Simulation Modelling Practice and Theory 19 (2011) 777–784

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Simulation Modelling Practice and Theory

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/simpat

Effectiveness charts for counter flow corrugated plate heat exchanger

Harika Sammeta, Kalaichelvi Ponnusamy ⇑, M.A. Majid, K. Dheenathayalan
Department of Chemical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirapalli 620 015, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Gasketed plate heat exchangers (PHEs) are used in refrigeration and heat pump plants and
Received 29 July 2009 are extensively used in the processing of food and drinks, where the ease of plate cleaning
Received in revised form 13 May 2010 and re-gasketting are important. Existing literatures report on the calculation procedure,
Accepted 27 October 2010
performance analysis for different flow configurations, CFD modeling and simulation for
Available online 3 November 2010
different number of plates with various flow patterns as well as passes, analysis charts
for flat PHE, etc. However, analysis charts prepared for corrugated PHE are not available
Keywords:
in the open literature. In the present study, a 9-plate counter flow corrugated plate heat
Plate heat exchanger
Counter flow
exchanger is modeled and simulated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The per-
Simulation formance of the PHE is analyzed using the obtained simulated data in the form of charts
Effectiveness charts such as effectiveness, e versus number of transfer units, NTU at constant capacity ratio,
R; Temperature effectiveness, P versus NTU at constant R and non-dimensional mean tem-
perature difference, h versus temperature effectiveness, P at constant NTU and R.
Ó 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

Gasketed plate heat exchangers have a large range of applications. It is more advantageous than conventional heat ex-
changer because of its compactness, easy maintenance, good heat transfer characteristics, flexibility to increase the heat
transfer area etc. The heat transfer surface consists of a number of thin corrugated plates pressed to a fixed plate. The pressed
pattern on each plate surface induces turbulence and minimizes stagnant areas and fouling. Gaskets are fitted to seal the
plate channels and interfaces. The frame consists of a fixed frame plate at one end and a moveable pressure plate at the other.
The moveable plate facilitates access for cleaning or exchanging the heat transfer surfaces. A feature of this type of heat ex-
changer has the ability to add or remove surface area as necessary.
Flavio et al. [1] gave basic description of plate heat exchangers and its types, its advantages over conventional heat
exchangers. The flow pattern of milk between the corrugated plates is analyzed using 2D and 3D computational fluid dynam-
ics (CFD). The 2D calculation shows the influence of the corrugations shape, but the 3D calculations are necessary to assess
the importance of the corrugation orientation [2]. Harika et al. [3] have presented the effectiveness charts for 9-channel par-
allel flow plate heat exchanger from the simulated data using CFD. A validated model was simulated at different operating
conditions using CFD. The performance of this PHE is analyzed using these effectiveness charts. Jackson and Troupe [4] ana-
lyzed 1–1 and 2–2 pass arrangement with overall counter flow and parallel flow. They obtained results for 0.3 < NTU < 12,
R = 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 and 1, and for up to n = 6 channels. An algorithmic for the steady-state simulation of gasketed plate heat
exchangers with generalized configurations has developed and mainly purposes of this model are to study the configuration
influence on the exchanger performance, [5]. Kho and Muller-steinhagen, [6] analyzed the heat transfer fouling and fluid
flow in flat plate heat exchanger both experimentally and numerically. Basic theory and calculations methods are analyzed

⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 431 2503110; fax: +91 431 2500133.
E-mail address: kalai@nitt.edu (K. Ponnusamy).

1569-190X/$ - see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.simpat.2010.10.012
778 H. Sammeta et al. / Simulation Modelling Practice and Theory 19 (2011) 777–784

Nomenclature

Abbreviations
PHE plate heat exchanger
PHEs plate heat exchangers
CFD computational fluid dynamics
ITD inlet temperature difference
NTU number of transfer units
LMTD log mean temperature difference

Symbols
A area of heat transfer, m2
Q heat transfer rate, kW
Qc heat transfer rate of cold streams, kW
Qh heat transfer rate of hot streams, kW
Tci temperature of cold streams at inlet port, K
Tco temperature of cold streams at outlet port, K
Thi temperature of hot streams at inlet port, K
Tho temperature of hot streams at outlet port, °K
U over all heat transfer coefficient, W m2 K1
Ch heat capacity of hot fluid, kJ s1 K1
Cc heat capacity of cold fluid, kJ s1 K1
R heat capacity ratio
P1 temperature effectiveness of the cold fluid
P2 temperature effectiveness of the hot fluid
DTmax inlet temperature difference, K

