Chapter 12
Strength Analysis of a Plate Heat
Exchanger with Two Design-By-Analysis
Methods
Zhenning Liu, Huifang Li, and Caifu Qian
Abstract Plate heat exchangers are widely used equipment in engineering. As the
structure of the equipment is complicated, it is hard to perform accurate design with
the traditional method or so-called design-by-rules. In this paper, two design-byanalysis methods, namely Elastic Stress Analysis Method and Limit-load Analysis
Method were used to perform stress assessment of a plate heat exchanger. Results
show that the plate heat exchanger meets the strength requirements according to
ASME VIII-2. It is also found that if applying Elastic Stress Analysis Method, a lot
of SCLs should be specified on components of the plate heat exchanger and stresses
have to be categorized according to their effects on the strength failure of the equipment. If applying Limit-load Analysis Method, the materials are assumed to be ideal
elastic-plastic, and no Stress Classification Lines (SCLs) and stress categorization are
needed. Strength assessment is simply to find convergent solutions for the maximum
loading. So if the equipment is complicate in structure like the plate heat exchanger,
it is suggested to apply Limit-load Analysis Method to perform strength assessment.
Keywords Plate heat exchanger · Finite element analysis · Strength assessment ·
Design-by-analysis
12.1 Introduction
Heat exchangers are devices that transfer heat from hot fluid to cold fluid to meet
specific process requirements or to recover energy. Based on the structures, heat
exchangers can be divided into shell-and-tube heat exchangers, plate heat exchangers,
etc. Plate heat exchangers are composed of multiple plates that have different corrugations to enhance the heat transfer between the two fluids [1]. Plate heat exchangers
have higher heat transfer coefficient than shell-and-tube heat exchangers [2] and
are considered to be the ideal equipment for liquid-liquid heat exchange and vaporliquid exchange. A lot of studies were addressed on the performance of plate heat
Z. Liu (B) · H. Li · C. Qian
Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China
e-mail: 1758609342@qq.com
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
J. Xu and K. M. Pandey (eds.), Mechanical Engineering and Materials,
Mechanisms and Machine Science 100,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68303-0_12
143
Strength Analysis of a Plate Heat
Exchanger with Two Design-By-Analysis
Methods
Zhenning Liu, Huifang Li, and Caifu Qian
Abstract Plate heat exchangers are widely used equipment in engineering. As the
structure of the equipment is complicated, it is hard to perform accurate design with
the traditional method or so-called design-by-rules. In this paper, two design-byanalysis methods, namely Elastic Stress Analysis Method and Limit-load Analysis
Method were used to perform stress assessment of a plate heat exchanger. Results
show that the plate heat exchanger meets the strength requirements according to
ASME VIII-2. It is also found that if applying Elastic Stress Analysis Method, a lot
of SCLs should be specified on components of the plate heat exchanger and stresses
have to be categorized according to their effects on the strength failure of the equipment. If applying Limit-load Analysis Method, the materials are assumed to be ideal
elastic-plastic, and no Stress Classification Lines (SCLs) and stress categorization are
needed. Strength assessment is simply to find convergent solutions for the maximum
loading. So if the equipment is complicate in structure like the plate heat exchanger,
it is suggested to apply Limit-load Analysis Method to perform strength assessment.
Keywords Plate heat exchanger · Finite element analysis · Strength assessment ·
Design-by-analysis
12.1 Introduction
Heat exchangers are devices that transfer heat from hot fluid to cold fluid to meet
specific process requirements or to recover energy. Based on the structures, heat
exchangers can be divided into shell-and-tube heat exchangers, plate heat exchangers,
etc. Plate heat exchangers are composed of multiple plates that have different corrugations to enhance the heat transfer between the two fluids [1]. Plate heat exchangers
have higher heat transfer coefficient than shell-and-tube heat exchangers [2] and
are considered to be the ideal equipment for liquid-liquid heat exchange and vaporliquid exchange. A lot of studies were addressed on the performance of plate heat
Z. Liu (B) · H. Li · C. Qian
Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China
e-mail: 1758609342@qq.com
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
J. Xu and K. M. Pandey (eds.), Mechanical Engineering and Materials,
Mechanisms and Machine Science 100,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68303-0_12
143