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.     

Performance analysis of heat exchangers of an existing naphtha hydrotreating plant: A case study

This paper presents the performance evaluation of heat exchangers of an existing naphtha hydrotreating (NHT) plant. Originally, the NHT plant consisted of six plain tube heat exchangers connected in series. During plant revamps operation, three plain tubes were replaced with the three twisted tube heat exchangers. In this study, the heat exchangers data were collected from the plant before and after installation of the three twisted tube heat exchangers. The data were then analyzed to see the effects of the twisted tube configuration on fouling of heat exchangers and heat transfer. The analysis of the data showed that the twisted tube heat exchangers caused reduction in fouling resistance of tubes and increased the heat transfer. Also, the replacement of the three shells and tube type heat exchangers by the twisted tubes resulted in an increase of feed flow rate by about 7.85%. An economic analysis showed that the simple payback period for the twisted tube heat exchangers is 2.12 years. It can be concluded that considerable benefits in terms of energy and cost savings can be realized through the application of this innovative twisted tube heat exchanger technology in existing or new chemical plants.     

Air-side heat transfer and friction characteristics of biofouled evaporator under wet conditions

The effects of biofouling on air-side heat transfer and friction characteristics under wet conditions of three biofouled finned tube heat exchangers and one clean finned tube heat exchanger were investigated experimentally. Experimental results indicate that the biofouled fin efficiency of the evaporator decreases by 15.5% compared with the clean evaporator under the condition of the biofouled area ratio of 60% at the inlet air velocity of 2.0 m/s; The ranges of friction fouling factor and heat transfer fouling factor are 19.8%–43.1% and −15.6%−13.1%, respectively; a small quantity of biofouled particles can enhance heat transfer at low Reynolds number, and the enhancement effect decreases with the increase of Reynolds number.     

Air-side heat transfer and friction characteristics of biofouled evaporator under wet conditions

The effects of biofouling on air-side heat transfer and friction characteristics under wet conditions of three biofouled finned tube heat exchangers and one clean finned tube heat exchanger were investigated experimentally. Experimental results indicate that the biofouled fin efficiency of the evaporator decreases by 15.5% compared with the clean evaporator under the condition of the biofouled area ratio of 60% at the inlet air velocity of 2.0m/s; The ranges of friction fouling factor and heat transfer fouling factor are 19.8%―43.1% and ―15.6%―13.1%, respectively; a small quantity of biofouled particles can enhance heat transfer at low Reynolds number, and the enhancement effect decreases with the increase of Reynolds number.     

Velocity effect on electronic-antifouling technology to mitigate mineral fouling in enhanced-tube heat exchanger

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of flow velocity on an electronic-antifouling (EAF) treatment, which was considered to mitigate mineral fouling in a heat exchanger with cooling-tower water. Nine different tests were conducted with no-blowdown: six runs with an in-line EAF treatment and three runs with the EAF treatment at a side-stream loop. The flow velocities tested were 0.6, 1.2, 1.5 and 2.0 m/s. As the flow velocity was increased, the benefit of the in-line EAF treatment decreased. At a flow velocity of 0.6 m/s, the fouling resistance decreased by 80% in the case with the EAF treatment compared with that in the no-treatment case for both in-line and side-stream EAF treatments.     

微粒污垢的特性分析

利用微粒污垢的一个预测模型，结合实验结果，研究了管壳式换热顺管内微粒污垢的积聚特性，考察了颗粒质量分数，颗粒直径和流体速度对渐近污垢热阻的影响，提出了大、中、小粒子及未知尺寸粒子的尺寸界限的参考值。     

Study of the performance of physical water treatment with a solenoid coil to prevent mineral fouling. Part 1: Effect of a side-stream filtration

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of physical water treatment (PWT) with a solenoid coil on the fouling prevention in a heat exchanger with cooling-tower water. Five different tests were conducted in a concentric-tube heat exchanger at 12 cycles of concentration: no-treatment, PWT only, PWT plus 10% filtration, PWT plus 40% filtration, and 10% filtration only. A small flow velocity of 0.83 m/s and a high heat flux of 22.5x10⁴ W/m² were chosen to accelerate the fouling in the heat exchanger. The fouling resistance in the case with PWT plus 40% filtration was approximately 78% less than that in the no-treatment case.     

