Int. J. Mech. Eng. & Rob. Res. 2013 Vinay Patil et al.

, 2013

ISSN 2278 – 0149 www.ijmerr.com

Vol. 2, No. 4, October 2013
© 2013 IJMERR. All Rights Reserved

Research Paper

VALIDATION OF PLATE HEAT EXCHANGER

DESIGN USING CFD

Vinay Patil1*, Manjunath H1 and Basavaraj Kusammanavar2

*Corresponding Author: Vinay Patil,  vinpat24@gmail.com

Heat exchanger is an essential device used in complex engineering systems related to heat
transfer processes in many industrial applications. Plate Heat Exchanger (PHE) is an important
part of a condensing or evaporating system. Among many of factors which should concentrate
on, the heat transfer and pressure drop is most important part during sizing and rating the
performance of PHE. Due to the complex corrugated surface design flow is highly turbulent.
This makes design of plate heat exchanger using empirical correlations to deviate from actual.
Sometimes flow medium cannot distribute uniformly which affects the performance of plate
heat exchanger. The optimization problem is formulated as the minimization of the heat transfer
area, subject to constraints on the number of channels, pressure drop, flow velocity and thermal
effectiveness, as well as the exchanger thermal and hydraulic model. Nowadays PHE widely
use in different industries such as chemical, food and pharmaceutical process and refrigeration
(ZhenHua et al., 2008). However in present work PHE applied in the dairy milk pasteurizer plant
model. Milk is pasteurized for killing the bacteria and preserving milk for long time. Present
thesis emphasizes the CFD application to design optimization of pasteurizer plant. Thesis covers
validation of CFD results with test and analytical results. Temperature distribution, flow
combination and comparison of material thermal conductivity is studied. This thesis considers
full assembly analysis of pasteurizer unit.

Keywords: Plate heat exchanger, Pressure drop, Temperature distribution, Parallel flow,
Counter flow

INTRODUCTION reached. Heat leaves the warmer body or the hottest

The natural laws of physics always allow the fluid, as long as there is a temperature difference,
drivingenergyinasystemtoflowuntilequilibrium is and will be transferred to the cold medium.
1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, SIT, Tumkur, Karnataka, India.
2
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Cambridge Institute of Technology, Bangalore, Karnataka, India.

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Figure 1: Structure of a Typical Gasket PHE with Chevron Plates

Figure 2: Dimension of Chevron Plate and Cross Section

A heat exchanger follows this principle the hot medium from the cold one very
in its Endeavour to reach equalization. easily. It is therefore possible to heat or
With a plate type heat exchanger, the heat cool fluids or gases which have minimal
penetrates the surface, which separates energy levels.

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Int. J. Mech. Eng. & Rob. Res. 2013 Vinay Patil et al., 2013

The theory of heat transfer from one media Material properties, flow and temperature
to another, or from one fluid to another is difference.
determined by several basic rules.
This thesis also studies temperature
• Heat will always be transferred from a hot distribution in parallel and counter flow
medium to a cold medium. combination. Also the results validate the
• There must always be a temperature empirical correlations used to calculate
difference between the media. overall heat transfer coefficient in NTU
method. This thesis has major impact in
The heat lost by the hot medium is equal to analyzing plate heat exchanger assembly
the amount of heat gained by the cold medium, using CFD and correcting the co-relations
except for losses to the surroundings. for analytical calculations. Empirical
In this thesis a new approach is introduced correlations are suggested for standard
to validate the CFD results with experimental specimen hence some correction factors
and analytical results. Study model is the needed to use them for specific design of
assembly of milk pasteurizer model. plate heat exchanger. However this requires
Pasteurizer is used to heat the milk by using lot of precession and may be the beyond the
hot medium as water or steam and cool the scope of this thesis. This thesis is for
milk at –4 °C by using brine solution. validating CFD as alternate tool f or
In this thesis 3D model is generated in CAD prototype or preliminary design. Hence this
software and this assembly is analyzed for prevents over design or under design in
different parameters. First proper connections preliminary sizing or selection. This thesis
and boundary connections set to capture emphases on the use of CFD to replace
conjugate heat transfer. This setting is very prototype testing. This saves cost and lead
critical to create connections for fluid and cold time for every project which almost 10% of
medium. Hence CFX is used as solver. every project. Also this ensures optimized
Literature review highlights that no assembly Figure 3: CAD 3D Model
analysis has been carried for plate heat
exchangers due to conjugate heat transfer 1. GEOMETRY/MODEL
3D CAD model in ProE wildfire
interface coupling was major difficulty.
Hence this thesis has major importance on 2. MESH Hexa and Tetra mesh in ICEM CFD

