Study of Dynamic Behavior of Heat Exchanger System in Hard Chrome Electroplating.

This work studies the dynamic behavior of process networks consisting of a hard chrome electroplating bath connected with a heat exchanger, which is immersed in the electroplating bath and connected with a cooling system. The heat exchanger is used to remove the heat produced from high current load in the electroplating process as well as to maintain the temperature of the bath at a properly specified range of between 45 and 50°C. However, in most cases, the temperature of the plating solution cannot be kept at the range due to the fact that the heat exchanger cannot sufficiently remove the heat released from chemical reactions in the electroplating bath. As a result, a new design heat exchanger regarding its shape is developed. It was found that with the new design heat exchanger, the temperature of the bath can be maintained at the range throughout the process. In addition, to study the dynamic behavior of the bath, its mathematical models have been developed and unknown parameters have been estimated based on actual plant data. Simulation results have shown that the developed models give good prediction of the bath's solution temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]