Experimental investigation of heat transfer and flow friction in a circular tube fitted with regularly spaced twisted tape elements

Experimental investigation of heat transfer and friction factor characteristics in a double pipe heat exchanger fitted with regularly spaced twisted tape elements, were studied. The inner and outer diameters of the inner tube are 50.6 and 25.8 mm, respectively and cold and hot water were used as working fluids in shell side and tube side. The twisted tapes were made of the stainless steel strip with thickness of 1 mm and the length of 1500 mm. They were inserted in the test tube section in two different cases: (1) full-length typical twisted tape at different twisted ratios (y = 6.0 and 8.0), and (2) twisted tape with various free space ratios (S = 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0). The results, obtained from the tube with twisted tape insert, were compared with those without twisted tape. The results show that the heat transfer coefficient increased with twist ratio (y). Whereas the increase in the free space ratio (S) would improve both the heat transfer coefficient and friction factor. The results from each case were correlated for Nusselt number and friction factor. Subsequently, the predicted Nusselt number and friction factor from the correlations were plotted to compare with the experimental data. It was found that Nusselt number was within ± 15% and ± 10% for friction factor.     

Heat transfer and pressure drop performance of twisted oval tube heat exchanger

Twisted oval tube heat exchanger is a type of heat exchanger that aims at improving the heat transfer coefficient of the tube side and also decreasing the pressure drop of the shell side. In the present work, tube side and shell side heat transfer and pressure drop performances of a twisted oval tube heat exchanger has been experimentally studied. The tube side study shows that the tube side heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop in a twisted oval tube are both higher than in a smooth round tube. The shell side study shows that the lower the modified Froude number Fr_M, the higher the shell side heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop. In order to comparatively analyze its shell side performance of the heat exchanger, a rod baffle heat exchanger with similar size of the twisted oval tube heat exchanger is designed and its performance is calculated with Gentry's method. The comparative study shows that the heat transfer coefficient of the twisted oval tube heat exchanger is higher and the pressure drop is lower than the rod baffle heat exchanger. In order to evaluate the overall performance of the twisted oval tube heat exchanger, a performance evaluation criterion considering both the tube side and shell side performance of a heat exchanger is proposed and applied. The analyze of the overall performance of the twisted oval tube shows that the twisted oval tube heat exchangers works more effective at low tube side flow rate and high shell side flow rate.     

Effect of Geometry and Flow Conditions on Particulate Fouling in Plate Heat Exchangers

This article describes particulate fouling experiments performed on small-scale and full-scale plate heat exchangers for three different corrugation angles (30 deg, 45 deg and 60 deg). The velocity effect has been studied as well as the particle type and concentration effects. The test duration ranges between 20 and 1,500 h in order to reach asymptotic behavior. The results clearly indicate that the corrugation angle has a major influence on the asymptotic fouling resistance. Increasing the corrugation angle leads to lower values for the fouling resistance. Furthermore, for a given corrugation angle, the asymptotic fouling resistance is inversely proportional to the velocity squared. Finally, the asymptotic fouling resistance is proportional to the particle concentration. Fouling mitigation can be obtained by taking into account at the design stage the heat exchanger geometry and fluid velocity.     

Twisted bundle heat exchangers performance evaluation by CFD (CJ12/5054)

Shell and tube heat exchanger with single twisted tube bundle in five different twist angles, are studied using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and compared to the conventional shell and tube heat exchanger with single segmental baffles. Effect of shell-side nozzles configurations on heat exchanger performance is studied as well. Heat transfer rate and pressure drop are the main issues investigated in the paper. The results show that, for the same shell-side flow rate, the heat transfer coefficient of heat exchanger with twisted tube bundle is lower than that of the heat exchanger with segmental baffles while shell-side pressure drop of the former is even much lower than that of the latter. The comparison of heat transfer rate per unit pressure drop versus shell-side mass flow rate shows that heat exchanger with twisted tube bundle in both cases of perpendicular and tangential shell-side nozzles, has significant performance advantages over the segmental baffled heat exchanger. Optimum bundle twist angles for such exchangers are found to be 65 and 55° for all shell side flow rates.     

