PLATE & FRAME

HEAT EXCHANGER

By
Farhan Ahmad

Department of Chemical Engineering,

University of Engineering & Technology Lahore
 Introduction

• The plate heat exchanger (PHE) was first introduced by Dr

Richard Seligman in 1923.
•
• It consist of stack of corrugated or embossed metal plates
fitted between a frame.
 Main Parts

Carrying bar

Frame plate

Pressure
plate

Plate pack
Tightening bolts
4
 Plates
Inlet / outlet Media 2 Inlet / outlet Media 1

Distribution area

Fully supported gasket

groove

Heat transfer area

Distribution area
Inlet / outlet Media 2 Inlet / outlet Media 1

5
 Flow Patterns

• Series flow arrangement

• Single-pass looped arrangement:
– U-arrangement
– Z-arrangement
• Multipass with equal passes
• Multipass with unequal pass
 Series flow arrangement

• in which a stream is continuous and changes direction after

each vertical path, that is, n pass-n pass with individual
passes per channel
•
•
•
•
•

7
8
 2. Single-pass looped arrangement:
U-arrangement
Z-arrangement

• Both fluids flow countercurrently through parallel passages

that make up a single pass.
•
•
•
•

10
 PHE - Example Single Pass

Channel plates
End Plate II

End Plate I
Hot out
Cold in

Cold out
Hot in

11
 Multipass with equal passes

• Multipass with equal passes (series flow pattern), wherein

the stream divides into a number of parallel flow
channels and then recombines to flow through the exit in
a single stream, that is, n pass-n pass.
•
•
•

12
 PHE – Example Multipass
Pass/Channel: Hot Side 2 x 4
Cold Side 2 x 4

Cold out Cold in

Hot in Hot out

13
 4. Multipass with unequal pass

• 2 pass-1 pass,
•
•
•
• 3 pass-1 pass,
•
•

14
 Design of PHE

• LMTD Method
•
• ε- NTU Method
 LMTD Method
• For both looped and series flow arrangements.
• The steps involved in the method are given next.
For series flow :

1 . Calculate the heat duty. Determine the inlet and outlet temperatures for both

the fluids.
2. Estimate LMTD for counterflow arrangement.

3. Estimate Reynolds number for the each stream, assuming an exchanger

containing one thermal plate, one pass for each stream, as given:


where n is the number of substreams. For series flow, n = 1.

4. Estimate heat-transfer coefficient on both sides

5. Estimate overall heat-transfer coefficient taking into account the wall thermal

resistance.
6. Estimate the total heat-transfer area from A = q/U LMTD.

7. Estimate the number of plates from, N=A/A

p
 where Ap is the area of a plate
 LMTD Method

 For parallel flow or looped flow :



1-7. Repeat steps 1 to 7 already given.

8. From the number of thermal plates calculated in step 7, n, is determined for

both the fluids.

ü For odd N, values of n, will be equal for both fluids,
ü whereas for even N, n, will be different for both the fluids, and one fluid
will have an additional substream compared to the other.
9. The values of n, determined in step 8 are compared with the corresponding

values assumed in step 3. If the calculated values do not agree with the
assumed values, steps 3-9 are to be repeated, replacing the assumed values
with the values calculated from step 8 until there is agreement between the
two.
 ε- NTU Method
1. Calculate the heat load, q, and from it determine the inlet and outlet
temperatures for both the fluids.
2. Calculate the bulk mean temperature and determine the thermo physical fluid

properties. Estimate the heat capacity rate ratio, C*.

3. Estimate the heat-transfer effectiveness, E, using the relation

4. Assume an exchanger containing an infinite number of channels and find the
required NTU using the appropriate E-NTU relation.
5 . Estimate Reynolds number for the each stream, assuming an exchanger

containing one thermal plate, and one pass for each stream.
6. Calculate the heat-transfer coefficient on both sides. Estimate the overall heat-

transfer coefficient, taking into account the wall thermal resistance.

 ε- NTU Method


For series flow :
7. Estimate the approximate number of thermal plates using the equation


where Δtm is the mean temperature difference.



8. Assuming an exchanger of N + 1 channels, determine NTU from the

appropriate E-NTU relationship.
9. Recalculate N from Eq. 18.

10. Repeat calculations in steps 8 and 9 until the calculated value of N in

step 9 matches the assumed value in step 8.

 ε- NTU Method
For parallel flow or looped flow
• In a design involving looped flow patterns, the overall coefficient requires
recalculation during each iteration because the channel flow rates
become less with the addition of channels in parallel. The calculation
procedure for looped flow is as follows:
7. Assuming an exchanger of N thermal plates, calculate the overall heat-

transfer coefficient as in step 6.

8. Estimate the approximate number of thermal plates using Eq. 18.

9. Assuming an exchanger of N + 1 channels, determine NTU from the

appropriate E-NTU relationship for looped flow.

10. Recalculate the overall heat-transfer coefficient as per step 6 and

recalculate N with Eq.

11. Repeat calculations in steps 9 and 10 until the calculated value of N

matches with the assumed value.