Thermal Science and Engineering Progress 20 (2020) 100711

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Thermal Science and Engineering Progress

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

Numerical study on the effect of corrugation angle on thermal performance T

of cross corrugated plate heat exchangers
Sandip K. Saha , Abdul Haaris Khan
⁎

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai 400076, India

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: In the present work, the single-phase thermohydraulic performance of a cross-corrugated plate heat exchanger
Plate heat exchanger (PHE) with different corrugation angles (30° 80°) is studied numerically. A three-dimensional numerical
Cross corrugated model using the finite volume method is developed and validated assuming laminar and turbulent flows in the
Correlation Reynolds number range of 400–10000. The two-equation k-ω SST model is employed to analyse the turbulent
Nusselt number
flows in the PHE. It is found that for all the configurations of the PHEs, the pressure drop per unit length
Performance
increases with the Reynolds number and the corrugation angle. The friction factor of the PHE with β = 80°–80°
is higher by a maximum of 2.8 times than that of the flat PHE. The Nusselt number is found to be higher in the
corrugated PHE as compared to that of the flat plate PHE. The Nusselt number is increased by a maximum of 3
times for the PHE with β = 80°–80° than that of the flat PHE. Further, single phase generalized correlations of
Nusselt number with Reynolds number, geometrical parameters of the cross-corrugated plate heat exchanger and
fluid properties are developed for high cross-corrugated angles and a wide range of Prandtl numbers within a
maximum accuracy of 40%.

1. Introduction
The development of corrugated plate heat exchangers (PHEs) has
been driven by the need for economical, high performance, yet small in
size and lightweight equipment, which can be used in a variety of
purposes. The PHEs made of corrugated plates have significant ad-
vantages over a conventional heat exchanger as they have a larger total
heat transfer area for their size. Further, the challenge lies in enhancing
the heat transfer capacity of the plate heat exchangers with more
compactness. Therefore, the conflicting requirements have given rise to
in-depth research in designing and development of the corrugated plate
type heat exchangers.
Experimental and numerical analyses have been employed to un-
derstand the heat transfer and fluid flow mechanisms occurring in the
corrugated plate heat exchanger. The heat transfer is augmented by the
use of corrugated walls; however, a substantial increase in the pressure
drop is observed [1,2]. Several authors have carried out extensive ex-
perimental work on PHEs [2–10]. Focke et al. [4] experimentally stu-
died the effect of inclination angles on fluid flow and heat transfer
along the furrows having the corrugated angle of (β) 0°, 30°, 45°, 60°,
72°, 80° and 90°. Authors analyzed the secondary swirling flow and its
effect on the heat transfer characteristics. Correlations of Nusselt
number (Nu) and friction factor (f) for different ranges of Reynolds
number (Re) for different values of β were reported. Okada et al. [9]
investigated the effect of narrow passages in the corrugated plates
having different values of β. It was noted that the turbulence occurs at
very low values of Re in a PHE in the range of Re = 300–500. Authors
provided two sets of correlations for calculating Nu for β = 45° and 60°.
Muley et al. [11] performed experiments to study the effects of two
symmetric cross-corrugated plates on the fluid flow and heat transfer
characteristics. The chevron angle corrugation aspect ratio and the flow
properties were found to affect the flow and heat transfer in the PHE.
Authors correlated Nusselt number with Reynolds number, Prandtl
number and viscosity ratio for turbulent flows at 30°≤ β ≤ 45°.
Heavner et al. [12] analyzed the effect of the chevron angle of in-
dustrial cross-corrugated PHEs on the Nusselt number and pressure
drop at different values of β. Authors adopted the surface area en-
largement factor in the determination of Nu and f. Recently, Yang et al.
[13] experimentally investigated single-phase heat transfer for nine
PHEs with different geometric parameters and presented individual and
general correlations for fluid flow and heat transfer. The authors con-
cluded that the herringbone angle and the plate geometry jointly affect
the heat transfer in the PHE. Their proposed correlation has accuracy
on 50% for a range of herringbone angles of PHE.
Further, the effect of different process and geometrical parameters
on the fluid and heat transfer characteristics of the PHE are investigated

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: sandip.saha@iitb.ac.in (S.K. Saha).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsep.2020.100711
Received 25 March 2020; Received in revised form 21 August 2020; Accepted 29 August 2020
Available online 06 September 2020
2451-9049/ © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
S.K. Saha and A.H. Khan Thermal Science and Engineering Progress 20 (2020) 100711

