Julio del Angel Soto¹, Martín T. Martínez G.¹, José Luis Magaña^1,

In this work we present a theoretical-experimental research on the thermal phenomena that the endplates present on the performance of the plate heat exchangers in a single step and with a U type configuration. The endplate effect is reflected in a reduction of the temperature difference for heat transfer. The model discusses a theoretical focus that includes the elongation factor, which is a parameter that relates the actual area to the projected area of a plate. This model was performed to 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 channel flow; therefore the experimentation was carried out to validate the theoretical model, it was carried out for 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 flow channels. Such results show that the theoretical model deviates in a 5% of the experimental values. The results obtained for theorical temperature correction factor presents a maximum deviation of ± 0.0245 with respect to the experimental values.

heat plates exchanger, terminal effect, end plates, elongation factor, flow channels