Theoretical analysis of the end-plate effect on heat transfer in brazed plate heat exchangers

摘要

In brazed plate heat exchangers (BPHEs), two end plates function as fins due to the heat conductionwith the adjacent thermal plates. This effect brings difficulties in the development of reliable heattransfer correlations.This paper presents a theoretical analysis of the end-plate effect on heat transfer in BPHEs.In the analysis, the governing equation is obtained by the energy balance of an elementary cell ofthe end plate. Then, both numerical and analytical approaches are adopted to solve the governingequation.The results show that the numerical solution and analytical solution agree well with each other. Theend-plate effect enlarges the active heat transfer area and leads to an overestimation of the heattransfer coefficient. An equation for the fin efficiency of the end plates is also proposed.