Available online at www.sciencedirect.

com

ScienceDirect
Energy Procedia 111 (2017) 141 – 150

8th International Conference on Sustainability in Energy and Buildings, SEB-16, 11-13 September
2016, Turin, ITALY

Evaluation of CAE methods used for plate heat exchanger design

Václav Dvořáka*, Tomáš Víta
a
Technical University of Liberec, Studentska 2, Liberec, 46117, Czech Republic

Abstract

Flow and heat transfer in a plastic recuperative counter flow plate air-to-air heat exchanger were investigated experimentally and
numerically using Ansys Fluent software. It was employed previously developed methods to generate a computational mesh and
assumed nonzero thickness of the plates to calculate the flow in an air-to-air heat exchanger. Pressure drop and effectiveness were
evaluated as functions of inlet velocity. Obtained numerical data were substituted by suggested functions dependent on the
Reynolds number and later modified to take change in plate pitch and material thickness into account. It was found that change in
plate pitch influence only friction losses due to change of turbulence of the flow. The shape of mini-channels, which are defined
by the shape of pressing molds that are constant during our investigation, determines local loses. Increasing the plate pitch has the
same effect on Nusselt number as increasing the Reynolds number. Modified functions were used to illustrate the effect of material
thickness, plate pitch and heat conductivity of material on pressure drop and effectiveness. Derived equations witch take the effect
of material thickness and plate pitch into account represent a useful tool for design and optimization of recuperative heat exchanger
for use in HVAC systems in sustainability buildings.
© 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of KES International.
Keywords: Heat exchanger, CFD;

1.
Introduction

Energy recovery during air ventilation is one of the ways to reduce the energy consumption of buildings. Heat
recovery can substantially reduce energy consumption needful for heating during cold seasons or air conditioning
during hot seasons. The main component of any energy recovery devices are heat exchangers. Development of
recuperative heat exchangers in recent years has focused on increasing their effectiveness. Another challenge is the
development of exchangers for simultaneous heat and moisture transport, i.e. transport of both sensible and latent heat,

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +420485353479.

Email address: vaclav.dvorak@tul.cz

1876-6102 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of KES International.
doi:10.1016/j.egypro.2017.03.016
142 Václav Dvořák and Tomáš Vít / Energy Procedia 111 (2017) 141 – 150

as presented by Vít et al. in work [1]. To develop heat exchangers, methods of computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
are increasingly used, but there are still some problems to transfer the calculation results to the design and
manufacturing processes. The presented paper shows the overview of different principles used for numerical
simulation of the fluid flow and heat transfer in plate heat exchangers. It also shows the method how to compare results
of experiments and numerical simulations of a plastic plate heat exchanger with non-zero material thickness.

Nomenclature

a part of plates without undulation (1)

A area of heat exchange surface after pressing (m2)
b characteristic dimension of undulation (m)
cp isobaric specific heat capacity (J·kg-1·K-1)
Cf correction of friction coefficient (1)
f friction coefficient (1)
L length of the heat exchanger (m)


m mass flow rate (kg·s-1)
Nu Nusselt number (1)
v velocity (m·s-1)
p pressure (Pa)
Re Reynolds number (1)
s plate pitch (m)
T temperature (°C)
U overall heat transfer coefficient (W·m-2·K-1)
δ plate thickness (m)
λf thermal conductivity of fluid – air (W·m-1·K-1)
λ thermal conductivity of plate material (W·m-1·K-1)
ν kinematic viscosity of air (m2·s-1)
ρ density (kg·m-3)
η effectiveness of heat recovery (1)
ξ loss coefficient (1)

