Exergoeconomic and Normalized Sensitivity Analysis of Plate Heat Exchangers: A Theoretical Framework with Application

Abstract

Heat exchangers are the mainstay of thermal systems and have been extensively used in desalination systems, heating, cooling units, power plants, and energy recovery systems. This chapter demonstrates a robust theoretical framework for heat exchangers investigation based on two advanced tools, i.e., exergoeconomic analysis and Normalized Sensitivity Analysis. The former is applied as a mutual application of economic and thermodynamic analyses, which is much more impactful than the conventional thermodynamic and economic analyses. This is because it allows the investigation of combinatory effects of thermodynamic and fiscal parameters which are not achieved with the conventional methods. Similarly, the Normalized Sensitivity Analysis allows a one-on-one comparison of the sensitivity of output parameters to the input parameters with entirely different magnitudes on a common platform. This rationale comparison is obtained by normalizing the sensitivity coefficients by their nominal values, which is not possible with the conventional sensitivity analyses. An experimentally validated example of a plate heat exchanger is used to demonstrate the application of the proposed framework from a desalination system.

Influence of the Chevron inclination angle on the thermal performance of a gasket plate heat exchanger

“…However, the model offers a good understanding of the temperature distribution and fluid flow in turbulent conditions. Jamil et al [9] developed theory to analyze heat exchangers through exergoeconomic concepts and normalized sensitivity analysis. The model allows the investigation of thermodynamic effects associated with fiscal parameters and is more comprehensive and significant than the conventional thermodynamic or economic analyzes used separately.…”