Plate-fin heat exchanger

[1] Aluminum alloy plate-fin heat exchangers, often referred to as Brazed Aluminum Heat Exchangers, have been used in the aircraft industry for more than 75 years and adopted into the cryogenic air separation industry around the time of the second world war and shortly afterward into cryogenic processes in chemical plants such as Natural Gas Processing.

A plate-fin heat exchanger is made of layers of corrugated sheets separated by flat metal plates, typically aluminium, to create a series of finned chambers.

Separate hot and cold fluid streams flow through alternating layers of the heat exchanger and are enclosed at the edges by side bars.

A high degree of flexibility is present in plate-fin heat exchanger design as they can operate with any combination of gas, liquid, and two-phase fluids.

A disadvantage of plate-fin heat exchangers is that they are prone to fouling due to their small flow channels.

This method can be observed in household radiators which maintain a curvy, sinusoidal cross section to maximize surface contact between the heated water inside and the air of a room.

The delicate design as well as the thin channels in the plate-fin heat exchanger make cleaning difficult or impossible.