Greeks letters
e effectiveness
h non-dimensional temperature difference

and given [7,8]. Zaleski and Klepacka [9] presented charts based on model equations as Dhm versus P, LMTD correction factor
versus P as function of NTU and R for the various configurations of a flat plate heat exchanger. Zaleski and Jarzebski [10] has
studied as the number of plate increases, the thermal effectiveness of PHEs approaches the effectiveness of counter flow or
parallel flow heat exchangers.
There charts available for the performance of PHE are based on either experimental predictions or numerical predictions.
However, these charts were developed for the plates without corrugation. Hence, in this present study an effort was made to
develop effectiveness charts for counter flow corrugated PHE. A model of corrugated PHE with 9-channels which was already
validated (Harika et al. [3]) for parallel flow is modified with suitable boundary conditions and simulated for different oper-
ating conditions. These simulated outlet temperatures were used for developing effectiveness charts.

2. Simulation

2.1. CFD modeling

Preprocessing, the primary step of the CFD simulation was done by GAMBIT 2.2.30. It includes defining geometry, mesh
generation etc. Geometry was defined by creating the required domain of known dimensions. Mesh generation was done by
trial and error till the selected mesh could cover all the nodes of the domain. The fluids that are present in the flow geometry
were defined. The boundary conditions and material properties of the geometry were specified. Then the domain was ex-
ported to Fluent 6.3.26 which is a solver. In solver, Finite volume method was employed to solve the set of governing equa-
tions numerically. Solver part solves the flow problem using numerical techniques like differencing schemes and
discretization techniques. The final step in CFD, the post-processing was carried out to refine the simulation data for visu-
alizing the vector plots, contour plots and particle tracking.

2.2. Defining the geometry

A 9-plate PHE domain is created with the dimensions of plate thickness = 0.605 mm, plate width = 73 mm, plate
length = 96 mm, port diameter = 10 mm, channel spacing = 3.96 mm.
 H. Sammeta et al. / Simulation Modelling Practice and Theory 19 (2011) 777–784 779

2.3. Mesh generation

Tetrahedral Meshing with spacing of 1 mm was applied to the plate volumes and same meshing was given to fluid chan-
nels with 3 mm spacing. Number of meshed volumes created on hot fluid side were 111,927; number of meshed volumes
created on cold fluid side were 89,772 and the number of meshed volumes created on single plate were 9578. The proposed
model contains approximately 293,000 tetrahedral elements.

2.4. Specifying material properties and boundary conditions

The material present is defined as a fluid. The hot and cold inlet boundary conditions were set as velocity inlets, and the
outlets were set as pressure outlets. The metal plates were modeled as thin walls with the thermal resistance of a 1 mm
stainless steel. All the exterior walls were modeled as adiabatic. The fluid domains were modeled with the properties of
water. The flow pattern that is followed in the PHE model is given in Fig. 1.

2.5. Simulation

The simulation was solved using the laminar flow model, the k–e turbulence model with wall functions and the k–e tur-
bulence model with enhanced wall treatment. It was verified that the flow inside the exchanger was mostly laminar; how-
ever, there were turbulent regions, especially near the plate ports. In order to correctly model the flow and heat transfer, the
k–e turbulence model with enhanced wall treatment model was chosen. The k–e model was solved for the wall with no aid of
length-scale-based wall functions.
The problem was numerically solved using the finite volume method with the software FLUENT 6.3.26. The simulations were
carried in a Pentium 4 workstation with 2 GB RAM. Each simulation took approximately 2 h to converge with a criterion of
1  104, e.g. all equations reached a scaled residual value of 1  104 and the temperature monitor on the hot outlet was stable.
The simulations were done for sets of hot and cold flow rates (0.002, 0.003, 0.005, 0.008, 0.02, 0.04, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 kg/s) for
the given inlet temperature of 300 K for cold and 370 K for hot fluids. The temperature contours for a constant hot fluid flow
rate of the counter flow PHE is presented in Fig. 2. Here, the blue color port is the cold inlet where as the red color port in the
opposite side is the hot inlet. As the cold fluid flow rate increases, the rate of heat transfer from the hot fluid is also increas-
ing, which is clearly observed from Fig. 2. All the plates could be used effectively when the flow rates were low however, at
high flow rates last few plates have not been utilized effectively.

3. Validation of simulated results

In order to validate the model used for the present analysis, the DThot values for cold fluid side were calculated for dif-
ferent capacity ratios of cold fluid and were plotted as shown in Fig. 3. The DT values obtained (Harika et al. [3]) for parallel
flow 9-channel corrugated PHE were also plotted in the figure for comparison. It is observed that the temperature difference
for counter flow is less compared to the parallel flow, which agrees with fundamental concepts of better performance of
counter flow heat exchangers when compared with the parallel flow heat exchangers.

