A numerical analysis on the heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of welding type plate heat exchangers

Numerical analysis was carried out to examine the heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of plate heat exchangers for absorption application using Computational Fluid Dynamics(CFD) technique. A commercial CFD software package, FLUENT was used to predict the characteristics of heat transfer, pressure drop and flow' distribution within plate heat exchangers. In this paper, a welded plate heat exchanger with the plate of chevron embossing type was numerically analyzed by controlling mass flow rate, solution concentration, and inlet temperatures. The working fluid is H₂O/LiBr solution with the LiBr concentration of 50-60% in mass. The numerical simulation shows reasonably good agreement with the experimental results. Also, the numerical results show that plate of the chevron shape gives better results than plate of the elliptical shape from the view points of heat transfer and pressure drop. These results provide a guideline to apply the welded PHE for the solution heat exchanger of absorption systems.