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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Heat exchangers are important, and used frequently in the process, heat and power, air-
conditioning and refrigeration, heat recovery, transportation and manufacturing industries. Such
equipment is also used in electronics cooling and for environmental issues like thermal pollution,
waste disposal and sustainable development. Various types of heat exchangers exist. The study
concerns plate heat exchangers (PHEs), which are one of the most common types in practice.
Plate heat exchangers are widely used in dairy, pharmaceutical and paper/pulp industry as well
as in HVAC applications. Flow of the substances to be heated and cooled takes place between
alternating metal sheets allowing heat transfer between the fluids. Gaskets are placed between
the plates to avoid mixing of the fluids. In the majority of the industrial applications, the plate
heat exchanger is the design of choice because of its many advantages. Among these are:
• Superior thermal performance; plate heat exchangers have heat transfer coefficients as
high as three to four times that of tubular types because of smaller hydraulic diameter.
The turbulent conditions are achieved at much lower Reynolds number hence higher heat
transfer coefficients.
• Compact design; the superior thermal performance of the plate heat exchanger and the
space efficient design of the plate arrangement results in a very compact piece of
equipment. Space requirements for the plate heat exchanger generally run 10% to 50%
that of a shell and tube unit for the same amount of heat transfer. In addition, tube
cleaning and replacing clearances are eliminated.
• Expandability and multiplex capability; the nature of the plate heat exchanger
construction permits expansion of the unit should heat transfer requirements increase
2
after installation. In addition, two or more heat exchangers can be housed in a single
frame, thus reducing space requirements and capital costs.
• Ease of maintenance; the construction of the heat exchanger is such that, upon
disassembly, all heat transfer areas are available for inspection and cleaning. Disassembly
consists only of loosening a small number of tie bolts.
• Availability of a wide variety of corrosion resistant alloys; since the heat transfer area is
constructed of thin plates, stainless steel or other high alloy construction is significantly
less costly than for a shell and tube exchanger of similar material.
4. Experimentation
(1)
The Nusselt number is to the thermal boundary layer what the friction coefficient is to velocity
boundary layer. Equation (1) implies that for a given geometry, the Nusselt number must be
some universal function of x*, Reynolds number and Prandtl number.
(2)
where:
Selection of the characteristic length should be in the direction of growth (or thickness) of the
boundary layer. Some examples of characteristic length are: the outer diameter of a cylinder in
(external) cross flow (perpendicular to the cylinder axis), the length of a vertical plate
undergoing natural convection, or the diameter of a sphere. For complex shapes, the length may
be defined as the volume of the fluid body divided by the surface area. The thermal conductivity
of the fluid is typically (but not always) evaluated at the film temperature, which for engineering
purposes may be calculated as the mean-average of the bulk fluid temperature and wall surface
4
temperature. For relations defined as a local Nusselt number, one should take the characteristic
length to be the distance from the surface boundary to the local point of interest. However, to
obtain an average Nusselt number, one must integrate said relation over the entire characteristic
length.
(3)
where C, m, and n are independent of the nature of fluid used. The last term in the expression
accounts for the variable viscosity effect.
(4)
where:
Note that whereas the Reynolds number is subscripted with a length scale variable, Prandtl
number contains no such length scale in its definition and is dependent only on the fluid and the
fluid state. As such, Prandtl number is often found in property tables alongside other properties
such as viscosity and thermal conductivity. This number essentially delineates a ratio which is
5
the thickness of the momentum boundary layer to the thermal boundary layer. When Pr is small,
it means that the heat diffuses very quickly compared to the velocity (momentum). This means
that for liquid metals the thickness of the thermal boundary layer is much bigger than the
velocity boundary layer.
(5)
where:
Reynolds number can be defined for a number of different situations where a fluid is in relative
motion to a surface (the definition of the Reynolds number is not to be confused with the
Reynolds Equation or lubrication equation). These definitions generally include the fluid
properties of density and viscosity, plus a velocity and a characteristic length or characteristic
dimension. For flow in a pipe or a sphere moving in a fluid the internal diameter is generally
used today. Other shapes (such as rectangular pipes or non-spherical objects) have an equivalent
diameter defined.
