CFD AUTODESK 2016 Designing and Simulating of Plate Heat Exchanger

[Anonymous]

Would like to find out is there a step by step procedure on how to design and simulate a plate heat excahnger on the CFD Autodesk 2016? I need it to complete my academic project as I have a new design of plate heat exchanger.

[Jon.Wilde]

Hi,

I would say, no, not really.

It might just be worth making a start and we can work on it as you progress? 🙂

[Anonymous]

Hi,

If thats the case, who can I refer to when I met with issues? Cause I been trying for few weeks and there are not much progress due to the simulation software unable to read it as a heat exchanger.

Thanks and Reagrds

[Jon.Wilde]

Here on the forum 🙂

It should be a 10 min setup once you know what you are doing. What are you stuck with?

Start with adding inlet and outlet parts to the CAD model - use the internal ID's and extend something like 5x diameter cylinders (or the shape of your entrance/exit). This will give you nice flow entering and exiting the model.

It will also mean the model is sealed (and hollow) when you bring it into CFD from CAD so CFD will automatically fill it with a material you can call air/water/fluid 🙂

What do you mean by CFD not reading it as a heat exchanger? I don't understand that statement.

CFD won't know what you are doing, you need to define everything as you progress.

Have you run through any of our tutorial models?

Thanks,

Jon

[Anonymous]

Hi

Understood. I will try it out and feedback accordingly.

Thanks

[Jon.Wilde]

Great! I think that is your best bet.

The alternative is to subscribe and then you can call us or log 1:1 cases, the choice is yours 🙂

[Anonymous]

Hi I have successfully simulate the plate heat exchanger.

Solutions as follows (Please advise accordingly):

1) Plate and the flow are put at two separate planes. Example: I have draw the base plate and the 'gasket' in two separate planes directly on top of each other

2) Assigning the Plate and the 'gasket' as solid. Using void fill in geometry tools to create the CFDVolume for the flow of the fluids

3) Assigning Temperature and Pressure to both hot and cold water inlet and Pressure zero at the outlet to indicate as outlet (As per the demonstration video found in Youtube

Another Question: What are the criteria for the Heat Exchanger option in the Material section? (I can't select the inlet and outlet surface)

Thanks and Regards

[Jon.Wilde]

Hi,

I have a few things to add.

1) I totally can't visualise this, could you share an image or the model? (Support file from CFD is always useful, its a CFZ) 🙂

2) I would add cylinders at the inlet and outlet within CAD, so that you have a longer inlet and outlet. These would use the ID of the holes and be about 5x longer than the diameter. When in CFD you will assign fluid to them

3) If you know the inlet flow rate, I would use that. So choose either flow rate and temp at the inlet OR pressure and temp. If you use pressure, you need advection scheme 5 (might be a good choice either way actually Solve-> Solution Controls->Advection)

Don't use a heat exchanger material here, this is only to be used if you are just using a block and want it to act like a heat exchanger in a larger system. If you are actually modelling it (as you appear to be), just use the correct fluid and solid materials.

Hope that helps,

Jon