Parallel plate pressure drop

[Reinoud]

Hi All,

I am trying to calculate the pressure drop of a flow between parallel plates. The fluid will be helium at 5 K and 1.3 bars. The plates are 100x220x0.6 mm and 1 mm spacing. They will operate in the turbulent region. It is a test for a heat exchanger. Does someone know the relations for the pressure drop of parallel plates. I can't find it in the literature!!

Cheers and thanx allready,
Reinoud

 

[prex]

Idel'cik has no such coefficients, this means that they'll be difficult to find.
In the absence of test results for exactly your geometry, I would go for a calculation based as follows:
-evaluate the distributed losses with the Darcy equation (or a similar one) based onto an hydraulic diameter that, from the formula 4A/P, will be equal to two times the spacing
-evaluate the entrance and exit losses: these of course might be much more important than the former ones, might be even less easily calculated, and will highly depend on the actual geometry that you didn't specify. prex

http://www.xcalcs.com

Online tools for structural design

 

[HamishMcTavish]

Try looking in 'Boundary Layers' by Schlichting. It may be an old text but he derives many classic results and I'm pretty positive that flow through parallel plates should be in it.

 

[JOM]

Reinoud,

The performance parameters for plate heat exchangers are very dependent on the profile of the particular plate in use, and the arrangement - no of passes, no of plates per pass. Profile varies considerably from model to model and make to make. I think the data is always proprietary, so asking the manufacturer might be the best solution. The good thing is they will have software that computes the answers very easily. Cheers,
John.