Numerical study on heat transfer and fluid dynamics in plate heat exchangers: Effects of chevron angle and aspect ratio

Determination of the geometrical parameters of the heat exchanger has important effects on the thermohydraulic performance of the heat exchanger. In this study, the effects of geometric parameters of a plate heat exchanger on thermohydraulic performance have been extensively investigated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Parametric studies were performed on 8 different corrugated channel geometries with various chevron angles (beta) and aspect ratios (2b/lambda) for Reynolds numbers ranging from 500 to 3000. An entire fluid channel was numerically studied using the same mass flow rate and the Reynolds number. As results of the study, temperature distribution, pressure gradient, velocity, turbulent kinetic energy distribution, Nusselt number, friction factor, and flow properties were evaluated comparatively for each case. It was determined that the sinusoidal corrugations promote the turbulence intensity and the swirling flow which leads to thermal boundary layer mitigation and enhanced convection heat transfer in response to the increasing of aspect ratio. The results of the study show that the (CFD) model is a reasonable and effective technique for displaying 3D contour plots, streamlines, and determining performance parameters.