Plate Heat Exchanger Leakage

Plate Heat Exchanger Leakage Are Mostly Due to Malfunction of Gaskets, What Could Possibly Be the Reasons?

(Gaskets as Replacement)

1.Overuse of gasket has aged it and need replacement.

2.Sudden change(either increase or decrease) of temperature

Under extreme temperature altering, COLE(coefficient of linear extensibility) and Elastic Deformation is no match with sealing capability so gaskets are more likely to undergo deformation. What need to be done

a)Temperature Change or even Pressure Changer should be slow and steady.

b)Increase spring on the Clamping Bolts so as to make it up for Sealing Capability and prevent fluids leakage.

3.Pressure/Flow rate Increase

Sudden increase of flow rate would cause Water Hammer or Air Hammer, a swift vibration which could change the pressure up to 3 times higher than usual. With that, our gaskets might be out of the groove and could not perform its sealing duty. Moreover, the thin plates(Thickness 0.5mm-0.8mm) also make the Plate And Frame Heat Exchanger vulnerable to even the slightest clash. Ways to improve sealing functions are

a)Ask designer/engineer to increase designed temperature 1.5-2 times higher than usual operation pressure.

b)Avoid water shock as much as possible, or even better, install anti-water hammer devices.

c)Otherwise, we can also consider to increase plate thickness in a bid to reduce the effect. But just as every coin has two sides, it would decrease heat transfer efficiency to a certain extent.

Editor: Loui