International Journal of Thermal Sciences 79 (2014) 183e193

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International Journal of Thermal Sciences

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijts

Role of channel shape on performance of plate-n heat exchangers:

Experimental assessment
M. Khoshvaght-Aliabadi a, F. Hormozi a, *, A. Zamzamian b
a
b

School of Chemical, Petroleum, and Gas Engineering, Semnan University, Semnan 35131-19111, Iran
Materials and Energy Research Center (MERC), Karaj, Iran

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 13 June 2013
Received in revised form
6 January 2014
Accepted 6 January 2014
Available online 18 February 2014

A comparative evaluation of seven common congurations of channels used in plate-n heat exchangers
is presented. All the channels, including plain, perforated, offset strip, louvered, wavy, vortex-generator,
and pin, are fabricated and tested experimentally. The working uid is water, and Reynolds number
range is from 480 to 3770. To evaluate the performance of these channels and also select an optimum
plate-n channel, three mostly used energy-based performance evaluation criteria are employed. The
results are presented as plots of dimensional and non-dimensional parameters. In comparison with all of
the studied channels, the vortex-generator channel shows a signicant enhancement in the heat transfer
coefcient and a proper reduction in the heat exchanger surface area. Therefore, it can be applied as a
high quality interrupted surface in the plate-n heat exchangers. Moreover, the wavy channel displays an
optimal performance at low Reynolds numbers.
2014 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Plate-n heat exchanger
Plate-n channel
Comparative evaluation
Performance evaluation criteria
Vortex-generator

1. Introduction
1.1. Plate-n heat exchanger specications
Process intensication (PI) usually pertains to chemical engineering instruments and methods. The plate-n heat exchanger
(PFHE) as a multi-functional device and heat transfer augmentation
techniques in this heat exchanger can be a popular issue from the PI
point of view. A PFHE consists of a block with alternating layers of
extended surfaces as plate-ns. These layers are separated by
parting sheets and restrained by side bars. A large heat transfer
area, light weight per unit volume, high thermal performance,
possibility of heat exchange among several streams, and close
temperature on channels are the advantages which make the PFHE
one of the popular type of heat exchangers. Based on different
applications, various types of plate-n channels such as plain,
perforated, offset strip, louvered, wavy, vortex-generator, and pin
are used in the PFHEs. Each of these channels enhances the heat
transfer with special techniques. The PFHEs are employed over a
wide range of temperatures and pressures for gasegas, gaseliquid,
and multi-phase duties, such as cryogenics for separation and
liquefaction of air (Coldbox system), production of petrochemicals

* Corresponding author. Tel.: 98 9123930495; fax: 98 2313354136.

E-mail
addresses:
mkhaliabadi@gmail.com
(M.
Khoshvaght-Aliabadi),
fhormozi@semnan.ac.ir (F. Hormozi), azamzamian@merc.ac.ir (A. Zamzamian).
1290-0729/$ e see front matter 2014 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijthermalsci.2014.01.004

and large refrigeration systems, and natural gas processing and

liquefaction. To make the PFHEs as compact as possible in these
application, the complex plate-n channels, i.e., perforated, offset
strip, louvered, wavy, vortex-generator, and pin, can be replaced
instead of plain one.
1.2. Literature review
The great advantages and different applications of the PFHEs are
the factors that motivate many investigators to study the performance of these heat exchangers. Therefore, numerous experimental and numerical studies have been conducted on
characteristics of each plate-n channel. The experimental and
numerical thermal-hydraulic data of the PFHEs with different
channels are given for perforated [1,2], offset strip [3e9], louvered
[10e15], wavy [16e26], vortex-generator [27e33], and pin [33e
38]. Nevertheless, studies which focus on the comparison of the
thermal-hydraulic performance of different channels are very
limited. A review of the prominent comparative studies [39e43] is
presented here.
A comparative assessment of ve different channels, namely
plain with the rectangular and triangle cross sections, offset strip,
louvered, and vortex-generator, to operate in compact heat exchangers was experimentally conducted by Brockmeier et al. [39],
when air operated as the working uid. They reported that the
vortex-generator surface has the best performance, and it can

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reduce the heat transfer surface area up to 76% for the xed heat
duty and pumping power. A thermodynamic analysis was performed by Tagliaco and Tanda [40] to compare the performance of
a number of the PFHE surfaces. The comparisons were done under
constraints, including the xed heat transfer duty, mass ow rate,
and lengthewidth of the heat exchanger. In another study, four
basic channels of the PFHEs, namely the rectangular plain, strip
offset, perforated, and wavy, were simulated at the laminar ow
regime by Zhu and Li [41]. The major purposes of this study were
the heat transfer behaviors in both the developing and the developed regions and local Nusselt number variations along the ow
direction. Correlations for the thermal entry length were also obtained. In all of the previous comparative studies, the surface of one
side of the heat exchanger was considered. A study on both sides of
the heat exchanger surfaces was conducted by Khalil et al. [42].
Dong et al. [43] recently used of the VG-I criteria which measures
the possible reduction of the surface area to compare ve plate-ns.
They considered the air as coolant on the gas side of a at-tube heat
exchanger.
Because of differences in geometrical parameters, working
uids, and data reduction methods which were adopted in different
literature, a comprehensive assessment of the common plate-n
channels is not possible. Also, in most previous comparative
studies, the air was considered as working uid. To the best of our
knowledge, no experimental study has compared the thermalhydraulic performance of different plate-n channels when a
liquid such as the water was used in the PFHE as working uid. Also,
a detailed performance evaluation of all the channel shapes was not
considered in the comparisons. Therefore, this motivates us to
evaluate a PFHE performance with different plate-n channels.
Seven common channel shapes, including plain, perforated, offset
strip, louvered, wavy, vortex-generator, and pin, were fabricated
and tested by using a proper experimental procedure at the constant temperature boundary condition. The thermal-hydraulic
specications in these channels were obtained and presented in
the dimensional and non-dimensional forms. Three extensively
used energy-based performance evaluation criteria (PEC), including
the j/f1/3 ratio, JF factor, and VG-I criterion, were used for the
appraisal.

