Gasketed plate heat exchangers breathing effect

Abstract

Despite existing issues related to durability and convenience of operation plate heat exchangers are more and more often used in various industries, from the housing and utilities sector to nuclear power. One little-known peculiarity of plate heat exchangers is breathing effect. This effect takes place when pressures of heat exchanging mediums are not equal. Pressure difference between adjacent channels makes channels with lower pressure to narrow and channels with higher pressure to extend. This peculiarity of plate heat exchangers is not advertised and thermal-hydraulic calculations often ignore it. However, this effect can increase the hydraulic resistance of the heat exchanger up to 3.5 times. Given the sufficiently high hydraulic resistance of the plate heat exchangers, its significant increase can affect the functional characteristics of the heat exchanger negatively. Therefore, in thermal-hydraulic calculations it is necessary to take account of breathing effect. In this paper, we consider available experimental data, analyze the factors causing breathing effect and propose measures to minimize it.