NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION OF THERMOHYDRAULIC CHARACTERISTICS OF A GASKETED PLATE HEAT EXCHANGER

Present study focuses on the investigation of thermohydraulic characteristics of a gasketed plate heat exchanger (GPHE) through theoretical predictions and numerical analysis using ANSYS FLUENT. The analysis is divided into three parts. The first part of the study determines the correlation suitable for the GPHE based on the chevron angle and flow conditions. The second part investigates the comparison between a corrugated plate heat exchanger and a flat plate for the same effective area of heat transfer. Simulations were run for 200 <= Re <= 1000 on the hot side and Re = 200 was kept constant on the cold side. It was found out that there was an increase in heat transfer by about 262.866% for Re = 1000. The final part investigates how chevron angle affects the rate of heat transfer and turbulence intensity. Observations were made for chevron angles of 30 degrees, 45 degrees, and 60 degrees. It was found that the heat transfer increases as the chevron angle increases with an increase of 35.69% from 30 degrees to 60 degrees.