Numerical analysis of the flow and heat transfer characteristics of oil-gas-water three-phase fluid in corrugated plate heat exchanger

The heat exchanger is the key device for waste heat recovery from oilfield wastewater, which is an oil, water, gas mixture. Therefore, this paper aims to numerically investigate the flow and heat transfer performance of the corrugated plate heat exchanger by using the oil-gas-water three-phase mixture as the working flowing. The multi-fluid Eulerian framework along with the population balance model is adopted and validated first. Then the effects of different factors on the flow and heat transfer performance of a corrugated channel are studied. The results indicate that the gas accumulation on the wall will deteriorate the local heat transfer performance of the corrugated channel. Increasing the inlet gas content could enhance the gas holdup near walls and decrease the local heat transfer performance, as well as the comprehensive heat transfer performance (PEF) of the corrugated channel. The corrugation height remarkably influences the average Nu and pressure drop of the corrugated channel. When the Re is small (Re < 3000), the corrugated plate channel with a large corrugation height exhibits the best heat transfer performance; however, when Re is large, the heat transfer decreases with the rise in the corrugation height. Besides, the results demonstrate that the inlet gas bubble size has almost no influence on the heat and flow performance of the present corrugated plate sewage heat exchanger.