2.
Numerical simulation of the flow in plate heat exchanger

To simulate a heat exchanger, it is necessary to create a model and a computational mesh and then use CFD
software. When assembling the heat exchanger, complicated and irregular narrow channels are created. These channels
are split into small volumes (elements). The final meshes are structured or unstructured with different element sizes.
Most of researchers use unstructured meshes for their calculations. Gherasim et al., in work [2], presented a
comparison of various grids for a plate heat exchanger modeled by a tetrahedral mesh. In order to assess the influence
of the grid resolution on the solution, five grids were created and tested by meshing the volumes with different interval
sizes. It was discovered that the two grids with the smallest elements provided very similar results.
Subsequent researchers have used numerical simulations to investigate plate heat exchangers with chevron
(undulated) profiles. Tsai [3] and Liu [4], for example, dealt with these heat exchangers and their different geometries.
Their conclusions regarding temperature and pressure drop were similar to Gherasim [2]. Similarly Giurgiu et al. in
work [5] used CFD to study the influence of geometric characteristics of the two plates on the intensification process
of heat transfer. The analyzed mini channels with the inclination angles of 30° respectively 60°. They used SST k-ω
turbulence model and non-structural high-density mesh and modeled only small part of the heat exchanger. They
carried out also a session of experimental measurements which confirms the results obtained through numerical
 Václav Dvořák and Tomáš Vít / Energy Procedia 111 (2017) 141 – 150 143

simulation. Kumar et al. [6] experimentally investigated the effect of symmetric and mixed chevron angles in a plate
heat exchanger on heat transfer rate ratio, friction losses and many others quantities. Experimental observation
confirmed previously known optimum for enhancement in heat transfer rate ratio.
Rios Iribe et al. [7] investigated, using CFD and hexahedral meshes, momentum and heat transfer of a non-
Newtonian fluid in steady laminar regime through a plate heat exchanger at constant wall temperature. Although the
flow pattern was highly complex, under an adequate definition of the characteristics parameters, it was possible to
establish simple correlations between the dimensionless numbers that characterize the thermal-hydraulic behavior of
plate heat exchangers. Al-Waked et al. [8] investigated numerically conjugate heat and mass transfer processes across
membrane heat exchangers of variable mass transfer resistance. The authors studied effects of channel height and
Reynolds number on heat exchanger thermal effectiveness and energy recovered. A hybrid mesh was used.
Novosád and Dvořák [9], investigated the influence of oblique waves on the heat transfer surface. The main
difficulty faced in this work was the creation of custom geometry. Each version had to be modeled separately and
meshed. Each model had to be loaded into the solver, the boundary conditions were set, and subsequently the numerical
simulation was performed. The disadvantages of the repeated generation of computational meshes are: Demanding
and time consuming work, meshes made for different models are not similar and parameterization of the model is
problematic. Even a small change of geometry requires to do again the whole process of model creation and mesh
generation. As a result, there is a high probability of errors in the model and high risk of low quality of mesh cells. It
is necessary to setup the solver, boundary conditions and all models for all computed variants. Furthermore, meshes
are not similar, i.e. the size, shape, and height of cells adjacent to walls are not the same for different topologies.
Therefore, Dvořák [10], developed a new method for generating computational variants. This method was based
on a dynamic mesh, which is provided by Ansys Fluent software. The meshes were created by pull procedure, which
is similar to the own production process, i.e. the pulling direction is perpendicular to the plates. The main advantage
is that this type of mesh generation is automatic and controlled by in-house software. All computational variants thus
have a similar mesh. Dvořák and Novosád [11], investigated the influence of mesh quality and density on the numerical
calculation of a heat exchanger with undulations in a herringbone pattern. They found that very coarse meshes can
yield both too high and unrealistic effectiveness and pressure drop compared to other results. It seems that for deformed
meshes, which are structured, the appropriate element size is about 30% of channel high, although this size is
sometimes not suitable for unstructured meshes. Dvořák and Vít [12] used CFD and previously developed method for
model generation to investigate flow in a plate heat exchanger and compared theirs results with experimental
investigation. However, the agreement was not satisfactory, probably due to deformation of plates of membrane based
heat exchanger during measuring and the fact that a zero thickness material was considered during computations.
The aim of this work is to improve these imperfections by comparison of the results of experiments and numerical
simulations of a plastic heat exchanger with non-zero material thickness and to compile an analytical model of the
plate heat exchanger to illustrate effects of plate pitch, material thickness and material thermal conductivity.

3.
Methods

Fig. 1. Schema of a plate heat exchanger model and boundary conditions.

