Modeling and Parameter Estimation of Heat Exchangers—A Statistical Approach

A continuous in time dynamic model of counterflow and parallel flow heat exchangers is presented. The model is on state space form and it is shown how to use statistical methods, Kalman filtering and least squares, to estimate the model parameters. Empirical relations for convection heat transfer are incorporated in the parameters in order to improve the model performance. The parameters in these empirical formulas may be estimated with the same methods, thereby adjusting the relations to the specific heat exchanger. As a case-study, a small counterflow plate heat exchanger is modeled and some results from the parameter estimation are given.