Nomenclature Twall Wall temperature (K)

u, v, w Velocities in ×, y, z directions
A Area (m2) W Width of the plate, cross section to the flow (m)
b Interplace spacing (m) x, y, z Coordinate axes
cp Specific heat (J/kg.K)
Dh Hydraulic diameter (m) Greek symbols
f Friction factor
H Corrugation amplitude (m) λ Thermal conductivity (W/m.K)
k
L
Turbulence kinetic energy (J/kg)
Length (m)
ϕ (
Enlargement factor = Areal
A
proj )
η Thermal performance index
Lc Characteristic length (m)
β Corrugation angle (°)
Nu Nusselt number
ρ Density (kg/m3)
n Normal unit vector
ψ Flow variable
Re Reynolds Number
ω Specific dissipation rate (1/s)
Pr Prandtl number
pc Corrugation pitch (m) γ Corrugation channel aspect ratio = p ( )
2H
c
ΔP Pressure drop (Pa) μ Molecular viscosity (Pa.s)
T Temperature (K) μt Turbulent viscosity (Pa.s)
Tin Inlet temperature (K)

using numerical models of PHEs [1,14–21]. Using the numerical ana-

lysis of the plate heat exchangers, the effect of corrugation angle (β) and
Reynolds number on the heat transfer and fluid flow characteristics can
be estimated. The performance of a PHE depends to a large extent on
the geometry of the plates and their corresponding corrugation pattern
[2,7,15,16]. The majority of numerical and experimental studies have
concluded that a sinusoidal profile of the corrugated plate is more
suitable for designing a PHE than a trapezoidal cross-section [4,5,6,16].
In a typical PHE with β = 45°, a secondary swirling flow was identified
at ReRe = 900 within the troughs of the corrugations [1]. It was sug-
gested that the secondary flow is the result of interaction between the
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of cross-corrugated PHE with β = 45°–45° (All di-
flow inside the narrow channel and the highly accelerated flow over the mensions are in mm).
crest [22]. The flow is considered capable of bringing new fluid from
the mainstream close to the walls, augmenting heat transfer rates.
Blomerius et al. [15] observed longitudinal vortices in narrow channels, enhancement factor.
while Won et al. [23] considered this secondary flow is responsible for
the increase in turbulence, shear stress and turbulence production. Jain
et al. [24] evaluated the fluid flow and heat transfer in a single pass U- 2. Definition of physical problem
type counter flow heat exchanger numerically and experimentally. A
cold channel with two chevron plates and two halves of hot channels on Fig. 1 shows the schematic diagram of a PHE with a cross-corru-
either side was considered as the computational domain. The periodic gated angle of 45°. The geometry and the overall dimensions are similar
boundary conditions were assigned on the flat surfaces of the outer side to that used by Kanaris et al. [1]. The PHE consists of two cross-cor-
of the half hot channels to represent a complete PHE. A correlation of rugated plates at an angle (β) perpendicularly aligned to the flow di-
Nu was developed for the cross-corrugation angle of β = 60°. rection. The plate length and width are 93 and 90 mm, respectively.
It can be noted from the preceding discussion that although ex- The corrugation amplitude (H) and the inter-plate spacing (b) are 2.5
tensive numerical and experimental studies are available on PHEs, and 5 mm, respectively. Corrugation pitch (pc ) , which is obtained by
there still exists a need of understanding the fluid flow behaviour in the dividing the length of the diagonal by the number of corrugations, is
cross-corrugated PHEs with compact designs, especially in narrow determined as 10.661 mm. The enlargement factor ( ) of a PHE can be
passages and their effect on heat transfer. Moreover, a limited number determined using the following expression [25],
of generalized correlations of Nusselt number is available for higher
2 0.5 2 0.5
corrugation angles of PHE applicable for a wide range of Prandtl 1 2 2
= 1+ 1+ +4 1+ 1+
number fluids. Hence, in this study, the hydrothermal performance of 6 2cos 2cos
(1)
cross-corrugated PHE configurations having corrugation angles of
30°–30°, 45°–45°, 60°–60°, 72°–72° and 80°–80° is evaluated using a
In Eq. (1), the corrugation angle ( ) is in radian. In order to study
numerical model in the range of Reynolds number of 400–6000. The
the effect of cross-corrugated angle (β), five more values are considered
numerical model is developed considering both laminar and turbulent
as, 30°, 60°, 72° and 82°. The material of the PHE plates is considered as
flows in PHEs. The numerical model is validated with the experimental
stainless steel and the coolant is taken as water. The effect of Prandtl
and numerical results reported in the published literature. The nu-
number on the fluid flow and heat transfer in PHE is evaluated by
merical model is further used to estimate Nusselt number and friction
considering two more fluids, air and aqueous ethylene glycol (70% wt).
factor in PHEs, which are compared with the existing empirical corre-
The thermophysical properties of the mixture of water and 70 by wt of
lations to determine the best-suited correlations for a particular PHE
ethylene glycol are calculated from [26]. The thermophysical proper-
geometry. A generalized correlation is proposed for all the cross-cor-
ties to calculate the non-dimensional numbers are given in Table 1.
rugated angles of PHE. The hydrothermal performance of different
PHEs at a given Reynolds number is evaluated by employing thermal

