Heat Transfer Enhancement of Ethylene Glycol using Corrugated Plate Heat Exchanger

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental study on heat transfer rate for ethylene glycol using a flat plate heat exchanger and various corrugation angles of corrugated plate heat exchanger. Experimental set up provided with thermocouples to measure the temperatures along the length of each plate at seven locations. Additionally, four thermocouples were used to measure the inlet as well as outlet temperature of test fluid and hot fluid. Water was used as a hot fluid at constant temperature of 75°C and Ethylene glycol was used as a test fluid in a counter-current flow mode. The fluids flow rates were varied from 0.5 lpm to 4.5 lpm and the corresponding temperatures are measured. From the experimental readings, the heat transfer coefficient and Nusselt numbers were calculated for flat plate and corrugated plate exchangers. The heat transfer coefficient values and Nusselt numbers were compared with the corrugation angles (300, 400) of corrugated plate and flat plate heat exchangers. The heat transfer coefficient and Nusselt number enhances for corrugated plate with increasing in Reynolds number. The improvement in values is due to the high heat transfer rate caused by turbulence at the corrugation angle. Furthermore, as the increase of mass flow rate, gradual decrement observed for the heating effectiveness in corrugated plate as well as flat plate heat exchanger. This drop of effectiveness is due to decrease of time contact between the two fluids.