Fouling Reduction Characteristics of a No-Distributor-Fluidized-Bed Heat Exchanger for Flue Gas Heat Recovery

Heat exchangers and heat exchanger networks are extensively used for the purpose of recovering energy. In conventional flue gas heat recovery systems, the fouling by fly ashes and the related problems such as corrosion and cleaning are known to be major drawbacks. To overcome these problems, a single-riser no-distributor-fluidized-bed heat exchanger is devised and studied. Fouling and cleaning tests are performed for a uniquely designed fluidized bed-type heat exchanger to demonstrate the effect of particles on the fouling reduction and heat transfer enhancement. The tested heat exchanger model (1 m high and 54 mm internal diameter) is a gas-to-water type and composed of a main vertical tube and four auxiliary tubes through which particles circulate and transfer heat. Through the present study, the fouling on the heat transfer surface could successfully be simulated by controlling air-to-fuel ratios rather than introducing particles through an external feeder, which produced soft deposit layers with 1 to 1.5 mm thickness on the inside pipe wall. Flue gas temperature at the inlet of heat exchanger was maintained at 450°C at the gas volume rate of 0.738 to 0.768 CMM (0.0123 to 0.0128 m³/sec). From the analyses of the measured data, heat transfer performances of the heat exchanger before and after fouling and with and without particles were evaluated. Results showed that soft deposits were easily removed by introducing glass bead particles, and also heat transfer performance increased two times by the particle circulation. In addition, it was found that this type of heat exchanger had high potential to recover heat of waste gases from furnaces, boilers, and incinerators effectively and to reduce fouling related problems.     

基于污水换热器污垢不同生长阶段的除垢试验研究

为了提高污水换热器的除垢效果,文章以管壳式污水换热器为研究对象,以沙粒作为除垢粒子,以污垢热阻变化率表征除垢效果,在利用烘干灼烧失重法、能谱分析法和微观结构分析法分析污垢成分的基础上,运用污垢热阻法进行除垢试验研究。通过试验研究了在污垢生长的诱导期、生长期和渐近期3个阶段除垢对污垢热阻值的影响。试验结果表明:管壳式污水换热器管内污垢的主要成分为含水量较高的有机物;结垢工况下,污垢热阻渐近值为0.74×10^-3(m^2·K)/W;在污垢生长的诱导期、生长期和渐近期进行除垢后,污垢热阻渐近值分别为0.4×10^-3,0.42×10^-3,0.6×10^-3(m^2·K)/W,与结垢工况相比,污垢热阻渐近值分别降低了45.9%,43.2%,18.9%,除垢工况下污垢热阻增长速率较结垢工况明显减缓。     

Particulate Fouling and On-Line Cleaning of Ferric Oxide Particles in Internally Enhanced Tubes

This paper describes the results of accelerated particulate fouling tests performed on three enhanced tubes and a plain tube. The tests were performed using ferric oxide as the foulant material. Three enhanced tubes included 25 start, 10 start helically ribbed tube and a ripple tube. Effect of the water velocity (1.2–1.7 m/s) on fouling resistance was investigated. The maximum fouling resistance occurred in the 25 start helically ribbed tube (about 8.0 × 10^?5 m²K/W after 100 hours). For the 10 start helically ribbed tube, the fouling resistance was relatively small (less than 1.8 × 10^?5 m²K/W). The rippled and plain tubes show almost negligible fouling resistance. High velocity flushing was effective for all the tubes except for the 25 start helically ribbed tube. On-line brush cleaning maintained the fouling resistance below 1.8 × 10^?5 m²K/W for all tubes. The fouling concentrations used in the tests were significantly higher than would be expected in commercial heat exchangers. Also, the velocity range investigated was lower than would be expected in heat exchanger operation.     

