Development of Foot Design for Gasketed Plate Heat Exchangers

Abstract: In the process of making the industry more energy efficient, the gasketed plate heat exchanger has an important role as it effectively transfers heat between fluids. This master thesis aims to investigate and develop a new supportive foot for Alfa Laval’s gasketed plate heat exchangers. The goal was to present a design that can sustain severe external loads induced by for example the connecting piping system or earthquakes. Beyond sustaining the severe loads, the foot was also required to maintain a high serviceability and a low cost. The project covered in this report follows a development process where eleven different concepts were generated and scored. The most important factors in the developed concepts were cost, manufacturing, and serviceability. Two concepts emerged from the scoring and was further developed to test their feasibility. From the in-depth development one concept remained and was considered the best design. The design was then modelled in a FEM program together with an existing design to verify the stresses in the used bolts in the foot. In the verification of the design, it was concluded that the new design reduced the usage in the attached bolts in the foot by up to 67%, compared to existing designs. It was also found that preloading the bolts made the model less tolerant to the severe loads. Furthermore, adding a higher frictional coefficient to the model decreased the usage in the studied bolts.