plate heat exchanger study using CFD as 1. Solid and Fluid domain
2. Material definition
entire assembly analysis is carried out in CFX 3. CFX SOLVER
3.
4.
Conjugate heat transfer interface coupling
Boundary Conditions
5. Turbulence modeling
tool by setting conjugate interface coupling 6. Solver convergence setting
7. Post processing – Parameters plots
easily.
Compare the results with
4. VALIDATE RESULTS
This thesis also analyzes different experimental results – Software Tool

parameters and their significance in heat 1. Temperature distribution

5. ANALYZE 2. Pressure distribution
transf er. Parameters considered are PARAMETERS 3.
4.
Material effects
Flow arrangement
Temperature distribution, Pressure drop,

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Int. J. Mech. Eng. & Rob. Res. 2013 Vinay Patil et al., 2013

and error proof design which saves 5% of Solver Settings Involve: Defining domains
the manufacturing cost. Hence short lead as fluid and solid domains. Creating interface
time and accuracy in expected results can coupling of these domains. Defining material
lead to customer satisfaction and trust. properties for each domain. To capture
turbulence K-e model is selected. Solver
WORKING METHODOLOGY QUICK scheme is considered. Power law with
3D Model is generated using ProEwildfire zero degrees equation is considered. Inlet and
CAD software. In present thesis assembly is out boundary conditions are set based on
considered for analysis. In reference literature iterations.
only single plates are considered for analysis.
Initially 4 plates assembly used to realize Table 1: CFX Solver Settings
settings for conjugate interface coupling and Descritization Scheme Quick
boundary conditions. Later in CFX solver mesh Pressure Velocity Coupling Simple
is duplicated to match required number of Turbulence Model K-E
plates. Model is shown as in Figure 3. Boundary Layer Capture Scheme Power Law

Mesh Generation Convergence Criteria E-4

Convergence Iterations 1000
Mesh is generated using ANSYS ICEM CFD
Viscous Effects On
tool. Meshing approach involved hexa meshing
which results in structured meshing. Tetra The Flow Model is Based on the
mesh approach tried but problem in handling Following Assumptions
large number of elements. Hardware unable • The fluid is Newtonian.
to process such big model. Hence strategy
• The Boussinesq approximation is invoked
was shifted to hexa mesh. This creates less
for the fluid properties to relate density
number of elements. The mesh nearby to walls
changes to temperature changes, there by
was fine meshed to capture thermal and
coupling the temperature field to the flow
velocity boundary layer effects.
field.
Solver
• Influence of external environment not
Ansys CFX tool is used as solver. CFX solver considered.
has many capabilities like mesh can be
duplicated for many instances and connected Conjugate Heat Transfer and Fluid
by interface coupling. Also to simulate Flow Boundary Conditions
conjugate solid fluid domain we have special Following are the boundary condition
interface treatment options. In first case 4 considered confirmed after several iterations.
plates have been meshed in ICEMCFD. Same
• Hot and Cold fluid inlet: Mass flow rate of
mesh is repeated and coupled using interface
fluid.
connection to ensure effect of number of
plates. There involved number of options to • Hot and Cold fluid outlet: Average static
ensure realistic boundary conditions. pressure.

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• Thermal initialization for conjugate heat on analytical empirical relations. This thesis
transfer. emphasizes validation of CFD results with
analytical and practical results. Below are the
• Solid fluid interaction for conjugate heat
parameters for analysis.
transfer.
Analysis for Validation of RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Methodology The analysis is carried out as per different
For first case 4 plates are considered to phases discussed below,
validate the results with practical and Figure 4 is plotted for temperature
analytical calculations. With reference to distribution along plate heat exchanger
practical results developed excel sheet to assembly. From figure it can be seen that
calculate effective area required to ensure
desired heat transfer. Excel sheet is based Figure 4: Temperature Distribution Across
Heat Exchanger
Table 2: CFD Input Parameters

Hot Fluid Cold Fluid

Properties Properties
Fluid Medium Water Milk
Density Kg/m3 1000 890
2
Viscosity (m /s) 1.87E-04 1.40E-04
Specific Heat (J/kgk) 4210 3900
Thermal Conductivity (W/m.K) 0.5 0.56
Flow kg/s 1.6667 1.3889
Inlet Temperature (°K) 370 283

Table 3: CFD Results at Outlet

Parameters Hot Fluid Cold Fluid

Figure 5: Temperature Distribution Across
Outlet Temperature in °K 326 326 Single Plate