6
CHAPTER 2
Modified Wilson Plot Technique is used to determine the value of multiplier and exponent of Reynolds
Number in the Nusselt Number Correlation.
The heat transfer coefficients for the cold and hot sides of plate heat exchanger are obtained by the
following equations respectively
(1)
(2)
The following basic relation (3) is algebraically manipulated in two different ways to obtain two
equations, which are subsequently used for obtaining the Modified Wilson Plot:
(3)
(4)
The above equation (4) is a linear modification of the basic relation and it is of the form:
Where,
Slope:
Intercept:
An initial guess ‘p’ is used to obtain a plot between X1 and Y1 .This plot yields Cc and Ch
(5)
Slope:
Intercept:
• Reinsert ‘p’ obtained from the second plot (X2, Y2) into (4) to acquire yet another value of ‘p’ in
the second plot. The new value approaches closer and closer to the root (i.e. converges)
• Repeat this procedure until the difference between consecutive values of “p” tends to a value
smaller than the prescribed error
9
CHAPTER 3
The literature review has established that the general form of the Nusselt number correlation for
plate type heat exchangers is in the form of power law and given by:
Where, C and m are constants which were evaluated by experimentation. The purpose of the
experimental setup is to provide a means to control certain dimensionless parameters which are
explained below.
only a function of fluid properties. These fluid properties depend upon the nature of fluid and the
fluid temperature. In our experimental setup, the Prandtl number was varied by changing the
fluid temperature.
A schematic of the experimental apparatus is shown in Fig.3.2. The central piece of equipment is
the plate heat exchanger. The setup consists of a hot fluid loop and a cold fluid loop. The hot
fluid loop consists of a hot fluid tank and a pump that is pumping hot fluid from the tank to the
heat exchanger. The hot fluid tank has the capacity of 150 US gallons and is equipped with 8
electric immersion heaters. One of the heaters is attached to a temperature controller and
magnetic contactor. When the desired temperature is reached in the hot fluid tank, the controller
sends a signal to the magnetic contactor which acts as a relay and disconnects the supply from
the heater. The cold fluid loop consists of a cold fluid tank and a pump that is pumping cold fluid
from the cold fluid tank to the heat exchanger. The cold fluid tank has the capacity of 35 US
gallons. Temperatures are measured at the inlet and exit of the plate heat exchangers for both the
hot and cold streams. Temperatures are measured at various locations using the Resistance
Temperature Device (RTDs). The fluid is cooled by a 2 TR Packaged Air Cooled Water Chiller.
R22 is used as the refrigerant for chilling the fluid in the chiller.
The desired temperatures of the cold and hot fluids were achieved and the fluids of both the
loops were pumped into the Plate heat exchanger where they exchanged heat. The hot fluid
flowed from top to bottom within a channel of the plate heat exchanger while the cold fluid
flowed from bottom to the top of the channel achieving counter-flow. Flow rate measurements
were taken by the conventional bucket and stop watch method. Reynolds number was varied by
changing the fluid flow rate through variable frequency drives and bypass valves. Prandtl
number was varied by changing the temperature of the fluid using chiller, heaters and
temperature controllers. Experiments were conducted at various temperatures and flow rates of
hot and cold fluids using plates of a fixed chevron angle, β = 45o. Such plate configuration was
achieved using a combination of 30o and 60o plates. The system was allowed to reach the steady
state before any reading was made.
12
Chevron Angle
Usually termed β and varies between 22◦–65◦. This angle also defines the thermal hydraulic
softness (low thermal efficiency and pressure drop) and hardness (high thermal efficiency and
pressure drop).
Enlargement Factor
This factor φ is the ratio of the developed length to the protracted length.
14
Dh = 4Ax/P
Since b << w,
Therefore; Dh = 2b/φ
The plate specifications for the present study are shown below in Table 3.2:
Width w 185mm
Vertical distance b/w ports Lp 565 mm
Channel spacing b 2.2 mm
Effective Area A 0.095 m2
Surface enlargement factor φ 1.117
Chevron angle β 45o (π/4 radian)
CHAPTER 4
EXPERIMENTATION
Those RTDs which showed an error of ±0.2oC were selected and installed in the experimental setup.