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S.K. Saha and A.H. Khan Thermal Science and Engineering Progress 20 (2020) 100711

Table 1 energy due to mean velocity gradients, G represents the generation of

Thermophysical properties of materials of PHE and coolants used in simula- ω, µt is the turbulent viscosity, k and are the turbulent Prandtl
tions. numbers for k and , respectively. Yk and Y signify the dissipation of k
Property Materials and due to turbulence. More details on the k-ω SST model can be
found in [28]. The turbulent viscosity can be determined as,
Steel Water Air Aqueous ethylene
glycol (70% wt) k
µt =
(1)
(kg/m3) 8030 998.2 1.225 1070.9
cp (J/kg-K) 502.48 4182 1006.43 2924.47 Further, the turbulent viscosity is used to model the Reynolds
(W/m-K) 16.27 0.616 0.0242 0.359 stresses as,
µ (kg/m-s) – 1.003 × 10−3 1.7894 × 10−5 7.9923 × 10−3
ui uj 2 uk 2
uj' ui' = µt + µ ij k
xj xi 3 t xk 3 ij
(2)
3. Mathematical model
where ij is the Kronecker delta.
A three-dimensional computational domain is considered for eval- The applicability of the k-ω SST turbulence model and laminar flow
uating hydraulic and thermal behaviour of PHE. Assumptions made in model is verified by conducting a study on a 60°-60° cross-corrugated
developing the mathematical model are, (i) steady incompressible plate channel for 400 Re 6000 . The corresponding Nusselt number
Newtonian fluid flow, (ii) the influence of gravity and buoyancy is values are compared with the experimental results of [4,10–12]. It is
negligible, (iii) the effect of viscous dissipation is neglected, (iv) ra- found that the laminar flow model agrees well with the experimental
diation effect is neglected and (v) density and specific heat of the fluid results of [1,2] at Re = 400 with a maximum error of 12%. However,
are considered to be constant over the temperature range, as the var- the k-ω SST turbulence model follows a comparable trend with the
iations in density and specific heat capacity are not significant in the published experimental and numerical results, which will be discussed
temperature range of 293 and 333 K. The governing equations using the later.
above-mentioned assumptions can be written as, The numerical simulations are carried out in commercially available
Conservation of mass: ANSYS Fluent V 16.2. The SIMPLEC scheme is used for the pressur-
e–velocity coupling. In the spatial discretization, the least square cell-
ui based scheme is selected for the gradient. The QUICK (Quadratic
=0
xi (2) Upstream Interpolation for Convective Kinematics) scheme is selected
Conservation of momentum: for the determination of coefficient of momentum, and the power law
scheme is chosen for energy, turbulent kinetic energy and dissipation
ui 1 P 2u (u'j ui') rate equations. The convergence criterion is set to 10−3 for the mo-
i
uj = + mentum equation and 10−6 for the energy equation.
xj xi x j2 xj (3)

where, ui is the velocity in x, y and z directions and P is the pres- 3.2. Boundary conditions
sure. ij is Kronecker delta.
Conservation of energy: In the present study, the following boundary conditions are imposed
to solve the governing equations,
( cp u i T ) T t T
= +
xj xj xj xj Prt x j
(4) (a) At the inlet, z = 0, uz = 0 = uin , Tin = 333 K.
(b) At the outlet, z = L , P = 0 .
where, µt and Prt are turbulent viscosity and turbulent Prandtl number, (c) No slip condition assigned to all surfaces, ui = 0 .
respectively. (d) At upper and lower corrugated plates, Twall = 293 K.
(e) The adiabatic boundary condition at other walls, at x = 0 and
3.1. Turbulence model T
x = W, x
= 0 is used.
Shah and Wanniarachchi [3] noted that the flow becomes turbulent
or transits to turbulence for the Reynolds number range of 100–1500. 3.3. Reynolds number and Nusselt number
Hegg et al. [22] suggested that the flow cannot be treated as laminar in
the range of Reynolds number of 150–11500. Ciofalo et al. [27], in a The Reynolds number in the present study is defined as,
comprehensive review on the modelling of heat transfer in narrow flow uin Deq
passages, observed that the transitional flow is expected in the Reynolds Re =
µ (3)
number range of 1500–3000. Recently, Vlasogiannis et al. [2] experi-
mentally mapped the two-phase flow regime in a plate heat exchanger where uin is fluid velocity at the inlet, Deq is the equivalent diameter and
under single and two-phase flow conditions and found that the flow is µ and are the viscosity and density of the fluid at the entrance con-
turbulent for Re > 650. Kanaris et al. [1] used the k-ω SST (shear- ditions, respectively. The equivalent diameter assuming W ≪ H is de-
stress transport) model for Re = 500–6000. Since in the present study, fined as,
the range of Re is 400–10000, the k-ω SST model is selected. The k-ω 4WH
SST model is given as, Deq = 2H
2(W + H ) (4)
µt k The equivalent diameter (Deq) of the channel is calculated as 10 mm.
( k) + ( kui) = µ+ + Gk Yk
t xi xj k xj (5) The local Nusselt number (Nun ) is calculated as,
T
µt n n=0
Lc
( )+ ( ui ) = µ+ +G Y +D Nun =
t xi xj xj (6) (Tw, n Tb, n ) (5)
In these equations, Gk represents the generation of turbulence kinetic where Lc is the characteristic length, which is equal to the equivalent

