Pillow-Plate Heat Exchangers:

Fundamental Characteristics

Julian M. Tran, Mark Piper, Eugeny Y. Kenig and Stephan Scholl

Abstract Pillow-plate heat exchangers (PPHE) are a novel heat exchanger type
based on wavy pillow-like plate geometry. Typically, they are composed of parallel
plates arranged as a stack. In this way, inner channels within the pillow-plates
alternate with outer channels between the adjacent plates, and thus, a structure with
alternating inner and outer channels is arranged for the heat transfer media. This
chapter deals with fundamentals of PPHE covering manufacturing, basic design
considerations and general application fields. The geometric variability of PPHE is
extremely high, while their performance strongly depends on the particular geo-
metric details. Therefore, the relevant parameters characterizing the complex
pillow-plate geometry as well as the corresponding methods for their calculation are
considered. These parameters include the internal and external heat transfer surface
areas, cross-sectional areas and characteristic lengths. Furthermore, the welding
spot arrangement is discussed, which is important for the flow pattern and overall
thermo-hydraulic performance characteristics.

List of Symbols
Latin Symbols
A Area (m2)
dh Hydraulic diameter (m)
dwp Diameter of welding points (m)
ei Inner expansion of the pillow-plate (m)
h Heat transfer coefficient (W m−2 K−1)
lPP Pillow-plate length (m)

J. M. Tran
M. Piper
E. Y. Kenig (&)

Universität Paderborn, Lehrstuhl für Fluidverfahrenstechnik, Pohlweg 55,
33098 Paderborn, Germany
e-mail: [email protected]
S. Scholl
TU Braunschweig, Institut für Chemische und Thermische Verfahrenstechnik,
Langer Kamp 7, 38106 Braunschweig, Germany
e-mail: [email protected]

© Springer International Publishing AG 2018 233

H.-J. Bart and S. Scholl (eds.), Innovative Heat Exchangers,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71641-1_7
234 J. M. Tran et al.

nPP Number of pillow-plates (-)

p Pressure (Pa)
Dp Pressure loss (Pa)
Pw Wetted perimeter (m)
Q_ Heat flow rate (W)
Rf Fouling resistance (m2 K W−1)
so Distance of the gap between two neighbouring pillow-plates (m)
sw Wall thickness (m)
sL Half longitudinal distance between welding points (m)
sT Transversal distance between welding points (m)
um Mean overall heat transfer coefficient (W m−2 K−1)
v Mean flow velocity (m s−1)
V Volume (m3)
V_ Volumetric flow rate (m3 s−1)
wPP Pillow-plate width (m)
x, y, z Cartesian coordinates (m)

Greek Symbols
f Darcy friction factor (-)
# Temperature (K)
D#m,ln Logarithmic mean temperature difference (K)
k Thermal conductivity (W m−1 K−1)
q Density (kg m−3)

Subscript
cs Cross-section
e Edge
ht Heat transfer
i Inner
max Maximum
o Outer
tot Total
w Wall
Pillow-Plate Heat Exchangers: Fundamental Characteristics 235

1 Introduction

Pillow-plate heat exchangers (PPHE) are a novel heat exchanger type typically
composed of a number of wavy pillow-like plates (see Fig. 1). These plates are
arranged as a stack and supplied with an inlet distributor and an outlet collector for
the fluid flowing in the inner channels. The eponymous wavy structure of the plates
is clearly visible in the figure. Outer channels are formed between adjacent
pillow-plates. This leads to alternating inner and outer channels for the media
exchanging heat. In the commercialization of pillow-plates, different brand names
are found, e.g. thermo-plates,1 laser plates2 or WTP system plates.3
An overview covering different types and applications of PPHE was given by
Behrend (1993). The results of first experimental investigations were published by
Mitrovic and Peterson (2007). Mitrovic and Maletic (2011) performed a
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)-based analysis of flow characteristics. The
works of Mitrovic and Peterson (2007) and Mitrovic and Maletic (2011) were
focused on single-phase and condensation heat transfer and pressure loss in PPHE.
In recent years, comprehensive experimental and numerical studies of PPHE
were published, with a focus on heat transfer and pressure loss in inner and outer
channels for single-phase (Tran et al. 2015a; Piper et al. 2016), condensing (Tran
et al. 2015b, c) and evaporating (Goedecke and Scholl 2015a, b) media.
Furthermore, the characteristics of the film flow over the wavy plates were inves-
tigated (Piper et al. 2015a), and approaches for the determination of the main
geometrical parameters of PPHE were established (Piper et al. 2014, 2015b).

