Two types of welded plate heat exchangers for efficient heat recovery in industry

The developments in design theory of welded Plate Heat Exchangers (PHEs), aiming to enhance the heat recovery and efficiency of energy usage, are presented. The thermal and hydraulic performance of the unit is estimated using two approaches: by proper selection of plate corrugation pattern and by adjusting the numbers of passes for heat exchanging streams. The optimisation problem targeting the minimal heat transfer area under the requirements of proper operating conditions is observed. The optimising variables include the number of plates with different corrugation geometries in one pass. To estimate the value of the objective function in a space of optimising variables the mathematical model of PHE is developed. The possibilities of their application as heat exchangers in preheat train of crude oil distillation unit of the oil refinery are analysed basing on obtained design parameters with the effect of flow movement arrangement in the unit and its influence on shear stress and fouling formation. The comparison of Plate-and-Shell and Compabloc types of welded PHE is discussed.