Dynamic simulation of plate and frame heat exchanger undergoing food fouling: coconut milk fouling case study

Abstract

ABSTRACT:The mathematical modelling and-simulation of plate heat exchangers with rapid fouling effects are presented. Crank-Nicolson's method and the ghost-node technique were used to solve the thermal model. Effects of fouling were added to the model through the overall heat-transfer coefficient correlation. A fourth order Runge-Kutta scheme was used to obtain the integral value of the fouling model. An experimental study of coconut-milk pasteurization section developed previously was used as a case study. The flow configuration adopted was 1 pass 2 channels of hot water countercurrents with 1 pass 1 channel of coconut milk. The variation of the coconut milk outlet temperature and the overall heat-transfer coefficient with time from the simulation agreed well with those obtained from the experiments. The algorithm presented in this research work can be used to provide a result of step change of selected input variable(s), i.e. fluid-flow rate and temperature. The feature allowed the control strategy to be specified in order to bring back an outlet temperature of one process stream when the process was undergoing fouling. Ultimately, the algorithm was also used to simulate the case of 1 pass 25 channels of hot water countercurrent with 1 pass 25 channels of coconut milk. The results of this case study indicated that adjustment of inlet temperature of hot water was appropriate from the energy consumption point of view.

Modeling, Simulation and Control of Pink Guava Puree Pasteurization Process with Fouling as Disturbance

“…Nema and Datta () and Narataruksa et al . () also reported the similar findings for milk in tubular and coconut milk in plate heat exchangers.…”

3‐D Milk Fouling Modeling of Plate Heat Exchangers with Different Surface Finishes Using Computational Fluid Dynamics Codes

“…Overall heat transfer coefficient of plates decreased gradually due to the increase in milk fouling with time (Georgiadis and Macchietto 2000; Narataruksa et al . 2008; Mahdi et al .…”

“…The initial mass fraction values of unfolded and aggregated proteins were initiated to be 1.0 ¥ 10 -20 kg/m 3 , respectively. Overall heat transfer coefficient of plates decreased gradually due to the increase in milk fouling with time (Georgiadis and Macchietto 2000;Narataruksa et al 2008;Mahdi et al 2009). However, in the case of PHEs operated in low temperature (72C) environment, the overall heat transfer coefficient of plates was slightly changed (Riverol and Napolitano 2005).…”

Comparative Study of Temperature Control in a Heat Exchanger Process

“…As shown in the Fig. (8) and table (4), it is clear that the overshoot and setting time of Ziegler-Nichols method are less than of the Cohen-Coon method for both PI and PID modes because Ziegler-Nichols method depends on closed loop system while Cohen-Coon method depends on open loop system. To evaluate the performance of the PI and PID controllers three parameters of the step response and the parameters (overshoot, settling time and rise time) have been considered and given in the table (5).…”

“…A gasket that seals around the plate prevents fluid mixing. It can also be used to create PHE flow configurations such as series, parallel, and multi-pass arrangements by closing and opening ports at the four plate corners [8,9] .…”