Table 4: Comparison Outlet Temperature

(°K) of Hot Fluid
Theoretical CFD
Test Theoretical CFD
Error % Error %
325 331 326 –11.5385 –1.923

Table 5: Comparison Outlet Temperature

(°K) of Cold Fluid
Theoretical CFD
Test Theoretical CFD
Error % Error %
325 328 326 –5.769 –1.923

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Int. J. Mech. Eng. & Rob. Res. 2013 Vinay Patil et al., 2013

Figure 6: Temperature Distribution Across Figure 8: Counter Flow Temperature

PHE (Isomeric View) Approach Along the PHE

Figure 9 shows using CFD Pressure drop

Figure 7: Parallel Flow Temperature
Approach Along the PHE along plate heat exchanger can be calculated
effectively. Hence design can be optimized for
proper pump selection.
Material properties affect heat transfer rate
and effective area requirement. In this thesis
3 materials are selected and temperature
contours are plotted to show thermal
conductivity influences heat transfer rate and
size.

Figure 9: Pressure Drop Along the PHE

temperature approach becomes narrow from

left to right. This validates the nature of
temperature approach in real model.
Figure 8 is plotted for temperature
distribution along plate heat exchanger
assembly. From figure it can be seen that
temperature approach remains nearly parallel
in Plate heat exchanger assembly. This
validates the nature of temperature approach
in real model.

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Int. J. Mech. Eng. & Rob. Res. 2013 Vinay Patil et al., 2013

From Figures 10, 11 and 12 temperature

Figure 12: Temperature Distribution
approach in copper is better than aluminum in Steel Plates
and temperature approach in aluminum is
better than steel. Temperature distribution
contour plots reveal that higher thermal
conductivity enhances reduced effective area
requirement.

Figure 10: Temperature Distribution

in Copper Plates

CONCLUSION
It can be seen from results that CFD results
are quite convincing with practical and
analytical results. Hence CFD can be a tool
Figure 11: Temperature Distribution
in Aluminum Plates
for future to ensure effective design of plate
heat exchangers. As in process industry every
day operating parameters change with
different processes, it is difficult to design
without higher reliability factor or oversize
design. Hence CFD can ensure cost effective
and optimum design. Many times over Size
pumps cost energy loss hence by predicting
accurate pressure drop energy can be saved.
Using CFD one can visualize all parameters
at any section of plate heat exchanger. Earlier
it was only access at inlet and outlet
conditions measured and then parameters
varied to get actual result.

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Int. J. Mech. Eng. & Rob. Res. 2013 Vinay Patil et al., 2013

With CFD we can simulate different Chemical Engineering Science ,

parameters like flow, temperature, material Vol. 59, pp. 4591-4600.
properties, viscosity effects and effect of
4. Martin H (1996), “A Theoretical Approach
number of passes easily. It is difficult to do
to Predict the Performance of Chevron-
these changes practically as operating
Type Plate Heat Exchangers”, Chemical
parameters and liquid changes as per client
Engineering and Processing, Vol. 35,
requirement. In Figures 5 and 6 it can be seen
pp. 301-310.
that counter flow is more effective than parallel
flow plate heat exchanger. 5. Schlunder E H (1998), “Analogy Between
Heat and Momentum Transfer”, Chemical
From Figure 9t can be seen that pressure
Engineering and Processing, Vol. 37,
drop calculated is in sink with test results.
pp. 103-107.
It is seen from Figures 10, 11 and 12 that
6. Shah R K and Focke W W (1988), “Plate
copper has better thermal performance than
Heat Exchanger and Their Design Theory
aluminum and steel. Hence thermal
in Heat Transfer Equipment Design”,
conductivity of material enhances heat transfer
Hemisphere, Washington.
rate and saves material.
7. Srihari N and Das S K (2009), “Transient
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APPENDIX

Nomenclature

b : Mean mass channel gap [m]

D : Port diameter [m]
f : Friction factor
h : Convective heat transfer coefficient [W/m 2·k]
k : Thermal conductivity [W/m·k]
t : Plate thickness [m]
L : Horizontal port distance [m]
Lh : Projected plate distance [m]
Lv : Vertical port distance [m]
Lp : Plate width inside gasket [m]
2
mw : Maldistribution parameter
n : Number of channel
Pc : Corrugation pitch [m]
Greek Symbols
 : Chevron angle [degree]
c : Channel friction coefficient
Greek Symbols
c : Cold fluid
h : Hot fluid

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