Journal of Food Engineering 57 (2003) 237242

www.elsevier.com/locate/jfoodeng

Application of computational uid dynamics to model

the hydrodynamics of plate heat exchangers for milk processing
Koen Grijspeerdt
a

a,*

, Birinchi Hazarika b, Dean Vucinic

Department of Animal Product Quality and Transformation Technology, Centre of Agricultural Research Gent, Ministry of the Flemish Community,
Brusselsesteenweg 370, 9090 Melle, Belgium
b
Department of Fluid Mechanics, Free University of Brussels, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussel, Belgium
Received 10 July 2001; accepted 15 June 2002

Abstract
A detailed calculation of the ow pattern of milk between two corrugated plates was carried out using 2D and 3D computational
uid dynamics (CFD). The 2D calculation shows the inuence of the corrugations shape, but the 3D calculations are necessary to
assess the importance of the corrugation orientation. The inuence of the inlet ow extends only up to three corrugations. A model
was constructed that allowed for a positive qualitative validation of the simulation results. The calculations can help identifying
those regions where turbulent backows and thus higher temperature regions near the wall can occur. These regions are the most
sensitive to fouling and should be avoided as much as possible through better design. In this respect, CFD can be regarded as a
valuable assistant for optimal designing of plate heat exchangers.
2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Computational uid dynamics; Heat exchangers; Milk; Fouling

1. Introduction
Heat treatment of milk and milk products is a very
common and important unit operation in the dairy industry. It is done to ensure the microbial safety of the
end product and to increase the shelf life. The eect of
the heat treatment on the nal product in terms of
chemical, physical and organoleptic properties depends
on the combination of temperature and time applied.
Not only the product quality is aected by the heat-induced reactions; also fouling of the heat equipment by
deposit formation on walls is governed by specic reactions of milk components. These typical undesired
reactions reduce the heat transfer coecient, increase
the pressure drop over heat treatment equipment and
increase product losses, resulting in higher operating
costs.
In the dairy industry, the heat treatment equipment
can be divided into two major types, direct and indirect
systems. In direct systems the heating is achieved by
mixing the product with steam under pressure. The heat

Corresponding author. Tel.: +32-9-2723012; fax: +32-9-2723001.

E-mail address: k.grijspeerdt@clo.fgov.be (K. Grijspeerdt).

transfer is typically much higher in direct systems and

they are less prone to fouling. They are however more
dicult to control, and are consequently less used in
practice (Burton, 1988). In the indirect systems solid
walls separate the heat transfer medium and the dairy
product. Indirect systems can be further subdivided in
plate and tubular heat exchangers.
Due to the fouling, cleaning at least once a day is
common practice for indirect heat exchangers. This
gives rise to extra processing costs in terms of capital,
energy, maintenance and production losses (Sandu &
Singh, 1991). Visser and Jeurnink (1997) give an overview of the economic aspects of fouling and cleaning of
heat exchangers in the dairy industry. To illustrate the
magnitude of the problem, the yearly estimated total
fouling costs in the Netherlands are approximated to
exceed 40 million US$. Besides the economic impact,
there is also the issue of the environmental problems due
to the use of aggressive cleaning agents (Jeurnink &
Brinkman, 1994; Graho, 1997). It would therefore be
rewarding to decrease the problem of fouling in the
dairy industry.
The mechanism and kinetics of the underlying processes of fouling have received considerable attention in
the literature. There is much debate, but there seems to

0260-8774/02/$ - see front matter 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
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K. Grijspeerdt et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 57 (2003) 237242

