Construction, performance, and thermal design of plate heat exchangers

Abstract

Much of design data for plate heat exchangers remain proprietary. A step by step methodology for determination of the exchanger size and internal geometry from the knowledge of process data is scarce. Commercial computer codes do not give the user accessibility to mathematical modelling. Engineers do not usually understand the terminology and geometry of these exchangers. This article presents a manual method for thermal design of plate heat exchangers based on physically meaningful estimations, calculations, and comparisons. When there is no close agreement, it may be necessary to change one or more of the design parameters, i.e. channel (passage) velocities, wall temperatures, or corrugation inclination angle. Considerable skill and judgment is required by the thermal design engineer at this stage to decide how the tentative design should be changed to provide a rapid solution. The experienced design engineer is often able to judge on the final decision from the first or second trial designs.