1.1 Manufacturing and Operating Principle

Pillow-plates are typically fabricated from two metal sheets placed one on another.
Frequently, these sheets are made of stainless steel, such as 1.4541
(X 6 CrNiTi 18-10, AISI/SAE 321) and 1.4571 (X 6 CrNiMoTi 17–12–2, AISI/
SAE 316 Ti); however, vendors offer a variety of construction materials. Next, the
characteristic welding point grid is placed, usually by laser or resistance welding
methods. Afterwards, the inlet and outlet tubes are attached, and the remaining
edges are sealed, again using laser or resistance welding methods. Finally, the
structure takes its final shape by application of hydroforming. In this process, the
plates are inflated with pressures of typically 60–80 bar. The inflation pressures
applied during manufacturing are significantly higher than the design operating

1
http://www.deg-engineering.de/en/main.php.
2
http://www.buco-international.com/english/heatexchange.php.
3
http://www.lob-gmbh.de/en/index.html.
236 J. M. Tran et al.

Fig. 1 Cutaway view of three pillow-plates showing the typical wavy three-dimensional structure

pressures of the intended application. The produced channels are hermetically

separated and sealed without gaskets.
The most common pillow-plates are made from two identical sheets. The
hydroforming process leads to plates with a homogeneous expansion on both sides
(double-embossed). If, in contrast, one normal (thin) sheet and one very thick sheet
are used for the same pillow-plate, the hydroforming process yields plates with
one-side expansion (single-embossed), because only the thinner sheet is deformed
during the process. Usually, the sheets used in the manufacturing process have a
smooth surface. This surface can also be modified to enhance the performance, as
shown in Djakow et al. (2017).
Plates made from more than two metal sheets are also feasible, as shown in
Fig. 2. They can be beneficial in special applications, in which more than one inner
channel per plate is required. However, the constructional complexity increases; up
to now, these types of PPHE are rare in application.
The pillow-plates can also be pre-formed, using a suitable forming technique,
and welded or bonded afterwards.
In heat exchanger applications, several pillow-plates are arranged vertically as a
stack, parallel to each other, with alternating channels within and between the
pillow-plates. The medium inside the pillow-plates is being continuously redirected
by the welding point pattern. This leads to thin boundary layers and good heat
transfer performance, and hence, to lower required heat transfer area and lower
investment. On the other hand, internal pressure loss also increases, leading to high
operating costs for pumps and compressors. This results in a typical optimization
problem in the design of a PPHE. The number of geometric degrees of freedom is
extremely high for PPHE, and the performance of a particular pillow-plate appa-
ratus strongly depends on the specific geometric details. Due to their flexible
design, pillow-plates may also be used as heating or cooling jackets for reactors,
vessels, tubing or storage tanks, see Fig. 3.
Pillow-Plate Heat Exchangers: Fundamental Characteristics 237

Fig. 2 Different types of pillow-plates (Behrend 1993)

Fig. 3 Pillow-plates as heating jacket for tanks (left, © www.buco-international.com) and piping
lines (right, © www.lob-gmbh.de)

1.2 Basic Design

In this section, basic equations for the calculation of the required heat transfer area
and pressure loss are discussed. Furthermore, aspects which are important for all
subclasses of PPHE (condensers, reboilers and single-phase heat exchangers) are
238 J. M. Tran et al.