be a consensus that the denaturation of the whey protein

b-lactoglobulin is a key process in the formation of
fouling components, at least when the temperature is
below 90 C (Lalande, Tissier, & Corrieu, 1984; Roefs
& De Kruif, 1994; Jeurnink, 1996; De Jong, 1997;
Tirumalesh, Rao, & Jayaprakash, 1997; Visser, Jeurnink, Shraml, Fryer, & Delplace, 1997). With increasing
temperature level and depending on pH, mineral precipitation (particularly calcium phosphate) gradually
becomes more and more important (Foster & Green,
1990; Belmar-Beiny & Fryer, 1993; Visser et al., 1997).
Besides the inuence of product composition, temperature and pH, aspects like plate geometry (Visser et al.,
1997), the presence of air bubbles (Tirumalesh et al.,
1997) and to a lesser extent surface material (Jeurnink,
Verheul, Cohen, & De Kruif, 1996; Visser et al., 1997)
have also been shown to exercise an inuence on fouling
rate. Of utmost importance is the mixing intensity
(Delplace, Leuliet, & Levieux, 1997; Visser et al., 1997),
dependent on both uid ow rate and plate corrugation.
The link between fouling models and the heat exchangers itself is not yet fully explored. De Jong (1996)
combined a kinetic fouling model with a plug ow
model for tubular heat exchangers. It is claimed that
reparameterization allows the use of the model for plate
heat exchangers as well, but this has not been rigorously
validated and data from Delplace and Leuliet (1995)
show a dierence in fouling behaviour between plate
heat exchangers using plates with dierent proles. This
clearly indicates the importance of the hydrodynamic
analysis of the equipment. There were other attempts to
couple a protein fouling model to the operation of a heat
exchanger but they are all based on 1D ow (Paterson &
Fryer, 1988; Fryer, 1989; Delplace & Leuliet, 1995;
Grijspeerdt, Mortier, De Block, & Van Renterghem,
1999). De Jong (1996) made an attempt at simulating
fouling in a direct infuser heating system, but the
agreement between the model results and experimental
data was not very good, probably due to both invalid
kinetic data and deviations from assumed hydrodynamic conditions.
A suitable hydrodynamic model for the heat exchanger is also the basis for the simulation of the other
processes occurring during the thermal treatment, the
most important one being the inactivation of pathogenic
microorganisms. When an adequate model is available,
the process can be optimised to obtain the best operating conditions that minimise undesirable side eects of
the heating, while protecting the microbiological quality
of the milk. According to De Jong (1996), such an optimisation could potentially reduce the operating cost of
a typical system by more than 50%.
The aim of this paper is to initiate the use of advanced hydrodynamic calculations for the simulation of
plate heat exchangers for milk. Therefore, a single plate
from a pilot scale set-up was modelled using computa-

tional uid dynamics (CFD), taking into account the

detailed geometry of the plates. Fouling processes were
not included in the modelling exercise, which should be
considered as the rst step only towards a complete
hydrodynamic description of the thermal treatment of
milk.

2. Flow simulation
The plate of a pilot scale indirect heat exchanger was
used as the basis for the simulation. The prole of the
corrugated plate was measured along the corrugation
direction (normal to the utes). The utes are inclined at
a 56 angle to the primary ow direction of the heat
exchanger element. The irregularity of the measured
quantities was eliminated at the time of grid generation
by generating a smooth curve to t the measured points.
The curve normal to the ute has a unit length (peak to
peak distance) of 7.64 mm and amplitude of 1.08 mm.
The ow channel was simulated by considering two
plates parallel to each other (Fig. 1). The minimum and
maximum gap between the plates were 5.6 and 9.2 mm,
respectively. The width of the ow passage between the
plates was 50 mm.
Both numerical and experimental simulations are
performed for this test case. The numerical simulation
is performed for hydrodynamic and heat transfer processes. The experimental simulation of the ow was
conducted on a transparent model constructed with othe-shelf elements.
2.1. Numerical simulation
The simulations were conducted for two geometries.
First, 2D geometry was considered with the ow direction perpendicular to the utes. This was regarded as the
natural extension of plug ow simulation. In the next
step, the 3D ow geometry was simulated using 25
complete utes giving a parallelogram shaped exchanger. For the 2D case, one inlet velocity was used,
for the 3D geometry three dierent uniform velocity

Fig. 1. The heat exchanger plates grid.