For a fixed Reynolds number, five data points were recorded by varying the heat flux on the hot
side of the heat exchanger. Five such experiments were carried out for Reynolds number in the
given range. Heat flux was varied by controlling the hot inlet temperature (Th,i) from 20oC to
32oC.
CHAPTER 5
The program code was based on the Modified Wilson Plot Technique. Given the initial guess
value and experimental data, the program automatically performs iterations and generates plots
that can be used to find the value of ‘C’ and ‘m’ in the Nusselt number correlation.
5.2 Results
The initial guess value ‘p’ and fluid properties are used to generate a plot between X1 and Y1.
The slope and intercept of the linear plot along with the guess value and fluid properties generate
the logarithmic plot. The slope of the logarithmic plot gives the value of ‘p’ to be used for the
next iteration. This procedure is repeated until the slope of the logarithmic plot converges.
The following table and figures show the results of our analysis:
After successive iterations, the gradient and intercept of the logarithmic plot give:
m = 0.881
Cc = Ch = 0.0566
We compared our correlation with those of other researchers which were applicable to our range
of experimentation. The results are comparable to those of Khan [1], Thonon [9], and Cooper
[10].
5.4 Investigating the effects of varying ‘n’
The following table demonstrates the effect of changing the exponent ‘n’ of the Prandtl number
on the multiplier ‘C’ and exponent ‘m’ in the Nusselt number correlation.
n C m
0.30 0.060 0.882
0.33 0.057 0.881
0.35 0.055 0.881
0.40 0.049 0.883
Changing the value of exponent ‘n’ has negligible effect on the Nusselt number correlation. The
correlation is a strong function of Reynolds number and a weak function of Prandtl number.
Hence, n = 1/3 is a reasonable choice.
23
CHAPTER 6
Experiments were performed to investigate the thermal performance of a commercial plate heat
exchanger by developing an empirical single phase heat transfer correlation. After
experimentation, it was found that the Nusselt number correlations for hot and cold side are the
same because the multipliers in the correlation (i.e. CC and CH) were equal. Although
experimentation was performed with a fixed cold side Prandtl number, the above result means
that our correlation is valid for an extended range of Prandtl numbers. The presented correlation
is valid for 500 < Re < 4500 and 5.6 < Pr < 8.0 and β=45o.
The Nusselt number correlation obtained was comparable to the correlations in existing literature
Khan [1], Thonon [9], Cooper [10].
Nusselt number was found to be a strong function of Reynolds number. In contrast, changing the
value of the Prandtl exponent ‘n’ in the correlation has negligible effect on the Nusselt number.
Hence, a value of 1/3 is used in accordance with earlier research.
- Extending the range of Reynolds number to investigate any changes in the correlation
- Broadening the range of heat flux over which the experiments are performed
- Using a viscous working fluid like ethylene glycol, thereby extending the range of
Prandtl number
- Repeating the experiment to take into account the effects of varying plate configuration
and plate geometry
- Eliminating the unsteady effects of the chiller by using municipal water
- Developing pressure drop correlations
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
[1] T.S. Khan, M.S. Khan, Ming-C. Chyu, Z.H. Ayub, Experimental investigation of single
phase convective heat transfer coefficient in a corrugated plate heat exchanger for multiple plate
configurations, Applied Thermal Engineering 30 (2010) 1058–1065.
[2] Jose Fernandez-Seara, Francisco J. Uhia, Jaime Sieres, Antonio Campo, A General Review
of the Wilson Plot Method and its Modifications to Determine Convection Coefficients in Heat
Exchange Devices, Applied Thermal Engineering 27 (2007) 2745–2757.
[3] Pettersen, J., Rieberer, R., Tollak, S., Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop for Flow of
Supercritical and Subcritical CO2 in Microchannel Tubes, February 2000.
[4] Ayub, Z.H., Plate Heat Exchanger Literature Survey and New Heat Transfer and Pressure
Drop Correlations for Refrigerant Evaporators, Heat Transfer Engineering, 24(5): pp. 3–16,
2003.
[5] Hayes, N., Jokar, A., Study of Carbon Dioxide Condensation in Chevron Plate Exchangers,
pp. 46-52, ASHRAE 1394-RP, 2009.