144 Václav Dvořák and Tomáš Vít / Energy Procedia 111 (2017) 141 – 150

The schema of the numerical model of the plate heat exchanger is shown in Fig. 1. The plate heat exchanger had a
typical shape with inlet cross-flow sections of a triangular shape which serves to distribute the airflow across the heat
exchanger before it enters the counter-flow section in the middle of the exchanger. The white line in Fig. 1 represents
the ideal path along which the air flows, its length is equal to L . The fluid flow and heat transfer around two plates
was calculated with respect to the way the plate heat exchanger was assembled. A periodical boundary condition was
applied on the upper and the lower boundaries parallel to the heat exchanger plates.
We employed a previously developed method [10] to create the computational mesh and to shape the plates of the
heat exchanger. The proper density of the mesh was subsequently confirmed in work [11].
The two main properties of recuperative heat exchangers used in HVAC systems are the coefficient of effectiveness
and pressure drop. Both are dependent on the mass flow rate of air and are evaluated from numerical data. The
coefficient of effectiveness (or effectiveness) is the efficiency of sensible heat transfer. Most recuperative heat
exchangers in air conditioning systems work in isobaric mode, where mass flow rates of external (fresh) and internal

e = m
(waste) air are equal, i.e. m
i . Assuming parity between specific heat capacities c p e = c p i , we can write the
effectiveness as

Te 2 − Te1 Te 2 − Te1 , (1)

η= =
ΔT Ti1 − Te1

where Ti1 = 293.15 K is the inlet temperature of internal air; Te1 = 273.15 K is the inlet temperature of external air;
and Te 2 is the outlet temperature of external air. The dependences of coefficient of effectiveness on inlet velocity
obtained by experimental investigation and by numerical calculation are shown in Fig. 2a.
To better compare results of experimental investigation with results of numerical computation, the pressure drop
was defined as

Δp = p01 − p2 , (2)

where p01 is the mass-averaged total pressures in the inlet and p2 is the area-averaged static pressures at the outlet.
Pressure drop as a function of the inlet velocity, which was obtained by experiments and numerical calculations, is
shown in Fig. 2b. Nusselt numbers and loss coefficients were evaluated by analysis of flow and heat transfer in the
plate heat exchanger. To re-evaluate coefficient of effectiveness of the heat exchanger from obtained Nusselt number,
we used equation

UA , (3)
η=
m
c p + UA

where A (m2) is heat surface area and U (W·m-2·K-1) is the overall heat transfer coefficient given by equation

1 , (4)
U=
4( s − δ ) t
+
Nu λ f λ

where λ (W·m-1·K-1) is the thermal conductivity of the plate material; s (m) is the plate pitch and δ (m) is the
thickness of used material. To re-evaluate pressure drop, the resulting loss coefficient ξ F (1) is multiplied by dynamic
pressure in the counter flow part of the heat exchanger

v2 . (5)
Δp = ξ F ρ
2
 Václav Dvořák and Tomáš Vít / Energy Procedia 111 (2017) 141 – 150 145

4.
Results

Effectiveness Pressure drop

0.9 500
0.8 450 Measurement
0.7 400 Numerical cal.

0.6 350
Effectiveness (1)

Pressure drop (Pa)

300
0.5
250
0.4
200
0.3
150
0.2 Measurement 100
0.1 Numerical cal. 50
0.0 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 5
Inlet velocity (m/s) Inlet velocity (m/s)
a) b)

Fig. 2. Results of measurement and numerical investigation of counter flow plate heat exchanger with plate pitch 4.4 mm; (a) Effectiveness and
(b) pressure drop as functions of inlet velocity.

The coefficient of effectiveness obtained by measurement and numerical calculation as a function of inlet velocity
is shown in Fig. 2a. We can see, that the effectiveness is decreasing for higher velocity and higher mass flow rate.
The calculation underestimates coefficient of effectiveness by 0.02 which corresponds to 3% of disagreement.
The measured and calculated pressure drop, shown in Fig. 2b, increases with higher inlet velocity. Again,
the calculations underestimates pressure drop by 6%. Note that calculation was made for non-zero thickness of plate
material and therefore, the disagreement is caused not by simplification of numerical model, but by modelling itself.
To better understand these trends and to allow further analysis, we substituted the obtained data with suitable
functions. Pressure losses are expected to consist of friction losses and local losses. Further we assume low Reynolds
number and dominant laminar flow, i.e. friction coefficient f (1) should be equal with respect to Poiseuille's law to
the ratio 64 Re . Reynolds number is defined for flow between parallel plates with the respect to the material thickness,

2( s − δ ) v
Re = , (6)
ν

where v (m·s-1) is velocity in counter-flow part of the heat exchanger.

