The Hydrothermal Performance Investigation of Gasketed Plate Heat Exchangers Using Taguchi, ANOVA, and GRA Methods

Abstract

In the present study, the hydrothermal performance of a gasketed plate heat exchanger was investigated experimentally and numerically. The numerical analyses were performed using the generated three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics models. Taguchi, ANOVA, and grey relation analysis statistical methods were also used to achieve the optimum parameter levels. The most and least effective parameters on the Nusselt number were mass flow rate (50.10%) and inlet temperature (5.58%), respectively. The most noticeable parameter of the Darcy friction factor was the chevron angle (91.21%), while the lowest was the inlet temperature, which had an effect of 0.49% (nearly negligible). In addition, the moderate design parameters on the Nusselt number and friction factor were the chevron angle (42.12%) and the mass flow rate (7.82%), respectively. The case of optimum levels of the parameters for the Nusselt number was not in the Taguchi L18 orthogonal array list. The Nusselt number was calculated as 86.276 and was even more significant than the highest value of 84.119 in the orthogonal array list results. In addition, the friction factor value was calculated as 0.521, considering the optimum parameter levels for only the friction factor. It was concluded that the mass flow rate and the chevron angle are the most effective parameters for maximum heat transfer and minimum pressure drop, respectively. The optimum parameter levels considering the multi-performance characteristics were obtained under the 30 degrees C inlet temperature, 0.25 kg/s mass flow rate, and 45 degrees chevron angle conditions. The Nusselt number and friction factor values were calculated as 73.876 and 0.802, respectively. The presented results can be used as a reference for similar studies, allowing the plate heat exchangers to be designed and used in battery thermal management and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems of electric vehicles.