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S.K. Saha and A.H. Khan Thermal Science and Engineering Progress 20 (2020) 100711

diameter. The bulk mean fluid temperature over a cross-section per- Table 2
pendicular to the flow of the plate wall, Tb,n, and the local surface Grid independence study at Re = 900 for a PHE β = 45°–45°.
temperature is given by Tw,n. The average Nusselt number Nuavg can be Number of Deviation × 10−2 (%) Deviation(%)
Tout (K) P
(Pa/m)
obtained as, elements L

Nuavg = 1/ A Nun dA 117,344 320.53 – 263.71 –

A
202,630 319.07 1.46 274.11 0.10
342,017 317.58 1.49 294.04 0.20
424,791 317.12 0.46 300.95 0.07
3.4. Thermal enhancement factor 508,598 316.66 0.46 308.68 0.08
661,177 316.58 0.08 309.03 0.003
The thermal enhancement factor is used to compare various models
at the same inlet pumping power and is given by,
corrugated angles of PHEs are compared with the published correla-

=
( )
Nu
Nu°
tions later.

( )
f 1/3
fo
where the Nusselt number (Nu°) and frictional factor (f ° ) are obtained
from the flat plate heat exchanger at the same Reynolds number. The
Fanning friction factor is calculated from the pressure drop across the
PHE as [29],
PDeq
f=
2 Luin2
3.5. Validation
The validation of the numerical model is performed by comparing
the numerical results with experimental results presented by Kanaris
et al. [1] and Vlasogiannis et al. [2]. A PHE geometry with a corrugated
plate angle of 45° on the lower surface and a flat plate on the upper
surface is considered. The variation in the Nusselt number with the
Reynolds number is presented in Table 3. The fluid flow and heat
transfer behaviour for Re = 400 is analyzed assuming laminar model,
whereas the k-ω SST model is used for Re ≥ 900. The results predicted
by the present model are in reasonably good agreement with the ex-
perimental values reported by Vlasogiannis et al. [2] for
900 ≤ Re ≤ 1400 with a maximum deviation of 13.79% at Re = 1400.
However, the deviation is significantly higher for Re = 400 with the
results of Vlasogiannis et al. [2] and is 20.11% with Kanaris et al. [1].
The main reason for the overprediction of heat transfer at such low
Reynolds number is caused by the overprediction of the length scale in
the region of flow reattachment which occurs due to the secondary
flows in the corrugated channels. Further, the results for other
(7) 3.6. Grid independence study
The plate heat exchanger is meshed using unstructured tetrahedral
elements with a fine control near the wall surfaces for capturing the
boundary layer effects. The mesh generated in PHE is shown in Fig. 2.
Further, a grid independence study is carried out on a representative
PHE having 45°–45° cross-corrugated angle. Six different meshes sizes
(8) of 117344, 202630, 342017, 424791, 508,598 and 661,177 tetrahedral
elements are considered. The fluid temperature at the outlet of PHE and
pressure drop per unit length across the PHE are presented for
Re = 900 in Table 2. From the table, it is observed that the deviation in
outlet temperature and the pressure drop per unit length becomes less
with the decrease in mesh size. The deviations ( | i+1
i
i|
)
× 100 in the
outlet temperature and the pressure drop per unit length are found to be
0.46 × 10−2% and 0.08%, respectively between the number of ele-
ments of 424,791 and 508598, whereas the corresponding values are
0.08 × 10−2% and 0.003% between the number of elements of
508,598 and 661177. Therefore, the total tetrahedral elements of
508,598 is chosen as the preferred number of meshes for further study.
4. Results and discussion
4.1. Fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics
The fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics of the plate heat
exchanger of 30°-30° are studied numerically. The fluid enters the PHE
at Re = 1400 at a constant inlet temperature (Tin) of 333 K. The top and
the bottom plates are at a constant temperature of 293 K. The fluid

Fig. 2. (a) Mesh of a PHE with cross-corrugated angle of 45°–45°, (b) enlarge view.