Boiling Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop of a Refrigerant R32 Flowing in a Small Horizontal Tube

In this study, experiments were performed to examine characteristics of flow boiling heat transfer and pressure drop of a low global warming potential refrigerant R32 flowing in a horizontal copper circular tube with 1.0 mm inside diameter for the development of a high-performance heat exchanger using small-diameter tubes or minichannels for air conditioning systems. Axially local heat transfer coefficients were measured in the range of mass fluxes from 30 to 400 kg/(m²·s), qualities from 0.05 to 1.0, and heat fluxes from 2 to 24 kW/m² at the saturation temperature of 10°C. Pressure drops were also measured in the rage of mass fluxes from 30 to 400 kg/(m²·s) and qualities from 0.05 to 0.9 at the saturation temperature of 10°C under adiabatic condition. In addition, two-phase flow patterns were observed through a sight glass fixed at the tube exit with a digital camera. The characteristics of boiling heat transfer and pressure drop were clarified based on the measurements and the comparison with data of R410A obtained previously. Also, measured heat transfer coefficients were compared with two existing correlations.     

EHD Augmented Convective Boiling: Flow Regimes and Enhanced Heat Transfer

This work investigates the influence of electrohydrodynamics (EHD) on the flow and heat transfer during convective boiling of HFE7000. A unique tube-and-shell heat exchanger has been constructed with heated water flowing on the shell side and a saturated mixture of refrigerant flowing within the tube side. The heat exchanger is novel in that it allows full visual access to the flow in the inner tube while being both thermally and electrically conductive. This permits observation of the two-phase flow regimes, which is not possible with metallic test sections. In this work the influence of EHD on the flow regimes and subsequent overall heat transfer is investigated for fixed inlet refrigerant mass flux of 100 kg/m²-s, inlet quality of 3%, and wall superheat of approximately 11.5°C. For these conditions the applied voltage across a concentric inner electrode and the outer wall of the tube was varied between 0 kV and 10 kV at 60 Hz AC. In particular, this work focuses on quantifying the level of overall enhancement that is achievable with EHD for this heat exchanger. This is done in the context of the additional heat extracted by the working fluid in the heat exchanger compared with the field-free case and the additional power penalties required to do so. Heat transfer enhancements of up to 1.8 -fold were realized in this heat exchanger. Even so, there were hydraulic power increases as well as electrical power required to achieve the heat transfer enhancement. It was found that the electrical power was the dominant penalty and that an overall enhancement of 40 times more heat power extracted than input required was achieved. Finally, a proportional–integral–derivative (PID) control system has been utilized in conjunction with a high-voltage amplifier in order to accurately control the heat transfer rate of the heat exchanger. To our knowledge this is the first solid-state control system of this type for a two-phase heat exchanger.     

Heat transfer coefficients under dry- and wet-surface conditions for a spirally coiled finned tube heat exchanger

In the present study, the average tube-side and air-side heat transfer coefficients in a spirally coiled finned tube heat exchanger under dry- and wet-surface conditions are experimentally investigated. The test section is a spiral-coil heat exchanger, which consists of six layers of concentric spirally coiled tube. Each tube is fabricated by bending a 9.6-mm outside diameter straight copper tube into a spiral coil of four turns. Aluminium fins with thickness 0.6 mm and outside diameter 28.4 mm are placed helically around the tube. The chilled water and the hot air are used as working fluids. The test runs are done at the air and water mass flow rates ranging between 0.02 and 0.2 kg/s and between 0.04 and 0.25 kg/s, respectively. The inlet-air and -water temperatures are between 35 and 60 °C and between 10 and 35 °C, respectively. The effects of the inlet conditions of both working fluids flowing through the heat exchanger on the heat transfer coefficients are discussed. New correlations based on the data gathered during this work for predicting the tube-side and air-side heat transfer coefficients for the spirally coiled finned tube heat exchanger are proposed.     

Boiling Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop of a Refrigerant Flowing Vertically Upward in Small Rectangular and Triangular Tubes

In the present study, experiments were performed to examine the characteristics of flow boiling heat transfer and pressure drop of a refrigerant R410A flowing vertically upward in small copper rectangular and triangular tubes with hydraulic diameters of 1.04 and 0.88 mm, respectively, for the development of a high-performance heat exchanger using small tubes or minichannels for air-conditioning systems. Their characteristics were clarified by comparing the previous experimental data of the small circular tube (1.00 mm internal diameter). In the rectangular and triangular tubes, the pressure drop was found to be slightly lower and the heat transfer was much better than in the circular tube.     

