What is a plate and shell heat exchanger and how to choose it?

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The plate and shell heat exchanger is a large-scale, efficient heat exchange equipment that has been used in newly built or renovated devices in petrochemical enterprises, and has gradually replaced the traditional tube bundle heat exchange equipment. The structural form of plate and shell heat exchangers is between tube bundle and plate heat exchangers, and is mainly composed of plate core and shell. The shell is cylindrical and the core is cuboid or circular. The manufacturing process is complex and welding is difficult. The plate and shell heat exchanger PSHE is mainly composed of a plate group and a shell. It absorbs the advantages of the shell and tube heat exchanger and the plate heat exchanger. It has high heat exchange efficiency, compact structure, small fouling coefficient, and good sealing performance. It can be used in high temperature, low temperature, and high pressure working conditions. Its structure can also be made detachable for easy cleaning and maintenance. Both the shell side and the plate side can be designed as multi-pass, and its use range is very wide. As we all know, shell and tube heat exchangers are widely used because they include a variety of structural forms and can meet various working conditions. However, they have the disadvantages of large weight and volume, easy scaling, and low heat exchange efficiency. Another special type of heat exchanger - plate heat exchanger includes gasket type and semi-welded type. Although it has high heat exchange efficiency, its use conditions are subject to certain restrictions because of the rubber strips between the plates. It cannot be used in conditions with higher temperatures (not greater than 180°C) and cannot be used in conditions with high pressures (not greater than 2.5MPa). This is mainly due to the center of the circle of the structure, insufficient stiffness of the pressing plate and aging of the rubber causing media leakage. Although the plates of the fully welded plate heat exchanger are welded and the rubber strips are removed, which greatly improves the operating temperature and pressure, the structural reasons still limit its scope of use to a great extent. Plate and shell heat exchangers overcome the characteristics of the above structures and can meet the requirements of harsh working conditions. The plate and shell heat exchanger has a plate core and a flow resistor inside, and the outside is composed of a shell. It is mainly divided into detachable type, fully welded type and compact type. In order to provide customers with accurate selection and design conveniently, the plate and shell heat exchanger selection parameters we generally require are the following:: First, heat load ； Second, the media name ； Third, cold measure the inlet and outlet temperatures ； Fourth, thermally measure the inlet and outlet temperatures ； Fifth, traffic ； Sixth, voltage drop seventh, other requirements