Medium composition, inlet and outlet temperatures, design pressure, and flow rate are the basic inputs for calculating the plate count and flow arrangement of the BRQ-160 plate-and-shell heat exchanger. Without any one of these, it is difficult to match the heat exchange area and pressure drop to actual operating conditions. When on-site O&M personnel participate in model selection or evaluate replacement options, they can treat these parameters separately from connection sizes—connection sizes can be configured according to piping requirements, but the sizes themselves cannot replace complete process parameters.
Compared with shell-and-tube heat exchangers, the BRQ-160 uses a combined structure of plate packs and a shell. Plates are commonly made of 304 or 316L stainless steel, and gaskets can be selected from nitrile, EPDM, or fluororubber. Shell-and-tube designs have good structural rigidity under high pressure differential and high temperature conditions, but the heat exchange area per unit volume is relatively limited; the plate-and-shell structure can accommodate more plates under the same footprint and has higher heat transfer efficiency, but the matching of gasket material with medium corrosiveness and temperature range directly affects sealing life. If O&M personnel face frequent inspection and disassembly needs, the pull-out plate pack for cleaning facilitates on-site maintenance, whereas shell-and-tube cleaning usually requires removing the heads or pulling the tube bundle as a whole.
Another dimension of model selection comparison is pressure drop control. The number of plates and flow arrangement must be repeatedly calculated according to flow rate and allowable pressure drop. Adjusting the flow arrangement changes flow velocity and heat transfer coefficient, and simply adding plates does not necessarily reduce pressure drop. For media with higher viscosity or containing particles, the plate channel spacing and gasket compatibility need to be evaluated, and if necessary, the adaptability of the medium composition to 304, 316L, nitrile, EPDM, and fluororubber should be confirmed with the manufacturer during the proposal stage.
In on-site O&M records, inlet and outlet temperature deviations and pressure drop changes are often used as references for judging scaling or gasket aging. For model selection verification of the BRQ-160 plate-and-shell heat exchanger, medium parameters, temperature range, pressure rating, and flow rate should be submitted as a whole, and then plate material, gasket type, and connection configuration should be determined.