outlet of the test section. To achieve a high accuracy, two very

sensitive pressure transmitters were utilized. Authenticity of the
estimated pressure drop was examined by using two glass pipes as
differential pressure manometer.
The constant temperature bath system consists of a two-phase
chamber and temperatureepressure control systems. The twophase chamber was made of 2 mm thick stainless steel sheets.
The dimensions of the chamber were 20 cm  60 cm  30 cm
(Width  Length  Height). The temperature of the chamber was
controlled by a 2 kW electrical heater as heat source, a temperature
controller, a power controller, and a calibrated T-type bulk temperature sensor. This control system maintained the operating uid
at its boiling point. The pressure of the chamber was controlled by a
small size-high accurate pressure control digital sensor and a steam
electrical pressure valve boarded on the chamber.
The cooling unit system consists of a brazed PFHE, a at tubeand-plate n heat exchanger along with an air fan, a calibrated
bulk K-type temperature sensor, and a temperature controller.
While the working uid was cooled circa the reservoir temperature
in the brazed PFHE, the supplementary cooling to achieve the
stringent temperature of the reservoir was done in the second heat
exchanger by crossing the air over its at tubes. The signal obtained
from the temperature sensor located at the outlet of this heat
exchanger was used in the temperature controller which commanded the oneoff status of the air fan. Some detail, including
model, range, and accuracy, about all the measuring instruments
are presented in Table 1.
For all the experimental tests, the data were logged by a computer whenever the steady-state condition was achieved, usually
within 10e15 min from the beginning of each experiment. In the
present study, the steady-state condition was dened as all the
measurement quantities and operation factors remained constant.
Then, the working uid ow rate was increased, and the new data
were recorded. To reduce the measuring errors as much as possible,
the decreasing uid ow rate trend was also utilized. All the factors
were measured six times; half for the increasing trend and half for
the decreasing trend, and the most centralized four of them were
chosen to calculate the average values used in the data reduction
section.

2. Experiments and measurements

2.2. Test sections

2.1. Experimental test loop

To create a physically meaningful and reliably comparative

study and also to assess relative advantages of different plate-n
channels, three comparative constraints, namely comparable
geometrical parameters, similar operating conditions, and equal
thermo-physical properties of the working uid, were considered
here.
The geometrical constraints encompass the following cases,

A schematic diagram of the designed and fabricated experimental test loop is shown in Fig. 1. The main sections of the
experimental rig are; (1) transmission uid state, (2) measurement
equipment, (3) constant temperature bath system, and (4) cooling
unite. The basic components along with their model are numbered
and introduced in the schematic. This setup was designed to
measure the heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of the
working uid owing over the length of different plate-n
channels.
As shown in Fig. 1, the ow rate was controlled by two adjustable ball valves; one after the pump and by-pass three-way and the
other one at the by-pass line. The accurate ow adjustment was
conducted by a rotameter. The main ow measuring device was a
high sensitive ultrasonic ow meter. Two high precise T-type
thermocouples were used to measure the inlet and outlet temperatures of the uid by putting them into the ow line. Nine Ktype thermocouples were mounted on the external and different
positions of the test section surfaces to measure the wall temperature distribution and ensure the uniformity of the surface temperature along the test section. The pressure drop was found by
subtracting the measured local pressure values at the inlet and






A similar frontal ow area,

A similar channel length,
A similar n thickness,
And similar values of specic geometrical parameters.

The rst three constraints produce an equal external heat

transfer area attaching with the saturated steam except the wavy
channel due to its special geometry. The frontal ow area, channel
length, and n thickness of 3  104 m2, 0.4 m, and 4  104 m were
chosen, respectively.
The other constraint was selected from the operating conditions
point of view,
 A same volumetric ow rate,
 A same inlet temperature,

M. Khoshvaght-Aliabadi et al. / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 79 (2014) 183e193

185

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of experimental test loop.

