Flow pattern analysis in a rotating scraped surface plate heat exchanger

© 2019 Elsevier LtdThe flow pattern inside a scraped surface plate heat exchanger used for ice slurry production is studied both experimentally and numerically. Isothermal planar velocity fields are reported in the range 2.2 · 104¿Rerot¿1.7 · 105 using a phase averaged PIV technique. Unsteady RANS modelling of the flow, using the rotating frame methodology is used to obtain a time-averaged description of the flow structure, which was successfully validated against the PIV data. The flow structure is characterized by the presence of a roll-up vortex generated by the scraper blade, which is the main factor for both the radial and vertical displacements of the flow. Increasing the Rerot number leads to a more uniform flow, reducing the presence of stagnant zones. However, the main pattern structure does not change significantly when increasing the scraping velocity.