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CEEE Provides Comprehensive Review of Plate-Fin Heat Exchangers

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Lead author Suraj Krishnamurti is investigating ways to further advance plate-fin heat exchangers. The screen on the left visualizes the temperature profile of a plate inside an exchanger.

A recently published open-access paper by the UMD Center for Environmental Energy Engineering (CEEE) offers critical insights on plate-fin heat exchangers (PFHX) that could help researchers optimize these highly compact heat exchangers for more efficient performance of HVAC technologies and other energy conversion systems.

For over two decades, CEEE has been an international leader in the modeling and optimization of heat exchangers – core components of HVAC technologies and other energy-conversion systems. The center’s newly published paper, which appears in Case Studies in Thermal Engineering, explores the state of the art in modeling and optimization of PFHX, a heat exchanger architecture that features a stack of plates with corrugated fins filling the space between plates. 

The PFHX design is highly compact – meaning there’s a high surface-area-to-volume ratio – which offers efficient heat transfer in a smaller footprint than many other heat exchangers. Advancements in modeling and optimization could further improve performance, leading to smaller, better-performing HVAC systems.

"I was particularly drawn to this type of heat exchanger, because they’re very efficient and can be used in a wide range of applications, including the process industry, cryogenics, aerospace and HVAC."

CEEE researcher Suraj Krishnamurti

“I was particularly drawn to this type of heat exchanger, because they’re very efficient and can be used in a wide range of applications, including the process industry, cryogenics, aerospace and HVAC,” says lead author Suraj Krishnamurti, a CEEE graduate research assistant. Co-authors are post-doctoral researcher James Tancabel and CEEE Director Vikrant C. Aute, a research professor in the UMD Department of Mechanical Engineering. All three are researchers in CEEE’s Modeling and Optimization Consortium.

In this paper, the CEEE researchers offer a systematic analysis of the physical phenomena associated with PFHXs, ranking them in importance for modeling considerations. Heat exchange and fluid flow – fundamental to all types of heat exchangers – top the list, followed by fin conduction and plate heat conduction/heat leakage. The paper also provides an overview of the latest PFHX advancements, including new fin shapes, two-phase modeling techniques and topology optimization of plate-fin channels. 

The publication identifies several research gaps and offers recommendations for future work – some of which CEEE is putting into action in its own research on developing the next generation of heat exchangers. 

Download the paper: “Review of the state of the art in modeling and optimization of plate fin type heat exchangers.”


Published April 8, 2026