Numerical investigation of thermal and hydraulic performance of shell and plate heat exchanger

Abstract

Detailed single-phase performance of the shell and plate heat exchangers is presented in this study with corresponding chevron angles (β) of 45° and 75°, respectively. Unlike those conventional plate heat exchanger, the thermofluids characteristics perform quite differently between shell and inner channel. For a larger chevron angle (75°), the friction factor is comparable amid shell and inner channel. Yet the friction factor in the shell channel is much lower than that in inner channel at a smaller chevron angle (45°). The shell channel contains more unidirectional flow pattern while some flow re-circulation may occur at the entrance/exit port of the inner channel. The flow pattern and temperature distribution in the shell channel are generally more uniform than those in inner channel. The shell channel with β = 45° shows a better overall performance for its much lower friction factor when the Reynolds number is low. The heat transfer performance for shell channel exceeds the inner channel appreciably when the chevron angle is high (75°). The heat transfer performance depends on the corrugation aspect ratio, and an optimum ratio is derived. For the inner channel, the optimum value is around 0.75 while it is 0.53 for the shell channel.