For evaluating heat transfer, we assumed a dependence of the Nusselt number on the Reynolds number as

Nu = C Re n , (7)

where the constants evaluated from the results were C = 0.3544 and n = 0.5568 . Prandtl number is considered to
be constant for air in the expected temperature range and is included in constant C . Comparison of the numerical
calculation and its substitution by equation (7) is shown in Fig. 3a. The deviation is within 2% in this case.
According to previous work [12], the final pressure loss coefficient ξ F is supposed to be substituted by function

⎛ L 32 ⎞ ,
ξ F = ⎜⎜ ξ L + Cf ⎟ (8)
⎝ sR − δ R Re ⎟⎠

where ξ L = 16.7 is coefficient of local losses obtained by numerical calculation, L = 0.46 m is the length of the
146 Václav Dvořák and Tomáš Vít / Energy Procedia 111 (2017) 141 – 150

investigated heat exchanger, sR = 0.0044 m is the reference plate pitch and δ R = 0.00025 m reference material
thickness of the same exchanger and C f = 2.73 is the correction of laminar friction coefficient to fit numerical
results. The dependence of the loss coefficient on the Reynolds number is shown in Fig. 3b. As we can see, the
substitution of numerical data by equation (8) is satisfactory, the deviation is within 3%.

Nusselt number Loss coefficient

40 45
35 40
30 35
Nusselt number (1)

30

Loss coefficient (1)

25
25
20
20
15
Measurement 15 Measurement
10
Numerical cal. 10 Numerical cal.
5 5
Equation (7) Equation (8)
0 0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 0 1000 2000 3000 4000

a) Reynolds number (1) b) Reynolds number (1)

Fig. 3. Results of measurement, numerical investigation and substitute equations of plate heat exchanger with plate pitch 4.4 mm and material
thickness 0.25 mm; (a) Nusselt number and (b) loss coefficient as functions of Reynolds number.

Using equation (7) for Nusselt number and (8) for loss coefficient, we can now investigated effects of plate pitch
and material thickness on both coefficient of effectiveness and pressure drop. Frist, we assumed, that the plate
geometry remained the same, i.e. the same pressing molds would be used to create plates, but the depth of pressing
will be different. Therefore, the change of plate surface area should be considered. According to Fig. 4a, we consider
the change of plate area due to pressing on given plate pitch s and material thickness δ according to function

2
A ⎛ s −δ ⎞ , (9)
= a + (1 + a) 1 + ⎜ ⎟
A0 ⎝ b ⎠

where A (m2) is surface area of the final plates after pressing, A0 (m2) is the surface area of flat plates before pressing,
a (1) is part of the plate which remains flat and b = 0.0045 m is characteristic dimension of plate undulation.
The comparison between area obtained numerically by mesh generation and calculated with the help of equation (9)
is in Fig. 4b. The deviation is within 0.4 %. The diagram also shows area increase due to plate pitch.
The dependence of Nusselt number on the plate pitch for constant inlet velocity and material thickness is shown in
Fig. 5a. We can see that results obtained by equation (7) strongly disagree with results of numerical calculations
obtained for seven values of plate pitch s . It shows that the Nusselt number is strongly and not inconsiderably
influenced by change in plate pitch. Therefore, the criterion equation (7) obtained for plate pitch sR and material
thickness δ R should take the change of plate pitch into account. The suggested function
n
⎛ s −δ ⎞ ,
Nu = C ⎜⎜ Re ⎟⎟ (10)
⎝ sR − δ R ⎠

according to Fig. 5a agrees well with the numerical data. It seems that change of plate pitch has the same effect on
intensification of heat transfer as change of Reynolds number. The deviation is within 3% and the Nusselt number is
slightly overestimated for higher values of plate pitch.
 Václav Dvořák and Tomáš Vít / Energy Procedia 111 (2017) 141 – 150 147

Area increase A/A0

1.8
1.6
1.4

Area increase (1)

1.2
1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4 Numerical cal.
0.2 Equation (9)
0.0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
a) b) Plate pitch (mm)

Fig. 4 (a) Plate area before and after pressing; (b) area increase due to pressing – results of numerical calculation and obtained by equation (9).