addressed, namely the choice of the flow path for both media, flow redirection by
elongated weld seams as well as cleanability.
For basic PPHE design for a given application with a given heat duty, first, the
required heat transfer area needs to be evaluated:

Q_ tot
Aht ¼ ð1Þ
um D#m;ln

For a flat plate with identical heat transfer area at both heat transfer sides, the
area-averaged overall heat transfer coefficient can be determined according to the
following equation

1
1 sw 1
um ¼ þ Rf;o þ þ þ Rf;i ð2Þ
hm;o kw hm;i

In Eqs. (1) and (2), um denotes the mean overall heat transfer coefficient, hm,i and
hm,o the mean heat transfer coefficients in the inner and outer pillow-plate channels,
respectively, Rf,i and Rf,o are the inner and outer fouling resistances, sw is the wall
thickness and kw is the thermal conductivity of the pillow-plate wall. D#m,ln
denotes the logarithmic mean temperature difference, which is defined as follows:

D#1  D#2
D#m;ln ¼   ð3Þ
ln D#
D#2
1

The indices 1 and 2 represent the inlet and outlet locations of the heat exchanger.
Both heat transfer coefficients, hm,i and hm,o, and the fouling resistances on both
sides, Rf,i and Rf,o, are determined according to the specific application under
consideration, and equations are given in the following sections.
In order to find a design that represents the optimum mentioned above and fulfils
the pressure loss-related constraints, the resulting pressure loss for the flow in the
inner and outer pillow-plate channels has to be determined. Typically, the Darcy
friction factor correlation is used:

2Dpdh
f¼ ð4Þ
qv2 lPP

Other basic considerations relate to the design of elongated weld seams in the
plates. This can be important in the applications of large industrial-scale plates.
When centrally positioned single tubes are used as inlet and outlet supply links for
the medium flowing in the inner channels, large dead zones may appear in the
corners of the plates. Elongated weld seams in the inlet and outlet regions can
minimize such dead zones. They would be arranged in a 90° rotated alignment to
the stream direction and work in a similar way as dash plates used in some
shell-and-tube heat exchangers facilitating even distribution of the entering fluid.
Pillow-Plate Heat Exchangers: Fundamental Characteristics 239

Elongated weld seams are also used to guide the inner fluid flow, similar to baffles
at the shell side of tubular heat exchangers. If the resulting mean flow velocity is
low and the heat transfer is poor, elongated weld seams may reduce the effective
cross-sectional area, to direct the fluid through the channel in a meandering way,
increase the mean flow velocity and hence intensify the heat transfer.
A further aspect to be considered during a basic design procedure addresses the
choice of the proper channel for the cooling and heating media streams. The
determination of the channel locations (such as tube-side and shell-side streams in
shell-and-tube heat exchangers) is fundamental for each design process, while the
specific guidelines depend on the heat exchanger type.
Along with thermal and fluid dynamic considerations, cleanability has to be
taken into account specifically for PPHE. The inner channels of the pillow-plates
can only be cleaned chemically or by application of return flow. A mechanical
cleaning procedure, as common for the tube side of shell-and-tube heat exchangers,
is presently not available for the inner channels of PPHE. For this reason, it is
generally advised not to use fouling media or media carrying particles in the inner
channels of these apparatuses. Such media should be processed in the outer
channels between the plates, which can be cleaned both chemically and mechani-
cally, for example, using high-pressure jets.
PPHE heat transfer elements are typically arranged as a rectangular plate stack,
see Fig. 4. Plate dimensions range from 300 to 2000 mm in width and 700 to
8000 mm in height. For mechanical stability reasons, plate stacks are placed inside
a cylindrical shell with the flow between the plates directed by guiding plates.

Fig. 4 Pillow-plate stack of an internal head condenser of a distillation column (© www.lob-

gmbh.de)
240 J. M. Tran et al.

Considering typical plate geometries and spacings between the plates, specific heat
transfer areas of a plate stack are around 50–200 m2/m3.

