Recent and Emerging Trends in Plate Heat Exchangers Performance Enhancement: A Review

Increasing the demand for greater efficiency and sustainability in corrugated plate heat exchangers has driven comprehensive research to address the drawbacks of conventional designs. This review summarizes the latest developments in enhancing plate heat exchanger performance, with a focus on plate surface geometry and working-fluid effects. The most important geometric details for thermo-hydraulic properties, such as chevron angle, corrugation pattern, plate spacing, and corrugation depth and pitch, are systematically examined with respect to their thermo-hydraulic effects. The review also covers surface coatings, including potential contributions to fouling mitigation and pressure drop reduction, as well as persistent issues related to durability, health, and environmental impact, along with their associated costs. The review also discusses the application of nanofluids as working fluids, explaining that while they can improve heat transfer, they also entail drawbacks such as increased viscosity, pressure drop, and unknown long-term effects on plate integrity. In addition to designs and material strategies, the review focuses on how they incorporate sustainable and renewable energies into plate heat exchangers to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and their negative impact on the environment, as well as reducing operational costs. Also, cutting-edge data-driven techniques, including machine learning, deep learning, and artificial intelligence, are presented as promising extensions to other CFD techniques to develop and enhance predictive models while reducing computational costs and time. Finally, several research gaps are identified, including insufficient attention to unsteady and oscillatory flow conditions, highlighting areas that require further investigation.