Thermal performance of corrugated plate heat exchanger using ethylene glycol as test fluid

Abstract

This paper reports an experimental comparative thermal analysis of a flat plate heat exchanger and corrugated plate heat exchanger (CPHE) of different corrugation angles using ethylene glycol as test fluid. The experiments were carried out counter current mode using water as hot fluid at 75°C.  Design of each plate provided with eleven thermocouple sensors to determine the temperatures, in which seven were used to measure the surface temperature of plate and four were used to measure the inlet and outlet bulk temperature of cold and hot fluids.  The mass flow rate of test fluid, varied between 0.5 to 4 liters per minute and corresponding steady state temperatures is measured. Using experimental readings, temperature difference between the inlet and outlet streams (DT), logarithmic mean temperature difference (LMTD) and overall heat transfer coefficient (U) are determined. The obtained DT and U values of corrugation angles (300, 500) of CPHE were compared with those of flat plate heat exchangers. For corrugation angle of 30° and 50°, the DT and U values increases with increase of mass flow rate of the fluid.