Experimental and numerical study of convective heat transfer and fluid flow in twisted oval tubes

Twisted oval tube heat exchanger is a type of heat exchanger aims at decreasing the pressure drop of the shell side. In the present study, heat transfer and pressure drop performances of twisted oval tube have been studied experimentally and numerically. The experimental study of the twisted oval tube shows that heat transfer process can be enhanced but also with an increasing of pressure drop when compared with the smooth round tube. The effects of geometrical parameters on the performance of the twisted oval tube have been analyzed numerically. The result reveals that the heat transfer coefficient and friction factor both increase with the increasing of axis ratio a/b, while both decrease with the increasing of twist pitch length P. The influence of a/b and P on the overall performance of the twisted oval tubes are also studied. Aiming at obtaining the heat transfer enhancement mechanism of the twisted oval tube, secondary flow, total velocity and temperature distributions of flow section are given. From the analysis it can be concluded that the emergence of twist in the twisted oval tube results in secondary flow. It exists in the form of spiral flow when a/b is big, but in the form of up and down when a/b is small. It is this secondary flow that changes the total velocity and temperature distributions of the twisted oval tube when compared with a smooth oval tube with the same sectional geometric parameters. Then the synergy angle between velocity vector and temperature gradient is reduced and the heat transfer process is enhanced.     

壳管式海水换热器污垢状况的火用评价方法研究

分析了壳管式海水换热器管程结垢后换热强度及流动压降变化对换热器火用损失的影响,提出了一种利用(火用)损失系数评价换热器污垢状况的方法.该方法比通过检测污垢热阻评价换热器污垢状况的方法更全面,更简捷.     

“Zero Fouling” Self-Cleaning Heat Exchanger

Conventional shell and tube heat exchangers sometimes have to use two severely fouling process streams, one in the tubes and one in the shell. This paper presents the design of a self-cleaning heat exchanger that applies the self-cleaning mechanism in the tubes of two parallel bundles handling the fouling process streams. For the transfer of heat between both bundles, a small circulating flow of conditioned water is used as an intermediate fluid, a fraction of which evaporates on the outside of the tubes of the high-temperature bundle and condenses on the outside of the tubes of the low-temperature bundle. This novel design, which consists of two parallel bundles in one shell, experiences very high film coefficients at the outside surface of both tube bundles and does not suffer from any fouling. Therefore, it is referred to as a “zero fouling” self-cleaning heat exchanger. In this paper, a conventional severely fouling crude oil preheater will be compared with a zero fouling self-cleaning heat exchanger for the same service.     

Indirect thermosiphon flat-plate solar collector performance based on twisted tube design heat exchanger filled with nanofluid

Stationary solar collector such as flat-plate collector is a thermal device, which traps solar energy and converts it into heat that can be used in industrial and domestic applications such as water heating. Flat-plate collector thermal performance enhancement is investigated in this research paper. Two cross-sectional geometries of the tube in the heat exchanger were investigated; a normal circular tube and a twisted tube were used in the experiment. The aim of the twisted tube exchanger is to enhance the performance of heat transfer of the tubes and to reduce the shell pressure drop; flat-plate solar collector is the used application to study the heat exchanger performance. Both twisted tubes heat exchanger and normal circular tubes heat exchanger were examined in the same location and conditions with the same solar collector, both were used in the heat exchanger to study their effect, with two different working fluids, which are distilled water and multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT)/water nanofluid. The system shows an increase in the performance when twisted tubes were used in the system compared with the circular tubes in both distilled water and MWCNT/water nanofluid by 12.8% and 12.5%, respectively, with an improvement by 34% for twisted tubes with MWCNT compared with normal circular tubes with distilled water.     

