Improvement of Flow Distribution by New Inlet Header Configuration with Splitter Plates for Plate-Fin Heat Exchanger

The pressure drop increases along with the decrease in the flow maldistribution in the two-stage distributing inlet headers of a plate-fin heat exchanger. To solve this issue, we proposed a new inlet header configuration with splitter plates to decrease the flow maldistribution and pressure drop simultaneously. We used computational fluid dynamic technology to analyze the flow properties in the inlet header configuration and calculated the flow maldistribution degree of the outlet channels and the pressure drop in the inlet header. We performed a sensitivity analysis between the structural parameters, the flow maldistribution degree, and the pressure drop. We determined the optimum values of the structural parameters (the construction of transition duct, the number of splitter plates, the inclined angle of outermost plates, the height of splitter plates, the height of inlet header, etc.), and acquired the optimum configuration of the improved inlet header. Compared with the traditional inlet header, the flow maldistribution degree and pressure drop decreased by 91.5% and 40.9%, respectively, using the proposed improved inlet header with splitter plates, which performed better than the conventional two-stage distribution inlet header.