Optimization of Flow Direction to Minimize Particulate Fouling of Heat Exchangers

The influence of flow direction with respect to gravity on particulate fouling of heat exchangers is investigated experimentally to determine the optimal flow direction to minimize fouling. Four orientations of flow have been investigated: horizontal flow, upward flow, downward flow, and a flow under an angle of 45°. It is observed that fouling starts at the point of stagnation irrespective of the flow direction, and also at the top of the heat exchanger tubes. Particulate fouling grows from these two points till they meet and the fouling layer covers the whole surface of the heat exchanger tube. Fouling at the upper half of the tubes is much faster than the lower half of the tubes, and the fouling rate is faster at the bottom tubes of the heat exchanger section than at the upper tubes. The best orientation for lingering particulate fouling is the downward flow, where the flow stagnation point coincides with the top point of the heat exchanger tubes and the growth of the fouling layer only starts from one point.     

Removal of gas-side particulate fouling layers by foreign particles as a function of flow direction

Removal of particulate fouling layers by externally injected particles as a function of flow direction with respect to gravity is investigated experimentally. Three orientations of flow have been investigated, horizontal flow, upward flow and a downward flow. It is found that fouling starts at the point of stagnation irrespective of the flow direction, and also starts at the top point of the heat exchanger tubes. Particulate fouling grows from these two points except for the downward flow, were the flow stagnation point coincides with the top point of the heat exchanger tubes and the growth of the fouling layer starts only from one point. It was not possible to remove the fouling layer in case of a horizontal and an upward flow by the externally injected particles, however in case of a downward flow most of the fouling layers were removed by the external particles. It can be concluded that the downward flow is the best flow orientation to linger particulate fouling and for removal of fouling layers by externally injected particles.     

Experimental Analysis of the Effects of Particulate Fouling on Heat Exchanger Heat Transfer and Air-Side Pressure Drop for a Hybrid Dry Cooler

It is well known that significant fouling by particulate matter can have a deleterious effect on the performance of enhanced surface heat exchangers, and the same is true for hybrid heat exchangers. Hybrid heat exchangers are heat exchangers that are typically run in dry mode to reject heat. When the ambient conditions require more heat rejection than can be provided by sensible heat transfer, a water pump is turned on and water flows over the fins, and the evaporation of water provides a further cooling effect. Fouling in dry-mode operation is physically similar to that of air-cooled heat exchangers, but in evaporative mode the flow of the water over the coil eliminates the impact of fouling. A hybrid dry cooler heat exchanger of 60 cm × 60 cm frontal area has been installed in a well-instrumented wind tunnel to measure the heat exchanger's performance. Hot water flows through the coil to provide the load, and air flows over the coil to provide cooling. During evaporative mode operation another stream of water flows over the outside face of the coil, adhering mainly to the louvered fins. The louvered fins are specially designed for optimized water flow during wetting mode. The fins are made of aluminum, the tubes are copper, and protection against corrosion is realized by a special E-coating. This coil has been tested clean and fouled with ASHRAE standard dust, for both dry and wet operation. Results are presented for the air-side pressure drop and overall heat transfer conductance of the coil under all conditions for which 50% increases in air-side pressure drop are found under heavy fouling. The influence of fouling on heat transfer is small. Also, using the wetting water to wash the fouling off the coil is investigated and is found to be of some limited utility.     

Thermal performance criteria of elliptic tube bundle in crossflow

In this work, the thermofluid characteristics of the elliptic tube bundle in crossflow have been investigated. Experimental and numerical investigations of the turbulent flow through bundle of elliptic tubes heat exchanger are carried out with a particular reference to the circular tube bundle. The investigation covers the effects of key design parameters of Reynolds numbers (5600–40,000), minor-to-major axis ratios (0.25, 0.33. 0.5 and 1) and flow angles of attack (0–150°). Five bundles of elliptic tube heat exchangers with different axis ratios were designed and manufactured in staggered manner. Numerical CFD modeling using finite volume discretization method was conducted to predict the system performance extensively. Four methods were presented to resort a metric that expresses the thermal performance criteria of the elliptic tube bundle. The results indicated that, increasing the angle of attack clockwise until 90° enhances the convective heat transfer coefficient considerably. The maximum thermal performance under constraint of a fixed pumping power or a mass flow rate was obtained at a zero angle of attack and the minimum thermal performance occurred at an angle of attack equals 90°. The best thermal performance of the elliptic tube heat exchanger was qualified with the lower values of Reynolds number, axis ratio and angle of attack.     

