Performance Evaluation of Plate Heat Exchanger in Laminar and Turbulent Flow Conditions

Experimental data was generated by performing the experiment on a plate heat exchanger for water/water system, at different flow rate and different hot water inlet temperature, at steady state conditions. Overall heat transfer coefficient (U) is determined for the performance evaluation of plate heat exchanger. The thermal properties of water (thermal Conductivity, Specific heat and density) at different temperature were calculated from the linear correlation developed in Polymath 5. To determine the film heat transfer coefficient as a function of pressure drop we have developed the correlations from the graphs plotted h against ∆P for Turbulent flow and, h against ∆P for laminar flow. These correlations and graphs can be used to study the effect of pressure drop (∆P) on film heat transfer coefficient (h). Graphs presented in this work were plotted using computer software polymath 5 and Microsoft excel. Correlations for the convective heat transfer coefficient as a function of Reynolds number (Re), and Prandtl number (Pr) is suggested.