K. Grijspeerdt et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 57 (2003) 237242

elds were employed at the inlet to assess the eect of

inlet condition. For both simulations, the system was
assumed to be at steady-state conditions.
The simulations were carried out in the FINE-Turbo
software environment (Numeca International), an integrated CFD environment based on the EURANUS
CFD code (Hirsch et al., 1991). A grid of the geometry
was constructed using the FINE-Turbo pre-processor
(IGG). The grid consisted of a total of 33,150 points for
the 2D case and of 551,265 points for the 3D case. For
all computations a turbulent NavierStokes simulation
applying the BaldwinLomax turbulent stress model
was used (Baldwin & Lomax, 1978). The Reynolds
number used in the simulations was 4482 (characteristic
velocity of 1 m/s), and the Prandtl number 6.62.
2.2. Experimental simulation
The transparent model was constructed from transparent roong material readily available and cheap to
obtain a proof of concept. The best compromise was to
construct a model 3.8 times the size of the prototype that
led to a geometrical non-similarity of 9% between the
model and the prototype.
The CFD conducted on the prototype indicated that
the inuence of the inlet is prevalent only for a short
distance; therefore, the length of the test section could be
shorter than that used for the grid. The model constructed had 21 complete utes in its test section. Along
the centreline the model was 80 cm long with 20 cm
lengths of straight walls upstream and downstream of
it giving a total length of 120 cm for the test bed. The
width of the test section was 20 cm and the gap between
the plates was adjustable. For this particular set of tests
the minimum and maximum gap between the corrugated
sections were adjusted to 2 and 3.5 cm, respectively. The
straight portions had 3.5 cm gaps. Fig. 2 shows two
views of the test section.
The experiments were conducted with water that was
supplied by a two-stage evacuation pump. The water
entered the test section from the upstream ow regula-

239

tor. The regulator, 20 cm wide 40 cm long and 40 cm

high, had two compartments separated by screens. The
pumps deliver water to the upstream compartment and
the exit from the regulator enters the test bed through a
honeycomb sandwiched between screens. The ow from
the test bed enters a downstream head controlling
chamber 20 cm long 20 cm wide and 20 cm high. The
water from this chamber owed out to the reservoir
where the two pumps were submerged. The total length
of the test set-up is 180 cm. The test bed was made
suitable for conducting particle image velocimetry (PIV)
measurements.
Laser light sheet ow visualization was conducted in
this test rig. The light sheet used had a thickness of 2
mm. The visualization was conducted for Reynolds numbers varying between very low to the operating condition
value. The top view of the test section and the side view
with the laser sheet are shown in Fig. 7.

3. Results
The results presented here consist of 2D and 3D
simulations of the ow elds and heat transfer in the 3D
conguration. Some qualitative results from the light
sheet ow visualization experiment are also discussed
and open perspectives for conducting detailed PIV
measurements.
3.1. 2D simulation
The simulation results show that the main ow is
relatively straightforward in the centre of the ow
channel. Within the corrugations the ow separates at
the beginning of the diverging portion and recirculation
bubbles are present (Fig. 3). These recirculation regions
cover the whole additional area provided by the corrugations making it unavailable for through ow. The
primary ow in the largest cross-section therefore has
approximately the same velocity as in the smallest cross
sectional area. This is illustrated by the particle traces

Fig. 2. Model used for ow visualization experiment.

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K. Grijspeerdt et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 57 (2003) 237242

Fig. 5. Particle trace and velocity vector prole for the 3D simulation,
as seen along the y-axis.

Fig. 3. 2D vector ow eld.

shown in the Fig. 3. The reverse ow regions will be the

weak spots with respect to fouling; the longer residence
time of the uid particles causes more profound heating
and consequently more fouling.
3.2. 3D simulation
It was observed from the simulations that the inlet
velocity inuences the ow in a very short region near
the entrance. Therefore, the results of the simulation
with the inlet vector having all the three components are
the only ones presented in this section.
3.3. Flow eld
The 3D simulation gives a more dierentiated picture
than the 2D simulation. In Fig. 4, the ow traces for
three ow particles are followed along the utes. At rst
sight, the back ows in the corrugations seem similar to
the 2D simulation. But this gure shows a reverse ow
because of the angle at which the eld is viewed. In reality it is a spiral motion along a ute. In the main
stream direction x the ow advances by 4 units (utes)
by the time the particles traverse from one wall to the
opposite wall. The curvature of the traces at the start is
due to the vy component of velocity. Within a distance of
two utes the inuence of inlet becomes negligible. Once
the particles gets close to the wall they gradually move
towards the wavy walls. The particles trapped in the

Fig. 4. A complete view and a zoom of the ow traces for three ow

particles for the 3D simulation, as seen along the utes.

