

heat transfer coefficient (W/m2K)

j :

Colburn factor, \( \frac{Nu}{\mathit{\operatorname{Re}}{\mathit{\Pr}}^{\raisebox{1ex}{$1$}\!\left/ \!\raisebox{-1ex}{$3$}\right.}} \)

k :

conduction heat transfer coefficient (W/mK)

L :

length (m)

\( \dot{m} \) :

flow rate (kg/s)

N :

number of hot channels

Nu :

Nusselt number

NTU :

number of the thermal unit

PHE:

plate heat exchanger

P :

pressure (Pa)

Pr :

Prandtl number

Q :

heat transfer rate (W)

R :

thermal resistance (K/W)

Re :

Reynolds number, \( \frac{\dot{m}D}{Nb{L}_w\mu } \)

S:

error

T :

temperature (K)

t :

thickness (m)

U :

overall heat transfer coefficient (W/m2K)

V :

velocity (m/s)

W :

width (m)

X:

optional variable

μ:

dynamic viscosity (kg/ms)

ρ :

density (kg/m3)

β:

chevron angle(deg)

λ:

pitch (m)

φ :

enlargement surface factor, \( \frac{Real\ area}{projected\ area} \)

ε:

thermal effectiveness

b:

bulk

c:

cold fluid

h:

hot fluid

i:

inlet

LMTD :

logarithmic mean temperature difference

o:

outlet

w :

wall

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran

    Saeed Mohebbi & Farzad Veysi

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  1. Saeed Mohebbi
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  2. Farzad Veysi
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Correspondence to Farzad Veysi.

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Mohebbi, S., Veysi, F. An experimental investigation on the heat transfer and friction coefficients of a small plate heat exchanger with chevron angle. Heat Mass Transfer 56, 849–858 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-019-02749-0

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