1.3 General Application Areas

Pillow-plate heat exchangers were initially introduced in the food industry

(Mitrovic and Peterson 2007). Starting in the early 1980s, more and more PPHE
have been employed in other branches of the process industries, and the range of
applications has been increasing continuously. They can be used in diverse areas
ranging from single-phase heat transfer via condensation and evaporation to very
complex systems with simultaneous phase change in both, inner and outer, channels
of the apparatus.
Further, PPHE can be applied as column reboilers, in latent heat storage systems
and in ice machines. Other promising applications can be found in heat pumps and
automotive industry. In general, PPHE have proven to offer a compact, light,
gasket-free, pressure-resistant heat exchanger design alternatively to shell-and-tube
as well as to single-welded plate heat exchangers. Since PPHE do not use sup-
plementary heavy and massive components, such as tube plates, they have a low
specific weight (kg/m3), and this allows their integration into head sections of
distillation columns as internal condensers (cf. Fig. 4).

2 Geometry Characteristics

The characteristic geometrical parameters of PPHE are shown in Figs. 5 and 6.

These are the length lPP and width wPP of the plates, the transversal welding point
pitch sT, the lateral welding point pitch 2sL, the maximum inner inflation height
ei,max, the maximum pillow-plate distance so,max, the welding point diameter dwp
and the total plate material thickness 2sw. These parameters are crucial for PPHE
design and operation, as they define cross-sectional and heat transfer areas for the
inner channel of a pillow-plate as well as for the channel between adjacent
pillow-plates. On this basis, the thermo-hydraulic characteristics of PPHE, such as
Nusselt number and friction factor, can be quantified, as described below.
The evaluation of the geometric design parameters of pillow-plates is chal-
lenging due to their complex and flexible geometry. Furthermore, since the
cross-sectional areas, especially inside the pillow-plates, are small, even minor
calculation errors can cause large fluctuations of the evaluated average flow
velocity. Due to the waviness of the inner pillow-plate channel, the cross-section
Acs,i and the wetted perimeter Pw,i are not constant and depend on the spatial
coordinates. Hence, the local hydraulic diameter dh,i (= 4Acs,i/Pw,i) varies periodi-
cally along the flow path. A volumetric mean hydraulic diameter is obtained by
Pillow-Plate Heat Exchangers: Fundamental Characteristics 241

Fig. 5 Transparent top/side view of two adjacent pillow-plates

integrating the local hydraulic diameter over the length of a periodic element of the
pillow-plate (Piper et al. 2015a, b):

ZsL
1 4Acs;i ðyÞ 4Vi
dh;i ¼ dy ¼ ð5Þ
sL Pw;i ðyÞ Aw;i
0

The quantity Vi represents the inner volume of the periodic element of the
pillow-plate channel and Aw,i the wetted wall area. According to Eq. (5), the mean
hydraulic diameter is independent of the flow direction. Consequently, for a
geometry with the same inflation height and rotation of the welding point pattern by
90° (i.e. sL and sT are interchanged), the hydraulic diameter remains the same. As
follows from Eq. (5), calculation of the pillow-plate mean hydraulic diameter
requires the evaluation of only two geometric quantities, Vi and Aw,i. An experi-
mental determination is costly and time-consuming due to the large number of
possible geometric variations of the pillow-plate. Hence, forming simulations have
been used to provide an adequate description of the real wavy pillow-plate
geometry allowing for the estimation of the relevant geometric parameters.
A validation of the calculation results was carried out by comparing the simu-
lated profiles at the symmetry planes with those of a real pillow-plate (see Fig. 7).
The latter were determined using a contour gauge measurement device. The
deviation between the simulation and the actual values was less than 4%. The
profile at x = 0 mm in Fig. 7 reveals that the maximum inflation height does not lie
at the intersection between the longitudinal and transversal pitches (i.e. at
x = 0 mm, y = 0 mm), rather it is shifted towards the welding point (y-direction).
The maximum inflation height of the pillows is limited by the material properties of
242 J. M. Tran et al.