utes move downstream along the utes until they are

close to the opposite wall where they gradually move
towards the centre plane and then to the opposite plane
wall.
This phenomenon is clearly visible when the ow
traces are plotted along the y-axis (Fig. 5). This view is
looking along the y-axis (at the top of the plate) and the
velocity vectors are plotted along the central plane
y constant traversing four utes in the width of the
heat exchanger. In the plane of symmetry a strong velocity component is present in the positive z-direction.
At the wall the particles moves towards the wavy walls.
The particles trapped in the utes ow along the utes to
the opposite wall. Again, the curvature at the beginning
of the traces (left side) is due to the vz component of
velocity. This view obviously illustrates the need for 3D
modelling, as there are strong 3D velocity components
present.
A nal view is looking from the exit end of the ow
domain along the z-axis (Fig. 6). The traces on the right
side near the centre are the starting point. The velocity
vector near the right side wall has a much higher magnitude than those near the left, where the low velocity
uid coming along the utes converge. The ow along
the utes clearly has a spiral motion.
The ow visualization showed results that are similar
to those obtained by the simulation, operating at the
same Reynolds number. At low Reynolds numbers large
eddies are visible in the central plane. Two images from
the visualization are shown in Fig. 7. In these two
photographs the ow is in the general direction left to
right as in the gures shown before.
The photograph on the left shows the traces in the
centre plane near the at edge wall where the ow is
pointed towards the wall and then traverses into the
utes. The general trend of the ow is towards the at
wall at a small angle at the upper edge of Fig. 5 and at
the right edge in Fig. 6. The second photograph shows
the traces in the centre plane where the ows coming

Fig. 6. Particle trace and velocity vector prole for the 3D simulation,
as seen along the z-axis.

K. Grijspeerdt et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 57 (2003) 237242

241

Fig. 7. Photographs from ow visualization at high Reynolds numbers (ow is from left to right).

along the utes converge towards the centre line and

leave the at side wall at a large angle because of the
small axial velocity (at the lower edge of Fig. 5 and at
the left edge in Fig. 6). The similarity between the simulated ow in CFD and experiments show that the numerical simulation produced reliable results.
3.4. Temperature
Two scenarios were simulated. First, the incoming
uid was assumed to have a uniform temperature of

Fig. 8. Temperature prole as view from the side of the plates.

100 C and the plates a uniform temperature of 110 C.

A second simulation was then carried out for a uniform
plate temperature of 140 C. The temperature dierential DT between the heating medium and the milk has
been reported to have an inuence on fouling formation
(Visser et al., 1997). In particular, Hiddink, Lalande,
Maas, and Streuper (1986) suggested that the temperature dierential inuences fouling when it exceeds
1015 C.
The temperature prole at low DT as viewed from
the side of the plates is shown in Fig. 8. Obviously, the
inlet temperature eect stretches quite far. As could be
expected from the ow eld simulations, the highest
temperature regions are located at the downside of the
corrugations. These will be the spots that will be
the most prone to fouling. For the case of the high DT ,
the temperature prole essentially has the same outlook
with a dierent temperature scale. The dierence between the wall temperature and the bulk temperature is
higher for this case (Fig. 9), making it more prone to
fouling. Clearly, a DT of 40 C will not likely occur
in practice, but the results could be useful to indicate trends and amplify the weak spots in the plate design.

Fig. 9. The temperature prole between the plates for the two DT -cases.

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K. Grijspeerdt et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 57 (2003) 237242

4. Conclusions and further research

The simulations in this paper show the potential of
CFD as a tool to model detailed ow patterns in plate
heat exchangers. For the case examined here, 2D simulations were not capable of providing a complete picture as the 3D simulations show that the velocity eld is
clearly 3D. The simulations indicate that the inlet conguration of the plates has only limited importance; the
inuence of a dierent inlet velocity component can only
be felt up to three corrugations. Furthermore, the simulations show that the average particle only gets trapped
in a corrugation once, after which it will remain in the
bulk ow. The simulated temperature proles pointed to
the weak spots concerning fouling; at the end of the
corrugations the temperature was clearly much higher.
The importance of corrugation geometry is clear, and
CFD could be a valuable tool for optimising the design
of plates for heat exchangers for milk with respect to
fouling. The simulations can already yield useful results,
but should be extended to study the fouling phenomenon in more detail.
Further research should therefore particularly focus
on the physical process of fouling. Adding a chemical
model for the denaturation of b-lactoglobulin to the
CFD code is not functional without the incorporation of
knowledge of wall adhesion of the fouling components.
This will make the computations much more complex
because fouling renders the process intrinsically dynamic, whereas the current simulations are steady state.
More detailed comparison of simulation results with
real-life experiments is also necessary, both for steady
state situations and for fouling experiments.

Acknowledgements
This study was partly supported by the Federal Oce
for Scientic, Technical and Cultural Aairs (OSTC)
and by the European commission through the ESPRITIV ALICE project (EP-28168).

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