Numerical study on three-phase corrugated plate heat exchanger using EEMM-PBM framework

The fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics of corrugated plate heat exchangers (CPHEs) with three-phase (gas-oil-water) flow are investigated in this article. A Euler-Euler multiphase model (EEMM) is coupled with the population balance model (PBM) to investigate three-phase (oil-gas-water) flows in CPHE. Comparisons between our numerical results and experimental data indicate that the EEMM-PBM approach is effective in capturing the particle size evolutions as well as predicting the heat transfer performance. A further comparison is made between the single-phase, two-phase (oil-water), and three-phase (oil-gas-water) flows to illustrate the effect of heterogeneous particles on the performance of CPHEs. The results show that the local heat transfer deterioration is related to the aggregation of dispersed phases and the velocity reduction in the near-wall regions. An increase in Reynolds number (Re) increases the performance evaluation criteria (PEC) for two-phase flow, with PEC reaching 99 % of the single-phase flow performance when Re increases to 13,400. However, the PEC can decrease by up to 50 % for oil-gas-water flow at high Re. The study provides novel insights into the mechanisms causing local heat transfer degradation in multiphase flows, emphasizing the aggregation of phases and velocity reductions near the walls, which are critical for optimizing CPHEs designs.