A CFD Study of the Thermo-Hydraulic Characteristics of Pillow-Plate Heat Exchangers

Pillow-plate heat exchangers (PPHE) are manufactured as stacks of pillow plates, with a typical wavy surface. They represent a promising alternative to conventional equipment for the process industry; however, the lack of published design methods hinders their widespread application. Over the past years, our group has been intensively studying PPHE, using both theoretical and experimental methods. In the present contribution, the results of a CFD-based investigation of single-phase flow and heat transfer in both the inner and the outer pillow-plate channels are presented. In particular, the influence of using an advanced eddy viscosity turbulence model, namely, the elliptic blending k-ε model, on pressure drop and heat transfer in the outer channel is shown. Furthermore, a comparison between the thermo-hydraulic efficiencies of PPHE and pipes is undertaken, in order to identify the benefits of PPHE.