The experimental determination of heat transfer and pressure drop during condensation in a plate heat exchanger with corrugated plates

Plate heat exchangers (PHE) are well established apparatuses with a broad field of application due to their high thermal efficiency, compactness and cost competitiveness. The objective of this work is the experimental investigation of two-phase heat transfer and pressure drop during condensation in a vertical corrugated plate gap. The apparatus used in the experiments is a three-stream PHE of plate and frame construction with two heat transfer sections and an intermediate plate. Experiments are conducted using two different chevron angles (27° and 63°). The heat transfer coefficients are determined by local recording of wall and fluid temperatures for obtaining differential energy balances. Based on the measured integral pressure drop across the apparatus the pressure gradient in the plate gap is recalculated locally by an adapted two-phase calculation model, combining the homogenous and heterogeneous model. As working fluids the refrigerant R134a and steam are used. For both working fluids the results for the two plate types are compared and the influence of the chevron angle on heat transfer and pressure loss is emphasized.