4
S.K. Saha and A.H. Khan Thermal Science and Engineering Progress 20 (2020) 100711

Table 3
Results obtained in the present study in comparison with results from in the
literature.
Re Numerical Experimental Present Deviation Deviation
Nu [1] Nu [3] model Nu with [1] (%) with [3] (%)

400 20.5 8.6 16.37 −20.11 90.41

900 27.3 24.7 27.72 1.53 12.22
1000 28.6 26.8 29.54 3.28 10.22
1150 28.8 28.7 32.22 11.90 12.29
1250 30.9 30.4 34.00 10.04 11.85
1400 32.0 32.2 36.64 14.50 13.79

(a)

(b)

Fig. 4. Temperature (K) contours on the midplanes at (a) y = H/2 and (b)
x = W/2 at Re = 1400.

0.8

0.7 Flat plate 30°-30° 45°-45°

0.6 60°-60° 72°-72° 80°-80°

Friction factor

0.5

0.4
(a) 0.3

0.2

0.1

0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
Reynolds number

(a)

160
Flat plate 30°-30°
140 45°-45° 60°-60°
72°-72° 80°-80°
120
(b)
Nusselt number

100

80

60
Fig. 3. Velocity vector (m/s) on the midplanes at (a) y = H/2 and (b) x = W/2
at Re = 1400. 40

20
entering the channel starts flow along the corrugation orientation,
0
which is opposite in the upper and lower plate, resulting in crisscross 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
streams in the channel. Fig. 3 shows the velocity vector plots on two Reynolds number
midplanes located at x = W/2 and y = H/2 of the PHE. It can be
observed from Fig. 3(a) that the fluid is flowing along the corrugations (b)
of the PHE. The fluid flows along the troughs of the corrugations be- Fig. 5. Variations of (a) friction factor (f) and (b) Nusselt number with Reynolds
tween two crests till the edge of the particular corrugation. At the edge, number for flat and cross-corrugated plate heat exchangers.
the flow of fluid follows a zig-zag pattern similar to the cross corru-
gations of the inner surfaces of the plates of the PHE (Fig. 3(b)). The
et al. [4] in their experimental study. The crisscross nature of flow in-
upper and lower crisscrossing liquid streams induce swirl flows in the
side the corrugated PHE channel results in the onset of turbulence at a
flow along the path. These phenomena were also observed by Focke
lower Reynolds number, thereby augmenting heat transfer in the PHE.

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S.K. Saha and A.H. Khan Thermal Science and Engineering Progress 20 (2020) 100711

retarding effect on each other owing to their velocity components being

Fig. 6. Variation of thermal enhancement factor with Reynolds number for
different cross-corrugated plate heat exchangers.
The secondary swirl flow causes the fluid stream to change over from
one cross-corrugated channel to another, thereby augmenting heat
transfer rates. The two sets of crisscrossing fluid streams interact with
each other at an angle, which is equal to double the cross-corrugation
angle. Hence, effectively when β < 45°, this interaction between the
fluid streams is positive, i.e. each of the crossing streams has a velocity
component in the same direction as the stream it crosses. When
β > 45°, this interaction is negative as the crossing streams have a
in opposite directions. As the cross-corrugation angle (β) increases, this
intermixing of fluid from the different channel is enhanced (not shown
in the figure). The pressure drop obtained for this geometry at
Re = 1400 is 229.45 Pa, and the corresponding friction factor is found
as 0.59.
Fig. 4(a) shows the temperature contour plot at the midplane at
y = H/2 of the PHE having a cross-corrugated angle of 30°–30° at
Re = 1400. The temperature plot of the midplane clearly shows the
variation of temperature along the flow direction. The plates are as-
sumed to be at a constant temperature of 293 K. Thus, the convective
heat transfer in the fluid between the two cross-corrugated cold plates
causes the temperature of the fluid to continuously decrease along the
flow direction. The temperatures at the peak of the corrugations are
comparatively higher than the rest of the flow, indicating maximum
heat transfer spots, which results in a higher local Nusselt number. The
corrugations of plates have a significant effect on heat transfer. The
generated secondary flows contribute to the augmentation in heat
transfer, due to the increase in secondary advection of fluid in the
channel and near the wall region. Due to the secondary flow, better
mixing and distribution of the fluid occur; as a result, the stagnation
zones are not observed in the cross-corrugated PHE. Fig. 4(b) displays
the temperature distribution along the midplane at x = W/2 of the
PHE. It is observed in the figure that due to the lower temperature of

Table 4
Few published correlations for PHEs with different.
Authors β Published correlations Range of validity