4. Exchanger analysis

The analysis of PHE is rather complex as it is coupled with its neighboring channels on both sides. For few plates, end
effect will be present and a rigorous analysis is required for the PHE. The following assumptions were considered to derive
the mathematical model, for analyzing the PHE in terms of various charts.

Fig. 1. Fluid flow pattern in plate heat exchanger.

780 H. Sammeta et al. / Simulation Modelling Practice and Theory 19 (2011) 777–784

Fig. 2. Temperature contours of 0.005 kg/s hot flow rate for various cold flow rates.

(1) Plug flow is assumed due to high turbulence in channels and their narrow width.
(2) The exchanger operates under a steady-state condition.
(3) The heat losses to the surroundings are negligible. This assumes that the two end plates serve as insulating walls.
(4) There is no heat conduction in the direction of fluid flow in the plates and fluids themselves.
(5) The temperature and flow rates are assumed to be uniform across the flow passage.
 H. Sammeta et al. / Simulation Modelling Practice and Theory 19 (2011) 777–784 781

Fig. 3. Comparison of parallel and counter flows of corrugated PHE at 0.02 kg/s hot flow rate.

(6) Uniform distribution of flow through the channels of a pass.

(7) All flow and thermal properties are independent of temperature.
(8) No phase changes and no heat transfer takes place through sealing edges and gaskets.
(9) The overall heat transfer coefficient, U, is constant throughout the exchanger.
(10) The specific heat of each fluid is constant throughout the exchanger.

There are three methods of analysis available for analyzing the performance of any heat exchanger. They are e–NTU meth-
od, P–NTU method and h–P method. Depending on the nature of the problem and available data, a method of analysis for
heat exchangers can be selected. These methods of our analysis are explained below.

5. Data reduction

The relations and formulae used in this present studies for various parameters calculation is analyzed and given as men-
tion as below.

5.1. The e–NTU method

The heat transfer rate from the hot fluid to the cold fluid in the heat exchanger in e–NTU method, is expressed as
q ¼ eC min ðT hi  T ci Þ ¼ eC min DT max ð1Þ
where e is the heat exchanger effectiveness, sometimes referred as the thermal efficiency, Cmin is the minimum of Ch and Cc;
DTmax = (Thi  Tci) is the fluid inlet temperature difference (ITD). The heat exchanger effectiveness e is non-dimensional, and
it can be shown that in general it is dependent on the number of transfer units NTU, the heat capacity rate ratio R, and the
flow arrangement for a direct-transfer type heat exchanger:
e ¼ f ðNTU; R; flow arrangementÞ ð2Þ
The effectiveness for parallel flow heat exchanger is given by
1  exp½NTUð1 þ RÞ
e¼ ð3Þ
1þR

5.2. The P–NTU method

The heat transfer rate from the hot fluid to the cold fluid in the heat exchanger in P–NTU method, is expressed as
q ¼ P 1 C 1 DT max ¼ P 2 C 2 DT max ð4Þ
where P1, P2 are the temperature effectiveness for fluids 1 and 2 respectively, C1 = (mcp)1, C2 = (mcp)2 are the heat capacity
rates for fluids 1 and 2 respectively, and DTmax = (Thi  Tci) is the inlet temperature difference. The temperature effectiveness
P, similar to e, is non-dimensional and is dependent on the number of transfer units, heat capacity rate ratio, and the flow
arrangement. Temperature effectiveness of the cold fluid is given by
T co T ci
P1 ¼ ð5Þ
T hi  T ci
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5.3. The h–P method

This method was proposed by Muller (1967) [11] by plotting h as a function of P1 and R1 with the lines for constant values
of NTU1. Note that the constant NTU1 lines are straight, passing through the (0, 0) point, and having a slope of 1/NTU1. Hence,
it is easy to draw NTU lines. In this method, the heat transfer rate in the exchanger is given by

q ¼ UAhðT hi  T ci Þ ð6Þ
The non-dimensional temperature is given by

e P1
h¼ ¼ ð7Þ
NTU NTU1
This method combines all variables of the LMTD and P–NTU methods and eliminates the limitations for a hand solution.

