Flow maldistribution is the major factor that influences the heat exchange efficiency of plate fin heat exchangers (PFHEs).By the traditional gas-liquid distribution method with mixing prior to distribution

the gas-liquid separation will occur due to the direction change in the distributing fins

which may lead to flow maldistribution.To solve this problem

a new gas-liquid distributor based on the concept with distribution prior to mixing is proposed.The gas and liquid flow into their respective channels and mix uniformly in the distributor

and then the gas/liquid mixture flows into the heat exchanger to exchange heat with materials with high temperatures.The calculation results show that the non-uniformity of flow distribution rises increases with flow rate

and the flow rate of liquid phase has greater influence on the flow distribution than that of gas phase.In addition

the standard deviation of the distributor is one magnitude lower than that of the header.The distributor can obviously improve the gas-liquid flow uniformity in PFHEs and increase their heat exchange efficiency.