Focke et al. [4] 30° Nu = 0.77Re0.54 Pr 0.5 120 < Re < 1000
Nu = 0.44Re0.64 Pr 0.5 1000 < Re < 42000
f = 0.0925 +
57.5 260 < Re < 3000
Re
f = 0.8975Re 0.263 3000 < Re < 50000
45° Nu = 0.405Re0.7 Pr 0.5 300 < Re < 2000
Nu = 0.84Re0.6 Pr 0.5 2000 < Re < 20000
f = 0.3025 +
91.75 150 < Re < 1800
Re
f = 1.46Re 0.177 1800 < Re < 30000
60° Nu = 0.57Re0.7 Pr 0.5 150 < Re < 600
Nu = 1.12Re0.6 Pr 0.5 600 < Re < 16000
f = 1.275 +
188.75 90 < Re < 400
Re
f = 6.7Re 0.209 400 < Re < 16000
72° Nu = 1.45Re0.58 Pr 0.5 200 < Re < 4000
f = 4.75 + 191Re 1 110 < Re < 500
f = 33Re 0.296 500 < Re < 12000
80° Nu = 1.05Re0.64 Pr 0.5 27 < Re < 500
Nu = 1.98Re0.54 Pr 0.5 500 < Re < 2800
f = 35Re 0.28 130 < Re < 3700
Okada et al. [11] 45° Nu = 0.249Re0.64 Pr 0.4 700 Re 25000
60° Nu = 0.327Re0.65 Pr 0.4 700 Re 25000
Jain et al. [24] 60° Nu = 0.488Re0.626 Pr 0.4 400 Re 1300
Muley et al. [12] 45° µb
0.14 Re 1000
Nu = 0.1Re0.76 Pr 1/3
µw

f = 1.274Re 0.15

Vlasogiannis et al. [2] 60° Nu = 0.000672Re1.6 Pr 0.33 Re 650

Nu = 0.51Re0.58 Pr 0.33 Re 650
Heavner et al. [12] 45° µb
0.17
400
Re
10000
Nu = Pr 1/3 0.195 0.308Re 0.692
µw

f = 0.810Re 0.1405 1.1405

Talik et al. [30,31] 60° Nu = 0.2Re0.75 Pr 0.4 10 Re 720

Nu = 0.248Re0.7 Pr 0.4 1450 Re 11460
Khan et al. [32] 30° µb
0.14 500 Re 2500, 3.5 Pr 6.5
Nu = 0.1368Re0.7424 Pr 0.35
µw
60° µb
0.14
Nu = 0.1449Re0.8414 Pr 0.35
µw
Chisholm and Wanniarachchi [33] 30°-80°
( ) 1000 Re 40000, Pr = 5
0.66
Nu = 0.72Re0.59 Pr 0.4 0.41
30