 A same thermal condition on the external surfaces of the

channels.
The above factors relate the range of Reynolds number (from
480 to 3770 according to the channel hydraulic diameters), the
inlet working uid temperature (298.15 K), and the temperature
of the saturated steam attaching with the external surfaces of the
test sections (368.15 K), respectively. It should be noted that
most of the industrial PFHEs in the same scale of the studied
channels in the present work have capability in the range of
100e400 lph (i.e., 1.66e6.66 lpm), which it is very close to the
range of the present work. Also, condensation is one of the

application areas of the PFHEs, which exactly pertains to the

current condition.
The test sections consist of a plate-n channel, two cover plates
(or parting sheets), and two side bars. A conoid shape header was
fabricated at the beginning of the test sections to provide relatively
uniform ow distribution. A similar structure was made as the
nozzle to collect the ow at the end of the test sections. The
separate parts of the test section and assembled form of test section, when the plain channel is as core surface, are shown in Fig. 2.
The geometrical congurations of different channels are depicted
in Fig. 3. The detailed dimensions are also summarized in Table 1.
All the components were made of copper. The plate-n channel,

Table 1
Model, range, and accuracy of measuring instruments.
Instrument

Measure

Model

Range

Accuracy

Ultrasonic ow meter
Inlet & outlet thermocouples
Surface thermocouples
Pressure transmitters

Flow rate
Bulk temperature
Temperature
Local pressure

Flownetix 100series
PT-100 T-type
Omega K-type
PSCH0.05BCIA

0e25 lit min1

50 to 200  C
73 to 260  C
0e5000 Pa

0.05 lit min1

0.1  C
0.2  C
1.0 Pa

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M. Khoshvaght-Aliabadi et al. / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 79 (2014) 183e193

logarithmic mean temperature difference between the wall and the

working uid,

Q_ conv:

Ach:f Tw  Tf


Tw  Tf

(2)
LMTD

LMTD




Tw  Tf ;in  Tw  Tf ;out
.

i
h

Tw  Tf ;out
log Tw  Tf ;in

(3)

where Tw is the wall temperature which is the average of the nine

measured temperatures on the external wall of the test sections.
The thermal performance can be illustrated in a non-dimensional
form, namely Colburn factor,

Nu
RePr1=3

(4)

where Nu is the Nusselt number, Re is Reynolds number, and Pr is

Prandtl number. Reynolds number can be calculated based on mass
velocity as follows,

Fig. 2. Separate parts and assembled form of test section.

cover plates, and side bars were constructed of 0.4, 0.7, and 1.0 mm
thick sheets, respectively.

Re

GDh

(5)

The generalized relation of the hydraulic diameter for the platen channels is given by Refs. [44],

3. Theory

4Ac L
Ach:f

3.1. Data processing

Dh

The thermal-hydraulic performance of a plate-n heat

exchanger is in terms of the heat transfer and pressure drop performance characteristics. The equation of the experimental
convective heat transfer rate was used to compute the heat transfer
coefcient,

where Ac is the minimum free ow area, L is the ow length, and

Ach.f is the total heat transfer area. The hydraulic diameter relations
for the tested channels are obtained and given in Table 3 based on
Eq. (6).
The Fanning friction factor of the test samples were estimated
from the pressure drop values using the following equation,


_ P Tf ;out  Tf ;in
Q_ conv: mC

(1)

_ CP, Tf,out and Tf,in represent the mass ow rate, specic

where m,
heat, inlet and outlet bulk temperatures of the working uid. The
effective heat transfer coefcient was estimated from the ratio of
the convective heat transfer rate to the total surface area and

2rDh DP
LG2

(6)

(7)

where r is the working uid density, DP is the pressure drop, and G

is the mass velocity.

Fig. 3. Plate-n channels: (a) plain (b) perforated (c) offset strip (d) louvered (e) wavy (f) vortex-generator (g) pin.

M. Khoshvaght-Aliabadi et al. / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 79 (2014) 183e193

Table 2
The detailed dimensions of the test sections (103 m).
PFC type

Legend

(Fp)

(Fh)

(L)

(t)

Plain

10

10

400

0.4

Perforated

10

10

400

0.4

187

Table 4
Constants of different properties correlations.

Specic geometrical
parameters
e
dh 5 & S 20 &

r
m
k

19.906
3.027
27.168

2.061  101
2.999  102
2.277  101

6.766  104
9.897  105
6.230  104

7.392  107
1.088  107
5.334  107

f 7% open
Offset strip

10

10

400

0.4

Lo 20

Louvered

10

10

400

0.4

Lh 5 & Lp 5 & La 90

Wavy

10

10

400

0.4

Lw/2 20 & A 5

Vortex

10

10

400

0.4

Vh 5 & Vl 20 & Vt 10

Pin

10

10

400

0.4

0.4dp 5 & Sl 20 & St 10

and thermal conductivity correlations are about 0.1%, 1.1%, and

0.15%, respectively.
3.3. Uncertainty of experimental data

3.2. Thermo-physical properties of working uid

The experimental uncertainties of the obtained parameters

from the data reduction section were calculated by using the Kline
and McClintock method [45] and the following equation,

