Experimental investigations and validation of two dimensional model for multistream plate fin heat exchangers

•A closed loop cryogenic facility is developed for performance evaluation of PFHEs.•Experiments at LN2 temperatures are carried out using a specially developed 3SPFHE.•Experimental studies included 2S balanced flow, 2S imbalanced flow and 3S cases.•Experimental results are compared with predictions using 2-D model for MSPFHE [1].•A reasonable match is found between the experimental results and the predictions. Experimental investigations are carried out using a specially developed three-layer plate fin heat exchanger (PFHE), with helium as the working fluid cooled to cryogenic temperatures using liquid nitrogen (LN2) as a coolant. These results are used for validation of an already proposed and reported numerical model based on finite volume analysis for multistream (MS) plate fin heat exchangers (PFHE) for cryogenic applications (Goyal et al., 2014). The results from the experiments are presented and a reasonable agreement is observed with the already reported numerical model.