Plate heat exchanger — a device in which heat is transferred from a hot heat carrier to a cold (heated) medium through steel, copper, graphite, titanium corrugated plates that are pulled together in a package. Hot and cold layers alternate with each other.
The main element of the heat exchanger is heat transfer plates made of corrosion-resistant alloys with a thickness of 0.4-1.0 mm by cold stamping. In the working position, the plates are tightly pressed together and form slotted channels. On the front side of each plate, a rubber contour gasket is installed in special grooves to ensure the tightness of the channels. Two of the four holes in the plate provide supply and discharge of the heating or heated medium to the channel. The other two holes are additionally isolated by small contours that prevent mixing (overflow) of the heating and heated media. Drainage slots are provided to prevent mixing of media in the event of a break in one of the small contours of the gasket.
The spatial tortuous flow of liquid in the channels contributes to turbulization of flows, and the counterflow between the heated and heating medium increases the temperature pressure and, as a result, intensifies heat exchange at relatively low hydraulic resistances. This dramatically reduces the scale deposition on the surface of the plates.
With a large difference in the flow rate of media, as well as with a small difference in the final temperatures of media, there is a possibility of multiple heat exchange of media by looping the direction of their flows. In such heat exchangers, the pipes for supplying media are located not only on a fixed plate, but also on a pressure plate, and along the plates-partitions of the medium move in the same direction.