High thermal conductivity, low viscosity, and low cost are the
considerable advantages of a perfect liquid as working uid or
coolant. The most common working uid, which was considered in
the current work, is water. To obtain accurate results, the thermophysical properties of the water as working uid were experimentally measured under the range of the operating temperature
(298.15e313.15 K). The transient hot-wire method was utilized to
measure the thermal conductivity by using a thermal properties
analyzer, KD2 Pro system (Decagon Devices). It is discovered that
this property increases with the temperature. The rheological behaviors were studied by using an accurate rheometer (Physica MCR
301, Anton Paar). The results explained that the dynamic viscosity
decreases with the temperature. The measured results depicted
that the sensitivity of the dynamic viscosity to the temperature is
lower than the thermal conductivity. The density was evaluated by
using of the weighing a known volume of the working uid with a
set of precise digital-electronic balance (CPA 1003S, Sartorius) and
pycnometer. Similar to the dynamic viscosity, this property decreases with the temperature. The specic heat capacity was
measured by using a differential scanning calorimeter (C80D,
Setaram). No signicant variations were observed with the temperature in the studied range for this property. It should be noted
that a repeated measures method was performed for every case,
and the average value of the centralized data was used in this work.
Then, based on the measured properties and following format,
empirical correlations were developed for each property,

dR 4

M
X
j1

vR
dX
vXj j

!2 31=2
5

(9)

where j, M, dR, and dXj are the specic parameter counter, number
of the independent variables, uncertainties associated with the
dependent, R, and independent, Xj, variables. Eqs. (10) and (11)
present the relations obtained from Eqs. (4) and (7) based on Eq.
(9) to estimate the uncertainties of the j factor and f factor.

"

dj

2 
2 
2 #1=2
Nu
Nu
dNu
dRe
dPr
RePr1=3
Re2 Pr1=3
3RePr4=3
1

(10)
"

df

2 
2 
2
rDP
rDh
Dh DP
dr
d
dD

P
h
2LG2
2LG2
2LG2


2

2 1=2
Dh DP
r2L
rDLGh D3 P dG
2 G2 dL

11

Similar relations were obtained for the Nusselt, Reynolds, and

Prandtl numbers, but they are not presented here due to the space
restriction. The mean uncertainties of the estimated parameters are
presented in Table 5 based on the uncertainty equations and
Table 2.
4. Results and discussion

G a bT cT dT

(8)

In the above equation, the general variable G represents the r, m,

or k; T is the operating temperature (298.15e313.15 K); and a, b, c,
and d are the correlation constants which are presented in Table 4.
The correlations developed here can satisfactorily predict the
thermo-physical properties of the water at the range of the operating temperature. The mean deviations between the experimental
measurements and the computed results of the density, viscosity,

Table 3
Hydraulic diameters of different plate-n channels.
Channel type

Hydraulic diameter (Dh)

Perforated
Offset strip
Louvered
Wavy
Vortex-generator
Pin

Dh
Dh
Dh
Dh
Dh
Dh

4LFp Fh 4 nh pdh t=2LFp 2LFh  np pd2h

2Fp Fh 2Lo =Fp Fh Fh t
LFp Fh =LFp LFh 2nl Lh t
2LFp Fh =Lz Fp Fh
12LFp Fh =6LFp 2LFh 3nt Vh t 2nt Vh2
12LFp Fh 2 2LFh np pdp Fh =6LFp  np pd2p

Heat transfer and pressure drop measurements of different

plate-n channels are presented in the current section. The effects
of the channel conguration on dimensional and non-dimensional
thermal-hydraulic parameters are discussed. For each plate-n
channel, the results were obtained at various volumetric ow
rates in the range of 2e5 lpm. The result of the plain channel was
considered to establish a baseline for comparison.

Table 5
Main parameters and their uncertainties.
Parameter

Uncertainty

Convective heat transfer rate

Effective heat transfer coefcient
Reynolds number
Nusselt number
Prandtl number
Colburn factor
Fanning friction factor

2.90%
0.31%
0.97%
2.12%
1.02%
1.79%
3.30%

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M. Khoshvaght-Aliabadi et al. / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 79 (2014) 183e193

Interrupted and indirect channels are normally used to enhance

the heat transfer. The result of the convective heat transfer coefcient is an important parameter for heat exchanger designers. A
comparison of the convective heat transfer coefcient variations
with the volumetric ow rate for various channel shapes is shown
in Fig. 4. The results indicate that the heat transfer coefcient increases with raising the ow rate. This gure depicts that the plain
channel has the lowest values in the entire tested range, since the
heat transfer coefcient in the other channels enhances by thermal
boundary layers interruption with holes, strips, louvers, corrugations, wings, and pins. The highest values were found for the
vortex-generator channel. In the vortex-generator channel, the
longitudinal, transverse, and normal swirl ows may be generated
behind the wings and the ow becomes more disturbed. The swirl
ows make a heavy exchange of core and wall uid, leading to the
enhancement of heat transfer between the owing uid and the
channel walls. The generation of the longitudinal swirl ows, which
exchange the core uid in the hot walls (cover plates) direction, is
the main reason of this drastic heat transfer enhancement in the
vortex-generator channel. However, the possibility of the longitudinal swirl ows generation in the other tested channel is very
weak. It can be seen that the vortex-generator gives higher and
higher values, as the ow rate increases. For instance in the graph of
this channel, the enhancement of the heat transfer coefcient with
increasing ow rate from 2.0 to 5.0 lpm is about 34.6%. A possible
mechanism for this appreciable heat transfer coefcient enhancement is due to increasing number and size of swirl ows in this
channel, because the strength of such promoted cells depends on
the ow rate.
After the vortex-generator channel, the wavy channel has the
greatest values. This is attributed to lengthen of the ow path and
presence of transverse and normal swirl ows accompanied with
corrugations corners of this channel [46]. It can be concluded that
the swirl ows are the important mechanism in the heat transfer
enhancement of the PFHEs.
Likewise, the heat transfer coefcient curve in case of the offset
strip channel places between those of the wavy and pin channels at
the ow rates higher than 3.5 lpm, but at the lower ow rates, the
heat transfer coefcient of this channel is found to be lower than
that of the pin channel. This illustrates that the ow separation by

