The spiral plate heat exchanger used today was developed in Sweden in the early 1930s. In the fiber industry, this type of heat exchanger has been developed in order to recover low-grade heat. After design improvements, it has been applied to various heat transfer processes.
The spiral plate heat exchanger is composed of two relatively long slats rolled into a pair of concentric spiral channels. The normal design is to close one end of one channel and close the other end of the other channel. As the requirements of the task are different, the method of closing the passage can also be different. The outer end of the plate is on the periphery of the circumference, and correspondingly there are pipes on the periphery.
Both sides of the spiral plate are equipped with top covers, thus forming a heat exchanger. If different forms of top cover are used, it can be adapted to the requirements of different heat transfer processes.
The width of the spiral plate is 4 to 72 inches (approximately 100 mm to 1800 mm). The channel width is from 3/16 to 1 inch (approximately 4.7-25mm). The width of the two channels is not necessarily equal. The maximum diameter that can be rolled is about 56 inches (1400mm). So the maximum area of a heat exchanger is about 1800 ft2 (167 m2). Although there is no limit to the minimum heat transfer area, from an economic point of view, 5 ft2 is the smallest.
The spiral plate heat exchanger can be made of basically any material, as long as the material can be cold worked and welded. These materials include carbon steel, stainless steel, nickel-based corrosion-resistant alloys (Hastelloy B and C), nickel and nickel alloys, copper alloys, Aluminum alloy and titanium.
Spiral plate heat exchangers can be designed to be anticorrosive on the surface, either anode protection or coating protection. The spiral plate can also be coated with dried phenol-based resin, which is particularly effective for anti-corrosion of cooling water. Electrodes can also be added to the coiled spiral plate, so that it can be anti-corrosion by anodic protection.
The normal design of the spiral plate heat exchanger requires both channels to be able to withstand the total pressure difference separately. Because each circle must be able to withstand its specified pressure, the thickness of each circle must be considered according to the design pressure. According to the pressure, the thickness of the slat is 0.078-0.3125 inches (approximately 2-8mm). Because the diameter of the spiral is relatively large, the design pressure is limited. The maximum pressure is generally considered to be 150 psig (approximately 10 kg/cm2). For heat exchangers with smaller diameters, larger design pressures can be used. The limit of the design temperature is specified according to the selected manufacturing materials.