TY - GEN
T1 - Experimental investigations of the single-phase flow distribution in brazed plate heat exchangers and its impact on the heat exchanger
AU - Li, Wenzhe
AU - Hrnjak, Pega
N1 - The authors thankfully acknowledge the support provided by the Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Center at the Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and CTS (Creative Thermal Solutions Inc.).
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - Maldistribution of fluid among parallel channels is one of the main issues in applications of brazed plate heat exchangers (BPHEs). This paper presents an experimental investigation of the single-phase flow distribution in BPHEs and its impact on the heat exchanger performance. In the experiments, water is used as the working fluid on both sides. Probes are placed into the headers of the BPHEs to measure the pressure change along the headers, as well as the pressure drop and temperature change across different channels. The results show that the maldistribution is more significant as the number of plates and total mass flow rate increase. The entrance effect would decrease the flow rate in first several channels. The maldistribution in channel flow rate results in the non-uniformity of the channel heat capacity.
AB - Maldistribution of fluid among parallel channels is one of the main issues in applications of brazed plate heat exchangers (BPHEs). This paper presents an experimental investigation of the single-phase flow distribution in BPHEs and its impact on the heat exchanger performance. In the experiments, water is used as the working fluid on both sides. Probes are placed into the headers of the BPHEs to measure the pressure change along the headers, as well as the pressure drop and temperature change across different channels. The results show that the maldistribution is more significant as the number of plates and total mass flow rate increase. The entrance effect would decrease the flow rate in first several channels. The maldistribution in channel flow rate results in the non-uniformity of the channel heat capacity.
KW - Brazed Plate Heat Exchangers
KW - Distribution
KW - Single-phase
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85082646469
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85082646469#tab=citedBy
U2 - 10.18462/iir.icr.2019.1564
DO - 10.18462/iir.icr.2019.1564
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85082646469
T3 - Refrigeration Science and Technology
SP - 2746
EP - 2753
BT - ICR 2019 - 25th IIR International Congress of Refrigeration
A2 - Minea, Vasile
PB - International Institute of Refrigeration
T2 - 25th IIR International Congress of Refrigeration, ICR 2019
Y2 - 24 August 2019 through 30 August 2019
ER -