pins in the pin channel are more effective than the boundary layers
regeneration by strips in the offset strip channel at the lower ow
rates. Similar to the vortex-generator channel results, the discrepancies between the heat transfer coefcient for ow in the offset
strip channel and those in the plain channel one become bigger
with increasing the ow rate.
Using non-dimensional parameters provides exibility and
generality to compare different heat exchangers. However, the
thermal-hydraulic specications of the PFHEs are usually demonstrated in the non-dimensional forms as the j factor and f factor. For
a further comparison of the thermal performance, the tested results
of the considered channel congurations are plotted in the term of
the ji/jplain ratio versus Reynolds number as depicted in Fig. 5. It
should be noted that according to Eq. (6) and Table 3, the hydraulic
diameter differs for each channel in the same frontal area and
channel length. For the sake of comparison, Fig. 6 demonstrates the
total heat transfer area and hydraulic diameter of different channels. The vortex-generator and pin channels have the highest hydraulic diameters due to their lower total heat transfer areas, see
Eq. (6). Therefore, it causes Reynolds number for these channels
become higher at the same volumetric ow rates and similar
properties of the working uid (i.e., density and viscosity).
As depicted in Fig. 5, the ji/jplain values of all the channels are
higher than one. The enhancement in the ji/jplain ratio with the
vortex-generator channel is obvious compared to the other channels. Also, over the tested range of Reynolds number, the average j
factor of the vortex-generator enhances by a factor of above 2 times
that of the plain channel. For the wavy and pin channels, the ji/jplain
ratio values are very close to each other and lower than those of the
vortex-generator. The gure also presents that in contrast with the
ji/jplain ratio values of the perforated, louvered, wavy, and pin
channels, those values of the offset strip and vortex-generator
channels enhance with increasing Reynolds number. This
enhancement of the vortex-generator channel from the lowest to
the highest Reynolds numbers is higher than that of the offset strip
channel (about 5.8% for the vortex-generator and 2.2% for the offset
strip). It illustrates that at the high Reynolds numbers the vortexgenerator and offset strip channels reinforce the heat transfer
augmentations and can be a better selection as core surface of
PFHEs from the heat transfer point of view. Note that the heat
transfer augmentation of the wavy channel is comparatively
effective at the lower Reynolds numbers, but relatively marginal

Fig. 4. Heat transfer coefcient e Reynolds number for different plate-n channels.

Fig. 5. ji/jplain ratio values e Reynolds number for different plate-n channels.

4.1. Heat transfer results

M. Khoshvaght-Aliabadi et al. / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 79 (2014) 183e193

189

Fig. 6. Total heat transfer area and hydraulic diameter of different plate-n channels.
Fig. 7. Pressure drop e volumetric ow rate for different plate-n channels.

enhancement is seen compared to the other channels in the higher

Reynolds numbers.
The ji/jplain ratio generally gets little higher values with the
perforated channel than those of the plain channel. This is attributed to the holes which have two opposite effects on the j factor;
when the working uid ow approaches a hole, there is an increase
in the j factor because the ow and thermal boundary layer are
interrupted there; then the j factor drops rapidly through that hole
due to the local heat transfer area reduced by the hole [41]. As a
result, the perforated channel does not enhance the overall ji/jplain
ratio as much as the other mentioned channels. A similar argument
may be true for the louvered channel due to the presence of the
louvers in this channel.
Over the tested range of Reynolds number, the j factor values of
the perforated, offset strip, louvered, wavy, vortex-generator, and
pin channels averagely increase by about 16.4%, 30.1%, 9.0%, 44.8%,
111.2%, and 30.4% higher than those of the plain channel, respectively. Also, the maximum enhancement of the ji/jplain ratio is 1.22 at
Re 1390 for the perforated, 1.31 at Re 2540 for the offset strip,
1.14 at Re 1080 for the louvered, 1.56 at Re 970 for the wavy,
2.19 at Re 3770 for the vortex-generator, and 1.39 at Re 1500 for
the pin.

The measured ow pressure drops along the tested channels are

also used for the friction factor predictions described in Eq. (7). The
variations of the evaluated fi/fplain with Reynolds number of
different plate-n channels are shown in Fig. 8. The fi/fplain ratio
values of all the channels are higher than one. It is found that the
friction factor of the pin and vortex-generator channels is much
higher than that of the plain channel. This is mainly attributed to
the high hydraulic diameters of these channels according to Eq. (7),
where the friction factor is proportional to Dh. Promotion of unstable mode for formed vortices in the core of ow associated with
these channels which leads to a signicant increase of pressure
drops (see Fig. 7) is the other reason.
In all of the tested channels, it can be observed that the fi/fplain
ratio gradually decreases up to a crucial Reynolds number, after
which it tends to increase. The noticed increase in the friction factor
may be attributed to the undeveloped ow in the short core length
of the tested channels. The disruption of the main ow in the
transitional region results in a signicant increase in the pressure
drop leading to an increase of friction factor. At Reynolds numbers
higher than that of the crucial values, the fully developed ows

