Numerical simulation of plate heat exchanger with improved mesh performance

Abstract

A numerical and experimental study has been carried out on the heat transfer and fluid flow in a PHE. By means of a high-performance computing cluster, large-size and nosimplified plates can be simulated with 67 million computational cells. A new approach providing a proper clearance between two adjacent corrugated plates is proposed to improve the mesh quality around the contact points. The clearance value and the influence on the mesh quality and computational results are carefully studied. The results show that the ratio of clearance c to equivalent diameter De equals to 0.02 is proper. The CFD results agree with the experimental results with an error less than 10%. The proposed approach is proved to be effective and practical because it can increases the grid quality without losing the accurate of the results. This paper shows that CFD is a reliable tool for studying effect of various geometrical configurations on the optimum design of a PHE.