6
S.K. Saha and A.H. Khan
Fig. 7. Comparison of friction factor (f) with the existing correlation for the
PHE with (a) β = 30°–30°, 45°–45° and (b) β = 60°–60°, 72°–72° and 80°–80°.
the plates, the heat transfer takes place from the hot fluid to the cold
plates. The Nusselt number at Re = 1400 for PHE with cross-corrugated
angles of 30°-30° is calculated as 33.99. With an increase in the cross-
corrugated angle (β), the heat flux increases, thereby increasing the
average Nusselt number as discussed later.
4.2. Effect of β
The effect of the cross-corrugated angle (β) on the friction factor in
each PHE is evaluated by estimating the pressure drop across the PHE.
The variation of the friction factor with β for different Reynolds number
and geometries of PHEs is shown in Fig. 5(a). For all the configurations
of the PHEs, the friction factor is found to decrease with increasing
Reynolds number and it follows the power law profile as,
f = pRe q
(9)
where p and q are constants. A similar observation was made by several
authors [1,4,24]. The pressure drop increases with the increase of β
because of the increase in the turbulence due to the induced secondary
flow in the channel. The friction factor of the PHE with β = 30°–30° is
found to be 12% higher than the flat PHE at Re = 4000, whereas the
friction factor is increased by 21% for the PHE with β = 80°–80°.
Fig. 5(b) illustrates the effect of β on the Nusselt number at different
Reynolds numbers for different geometries of PHEs. It can be seen from
the figure that the Nusselt number increases with Reynolds number for
all the geometries of PHEs due to increased heat transfer coefficient
resulting from increasing flow rate. The Nusselt number is higher in the
corrugated PHE as compared to that of the flat plate PHE. However, the
rate of increase of Nusselt number of the cross-corrugated PHEs up to
Re = 1400 is less than that of the flat plate PHE. With the increase of β,
the Nusselt number increases because of the increase in the turbulence
due to the induced secondary flow in the channel as discussed earlier.
7
Thermal Science and Engineering Progress 20 (2020) 100711
Compared to the flat plate PHE, the Nu values have increased by up to 2
times for the PHE with β = 30°-30° and by up to 3 times for the PHE
with β = 80°–80°.
4.3. Thermal enhancement factor
In order to ascertain the overall thermal performance of cross-cor-
rugated PHEs, thermal enhancement factor (η) is used. The thermal
enhancement factor shows the effect of the corrugation angle on fluid
flow, as well as, heat transfer characteristics for different PHEs at the
same pumping power with respect to the flat plate PHE. The variation
of thermal enhancement factor with Re for different values of β is dis-
played in Fig. 6. From the figure, it is observed that the average η of a
PHE with 80°–80° is 34.11% more than a PHE with 30°–30°, 16.23%
higher than a PHE with 45°–45°, 10.63% more than a PHE with 60°–60°
and 8.25% higher than a PHE with 72°–72°. Hence, the performance of
the PHE with β = 80°–80° is better than any other geometries that are
considered in this study. The thermal enhancement factor (η) increases
significantly when the flow transits from laminar to turbulent regime.
In the turbulent flow regime, the value of η slightly decreases beyond
Re = 900.
4.4. Comparison of friction factor and Nusselt number
The friction factor for different cross-corrugated PHEs is compared
with the correlations reported in the literature in order to establish the
best-suited correlations cross-corrugated PHEs. A summary of the cor-
relations is included in Table 4. Fig. 7 displays a comparison of the
friction factor among the results predicted by the present model and the
existing correlations. It can be observed from Fig. 7(a) that, in the PHE
with β = 30°–30°, the maximum difference between the values of the
friction factor from the present analysis and Focke et al. [4] is ~ 60%.
The average difference in values of friction factor for the PHE with
β = 30°–30° with the literature [4,10,11] is found as 14%, 24%, and
19%, respectively. In the figure, the values of the friction factor in the
PHE with β = 45°–45° are compared with those of Muley et al. [11],
Focke et al. [4] and Heavner et al. [12]. The average difference in the
values of friction factor predicted by the present numerical model with
those reported by Muley et al. [11], Focke et al. [4] and Heavner et al.
[12] differs by 2.2%, 6.75%, and 2.4%, respectively. Similarly, for the
PHE with β = 60°–60°, the values of the friction factor vary with those
of Focke et al. [4] by 66% and Muley et al. [11] by less than 1%.
Therefore, the correlations by Muley et al. [11] is best suited for the
PHEs with β = 30°–30° and β = 45°–45°. As can be seen from Fig. 7(b)
that the values of the friction factor vary with those of Focke et al. [4]
by 66% and Muley et al. [11] by less than 1% for the PHE with
β = 60°–60°. However, the friction factors for the PHEs with
β = 72°–72° and 80°–80° are overpredicted by the correlations given by
Focke et al. [4].
Similar to the friction factor, the Nusselt number is compared with
the existing correlations found in various studies. Fig. 8 shows the
comparison of Nusselt number with the existing correlations for the
PHEs with β = 30°–30°, 45°–45° and 60°–60°. For the PHEs with
β = 30°–30°, the Nusselt number values obtained are compared with
the correlations of Okada et al. [10] and Focke et al. [4] and are shown
in Fig. 8(a). At higher Reynolds numbers (Re > 700), the correlation of
Focke et al. [4] largely overpredicts the Nu values. The correlation of
Okada et al. [9] is best suited for the PHEs with β = 30°–30° with a
maximum error of 37.11%. In Fig. 8(b), the Nusselt number for the
PHEs with β = 45°–45° is compared with the correlation of Okada et al.
[9] and Muley et al. [10] and Focke et al. [4]. The correlation by Focke
et al. [4] overpredicts the Nu values. The correlation of Okada et al. [9]
is best suited for the PHEs with β = 45°–45° as the maximum difference
is 15% with the predicted value from the present numerical model.
From Fig. 8(c), it can be observed that for the PHEs with β = 60°–60°,
the correlations of Okada et al. [9] and Jain et al. [24] have a maximum
S.K. Saha and A.H. Khan Thermal Science and Engineering Progress 20 (2020) 100711

Fig. 8. Comparison of Nusselt number among the existing correlations and the present numerical model for the PHE with (a) β = 30°–30°, (b) β = 45°–45°, (c)
β = 60°–60° and (d) β = 72°–72° and β = 80°–80°.

Fig. 8(d) shows the comparison of Nusselt number between the corre-
lations of Focke et al. [4] with the present model for the PHEs with
β = 72°–72° and β = 80°–80°. It can be observed that the correlations of
Focke et al. [4] overpredict the Nusselt number for all the PHE con-
figurations. The deviations of the friction factor and Nusselt number
from the empirical correlations can be attributed to the exclusion of
manifolds and ports for flow distribution in PHEs in the present nu-
merical model.