4.2. Pressure drop results

The pressure drop is the other parameter which is important for
heat exchanger designers. Fig. 7 shows the pressure drop values
versus the volumetric ow rate for different plate-n channels.
Similar to the convective heat transfer coefcient, this parameter is
mainly affected and enhanced by the ow rate. Over the tested
range of the ow rate, the pressure drop values of the perforated
and louvered channels seems to have a little bit higher values than
that of the plain channel. In the same time, the pin and wavy
channels get higher values, respectively. Likewise, the curve in case
of the vortex-generator places between those of the pin channel
and the wavy channel at the ow rate lower than 3.5 lpm, but at the
higher ow rates, the pressure drop of the vortex-generator is
found to be the maximum. Blocking the working uid ow by the
pins and wings along with periodic separation of the boundary
layer and enlarging the ow path along with periodic variation of
the ow direction are the main reasons of the higher pressure drop
values of the pin, vortex-generator, and wavy channels, respectively. This illustrates that the enhancement of heat transfer is
usually penalized by the increase in the pressure drop.

Fig. 8. fi/fplain ratio values e Reynolds number for different plate-n channels.

190

M. Khoshvaght-Aliabadi et al. / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 79 (2014) 183e193

might occur, and the friction factor tends to decrease. The results
show that this crucial Reynolds number occurs for the wavy
channel at the lower Reynolds number than that of the other
channels, about 1650, and the offset strip and louvered channels
come in the second and third, about 1800 and 1900, respectively.
The f factor values for the perforated, offset strip, louvered,
wavy, vortex-generator, and pin channels averagely increase by
about 7.9%, 11.7%, 8.9%, 22.2%, 113.1%, and 116.3% higher than those
of the plain channel, respectively. A similar trend of the j factor and f
factor was numerically reported by Zhu and Li [41] for four common plate-n channels, namely plain, perforated, offset strip, and
wavy, with 0.306 m length of channels.
Finally, the mean deviations of the convective heat transfer
coefcient and pressure drop values between each channel and the
plain one are summarized in Table 6, according to the following
denition,

1
Mean deviation %
N


!
Xfi  fplain 

  100%
 fplain 

(12)

From the tabulated results, the vortex-generator channel shows

a signicant enhancement in the heat transfer coefcient compared
to the pressure drop, whereas the pin channel exhibits a reverse
manner. This ratio related to the louvered, wavy, and offset strip
channels is not noticeable. It is interesting to note that, while the
perforated channel has the maximum ratio of the heat transfer
coefcient enhancement to the pressure drop enhancement, its
heat transfer coefcient enhancement is not signicant in comparison with the other channels.
4.3. Performance evaluation criteria analyses
As mentioned earlier, an improvement in the heat transfer
performance is associated with an increase in the pressure drop.
Consequently, it is signicant to evaluate the net prots by using
such channels. There are several performance evaluation criteria
(PEC) such as the j/f ratio, j/f1/3 ratio, and JF factor in the compact
heat exchangers to select the optimum geometry with a larger j
factor and smaller f factor. Bhowmik and Lee [6] demonstrated that
the j/f ratio criterion could not be considered as a suitable performance criterion for uids with high Prandtl number, and the
appropriate performance criterion for uids with Prandtl number
around 7 was found to be the JF criterion. Nevertheless, the performance evaluation criteria used in this comparative assessment
consist of a component criterion, i.e., the ji/f1/3
ratio [47], and a
i
comparative criterion, i.e., the thermal-hydraulic performance
factor, the JFi factor [48]. Also, the VG-I criterion of the Webb [49]
was considered to measure the possible reduction of the surface
area relative to each channel compared to the plain one, i.e., the Ai/
Aplain ratio. The denitions of the JFi factor and Ai/Aplain ratio, which
describe the performance benets of a plate-n channel compared
to the plain one, are presented in Eqs. (13) and (14),


ji =jplain
JFi

1=3
fi =fplain

Ai
Aplain

jplain
ji

3=2

fi
fplain

!1=2
(14)

