Utilization of Numerical Methods and Experiments for the Design and Tests of Gasketed Plate Heat Exchangers

Abstract

This chapter mainly focuses on numerical studies performed to analyze a plate heat exchanger composed of specific plates and the experimental validation of the numerical study. Different turbulence models, mainly k-?, RNG k-?, EARSM k-?, k-?, and SST k-?, are used and compared in computational fluid dynamics analysis. First, the numerical methodology is validated with the help of experiments. The effects of several geometrical properties on the performance of the exchangers are investigated numerically with the help of the validated methodology. These geometrical properties include channel height, wave amplitude, and distribution channels. New plate designs with better thermal and hydraulic performance are obtained with the utilization of experimentally validated computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques. © 2017 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.