3 plate heat exchanger an overview

plate heat exchanger

In this article I would like to explain all about plate type heat exchanger. Heat transfer is a process that describes the flow of thermal energy (heat) due to a temperature driving force. For any transfer phenomenon to occur there must be potential difference and the transfer always occur from a region of high potential to a region of lower potential.  Here in heat transfer the heat is transferred from high temperature region to low temperature region.

A heat exchanger is the practical example or application of heat transfer. It follows the principle of equalization.

Types of heat exchangers

Some basic types of HE are as below,

1. Direct transfer type heat exchanger 

Both hot and cool fluid enter simultaneously such that are separated by a wall. They can be further classified by as:

1. Tubular Heat Exchanger
   1. Plate type of Heat Exchanger (PHE)
   1. Finned Tube Exchanger
2.  Direct Contact Type (Cooling Tower)

Heat exchangers are used in both heating and cooling applications. Heat exchangers can be classified on flow arrangement basis which are co-current, counter current and cross-current. In co-current arrangement fluid enters at the same end, counter current fluids enter from opposite ends and in cross current fluid travel perpendicular to one another. In plate type heat exchanger, the heat exchanger utilizes metal plates to transfer heat.  The advantage over other exchanger is that fluids get much larger surface area exposure which leads to very high increase in rate of heat transfer.  

A PHE contains parallel plate’s series which are placed above each other in order to create channels for fluids to flow. The space between two adjacent plates forms the channel in which the fluid flows. Inlet and outlet holes at the corners of the plates allow hot and cold fluids through alternating channels in the exchanger so that a plate is always in contact on one side with the hot fluid and the other with the cold.

advantages of PHE

1. It provides high value of overall heat transfer coefficient.

A plate type heat exchanger is typically designed and the overall heat transfer coefficient of the plate type heat exchanger is higher than shell and tube heat exchanger or spiral type heat exchanger.

• It creates a impact design: Plate type heat exchanger have the similar thermal capacity as shell and tube heat exchanger this is because of high value of heat transfer and general impact configuration of plates so it is five times in size of shell and tube heat exchanger (as compared the design).

• Easy Maintenance and cleaning: In plate heat exchanger we can take apart which allow for easy cleaning and maintenance of equipment. The exchanger allows addition of removal plates to reduce heat transfer capacity.
• Control the temperature: plate type heat exchanger work well with small temperature difference among hot and cold fluids.

Disadvantages of Plate Type Heat exchanger

1. Leakage: Plate heat exchangers are designed to allow plates and gaskets to be inserted between them and this increases the potential for leakage as gaskets age. 
2. High Pressure Drops: Plate heat exchangers consist of narrow way for fluid to flow which leads to high heat transfer and results in high pressure drop an higher cost of pumping
3. Not beneficial for large fluid temperatures
4. It doesn’t work well with very high fluid temperatures.

Conclusion

In the end of this article I would like to conclude how much important PHE are for chemical industries and we can understand easily the design parameters and the operations in maintenance. Due to Simple design, operation of this type of heat exchanger is very easy and very helpful and we use this type of heat exchanger for small temperature difference.

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plate heat exchanger