where the subscripts i and plain mean a type of the plate-n

channel and plain one as the reference channel or baseline,
respectively.
A comparison among the ji/f1/3
ratio values versus Reynolds
i
number for different channels is displayed in Fig. 9. The high values
of the ji/f1/3
ratio propose a heat exchanger with a good heat
i
transfer and pressure drop performance. An overall scrutiny on the
gure discloses that the ji/f1/3
ratio values of all the channels
i
decrease with Reynolds number. It is depicted that under the
studied Reynolds number range, the highest and lowest values are
found for the vortex-generator and plain channels, respectively.
The ji/f1/3
ratio of the wavy and offset strip channels are close at the
i
smaller Reynolds numbers (i.e., Re < 1500), and the wavy channel
has the higher values in this regime, while at the Re > 1500, the
offset strip channel gets the higher values.
As depicted in Table 6, whereas the pin channel has the greatest
pressure drop among the studied channels, this channel shape shows
considerable high values of the ji/f1/3
ratio. This is attributed to the
i
power of the friction factor (i.e., 1/3) in the denominator of the ji/f1/3
i
ratio, which reduces the effect of the friction factor or pressure drop
on this ratio. It is interesting to note that based on Figs. 4 and 7, the pin
channel has the weakest performance from the ji/fi criterion point of
view. Moreover, the ji/f1/3
ratio curve of the pin channel places bei
tween those of the wavy and offset strip channels at Re > 2250, but at
the lower Reynolds numbers, the ji/f1/3
ratio of this channel is found
i
to be the higher than those of the wavy and offset strip channels. Over
the tested range of Reynolds number, the ji/f1/3
ratio generally gets
i
the slightly higher values with the perforated and louvered channels
as compared to the plain channel particularly at the higher Reynolds
numbers. From Fig. 9 and above discussion, it can be said that the
effect of channel conguration on the ji/f1/3
ratio for tested channels
i
is changeable and relates to the Reynolds number.
Taking a step beyond a component performance evaluation
criterion is consideration a comparative criterion, namely thermalhydraulic performance factor (JFi). Similar to the ji/f1/3
ratio, this
i
criterion is a the larger the better parameter, and a high value of
this criterion indicates a heat exchanger with a superior thermalhydraulic performance. In Fig. 10, the JFi factor values against

(13)

Table 6
Mean deviations of heat transfer coefcient and pressure drop between each
channel and plain one.
PFC type

Perforated

Offset strip

Louvered

Wavy

Vortex

Pin

16.39%
7.27%

30.13%
21.51%

9.01%
11.72%

44.76%
39.63%

111.18%
56.26%

30.42%
57.92%

DP

Fig. 9. j/f1/3 ratio values e Reynolds number for different plate-n channels.

M. Khoshvaght-Aliabadi et al. / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 79 (2014) 183e193

191

Fig. 10. JF factor values e Reynolds number for different plate-n channels.

Fig. 11. Possible reduction of surface area values e Reynolds number for different
plate-n channels.

Reynolds number for different plate-n channels are compared

respect to the plain one. An overall inspection on this gure exposes that this factor for all the channel shapes is higher than that
of the plain one except the pin channel at the high Reynolds
numbers. As claried in the gure, a better thermal-hydraulic
performance is found for the vortex-generator channel, and the
wavy and offset strip channels come in the second and third.
Similar to the ji/jplain ratio curves (see Fig. 5), the vortex-generator
and offset strip are the channels which their JF factor curves
continually become larger with increasing Reynolds number. Also,
the high ratio of the convective heat transfer coefcient to the
pressure drop of the perforated channel (see Table 6) causes that
this channel has the greater JF factor values than that of the pin
channel.
As another comparative criterion which considers the possible
reduction of the surface area for xed values of pumping power,
heat duty, and temperature difference is the VG-I criterion. The
possible reduction of surface area values as a function of Reynolds
number for different plate-n channels are given in Fig. 11. This
gure claries that this criterion almost has the same manner to the
JF factor curves for all the channels. The vortex-generator also reduces the maximum amount of the surface area. After the vortexgenerator, the wavy, offset strip, perforated, and louvered channels take the rst to the fourth ranks in the reduction of surface
area, respectively.
Finally, the average and maximum enhancement values of the
studied performance evaluation criteria for different plate-n
channels compared to the plain one are presented in Table 7. As
expected, the tabulated results explain that the ji/f1/3
ratio, as a
i
component criterion, and JF factor, as a comparative criterion, have
the same enhancement values for all the channels.

shape provides the maximum saving of the heat exchanger surface

area and thus in the heat exchanger volume.
The pin channel has the noticeable j factor and f factor values.
The pressure drop enchantment due to the blocking of the ow by
pins is more notable than the heat transfer coefcient enchantment
due to the separating of the boundary layers by pins. Therefore, this
design of the plate-n channels proposes the maximum ji/fi ratio
among all the channels after the vortex-generator channel for a
PFHE at the studied range of Reynolds number.
The wavy channel with the greatest heat transfer area and the
longest ow path in the xed length of a PFHE has the highest
values of the heat transfer coefcient and j factor after the vortexgenerator channel. From the obtained results by the ji/f1/3
ratio and
i
JFi factor, this scheme of the plate-n channels has an optimum
performance at low Reynolds numbers among all the channels.
Moreover, the wavy channel has the second rank in the reduction of
surface area.
The offset strip channel increases the heat transfer by enlarging
the surface area and regenerating thermal boundary layer in each
column. This shape of the plate-n channels has the fourth state of
the j and f factor values at the range of studied Reynolds number. It
has the third state of the thermal-hydraulic performance and
reduction of the surface area.
In contrast to the condition that the air works as working media,
the results show that the louvered channel has a weak thermalhydraulic performance when a liquid like the water is as working
uid. This channel along with the perforated channel has approximately comparable values of the j factor and f factor values, and
thereby there are not sensible variations in the studied performance evaluation criteria.

4.4. Final remarks

Table 7
Average and maximum enhancement values of studied performance evaluation
criteria for different plate-n channels compared to plain one.

