Numerical simulation of complicated chevron plates passages

A numerical and experimental study of heat transfer and fluid flow in plate heat exchanger with chevron plates has been presented in this paper. The three-dimensional geometry without any simplification is modeled by software SOLIDWORKS. The geometry is meshed by software ICEM. The case is solved by software FLUENT. For the irregular passage, it is difficult to divide the zone to generate grids separately. The grid must be generated through the whole zone one time. A tiny clearance between two plates is given to avoid the contact points. Two types of plates are studied to validate this treatment. we compared the results with experiments. Heat transfer and pressure drop data is obtained experimentally with water as the working fluid, in the Reynolds number ranges from 300-7000. The error between CFD's and experiments' results in no-phase change cases can be controlled in ±15%. It is shown that the tiny clearance treatment is effective and the CFD is a reliable tool for studying the effect of various geometrical configurations on the optimum design of a PHE.