椭圆形换热单管积灰特性的数值模拟研究

椭圆形换热管作为一种强化换热元件,在抗积灰性能方面具有一定优势.本文基于ANSYS FLUENT软件平台建立了一套模拟程序,针对椭圆形换热单管的积灰特性展开了数值模拟研究.重点研究了换热管的椭圆度、烟气流速以及飞灰颗粒粒径对飞灰沉积特性的影响.研究表明,当换热管的椭圆度在1～2之间变化时,5～100μm粒径的颗粒沉积率...     

Study of the Effect of Fin-and-Tube Heat Exchanger Fouling on its Structural Performance

This paper presents the thermal and structural analysis of high temperature fin-and-tube heat exchanger. Water flowing in tubular space and flue-gas flowing in the intertubular space, were considered as working fluids. The effect of limescale fouling on thermal and structural performance of heat exchanger was studied. The analysis considered an industrial heat exchanger, which failure occur from time to time. The expert inspection, after the failure indicated the existence of fouling layer within the heat exchanger tubes. In order to understand the reasons of heat exchanger failure, a detailed fluid flow analysis (both in the tubular and intertubular spaces) was performed. The analysis indicated that the silicate limescale fouling layer with thermal conductivity of 0.35 W/(mK) and thickness up to 1.5 mm existing in the tube, may increase the tube wall temperature even more than 150°C. The study also includes the impact of outer tube wall surface fouling with thickness of 0.2 mm and heat transfer coefficient of 2 W/(mK). As a result, the compressible stresses may increase over three times compared to the situation where the tube wall fouling does not exist.     

颗粒污垢诱导期影响因素的实验研究

本研究是在管外水浴温度50℃和相同管内工质入口温度的条件下,进行了弧线管及其对应光管在浓度、流速不同时的颗粒污垢诱导期对比性实验.结果表明,这几种因素都在不同程度上影响着污垢形成的诱导期.希望对以后换热设备的设计及运行能起到一定的指导作用.     

Influence of gas velocity on particulate fouling of exhaust gas recirculation coolers

The objective of this research is to study the influence of gas flow velocity on particulate fouling of exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) coolers. An experimental setup has been designed and constructed to simulate particulate fouling in EGR coolers in diesel engines. The setup consists of soot generator, gas/particle flow heater, testing section for EGR coolers and finally an exhaust system. Two sets of fouling experiments have been performed with and without water injection, and the gas velocity in each set has varied between 30, 70 and 120 m/s. The concentration of soot particles in the gas flow is 100 mg/m³, and the average diameter of the particles is 130 nm with a standard deviation of 55 nm. It has been found that the thermal resistance and thickness of the fouling layer and the fouling rate decrease as the gas velocity in the EGR cooler increases. If EGR coolers are operated with a gas velocity, which is just lower than the critical flow velocity for the largest particle in the flow, quick deterioration of the thermal performance of the heat exchanger will nevertheless occur. This strongly indicates that the gas velocity should exceed a certain critical flow velocity in order to prevent particulate fouling. In addition, the presence of water vapour in the gas flow improves the thermal performance of the cooler and decreases the fouling rate, and its influence decreases as the gas velocity increases.     

Experimental study of thermo-hydraulic and fouling performance of enhanced heat exchangers

The present study investigated the effect of two tube inserts (wire coil and wire mesh) on the heat transfer enhancement, pressure drop and mineral salts fouling mitigation in tube of a heat exchanger. A 3/4-in. tube that is heated by band heaters, is used which simulated a tube of heat exchanger. Working fluid is water with certain quality. The heat transfer rate averagely increased by 22–28% for wire coil (p/d = 0.125, e/d = 0.00375) and 163–174% for wire mesh (medium density) over a plain tube value, depending on type of tube insert, density of wire torsion and flow velocity. However, the pressure drop also increased substantially by 46% for wire coil and 500% for wire mesh. Wire coil insert with vibration mitigate mineral salts fouling (scaling) about 34%, and wire mesh have no effect on scaling, however it sometimes increased deposit rate.