An Experimental Study on the Air-Side Heat Transfer Coefficient and the Thermal Contact Conductance in Finned Tubes

The objective of this experimental study is to evaluate the heat transfer coefficient outside a tube with annular transverse fins, derived from strips of copper mechanically bound and coupled outside. Water is used as the heating medium, in turbulent conditions and flowing at different temperatures inside the tube. Petukhov's correlation has been selected to calculate the water heat transfer coefficient in the tube. The experimental data obtained are compared with a correlation from literature, and a similar trend is observed. A fitting of the data provides a correlation for the three tubes of different external diameter (30 mm, 22 mm, and 15.6 mm) that agrees very well with the experimental values. The thermal contact conductance is identified as the main reason for the difference between data and the original Briggs and Young correlation. An estimation of the contact conductance between fins and tubes provides values between 3500 and 11000 W/m²-K, slightly increasing with the air Reynolds number (based on the external diameter of the tube), whose range is 2000 to 8000. The thermal contact resistance is estimated and its importance is confirmed, contributing 30 to 50% to the total air-side thermal resistance in the tubes used in the experiments.     

结构参数对全玻璃真空管太阳热水器夜间热损失的影响研究

文章建立了三维非稳态的全玻璃真空管太阳热水器的数值模型,分析了夜间散热时,该热水器内的流动和传热特征,并且在夜间同一工况下,模拟研究了贮热水箱保温材料的导热系数、保温厚度,以及真空管涂层的发射率对贮热水箱温度、真空管温度和该热水器夜间热损失的影响。分析结果表明:随着散热过程的持续进行,全玻璃真空管太阳热水器内温度分层情况越来越明显,内部流体的流速越来越小,真空管内静滞区域自下往上逐渐扩大;当贮热水箱保温材料的导热系数由0.035 W/(m·℃)减小至0.020 W/(m·℃)时,该热水器的夜间热损失减少了8.5%;当贮热水箱保温厚度由50 mm增加至60 mm时,该热水器的夜间热损失减少了5.0%;当真空管涂层的发射率由0.06减小至0.05时,该热水器的夜间热损失减少了4.0%。     

Fouling Management of Thermal Cracking Units

ABSTRACT

Visbreakers and other thermal cracking units are thermal process units in crude oil refineries that upgrade heavy petroleum, usually residual oils produced from atmospheric or vacuum distillation of crude oil. The associated process streams of these units consist of heavy hydrocarbons with very high viscosities and impurities, resulting in fouling of the heat exchangers used to cool or heat these streams. This paper presents a practical fouling analysis for thermal cracking units in a refinery in Germany. Fouling management at this refinery was initiated as part of the refinery energy-saving program. Following similar analysis of the refinery's crude preheat trains, heat exchanger networks associated in the thermal cracking units were modeled by entering the plant monitoring data, network topology, and heat exchanger geometries into a commercial heat exchanger network simulator, SmartPM. Fouling behaviors of vacuum residue streams and thermal cracker residue streams were identified and quantified. Both chemical reaction fouling and particulate fouling mechanisms were identified to be responsible for the fouling in these streams. Dynamic fouling models were fitted and used to predict fouling of these heavy petroleum streams, which fouled on both the shell and tube sides of the shell-and-tube heat exchangers.     

Influence of Injected Projectiles on the Induction Period of Crystallization Fouling

Projectiles of various shapes and hardness are increasingly used in process industries to mitigate fouling in tubular heat exchangers. It is a common practice to inject the projectiles at the early stage of fouling, though laboratory results are quite scarce in the open literature to assess whether this is an appropriate operating procedure. The present work aims at investigating the influence of injected projectiles on the induction period of CaSO₄ crystallization fouling. Fouling experiments have been performed in a plain heated tube. The projectiles were of spherical shape with diameter of 20.2 mm, that is, 1% bigger than the inner diameter of the heated tube, and were injected at various intervals. It has been observed that overall the attempted projectile reduced the induction period and thus expedited the fouling process. The asymptotic behavior of crystallization fouling is also approached more quickly but much less so than that of no injection. The induction period increased linearly with the flow velocity in case of no injection, while it was independent of the flow velocity when the projectile was injected as long as the injection rate was kept constant. Increasing the injection rate decreased the induction period and started the fouling process earlier. This is because the propulsion of projectiles induces air bubbles into the heat exchanger tube, which would in turn promote fouling to occur more quickly, and thus shorter induction periods are expected. Therefore, it is highly recommended to inject projectiles only after the induction period, to make use of the fouling-free operation during the induction period.     

