During design and type selection, when faced with the BR-25 plate-and-frame heat exchanger and a conventional shell-and-tube heat exchanger, how can one determine which structure better meets the operating conditions? This requires a comparison from three dimensions: heat transfer efficiency, maintenance methods, and space occupation.
In terms of heat transfer efficiency, the corrugated plate structure of the BR-25 plate-and-frame heat exchanger causes the fluid to form turbulence at low flow rates, resulting in a relatively high heat transfer coefficient; the shell-and-tube scheme relies on baffles to guide the shell-side fluid, and the required heat transfer area is usually larger when achieving the same heat exchange duty. For operating conditions with a small temperature difference and medium flow rate, the plate-and-frame structure has more advantages in compactness.
The differences in maintenance methods are significant. The daily maintenance focus of the BR-25 plate-and-frame heat exchanger includes: regularly checking whether the gaskets leak, whether the plates have scaling or pitting, and whether the bolt pre-tightening force is uniform. During cleaning, chemical cleaning agents compatible with the plate material should be used, and tools such as wire brushes should be avoided to prevent mechanical scratching of the plate surface. Although shell-and-tube heat exchangers can be cleaned by pulling out the tube bundle, the disassembly and assembly cycle is longer, and the requirements for resetting the sealing gaskets are also higher.
Type selection also requires confirming whether the temperature and pressure resistance ranges of the plates and gaskets cover the limit values of the actual operating conditions. Common gasket materials include nitrile rubber, ethylene propylene diene monomer rubber, fluororubber, etc. The applicable temperature ranges of different materials vary greatly, and they should be selected according to the medium temperature and chemical compatibility.
