Performance evaluation of plate heat exchanger with H2O/LiBr refrigerant

In this study, the heat transfer characteristics of Water/Lithium bromide(LiBr) solution in the plate heat exchanger (PHE) for the absorption chiller application is evaluated. The plate heat exchanger is arranged in single-pass, counter flow and chevron angle of the corrugated plate is 78.5°. The H2O/LiBr solution as the working fluid was used with concentration ranging from 52.40% to 64.92%, Reynolds number ranging between 27.29 and 255.1 and Prandtl number ranging between 4.59 and 19.26. The experiment was conducted within ±10% energy balance error range. As a result, the heat transfer coefficient was evaluated ranging from 0.68 kW/m2-K to 2.92 kW/m2-K. Based on the experimental data, the empirical heat transfer correlation of the H2O/LiBr solution is developed and applicable within ±20% error range. By comparing with the correlations of the others, the validity of the heat transfer correlation of this study is validated.