Continuous Monitoring of Whey Protein Fouling Using a Nonintrusive Sensor

Abstract

In this work, a nonintrusive device to monitor fouling of a plate heat exchanger is presented. This device is composed of a flat electrical resistance covering a thermocouple located on the external face of a tubular holding section. The tubular holding section is placed immediately after the investigated plate heat exchanger, constituting the heating zone for which fouling monitoring is required. The principle of detection consisted in following the evolution of the measured temperature with time when a fixed thermal heat flux imposed by the resistance is dissipated through the temperature sensor. The measured temperature is supposed to vary with time since the inner temperature on the inner surface of the holding tubular zone is linked to the fouling growth. It is shown that the device response is highly correlated to the fouling occurring in the plate heat exchanger and could be a promising way for monitoring fouling rate (cheap and easy to implement avoiding cleanability drawbacks).     

The effect of limescale on heat transfer in injection molding

With the development of rapid prototyping technologies, injection mold inserts with conformal cooling systems can be manufactured from metal powder by direct metal laser sintering (DMLS). The conformal cooling channels are placed along the geometry of the injection molded product, thus they can extract more heat, and heat removal is more uniform than in the case of conventional cooling systems. But even the most efficient cooling circuits start to wear out, corrosion and limescale depositions precipitate on the wall of the cooling channel, which impede heat transfer from the mold to the coolant. The effect of the depositions cannot be neglected and the modeling of the impact on heat transfer is difficult. We developed a model to investigate the effect of limescale that formed on the wall of the cooling circuit. The thermal properties of the limescale are required for the simulation, therefore they were measured. We concluded that 2 mm thick limescale impedes heat removal so much that the more efficient conformal cooling system can only extract as much heat as the less efficient conventional system.     

换热表面结垢对U型管蒸汽发生器传热性能的影响分析

U型管蒸汽发生器的壳侧沉积了来自二回路系统中的腐蚀产物,结垢导致热量聚积在金属换热管上,容易造成垢下热点腐蚀,危害设备安全。为了明确结垢对蒸汽发生器传热性能的影响,本研究基于仿真平台APROS建立了U型管蒸汽发生器的分布式模型,并根据已公开论文中的数据进行了模型准确性验证;推导了污垢热阻与表面换热系数之间的关系式,分析了不同结垢厚度、位置对U型管蒸汽发生器换热区域的传热管壁面温度、流体温度、传热系数、热流密度等的影响程度。研究结果表明：随着结垢程度的加剧,蒸汽发生器的换热效率不断降低,出口蒸汽品质不断下降;结垢对沸腾段换热效率的影响比对过冷段换热效率的影响更大。     

Mathematical Model for Predicting the Heat Transfer Characteristics of a Helical-Coiled,Crimped, Spiral,Finned-Tube Heat Exchanger

This paper is a continuation of the authors’ previous work. Theoretical and experimental studies of the heat transfer characteristics of a helical-coiled, crimped, spiral, finned-tube heat exchanger in dry surface conditions are presented. The test section is a helical-coiled, finned-tube heat exchanger. The coil unit is composed of four concentric helical-coiled tubes of different diameters. All tubes are constructed by bending straight copper tube into seven layers of helical coil. Aluminum crimped spiral fins, with an outer diameter of 28.25 mm and a thickness of 0.5 mm, are connected around the tube. Hot water is used as a working fluid for the tube side, while ambient air is used for the shell side. The test runs are done at air mass flow rates ranging between 0.04 and 0.13 kg/s. The water mass flow rates are between 0.2 and 0.4 kg/s. The water temperatures are between 40 and 50°C. A mathematical model is developed and the simulation results show reasonable agreement with the experimental data.     

