Experimental and numerical investigation of heat transfer fouling and fluid flow in flat plate heat exchangers

摘要

Recent investigations have shown that similar commercial heat exchanger plates with different corrugation patterns, fouled at very different rates under identical process conditions. These differences are attributed to the effects of flow distribution on fouling rates in the plate channels. Consequently, the effects of flow distribution on fouling were studied experimentally using flat heat exchanger plates with and without flow distributors. The aim of the different distributor designs was to obtain a more even flow distribution within the plate channels. Flow simulations were performed for different distributor designs and different plate shapes. Computational results compared well with those obtained experimentally.