[6] Frank P. Incropera, Fundamentals of Heat and Mass transfer, 5th edition, John Wiley & Sons,
2001.
[7] Riaz, K.U., Ali, M.H., Javed, S., Design and Fabrication of an Experimental Setup to Develop
Nusselt Number Correlation for Single Phase Flow through Plate Heat Exchanger, Senior Design
Project, GIK Institute (2010).
[8] R. Simpson, and S. Almonacid, Plate Heat Exchanger, Encyclopedia of agricultural food and
biological engineering, 14 August 2003
25
[9] B. Thonon, Design method for plate evaporators and condensers, in: 1st International
Conference on Process Intensification for the Chemical Industry, BHR Group Conference Series
Publication 18, 1995, pp. 37–47.
[10] Cooper, A., Recover More Heat with Plate Heat Exchangers, The Chemical Engineer, no.
285, pp. 280–285, 1974.
26
APPENDIX A
MATLAB CODE
Given below is the MATLAB code for the program. To save space, only part of the code has
been written. Nevertheless, the reader is strongly recommended to run the CD included with this
report to gain access to the executable code and it’s GUI.
temp=[273.15 275 280 285 290 295 300 305 310 315 320 325 330 335 340 345 350 355 360 365 370 373.15];
rho=[1.00E+03 1.00E+03 1.00E+03 1.00E+03 9.99E+02 9.98E+02 9.97E+02 9.95E+02 9.93E+02 9.91E+02 9.89E+02
9.87E+02 9.84E+02 9.82E+02 9.79E+02 9.77E+02 9.74E+02 9.71E+02 9.67E+02 9.63E+02 9.61E+02 9.58E+02];
cp=[4217 4211 4198 4189 4184 4181 4179 4178 4178 4179 4180 4182 4184 4186 4188 4191 4195 4199 4203 4209 4214 4217];
muo=[1.75E-03 1.65E-03 1.42E-03 1.23E-03 1.08E-03 9.59E-04 8.55E-04 7.69E-04 6.95E-04 6.31E-04 5.77E-04 5.28E-04
4.89E-04 4.53E-04 4.20E-04 3.89E-04 3.65E-04 3.43E-04 3.24E-04 3.06E-04 2.89E-04 2.79E-04];
k=[5.69E-01 5.74E-01 5.82E-01 5.90E-01 5.98E-01 6.06E-01 6.13E-01 6.20E-01 6.28E-01 6.34E-01 6.40E-01 6.45E-01 6.50E-
01 6.56E-01 6.60E-01 6.68E-01 6.68E-01 6.71E-01 6.74E-01 6.77E-01 6.79E-01 6.80E-01];
b=0.0029;
w=0.185;
phi=1.117;
d_hyd=(2*b)/phi;
A=b*w;
A_h=0.095;
x=1;
handles.t_ho = handles.t_ho +273.15;
handles.t_hi = handles.t_hi +273.15;
handles.t_co = handles.t_co +273.15;
handles.t_ci = handles.t_ci +273.15;
t_avgh=(handles.t_ho+handles.t_hi)/2;
t_avgc=(handles.t_co+handles.t_ci)/2;
t_avgw=(handles.t_ho+handles.t_hi+handles.t_co+handles.t_ci)/4;
d=length(temp);
t=t_avgh;
for i=1:1:d
a=temp(1,i);
if(a<=t)
x=i;
27
end
end
t1=temp(1,x);
t2=temp(1,x+1);
c1=cp(1,x);
c2=cp(1,x+1);
muo1=muo(1,x);
muo2=muo(1,x+1);
k1=k(1,x);
k2=k(1,x+1);
rho1=rho(1,x);