Experimental measurement of fouling resistance in the heat exchanger of a geothermal heating system

Experimental measurements of fouling resistance were carried out in a double-pipe heat exchanger (HE), with geothermal water flowing in the inner tube and tap water in the annular space. Tests were performed using waters from a geothermal well in central Serbia whose production temperature remained practically constant (52 °C) throughout the 90-day experiment. Analysis of the data showed that the change in fouling resistance was a linear function of time.     

复合热沉环路热管的热点散热性能模拟研究

针对芯片功耗与集成度提高而导致的局部热点问题,设计了一种用于芯片散热的复合热沉环路热管系统。建立了环路热管蒸发段模型,通过数值模拟的方法,证明了复合热沉环路热管系统能够降低热点温度,提高散热表面的温度均匀程度,且散热效果与热点的分布位置有关。当热点的热流密度为160W/cm2,热沉横向、纵向导热率分别为1500W/(m?K)、24W/(m?K)时,热点温度为88.88°C,相比于无热沉时降低了5.96°C。研究了不同热沉导热率下的热沉厚度对热点温度的影响,结果表明：若导热率各项同性,热点温度随热沉厚度的增加而降低,之后趋向不变;若为各项异性,存在最优的热沉厚度,使热点温度最低。     

Experimental Study of Fouling Resistance in Twisted Tube Heat Exchanger

This paper discusses fouling of a twisted tube heat exchanger under different conditions of fluid velocity and heat input. The fluid velocity was varied from 0.5 to 2.0 m/s, whereas the heat input to the heat exchanger was varied from 200 to 800 W. The experimental results show that for low fluid velocity of 0.5 m/s, the fouling resistance showed noticeable variation with respect to heat input, whereas for high velocity ranges, that is, 1.0–2 m/s, the variation in fouling resistance is less. The fouling in twisted tube steadily increases with time for different values of heat input from 1000 min onward for fluid velocity in the range from 1.0 to 2.0 m/s. It is also observed that fouling resistance curves overlap for various values of heat input. During the initial 1000 min of the test duration, the maximum fouling in a twisted tube heat exchanger decreases with increase in fluid velocity from 1.0 to 2.0 m/s. This behavior of the fouling rate can be attributed to the fact that at higher fluid velocity, flow becomes turbulent, and this in turn flushes the fouling particles. The time-series correlations for the fouling resistance are found to be logarithmic in nature.     

含二氧化硅气凝胶和相变材料三层玻璃窗热性能分析

为了研究含二氧化硅气凝胶和相变材料三层玻璃窗对严寒地区建筑能耗的影响,建立了相变材料层与其他透明壁层结合发生的传热数值模型。分析了含二氧化硅气凝胶和相变材料三层玻璃窗在不同二氧化硅气凝胶厚度、导热系数和不同保温材料下的动态热调节性能,得到了含二氧化硅气凝胶和相变材料三层玻璃窗内表面热流密度和液相率随时间的变化规律。结果表明:随着二氧化硅气凝胶厚度增加,总传热量降低和液相率增加,当二氧化硅气凝胶厚度为20～30 mm时,可以实现有效的利用太阳能;随着二氧化硅气凝胶导热系数增加,总传热量升高和液相率降低;当二氧化硅气凝胶的导热系数从0.022降低到0.014 W/(m·K)时,最大液相率从0.83增加到1.00。二氧化硅作为保温层比相变材料作为保温层具有更好的保温隔热作用。     

Solar thermochemical hydrogen: The heat source-process interface

A discussion of issues and considerations related to the interface between a solar heat source and a thermochemical hydrogen process and some details of a tubular heat exchanger operating as such an interface in a cavity-type receiver are presented. The issues include the temperature and heat input requirements for the endothermic reaction, type of receiver, heat storage, transient operations, and control. A thermal performance analysis of a tubular reactor/heat exchanger operating in a cavity-type solar receiver is applied to SO₃ decomposition. The analysis produces axial distributions of temperature tube wall and process fluid, reaction rate, conversion, velocity, density, pressure and residence time. Process fluid conditions at the inlet, tube characteristics, reaction kinetics and cavity operating temperature are inputs. The cavity temperature affects average heat flux and, therefore, heat-exchanger cost and receiver efficiency and, therefore, mirror field cost. A design which minimizes the combined cost may be found and examples are shown.