Plate-fin heat exchangers (PFHEs) are mostly employed in medium- and small-sized LNG plants. However

works about the heat transfer characteristic optimization of mixed refrigerant in PFHE under low quality have been barely carried out nowadays. Thus

a Linde-Hampson cycle using single stage compressors and recuperative heat exchanger was established and mixed refrigerant (N2-CH4-C2H4-C3H8-iC4H10) was used to obtain the refrigeration temperature of -160℃. Meanwhile

the overall heat transfer coefficient and the correlational influence factor were mainly analysed. The experimental results showed that the overall heat transfer coefficient of the PFHE was about 2.6—22.7 W·m-2·K-1 while the refrigeration temperature and the circulated composition had week influence on the overall heat transfer coefficient. Meanwhile

the existing correlations cannot accurately predict the heat transfer coefficient of the mixed refrigerant under low quality and low flow velocity. However

the correlation of Cavallini and modified Granryd can used to predict the HTC of mixed refrigerant under low quality and low flow velocity after modification in this work. Additionally

some suggestion have been proposed in the design and optimization of PFHEs considering the refrigerate flowrate and pressure drop.