rho2=rho(1,x+1);
pr_h=(muo_h*cp_h)/k_h;
d=length(temp);
t=t_avgc;
for i=1:1:d
a=temp(1,i);
if(a<=t)
x=i;
end
end
t1=temp(1,x);
t2=temp(1,x+1);
c1=cp(1,x);
c2=cp(1,x+1);
muo1=muo(1,x);
muo2=muo(1,x+1);
k1=k(1,x);
k2=k(1,x+1);
rho1=rho(1,x);
rho2=rho(1,x+1);
cp_c = (( c2 - c1 ) * ( t - t1 ) / ( t2 - t1 )) + c1;
muo_c = (( muo2 - muo1 ) * ( t - t1 ) / ( t2 - t1 )) + muo1;
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k_c = (( k2 - k1 ) * ( t - t1 ) / ( t2 - t1 )) + k1;
rho_c = (( rho2 -rho1 ) * ( t - t1 ) / ( t2 - t1 )) + rho1;
pr_c=(muo_c*cp_c)/k_c;
t=t_avgw;
for i=1:1:d
a=temp(1,i);
if(a<=t)
x=i;
end
end
t1=temp(1,x);
t2=temp(1,x+1);
muo1=muo(1,x);
muo2=muo(1,x+1);
muo_w= (( muo2 - muo1 ) * ( t - t1 ) / ( t2 - t1 )) + muo1;
%%%%%%%%%%%%%
dlt1=handles.t_hi-handles.t_ho;
dlt2=handles.t_co-handles.t_ci;
w1=handles.t_hi-handles.t_co;
w2=handles.t_ho-handles.t_ci;
w3=log(w1/w2);
w4=w1-w2;
LMTD=w4/w3;
m_h=handles.v_h*rho_h;
m_c=handles.v_c*rho_c;
Re_h=(rho_h*handles.v_h*d_hyd)/(muo_h*A);
Re_c=(rho_c*handles.v_c*d_hyd)/(muo_c*A);
muo_rh=muo_h/muo_w;
muo_rc=muo_c/muo_w;
q=m_h*cp_h*(handles.t_hi-handles.t_ho);
U=q/(A_h*LMTD);
load cfd.mat
d=[s.hint];
29
n=max(d);
X1=zeros(1,n);
Y1=zeros(1,n);
p=handles.p;
h=1;
while(h>=.0000001)
for t=1:n;
b=0.0029;
w=0.185;
phi=1.117;
d_hyd=(2*b)/phi;
A=b*w;
r_wall=0.0005/15.6;
e1=((1/U)-(r_wall));
e2=k_c/d_hyd;
e3=((rho_c*v_c*d_hyd)/(A*muo_c))^p;
e4=((cp_c*muo_c)/k_c)^.33333;
e5=(muo_rc)^0.14;
Y1(1,t)=e1*e2*e3*e4*e5;
f1=k_h/d_hyd;
f2=((d_hyd*rho_h*v_h)/(A*muo_h))^p;
f3=((cp_h*muo_h)/k_h)^.33333;
f4=(muo_rh)^0.14;
X1(1,t)=(e2*e3*e4*e5)/(f1*f2*f3*f4);
end
w1=(polyfit(X1,Y1,1));
p1=w1(1,1);
c1=w1(1,2);
load cfd.mat
d=[s.hint];
n=max(d);
X2=zeros(1,n);
Y2=zeros(1,n);
30
for t=1:n
b=0.0029;
phi=1.117;
d_hyd=(2*b)/phi;
r_wall=0.0005/15.6;
c_h = 1/p1;
c_c = 1/c1;
e1=((1/U)-(r_wall));
f1=k_h/d_hyd;
f2=k_c/d_hyd;
h_h=c_h*((Re_h)^p)*((pr_h)^.333)*((muo_rh)^.14)*f1;
h_c=c_c*((Re_c)^p)*((pr_c)^.333)*((muo_rc)^.14)*f2;
Y2(1,t)=log((e1-(1/(h_h)))*((pr_c)^.333)*f2*((muo_rc)^.14));
X2(1,t)=log(Re_c);
end
w = polyfit(X2,Y2,1);
p1 = abs(w(1,1));
h = abs(p1-p);
p = p1;
end
l=min(X1):0.001:max(X1);
l1=w1(1,1);
l2=w1(1,2);
set(handles.edit14,'string',p);
axes(handles.axes1)
plot(l,l1*l+l2)
xlabel('X1');
ylabel('Y1');
w = polyfit(X2,Y2,1);
d= min(X2):0.001:max(X2);
d1=w(1,1);
d2=w(1,2);
axes(handles.axes2)
plot(d,d1*d+d2)
xlabel('X2');
31
ylabel('Y2');
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