Influence of material on heat transfer and fluid flow in the pillow-plate heat exchanger

Abstract

The traditional heat exchanger has some limitations in thermal efficiency compared to the pillow plate heat exchanger (PPHE). In this way, the PPHE can be an efficient alternative and a good substitute. It is the combination of many pillow-plate channels organized in corresponding to each other. In this paper, the first time conjugate heat transfer (CHT) and transition SST model is used on the pillow plate channel using copper and steel as an outer channel, and the working fluid internally flows through the channel. We can see the primary and recirculation flow from the temperature field, and the temperature gradient increases behind the welding spot and near the inlet and outlet region in both metal sheets. The results showed that copper could be an excellent alternative solution for heat transfer. The thermal performance of copper is higher than steel. In addition, the simulation results were validated with previous experimental results and found better consistency of Nusselt number.