Two-phase gas-liquid flow characteristics inside a plate heat exchanger
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Publication Details
Author list: Nilpueng K., Wongwises S.
Publisher: Elsevier
Publication year: 2010
Journal: Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science (0894-1777)
Volume number: 34
Issue number: 8
Start page: 1217
End page: 1229
Number of pages: 13
ISSN: 0894-1777
eISSN: 1879-2286
Languages: English-Great Britain (EN-GB)
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Abstract
In the present study, the air-water two-phase flow characteristics including flow pattern and pressure drop inside a plate heat exchanger are experimentally investigated. A plate heat exchanger with single pass under the condition of counter flow is operated for the experiment. Three stainless steel commercial plates with a corrugated sinusoidal shape of unsymmetrical chevron angles of 55ฐ and 10ฐ are utilized for the pressure drop measurement. A transparent plate having the same configuration as the stainless steel plates is cast and used as a cover plate in order to observe the flow pattern inside the plate heat exchanger. The air-water mixture flow which is used as a cold stream is tested in vertical downward and upward flow. The results from the present experiment show that the annular-liquid bridge flow pattern appeared in both upward and downward flows. However, the bubbly flow pattern and the slug flow pattern are only found in upward flow and downward flow, respectively. The variation of the water and air velocity has a significant effect on the two-phase pressure drop. Based on the present data, a two-phase multiplier correlation is proposed for practical application. ฉ 2010 Elsevier Inc.
Keywords
Corrugated channel, Two-phase multiplier