The dependence of loss coefficient on the plate pitch for constant inlet velocity and material thickness is in Fig. 5b.
We can see that results obtained by equation (8) overestimate pressure drops for low plate pitch and underestimate for
high values of plate pitch. Again, it indicates that the loss coefficient depends on plate pitch and material thickness,
or simply on the depth of pressing. The equation (8) obtained for plate pitch sR and material thickness δ R should be
modified to take the change of plate pitch into account. We found that the change in plate pitch does not affect local
loses given by coefficient ξ L , but strongly influence friction losses. The suggested equation is

⎡ s − δ ⎤ L 32
ξ F = ξ L + ⎢1 + (C f − 1) , (11)
⎣ sR − δ R ⎥⎦ s − δ Re

where we assumed that friction coefficient f will be equal to 64 Re for zero plate distance s − δ . According to
Fig. 5b the equation (11) agrees well with the numerical data. It seems that the depth of pressing influences the
turbulence of the flow and mainly friction losses, while the shape of mini-channels due to corrugation of plates, which
remained constant during our investigation, determines local loses.

Nusselt number Loss coefficient

40 40
35
35
30
Nusselt number (1)

Loss coefficient (1)

25 30
20
25
15
10 Numerical cal. Numerical cal.
20 Equation (8)
Equation (7)
5 Equation (11)
Equation (10)
0 15
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
a) Plate pitch (mm) b) Plate pitch (mm)

Fig. 5. (a) Nusselt number evaluated from the numerical results as a function of plate pitch; (b) Loss coefficient evaluated from the numerical
results as a function of plate pitch.
148 Václav Dvořák and Tomáš Vít / Energy Procedia 111 (2017) 141 – 150

Effectiveness Pressure drop

1.0 700
1.1 mm
600 2.2 mm
0.8 3.3 mm
500 4.4 mm

Pressure drop {Pa)

Effectiveness (1)

0.6 5.5 mm
400
6.6 mm
1.1 mm 300
0.4
2.2 mm
3.3 mm 200
0.2 4.4 mm
5.5 mm 100
6.6 mm
0.0 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 5
Inlet velocity (m/s) Inlet velocity (m/s)
a) b)
Fig. 6. Dependence of coefficient of effectiveness (a) and pressure drop (b) on inlet velocity and plate pitch for constant material thickness
-1 -1
δ = 0.25 mm and heat conductivity λ = 1 W m K .

Equations (9), (10) and (11) with all constants represents set of equations needful to create an analytical model of
investigated plate heat exchanger. With the help of equations (3), (4) and (6) we can investigate effects of plate pitch,
material thickness and thermal conductivity of the plate material.
Fig. 6 shows dependences of coefficient of effectiveness and pressure drop on inlet velocity and plate pitch which
varies from 1.1 mm to 6.6 mm, while material thickness remains constant. We can observe that the effectiveness and
pressure drop decrease for higher plate pitch, but it seems that for plate pitch greater than 5.5 mm the effect of further
decrease is for both quantities negligible. And because the friction losses increase with plate pitch, further reduction
of pressure drop can be achieve only by change of plate geometry. The effectiveness can be increased significantly
for plate pitch lower than 2.2 mm, but the increase in pressure is enormous and probably unacceptable in that case.
Change of plate geometry will cause minor changes in pressure drop in this case.

Effectiveness Pressure drop

0.80 700
0.00 mm 0.00 mm
0.25 mm 600 0.25 mm
0.75
0.50 mm 0.50 mm
0.75 mm 500 0.75 mm
Pressure drop {Pa)
Effectiveness (1)

0.70 1.00 mm 1.00 mm

1.25 mm 400
1.25 mm
0.65
300
0.60
200

0.55 100

0.50 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 5
Inlet velocity (m/s) Inlet velocity (m/s)
a) b)
Fig. 7. Dependence of coefficient of effectiveness (a) and pressure drop (b) on inlet velocity and material thickness for constant plate pitch
-1 -1
s = 4.4 mm and heat conductivity λ = 1 W·m ·K .

