Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 30 (5) (2016) 2325~2333
www.springerlink.com/content/1738-494x(Print)/1976-3824(Online)
DOI 10.1007/s12206-016-0442-9
Heat transfer and pressure drop of a gasket-sealed plate heat exchanger depending on
operating conditions across hot and cold sides†
Joon Ahn1,* and Hyouck Ju Kim2
1
School of Mechanical Systems Engineering, Kookmin University, Seoul 136-702, Korea
2
Korea Institute of Energy Research, Daejeon 305-343, Korea
(Manuscript Received November 18, 2014; Revised September 25, 2015; Accepted January 14, 2016)
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Abstract
In a gas engine based cogeneration system, heat may be recovered from two parts: Jacket water and exhaust gas. The heat from the
jacket water is often recovered using a plate-type heat exchanger, and is used for room heating and/or hot water supply applications. De-
pending on the operating conditions of an engine and heat recovery system, there may be an imbalance in the flow rate and supply pres-
sure between the engine side and the heat-recovery side of the heat exchanger. This imbalance causes deformation of the plate, which
affects heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics. In the present study, the heat transfer and pressure drop inside a heat exchanger
were investigated under varying hot-side and cold-side operating conditions. Thermal efficiency of the plate heat exchanger decreases up
to 30% with an operating engine load of 50%. A correction factor for the pressure drop correlation is proposed to account for the defor-
mation caused by an imbalance between the two sides of a heat exchanger.
Keywords: Plate heat exchanger; Single phase; Heat transfer; Pressure drop; Friction factor
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plates, to study the effects that result from the variation of
1. Introduction
parameters such as pitch, amplitude, and chevron angle [4].
Heat exchangers are used in a wide variety of applications, The present study aims to develop the exhaust heat recovery
such as district heating stations, heat recovery system, HVAC technique, which is the core technique of cogeneration sys-
systems, and chemical process systems. The recent energy tems, based on a 1 MW-class gas engine. The gas engine is
crisis has encouraged the development of high-efficiency the most market-ready technology for small and micro CHP
compact heat exchangers. The plate-type heat exchanger is applications, because of its high efficiency, fuel flexibility,
one of the best examples, with advantages such as compact- and low emissions [5]. For a gas engine driven cogeneration
ness, ability to recover heat with a very small temperature system, the engine is cooled and waste heat is recovered from
difference, flexibility, lesser tendency of fouling, and lower the engine cooling jackets, oil cooler, and exhaust gas recu-
susceptibility to flow-induced vibration. Although originally perator. These heat recovery units are typically connected in
invented for use in hygienic industries such as brewing and series to generate hot water [6]. However, in the locations
dairy processing [1], plate heat exchangers are also widely where small cogeneration systems in the 1 to 10 MW class are
used to recover heat from the jacket water of a gas engine for mainly used (e.g., large hospitals, self-supporting factories,
a cogeneration system, as shown in Fig. 1 [2]. spa resorts), it is likely that there will also be high heat-
A plate heat exchanger consists of a stack of corrugated generation demands for hot water, room heating, and steam
metal plates, as shown in Fig. 1(c). The corrugated plates are applications. Thus, this study proposes, as illustrated in Fig.
either clamped or brazed together to provide a flow channel 1(a), a system to recover engine-jacket water heat in the form
for heat transfer, depending on the working pressure [3]. The of hot water, and exhaust gas heat in the form of steam [7].
present study utilizes a gasket-sealed plate heat exchanger. In the present configuration, a plate heat exchanger is only
The corrugated patterns are designed to achieve high heat used to recover the engine-jacket water heat, while the exhaust
transfer coefficient and low pressure drop. Extensive experi- gas heat is recovered by a separate waste heat boiler. For the
mental studies have been conducted on different chevron-type engine-jacket heat recovery system, the cold-side (heat recov-
ery side) flow rates and pressures vary depending on the pa-
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +82 2 910 4833, Fax.: +82 2 910 4839
rameters of the installation environment, such as the hot water
E-mail address:
[email protected]†
Recommended by Associate Editor Chang Yong Park supply, temperature setup for water recovery and piping.
© KSME & Springer 2016
2326 J. Ahn and H. J. Kim / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 30 (5) (2016) 2325~2333
(a) (a)
(b)
(b)
(c)
Fig. 2. Experimental setup: (a) Schematic diagram; (b) photograph.
Fig. 1. Gas engine CHP system: (a) System composition; (b) jacket
water heat recovery system; (c) heat exchanger for jacket water heat
recovery.
the operation conditions, was examined by evaluating the
thermal efficiency of the heat exchanger. Off-design perform-
Jacket water flow rates can also vary depending on the elec- ance of the heat exchanger was predicted by changing the
tricity demand and control system. These variations can cause flow rate at the hot side. Overall heat transfer coefficient and
minute deformation of the plates, and this deformation can surface margin were also evaluated and compared to predic-
significantly affect heat transfer and pressure drop. However, tions using existing empirical correlations.
this subject has not been studied previously. Regarding the pressure drop, experimental data were com-
For plate heat exchangers, plates are sealed to each other us- pared with the widely used Kumar's correlation [9] under the
ing a gasket, brazing, or semi-welding, depending on the condition of consistent flow rates and pressures on the hot and
working pressure [8]. A gasket-sealed plate heat exchanger, cold sides. Correction factors for the correlation were pro-
adopted in the present study, is more vulnerable to deforma- posed for both sides of the heat exchanger. Then, the experi-
tion. Accordingly, we constructed a 1/5-scale model of the mental data were compared with other published correlations
engine-jacket water heat recovery equipment of a 1 MW-class to check the validity of the proposed correction factors. The
gas engine cogeneration system, and measured its heat transfer pressure drop of the varying flow rate and pressure was meas-
and pressure drop to investigate the effect of changing operat- ured to identify the effect of the variations in the operating
ing conditions across the hot and cold sides. conditions on the hot and cold sides, and it was compared with
The deformation of plates would increase heat transfer and the correlation used for the design.
pressure drop at one side, while it would decrease them at the
other side. Regarding the heat transfer, change of overall heat
2. Experimental setup
transfer coefficient should be important to size the heat ex-
changer. As for the pressure drop, however, fluids at hot and In gas engine based cogeneration, the heat of the engine-
cold side are to be controlled separately. Friction factors at jacket water is utilized for hot water supply and room heating
each side need to be predicted to design the pumping system. using a plate heat exchanger (Fig. 1(b)). As a result, as shown
The performance of the heat recovery system, depending on in Fig. 1(c), the exhaust heat recovery system in a plate heat
