The Heat Transfer Characteristics of Vapor Condensation in a Plate Heat Exchanger

Abstract The model of a single flow channel of a plate heat exchanger (PHE) has been established, and the condensation characteristics of vapor with different saturation temperatures and vapor superheating levels have been investigated. The results show that with a higher vapor saturation temperature, the average surface heat transfer coefficient (HTC) increases. The HTC of saturated steam at a saturation temperature of 348.15 K is about 104.1% higher than that at a saturation temperature of 323.15 K. The influence of vapor superheating is weaker compared to that of the saturation temperature. With the increase of vapor superheat, the surface average HTC first increased and then decreased. The HTC of superheated vapor with a vapor superheating of 10 °C is about 0.72% higher than that of saturated vapor. In industrial applications, it is appropriate to control the vapor inlet superheating to be between 5-10°C.