Fig. 7 shows dependences of coefficient of effectiveness and pressure drop on inlet velocity and material thickness
which varies from 0 mm to 1.25 mm, while the plate pitch and heat conductivity of material remains constant. We can
observe that the effectiveness increases only negligibly for higher material thickness, while pressure drop increases
significantly. The change in thermal conductivity of material used for plates of the heat exchanger does not affect
 Václav Dvořák and Tomáš Vít / Energy Procedia 111 (2017) 141 – 150 149

pressure losses, but can influence heat transfer, as it is shown in Fig. 8, where dependence of coefficient of
effectiveness is plotted. We can see that if the heat conductivity of used material is higher than 0.2 W·m-1·K-1,
the effectiveness almost reaches its maximum and even enormous increase in thermal conductivity cannot influence it.
On the other hand, an extremely low thermal conductivity of use material can reduce the heat transfer significantly.

Effectiveness
0.8
0.7
0.6

Effectiveness (1)
0.5
0.4
200 W/m K
0.3 0.20 W/m K
0.10 W/m K
0.2 0.05 W/m K
0.1 0.02 W/m K
0.01 W/m K
0.0
0 1 2 3 4 5
Inlet velocity (m/s)

Fig. 8. Dependence of coefficient of effectiveness on inlet velocity and thermal conductivity for constant plate pitch s = 4.4 (mm) and material
thickness δ = 0.25 (mm).

5.
Discussion

Heat exchangers are an integral part of most Sustainable buildings. Compact plate heat exchangers are preferably
used for apartments or small houses. The major trend in plate heat exchangers design is to increase effectiveness while
maintaining current dimensions and prices by using of new materials and new technologies. To increase the
effectiveness, it is necessary to find the optimum shape of the heat exchange surface. Such a complex task could be
solved with the help of numerical simulations and the shape optimization techniques.
Numerical simulations of the flow in the plate heat exchanger, with respect to the dimensions of the heat exchanger,
is relatively time consuming process. From the viewpoint of the fluid mechanics most of the flow is in the transition
régime, which is still extremely difficult to get accurate results by numerical simulations.
I t is evident that it is necessary to make a proper comparison of numerical results with experiments performed on
the heat exchanger prototype and to adjust the parameters of the numerical model on the basis of this comparison.

6.
Conclusion

Flow and heat transfer in an air-to-air recuperative counter-flow plate heat exchanger were investigated
experimentally and numerically using Ansys Fluent software. The previously developed methods was employed to
generate a computational mesh and modeled also a nonzero thickness of the plates. Pressure drop and effectiveness
were evaluated as functions of inlet velocity. The numerical computations were in good agreement with experiments,
but underestimated the coefficient of effectiveness by 3% and pressure drop by 6%. Obtained numerical data were
substituted by suggested functions dependent on the Reynolds number. The function for the loss coefficient was based
on the presumption that losses consist of local losses and friction losses. The function for the Nusselt number used the
ordinary power function of the Reynolds number for forced convection.
These functions were used to illustrate the effect of plate pitch and compared with numerical calculations of heat
exchangers with the same range of plate pitch. It was found that derived functions have to be modified to take the
change in plate pitch and material thickness into account. It seems that the depth of pressing influences the turbulence
of the flow and mainly friction losses. The shape of mini-channels, which are defined by the shape of pressing molds
that are constant during our investigation, determines local loses. Therefore, the coefficient of local losses remains
150 Václav Dvořák and Tomáš Vít / Energy Procedia 111 (2017) 141 – 150