From the plotted and tabulated results, there is no doubt that

the vortex-generator channel with the highest values of the heat
transfer coefcient (see Fig. 4) and ji/jplain ratio (see Fig. 5) has the
best performance from the ji/f1/3
ratio and JFi factor point of views.
i
As depicted, the exchanging of the working uid from the walls to
the core regions of the ow, disrupting of boundary layers, and
creating of swirl ows are the main reasons of the high heat
transfer coefcient values in this channel. Moreover, this channel

Criterion type

Perforated

Offset
strip

Louvered

Wavy

Vortexgenerator

Pin

ji/f1/3
i
ratio
JFi
factor
VG-I

13.5%
17.1%
13.5%
17.1%
17.2%
21.1%

25.8%
31.2%
25.8%
31.2%
28.8%
33.5%

6.0%
7.7%
6.0%
7.7%
8.2%
13.4%

35.6%
39.8%
35.6%
39.8%
36.6%
39.5%

64.4%
73.4%
64.4%
73.4%
52.4%
56.2%

1.7%
5.1%
1.7%
5.1%
2.8%
7.2%

Average
Maximum
Average
Maximum
Average
Maximum

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M. Khoshvaght-Aliabadi et al. / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 79 (2014) 183e193

Further, since thermo-hydraulic design of a PFHE is strongly

dependent upon the performance of plate-n channels [50], the
current study can provide the great values to select the optimum
plate-n channel for use in the PFHEs based on their specic applications and expectations in the industries, such as aerospace,
automobile, cryogenic, food, and chemical.
5. Conclusion
An experimental comparative study on the performance of a
plate-n heat exchanger (PFHE) with different plate-n channels is
carried out when water is used as working uid. The common platen channels, including plain, perforated, offset strip, louvered,
wavy, vortex-generator, and pin, are fabricated and evaluated.
Various performance evaluation criteria, namely the ji/f1/3
ratio,
i
thermal-hydraulic performance factor, JFi, and VG-I criterion, Ai/
Aplain, are adopted to appraise the performance of the PFHE with
different channels. The conclusions related to the current work can
be summarized as:
 The highest values of the heat transfer coefcient and j factor are
obtained by the vortex-generator, wavy, pin, offset strip,
perforated, louvered, and plain channels, respectively. Also, the
greatest values of the pressure drop and f factor are acquired by
the pin, vortex-generator, wavy, offset strip, louvered, perforated, and plain channels, respectively.
 A better heat transfer in comparison to the pressure drop from
the ji/f1/3
ratio point of view is obtained by the vortex-generator,
i
wavy, offset strip, pin, perforated, louvered, and plain channels,
respectively.
 A good thermal-hydraulic performance, the highest value of the
JFi factor, in comparison to the plain one is presented by the
vortex-generator, wavy, offset strip, perforated, louvered, pin,
and plain channels, respectively.
 The vortex-generator, wavy, offset strip, perforated, louvered,
and pin channels have respectively the maximum ability to
reduce the surface area of the PFHE in comparison to the plain
one.
Finally, some changes such as the scale of the PFHE and the type
of the working uid might alter some of the above conclusions.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to express their thanks to University of
Semnan and Materials and Energy Research Center for their
nancial supports through the set-up fabrication and research
implementation.
Nomenclature
A
wavy n amplitude, m
Ac
minimum free ow area, m2
Ach.f
total surface area in contact with working uid, m2
Cp
specic heat, J kg1 K1
Dh
hydraulic diameter, m
dh
radius of perforations, m
dp
radius of pins, m
Fh
n height, m
Fp
n pitch, m
G
mass velocity, kg m2 s1
h
effective heat transfer coefcient, W m2 K1
L
n length, m
La
louver angle, 
Lh
louver height, m
Lo
lance length, m

Lp
Lw
Lz
M
_
m
nh
nl
np
nt
Q_

conv:

S
Sl
St
T
t
Vh
Vl
Vt
DP
R
DT
X

louver pitch, m
wave length, m
wavy n passage length, m
number of the independent variables
mass ow rate, kg s1
number of perforations
number of louvers
number of pins
number of tabs
convective heat transfer rate, W
distance between two perforations, m
longitudinal pin spacing, m
transverse pin spacing, m
temperature, K
n thickness, m
vortex height, m
longitudinal vortex spacing, m
transverse vortex spacing, m
pressure drop, Pa
dependent variable
temperature difference, K
independent variables

Greek symbols
r
density, kg m3
m
dynamic viscosity, Pa s
k
thermal conductivity, W m1 K1

Superscript
.
rate
e
effective

Subscripts
conv.
convective
f
uid
f,in
uid inlet
f,out
uid outlet
i
a plate-n channel type
j
specic parameter counter
LMTD
logarithmic mean temperature difference
plain
plain plate-n channel
w
wall

Dimensionless groups
Ai/Aplain VG-I criterion (jplain/ji)3/2/(fi/fplain)1/2
j
Colburn factor Nu/RePr1/3
ji/fi
surface ow area goodness factor ji/fi
ji/f1/3
better heat transfer in comparison to pressure drop ji/f1/3
i
i
JF
Thermal-hydraulic performance factor (ji/jplain)/(fi/
fplain)1/3
f
Fanning friction factor 2rDhDP/LG2
Nu
Nusselt number hDh/k
Pr
Prandtl number mCp/k
Re
Reynolds number GDh/m
St
Stanton number h/GCp

Acronyms
PEC
performance evaluation criteria
PFHE
plate-n heat exchanger
PI
process intensication

M. Khoshvaght-Aliabadi et al. / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 79 (2014) 183e193

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