Numerical analysis of burst pressure and maximum inflation height of aluminium made pillow plates

Abstract

Pillow plates represent an efficient type of heat transfer equipment with a high degree of flexibility in terms of manufacturing and applications. Their thermo-hydraulic behaviour has been the focus of numerous scientific investigations over the last decade. However, along with the realisation of the thermal task, it is also important to ensure an adequate level of operational safety when designing equipment based on pillow plates. At present, for the approval of a pillow plate based apparatus, an experimental proof of the permitted operating pressure must be provided in accordance with the regulatory standards. In this process, this pressure is calculated from the burst pressure, which must be determined in time-consuming and cost-intensive experiments. For this reason, we propose a new approach in which the burst pressure of pillow plates is determined numerically based on the finite element methods, eliminating the need for experiments. Furthermore, the simulation results were used to derive equations for calculating the burst pressure and the maximum achievable inflation height of pillow plates made of the aluminium alloy EN AW- 5083. This part of the work has been motivated by the findings of a preliminary study showing a more than 25% thermal resistance reduction of counterflow operated pillow plate heat exchangers when the pillow plates are made of aluminium instead of the standard material stainless steel.