INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HEAT AND TECHNOLOGY Vol.33, No.1, 2015 1. INTRODUCTION Plate and frame heat exchangers are offered by a large number of manufacturers as standard series production equipment over a wide range of sizes. They consist of a number of gasketed metal plates clamped between a stationary head and a follower plate by tie bolts. In recent times, the plate heat exchangers are extensively used for heating, cooling, heat-regeneration and chemical processing industries due to its favorable characteristics, such as high overall heat transfer coefficients, easy maintenance, compact size, convenience to increase the heat transfer area, suitability in hygienic application and easy of cleaning. Mehrabian and Poulter [1] studied the local hydrodynamic and thermal characteristics of the flow between two identical APV SR3 plates and looks at the effect of corrugation angle on the performance when the plate spacing is fixed. Galeazzo et al.[2] studied the virtual prototype of a four- channel plate heat exchanger with flat plates was developed using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Parallel and series flow arrangements were tested and experimental results were compared to numerical predictions for heat load obtained from the 3D CFD model and also from a 1D plug- flow model. Tsai et al. [3] investigated the hydrodynamic characteristics and distribution of flow in two cross- corrugated channels of plate heat exchangers. The velocity, pressure and flow distribution of the fluid among the two channels of the plate heat exchanger have also been presented. Pahlavanzadeh et al. [4] investigated the effect of two tube inserts (wire coil and wire mesh) on the heat transfer enhancement, pressure drop and mineral salts fouling mitigation in tube of a heat exchanger. Bobbili et al. [5] have been found out the flow and the pressure difference across the port to channel in plate heat exchangers for a wide range of Reynolds number, 1000–17000. The studied low corrugation angle plates have been used for different number of channels, namely, 20 and 80. Fernandes et al. [6] have been numerically studied the geometry of the channels for laminar flows of Newtonian and power-law fluids through cross-corrugated chevron type plate heat exchangers (PHEs). The plates area enlargement factor was a typical one (1.17), the corrugation angle, β, varied between 30 and 60 and the flow index behavior, n, between 0.25 and 1. Han et al. [7] have been obtained the three dimensional temperature, pressure, and velocity fields by using the chevron corrugated- plate heat exchanger and results is simulated. Rao and das [8] studied the influence of flow maldistribution on the pressure drop across a plate heat exchanger. Bassiouncy and Martin [9] studied the axial velocity and pressure distributions in both the intake and exhaust conduits of plate heat exchangers, the flow distribution in the channels between the plates and the total pressure drop. Naik and Matawala [10] studied the effect of variation of chevron angles with other geometric parameter on the heat transfer coefficient and for using the wide range of Reynolds number, 50–10000. Fernandes et al. [11] have been studied the corrugation angle and channel aspect ratio of the passages vary in a broad range, PHEs with common area enlargement factors and with high area density. The tortuosity coefficient and the coefficient K (Kozeny’s coefficient in granular beds) from the friction factor correlations increase with the increase of the channels aspect ratio and the decrease of the chevron angle. After critical review of the literatures, it is clear that works on maldistribution in a chevron type plate heat exchanger have not been done in detail. The present analytical study ANALYTICAL STUDIES ON THE HYDRAULIC PERFORMANCE OF CHEVRON TYPE PLATE HEAT EXCHANGER Bhupal Kumar*, S.N. Singh** *Research scholar, HT Lab, Deptt. of mechanical engineering, ISM Dhanbad, Jharkhand, India, 826004 **Associate professor, Deptt., of mechanical engineering, ISM Dhanbad. Jharkhand, India 826004 ABSTRACT The results of analytical studies on the hydraulic performance of chevron type plate heat exchanger for different aspect ratios, Reynolds number, maldistribution parameters, no of channels, fixed port size, and flow rates using water as the working fluid in the channels have been presented. Some analytical results have been validated with the experimental results available in the literature. Pressure drop in the heat exchanger is found to depend on flow rate, numbers of channels and aspect ratio. Friction factor in a channel also depends on flow rate of fluid and aspect ratio. The flow distribution and pressure drop in the U-type arrangement plate heat exchangers are studied for a wide range of Reynolds number (200-5800). The flow maldistribution brings about an increase in pressure drop across the heat exchanger. Keywords: Plate heat exchanger, maldistribution, chevron, flow distribution, pressure drop, process. 17