Enhancement of plate heat exchanger performance using electric fields

The falling film plate evaporator is often used in the food processing industry to remove large amounts of water from liquids, pulps and slurries. Although a compact efficient device with high heat transfer rates, there is a requirement for even greater performance, particularly when fuelled by the low grade energy from many renewable sources. Electrohydrodynamics (EHD) has been shown to give large heat transfer enhancements under many conditions, but most of this previous research has been with working fluids having much lower electrical conductivities than the water-based fluids that are the main concern of this study. The liquid flow in falling film plate evaporators is in the form of a very thin (less than a millimetre) film falling down a heated plate under the effect of gravity. The film surface exhibits waviness over much of the operating range of industrial heat exchangers, and the degree of waviness has previously been shown to have a large effect on the rate of heat transfer. A theoretical model was developed which suggested that significant increases in waviness, and therefore heat transfer, could be stimulated using high voltage electrodes, and these were subsequently observed on the surface of a pool of water during bench-top experiments. An experimental falling film rig was designed to study this EHD effect but the 2.5 kV maximum voltage attainable was thought to be too low to stimulate wave enlargement and no heat transfer enhancement was seen. Significant heat transfer enhancement was observed in the falling film rig when utilising corona discharge electrodes. This was thought to be due to a thinning of the film in the vicinity of the electrode via the corona wind and increased fluid mixing downstream of the electrode. Both point and wire electrodes improved heat transfer rates but wire electrodes were thought to have more potential for integration into existing industrial heat exchanger designs, so were studied more closely. Heat transfer rates nearly 100% higher than the unenhanced rate were observed at low film flow rates with significant enhancement still present at higher flow rates. Further work using corona wires has been proposed which it is thought will enable this method to be applied successfully to industrial falling film evaporators. (author)