untouched by change in plate pitch or material thickness. The disagreement between numerical results of Nusselt
number and final loss coefficient and suggested functions are within 3%.
We used modified functions to illustrate the effect of material thickness, plate pitch and heat conductivity of
material on pressure drop and effectiveness. We found that the effectiveness and pressure drop decrease for higher
plate pitch, but it seems that for plate pitch higher than 5.5 mm the effect of further decrease is for both quantities
negligible. And because the friction losses increase with plate pitch, further reduction of pressure losses can be achieve
only by change of plate geometry. The effectiveness can be increased significantly for plate pitch lower than 2.2 mm,
but the increase in pressure is enormous. Change of plate geometry will cause minor changes in pressure drop in this
case.
The change in material thickness affects the effectiveness only negligible, but strongly influence the pressure drop.
If the thermal conductivity of used material is lower than 0.2 W·m-1·K-1, the coefficient of effectiveness can be reduced
significantly. On the other hand, higher thermal conductivity yields no significant increase in coefficient of
effectiveness.
Derived equations which take the effect of material thickness and plate pitch into account represent a useful tool
for design and optimization of recuperative heat exchanger for use in HVAC systems. It would be useful to derive
similar functions from obtained experimental data and to describe effects of changes of plate geometry.

Acknowledgements

This publication was written at the Technical University of Liberec, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering with the
support of the Institutional Endowment for the Long Term Conceptual Development of Research Institutes, as
provided by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic in the year 2016.

References

[1] Vít T, Novotný P, Nguyen V, Dvořák V. Testing method of materials for enthalpy wheels. Recent Advances in Energy, Environment,
Economics and Tech. Innovation, Paris, France, 29th – 31st October; 2013.
[2] Gherasim I, Galanis N., Nguyen CT. Heat transfer and fluid flow in a plate heat exchanger. Part II: Assessment of laminar and two-equation
turbulent models. Int. J of Thermal Sci. 50; 2011. p. 1499-1511
[3] Tsai YCh, Liu FB, Shen, P T. Investigation of effect of oblique ridges on heat transfer in plate heat exchangers. Int. Commun. in Heat and Mass
Transfer 36; 2009. p. 574–578
[4] Liu FB, Tsai YCh. An experimental and numerical investigation of fluid flow in a cross-corrugated channel. Heat Mass Transfer 46; 2010.
p. 585–593
[5] Giurgiu O, Pleşa A, Socaciu L. Plate Heat Exchangers – Flow Analysis through Mini Channels Original Research Article. Energy Procedia,
Volume 85, January 2016, p. 244-251
[6] Kumar V, Tiwari A K, Ghosh S K. Effect of chevron angle on heat transfer performance in plate heat exchanger using ZnO/water nanofluid
Original Research Article. Energy Conversion and Management, Volume 118, 15 June 2016, p. 142-154
[7] Erika Y. Rios-Iribe, Maritza E. Cervantes-Gaxiola, Eusiel Rubio-Castro, Oscar M. Hernández-Calderón. Heat transfer analysis of a non-
Newtonian fluid flowing through a Plate Heat Exchanger using CFD. Appl. Therm. Eng., In Press, Corrected Proof, Available online 3 March
2016.
[8] Al-Waked R, Nasif M S, Morrison G, Behnia M, CFD simulation of air to air enthalpy heat exchanger: Variable membrane moisture resistance.
Original Research Article, Appl. Therm. Eng., Volume 84, 5 June 2015, p. 301-309
[9] Novosád J, Dvořák V. Investigation of effect of oblique ridges on heat transfer in plate heat exchangers. Experimental Fluid Mechanics 2013,
November 19.-22.; 2013. p. 510 - 514
[10] Dvořák V. Optimization of plate heat exchangers with angled undulations in herringbone pattern. The 7th Int. Meeting on Advances in
Thermofluids, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, November, 26-27; 2014.
[11] Dvořák V, Novosád J., Influence of mesh quality and density on numerical calculation of heat exchanger with undulation in herringbone
pattern. 19th Int. Conf. on Circuits, Systems, Communications and Computers, Zakynthos, Greece, July 16-20; 2015 (submitted).
[12] Dvořák V., Vít T., Numerical Investigation of Counter Flow Plate Heat Exchanger Original Research Article, Energy Procedia, Volume 83,
December 2015, p. 341-349
[13] Menter, F. R., Two-Equation Eddy-Viscosity Turbulence Models for Engineering Applications, AIAA J, 32 (8), 1994, p. 1598–1605