6. Results and discussion

6.1. Performance analysis using e–NTU method

The simulated outlet temperatures of hot and cold fluid at different flow rates arrived were used to calculate the different
parameters needed for preparing e–NTU chart. The chart based on these simulated data is presented in Fig. 4.
From this chart we could observe that the heat exchanger effectiveness e increases monotonically with increasing values
of NTU for a specified R. For counter flow at all R, e ? 1 as NTU ? 1. For a specified R, as NTU increases, i.e., Cmin decreases
then the flow rates increases. As the flow rates of the fluids increases, more turbulence is created which leads to monotonic
increase in effectiveness. The exchanger effectiveness e increases with decreasing values of R for a specified NTU. For e 6 0.4,
the heat capacity rate ratio R does not have a significant influence on the exchanger effectiveness.
The counter flow exchanger has the highest exchanger effectiveness e for specified NTU and R of that for all other exchan-
ger flow arrangements. Thus, for a given NTU and R, maximum heat transfer performance is achieved for counter flow; alter-
natively, the heat transfer surface area is utilized most efficiently for counter flow compared to all other flow arrangements.
When the heat exchanger cost is an important consideration, most heat exchangers are designed in the approximate lin-
ear range of e–NTU curves (NTU 6 2 or e 6 0.6) that will meet the required heat duty with appropriate values of Cmin and
DTmax. The reason for this is that an increase in the exchanger size (NTU) will increase with e linearly and hence will result
in a ‘‘good’’ return on the investment of added surface area. However, when the exchanger is a component in the system, and
an increase in the exchanger effectiveness has a significant impact on reducing the system operating cost compared to an
increase in the exchanger cost, the exchangers are designed for high effectivenesses.
This chart follows the same pattern as parallel flow (Harika et al. [3]). e does not approach unity for the parallel flow con-
figuration whereas for the counter flow PHE e ? 1 as NTU ? 1 for all R.

Fig. 4. e–NTU chart for 9-plate corrugated counter flow PHE.

 H. Sammeta et al. / Simulation Modelling Practice and Theory 19 (2011) 777–784 783

Fig. 5. P–NTU chart for 9-plate corrugated counter flow PHE.

Fig. 6. h–P chart for 9-plate corrugated counter flow PHE.

6.2. Performance analysis using P–NTU method

This is almost similar to e–NTU chart. The difference is that in case of e–NTU method identification of Cmin is difficult,
which changes if the number of passes changes. Hence P–NTU method is generally preferred in order to avoid the errors
and confusions. The chart based on the calculations for this method is presented in Fig. 5.
784 H. Sammeta et al. / Simulation Modelling Practice and Theory 19 (2011) 777–784

Monotonic increase in e heat exchanger effectiveness e with increasing values of NTU for a specified R could be observed
from Fig. 5. For a specified R, as NTU increases, i.e., Cmin decreases then the flow rates increases.
This chart is also the same as the charts prepared for parallel flow (Harika et al. [3]). P1 approach unity only for higher
values of R in the parallel flow configuration whereas for the counter flow PHE, P1 easily approaches unity for all values
of R. This may be due to reason that outlet temperatures of cold fluid could almost reaches the hot fluid inlet temperatures
for all the R values considered in the present analysis. We could also observer that P–NTU curves of counter flow for different
R’s overlapping.

6.3. Performance analysis using h–P method

The simulated outlet temperatures of hot and cold fluid at different flow rates arrived were also used to calculate the dif-
ferent parameters needed for preparing h–P charts. The chart based on these simulated data is presented in Fig. 6.
From the chart we could observe that for lower flow rates, the non-dimensional temperature difference increases with
increase in temperature effectiveness. At higher flow rate increases, as P increases h goes on decreasing and remains constant
and then again starts decreasing. At higher flow rates, the residence time for the cold fluid was not sufficient enough to ap-
proach the hot fluid inlet temperature and hence there is a decreasing trend in non-dimensional temperature difference with
increase in temperature effectiveness. The charts clearly decide the viability of the operating range of the counter flow heat
exchanger in terms of flow rates.

7. Conclusion

The model developed using CFD could reveal the heat flow behavior along the length of the heat exchanger with the help
of contours. The outlet temperatures obtained while simulating the model at different operating conditions could be used for
preparing effectiveness charts. These charts are useful in the performance analysis of PHE. They are also useful in rating and
sizing of PHE. Both e–NTU and P–NTU are very much similar and one can use any one of them based on the availability of
data. e–NTU and P–NTU charts are more useful for industrial rating and sizing of a heat exchanger where as P–h method is
used very rarely. These charts are valid for NTU ranging from 0 to 6 and Reynolds’s number 80–28,000 for constant heat
capacity ratios, R. The h–P charts prepared in the present study clearly decide the viability of the operating range of the
9-channel corrugated plate counter flow heat exchanger in terms of flow rates. The developed model is useful to generate
wide range of data points which is difficult to obtain experimentally.

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