FEA Validation and Refinement of Alternative Nozzle Reinforcement Rules for Gasketed Plate Heat Exchangers

This paper is an expansion of previously developed alternative nozzle reinforcement rules for gasketed plate heat exchanger (GPHE) end plates. The previous work on the alternative reinforcement rules for GPHE has been conducted by analytical means utilizing the basis of ASME BPVC Section VIII, Div. 1, Section UG-39, and the principles and data of a simply supported plate theory. As a part of the initial work, some assumptions had been left to be validated by Finite Element Analysis (FEA). The objective of this paper is to conduct the FEA validation of those assumptions and to further refine and expand the alternative reinforcement rules for GPHE. The results of FEA show a good agreement with the initially developed analytical rules. The rules have further been expanded utilizing the same principles developed in the initial work and using additional data obtained by FEA. The expanded alternative reinforcement rules for GPHE, while being limited to the range of plate length to width ratio, are useful analytical means for design of GPHE end plates that may be used in lieu of more costly proof testing or FEA. In addition, the alternative reinforcement rules evaluate the reinforcement in the vicinity of nozzle openings resulting in an optimized design thickness of the GPHE end plates.