Fig. 6 Schematic representations of a PPHE (a), of a single pillow-plate (b) and of one of its
periodic elements (c)

the used plate material. More details on the method can be found in (Piper et al.
2014, 2015b). In the following sections, a method is presented for the appropriate
determination of heat transfer areas, cross-sectional areas, characteristic lengths and
welding point grid for the PPHE. The corresponding equations are based on the
results of forming simulations.

2.1 Heat Transfer Area

The surface area enlargement caused by the surface waviness is low compared to a
plane surface (max. 7% for typical inflation heights) (Piper et al. 2015b). Similar to
shell-and-tube heat exchangers, the total outer heat transfer area is used as the
characteristic heat transfer area for the thermo-hydraulic design of PPHE. The total
inner heat transfer area equals the total outer heat transfer area:

Aht;o ¼ Aht;i ¼ 2wPP lPP nPP ð6Þ

The area of the welding spots plus the sealing line at the circumference of a
pillow-plate occupy 3–5% of the total pillow-plate area. This corresponds closely to
the area enlargement by the pillow-like structure. The two effects compensate each
other leaving the heat transfer area of a pillow-plate by twice its projection area.
Pillow-Plate Heat Exchangers: Fundamental Characteristics 243

Fig. 7 Comparison of simulated and experimental cross-sectional profiles of the pillow-plate

channel geometry: sT = 55 mm, 2sL = 95 mm, dwp = 10 mm and ei = 9 mm (Piper et al. 2015b).
x-axis is collinear with and y-axis is normal to the main flow direction, while z-axis corresponds to
the inflation height

Therefore, the surface areas of the edges and the welding points are included in
Eq. (6).

2.2 Cross-sectional Area

The mean total cross-sectional area inside the pillow-plate is necessary for a reliable
determination of average flow velocities and pressure loss in the PPHE. In a sim-
plified form, the mean total cross-sectional area can be determined according to:
ei;max
Acs;i ¼ ei ðwPP  2we Þ ¼ pffiffiffi ðwPP  2we Þ ð7Þ
2

The term (wPP − 2we) in Eq. (7) indicates that the edges of the pillow-plate
(shown in Fig. 6) are subtracted from the total width.
The cross-sectional area of the channel between adjacent pillow-plates can be
determined according to Fig. 5. The mean cross-section of the outer channel is
given by


ei;max
Acs;o ¼ so wPP ¼ so;max  pffiffiffi wPP ð8Þ
2
244 J. M. Tran et al.

2.3 Characteristic Lengths

The characteristic lengths in design and assessment of pillow-plate heat exchangers,

e.g. for the determination of Reynolds and Nusselt numbers and friction factors, are
the mean hydraulic diameters dh,i and dh,o. The mean hydraulic diameter of the
inner channels is calculated from:


 ei;max
dh;i ¼ 2ei ¼ 2 pffiffiffi ð9Þ
2

The mean hydraulic diameter of the outer channel is determined in a similar way:


ei;max
dh;o ¼ 2so ¼ 2 so;max  pffiffiffi ð10Þ
2

2.4 Welding Points

Welding point diameters are determined by the welding technique applied. Most
frequently, laser welding and resistance welding are used by different manufac-
turers. Usually, the welding point diameters are chosen as small as possible, still
providing the necessary mechanical stability for the plate during the hydroforming
process and the subsequent long-term usage of the plates. Reducing the welding
point diameter improves heat transfer and decreases pressure loss. Typically, the
welding point diameter varies between 8 and 12 mm.
Similar to the tube layout patterns in shell-and-tube heat exchangers, the
pillow-plate welding point grids can be categorized in staggered (also known as
longitudinal) grids and in-line (also known as transversal) grids. There also exists
another case, when 2sL equals sT; this is known as equidistant grid. The staggered
grids lead to an intensified deflection of the liquid at the welding points and to very
good overall performance of heat exchangers.

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