Experimental study on heat transfer of pulsating flow enhanced the plate heat exchanger

We conducted two sets of experiments, one is under steady-state conditions and the other under pulsating conditions. We focused on measuring the heat transfer characteristics of plate heat exchangers under different pulsation conditions. In the experiment, we control the mass flow of the hot fluid to circulate at a rate of 0.722 kg/s. The mass flow rate of the cold fluid is 0.05-0.18 kg/s, and the pulsation frequency is 0.45-2.23 Hz. We measured different mass flows at different pulsation frequency. The data analysis shows that when the pulsation frequency is 1.78 Hz, the heat transfer coefficient reaches a maximum of 4415.73 w/(m2·k), and the corresponding cold fluid mass flow rate is 0.155 kg/s, and compared with the heat transfer characteristics of the plate heat exchanger under steady flow, it is found that the average increase in the heat transfer coefficient during the transition to the pulsating mode was 20%