Updated in July 2024
LiDong Huang, Principal Engineer, Experimental Research
Many different designs of plate heat exchangers (PHEs) exist for different heat transfer processes. Most PHEs are formed by corrugated plates, which are often spaced by rubber sealing gaskets or welded together to form hot and cold channels. Plate shapes and fluid distribution vary for different types of PHEs:
- Plate-and-frame heat exchangers (PFHEs)
PFHEs typically have rectangular plates with four corner ports, one pair for each of the two fluid streams. Gaskets are arranged so that the process and service fluids flow up or down alternate plates, as indicated in Figure 1. Hot and cold streams are typically in a cocurrent or countercurrent flow arrangement.
- Plate-and-shell heat exchangers (PSHEs)
PSHEs have circular plates with only two ports for plateside channels. The plates are welded on port edges to the adjacent plates to form shellside channels, as indicated in Figure 2. Shellside fluid is distributed through the annulus between the shell and plate pack. Different flow arrangements (e.g., cocurrent or cross flow) can be accomplished by changing nozzle locations on the shell.
- Welded plate heat exchangers (WPHEs)
WPHEs have rectangular or square plates that are welded on the edges alternately to form cold and hot channels, as indicated in Figure 3. They are sometimes referred to as welded plate-and-block heat exchangers or fully welded plate exchangers. Unlike PFHEs, the two streams are typically in crossflow arrangement.
HTRI research and software of plate heat exchanger technology initially focused on PFHEs. In 2015, HTRI initiated a multi-year technical program to conduct experimental and analytical research on other PHE types. Collaborating with plate heat exchanger manufacturers, we collected liquid-phase and phase-change heat transfer and pressure drop data on three PSHEs (provided by Tranter, Inc. and Vahterus Oy) and one WPHE (provided by Hisaka Works, Ltd.). These studies are documented in several HTRI reports:
On one of the PSHEs, we also used computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to evaluate the thermal and hydraulic performance, documented in PHE-22. The CFD simulations provided guidance on flow distributions for both shell and plate sides.
The data from the PSHEs and the WPHE, along with single- and phase-change data from other commercially available chevron-type corrugated plate heat exchangers (e.g., PFHEs) provided HTRI with a strong foundation for developing generalized heat transfer and pressure drop methods for corrugated crisscross channels. PHE-19 documents the improved condensation method and PHE-20 the improved boiling method, both implemented in Xphe®. TT-30 discusses modeling PSHEs using Xphe.
Moving forward, HTRI will continue to research and investigate these evolving plate technologies.