4.5. Generalized correlations

In order to develop generalized correlations of Nusselt number with

Reynolds number and geometric parameters of PHE, the effect of
Fig. 9. Variation of Nusselt number with Reynolds number for different Prandtl Prandtl number on heat transfer is studied by considering two different
number fluids. fluids, viz. air and aqueous solution of ethylene glycol at the same
Reynolds number. The Prandtl number of air, water and aqueous so-
lution of ethylene glycol (70% by wt) are calculated as 0.744, 6.991 and
Table 5
Values of C1 and C2 used in equation (13) for different corrugation angles. 65.042, respectively. Fig. 9 shows the variation of Nusselt number with
Reynolds number for different Prandtl number fluids. It can be observed
(°) Deviation (%) Validity
C1 C2
from the figure that the Nusselt number increases with increasing
30 0.2767 0.5172 ±6 900 Re 6000, Pr = 6.991
Prandtl number due to the increase in momentum diffusivity of the
45 0.2966 0.5634 ±7 fluid. For developing a generalized correlation for the cross-corrugated
60 0.2189 0.6214 ±4 PHE, the generalized form of the correlation considered is same as that
72 0.221 0.638 ± 40 900 Re 10000, 0.744 Pr 65.042 was reported by Yang et al. [13], which can be expressed as,
80 0.191 0.718 ± 36
0.14
1 µ
Nu = C1Re C2 Re Re Pr 3
deviation of 4% to 12%, respectively, with the numerically predicted
µw (10)
Nu values. The overall trend is also matching with the trend of the
where, µ w is the fluid viscosity calculated at wall temperature. The
values by Muley et al. [11] and Vlasogiannis et al. [2] with the average
values of C1 and C2 are listed in Table 5.
deviation of 18% and 26%, respectively. Hence, for the PHE with
The correlations for water (Pr = 6.991) have a maximum deviation
β = 60°–60°, the correlation given by Okada et al. [9] is the best suited.
of ± 6%, ± 7% and ± 4% for = 30°, 45°and60° , respectively. In the

8
S.K. Saha and A.H. Khan
case of = 72°and80° , the maximum deviation is within ± 40% and ±
36% for the range of Prandtl number of 0.744 Pr 65.042 . The above
correlations are valid for 1.37 1.41 and = 0.94 .
5. Conclusions
The present work examines the effect of corrugations on fluid flow
and heat transfer characteristics in a PHE. The Nusselt number and
friction factor values predicted from the developed three-dimensional
numerical model are compared with the published literature. The si-
mulation results reveal that, compared to a flat plate heat exchanger,
corrugations improve both flow distribution and heat transfer in the
PHE. The friction factor decreases with the increase in Reynolds
number at a fixed corrugation angle, whereas the friction factor in-
creases with increasing corrugation angle at a given Reynolds number.
The friction factor of the PHE with β = 30°–30° is found to be 12%
higher than the flat PHE at Re = 4000, whereas the friction factor is
increased by 21% for the PHE with β = 80°–80°. The Nusselt number
increases with the increase in Reynolds number, Prandtl number and
corrugation angle of cross-corrugated PHEs. Compared to the flat plate
PHE, the Nusselt number is increased by up to 2 times for the PHE with
β = 30°–30° and by up to 3 times for the PHE with β = 80°–80°. Better
heat transfer characteristic with an increase in corrugation angles is
primarily due to the increase in surface area and turbulence in the flow
because of induced secondary flows. The thermal enhancement factor is
compared among different cross-corrugated geometries at the same
pumping power. It is observed that the average thermal enhancement
factor of a PHE with 80°–80° is 34.11%, 16.23%, 10.63% and 8.25%
more than that of a PHE with β = 30°–30°, 45°–45°, 60°–60° and
72°–72°, respectively. The Nusselt number predicted from the present
model is compared with the different empirical correlations reported in
the literature. It is found that the Okada et al. [9] correlation is the best
suited with a maximum deviation of 37.11% for the PHEs having
β = 30°–30°, 45°–45° and 60°–60°. With the computed results, gen-
eralized correlations of Nusselt number as functions of Reynolds
number, geometrical configurations of cross-corrugated plate heat ex-
changers with high corrugation angles and viscosity ratio for a wide
range of Prandtl numbers are proposed with an accuracy of 40%.
However, more rigorous experimental efforts on PHEs with high cor-
rugation angles are needed to develop highly accurate correlations that
can be employed to optimize the design of PHEs.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Sandip K. Saha: Software, Investigation, Formal analysis,
Conceptualization, Supervision, Writing - review & editing. Abdul
Haaris Khan: Investigation, Methodology, Software, Validation,
Visualization, Writing - original draft.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influ-
ence the work reported in this paper.
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