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

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 in 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 (∆T), logarithmic mean temperature difference (LMTD) and overall heat transfer coefficient (U) are determined. The obtained ∆T and U values of corrugation angles (30°, 50°) of CPHE were compared with those of flat plate heat exchangers. For corrugation angle of 30° and 50°, the ∆T and U values increases with increase of mass flow rate of the fluid. The turbulence in the flow increases due to increase in the corrugation angle, which results in the enhancement of heat transfer. Moreover, thermal effectiveness (ε) is estimated using NTU method and compared for all the plates. As the NRe values gradually increases, ε decreases for flat plate and CPHE (θ = 30° and θ= 50°). At low NRe value of 114, observed a maximum ε (≅0.998) value for corrugated angle of 50°. There is adequate contact time between the cold and hot fluids at low Reynolds number, so maximum rate of heat transfer is possible, as a result ε values are high