Finite element analysis of the flow and heat transfer of solid particles in moving beds

A numerical analysis for the flow and heat transfer of solid particles in moving beds of heat exchangers is presented. The solid particles pass through a bundle of heat source tubes as the result of the gravitational force. Heat energy is transferred through direct contact of particles with the heat source tubes. A viscous-plastic fluid model and a convective heat transfer model are employed in the analysis. The flow field dominantly determines the total heat transfer in the heat exchanger. As the velocities of solid particles around the heat source tubes increase, the heat transfer from the tubes also increases. Examples are presented to show the performance of the numerical model. The effect of flow on heat transfer has also been studied. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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.     

Biofouling Control with Ultrasound

The flow field in shell-and-tube heat exchangers with helical baffles was measured using laser Doppler anemometry (LDA). The influence on the velocity distribution, impulsive velocity by helix inclination angle, and flow rate was investigated. The influence on heat exchanging capability and flow resistance on velocity distribution was also investigated. The dimensions of the heat exchanger shell used in these experiments were 200 2 6 2 3,000 mm (inner diameter 2 wall thickness 2 length). The heat exchanger was made of organic glass and the tube bundle consisted of 52 tubes with external diameter of 15 mm. Six different inclination angles were designed in double-helix style: 30°, 35°, 40°, 42°, 45°, and 50°. The working flow medium under normal temperature was service water. Generally, the linear velocity and impulsive velocity will increase with decreasing helix inclination angle, which promotes the heat exchanging capability. With flow volume increasing, the velocity distribution along the diameter increases on average. The pressure drop increases with decreasing helix inclination angle. For all of the helix inclination angles tested, the minimum pressure loss took place at a certain Reynolds number; and at different helix inclination angles, the Reynolds number at which the minimum pressure loss occurs is different. In general, it was concluded that the optimum helix inclination angle depends on the Reynolds number of the working fluid on the shell side of heat exchanger.     

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.     

Computational Fluid Dynamics Analysis of a Heat Exchanger Provided with Helical Baffles

Abstract

In the article, a three-dimensional numerical solution of two real shell-and-tube heat exchangers, with different types of baffles, segmental, and pseudohelical, is presented, through the use of commercial codes, in order to evaluate the influence of the baffles type on heat exchanger performance. The parameters to be evaluated, which influence the efficiency of the thermal exchange and the maintenance and pumping costs, are the pressure drops, the heat transfer coefficient, and the fouling resistance. The fluid dynamic study of the shell-and-tube heat exchanger is conducted under stationary flow conditions. In the article, furthermore, the results of the thermohydraulic analysis, performed under stationary flow conditions, more "helical baffles" exchangers, with different baffles helix angle, are presented. Exchangers with pseudohelical baffles inclined by 7°, 20°, 30°, 40°, 45°, and 50° are analyzed. The simulations are carried out considering a real fluid, approximately incompressible, under laminar flow conditions. Finally, to verify the correctness of the results, they are compared with correlations in the literature.     

“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.     

不同纵向涡发生器流动传热的数值模拟

利用三维数值模拟的方法对带有3种异形纵向涡发生器的H型翅片椭圆管换热器的空气侧流动传热特性进行研究。基于H型翅片椭圆管束,讨论了在不同雷诺数下,纵向涡发生器的摆放位置、摆放攻角和形状对空气侧流动传热的影响。研究表明:纵向涡发生器能够将高能量的流体引向流速较低的壁面区域,使冷热流体之间的混合加剧,增强流体的湍流动能,进而达到强化传热的效果;与无纵向涡发生器的管束相比,带纵向涡发生器管束的传热效果有明显的提高;当纵向涡发生器后置时,换热器的传热效果最优;在雷诺数相同,攻角为30°时,流体的传热性能和阻力特性均达到最优;相同攻角摆放时,椭圆角矩形发生器的传热性能和阻力因子均优于其他两种形式的发生器。研究结果为烟气余热回收系统换热器传热性能强化提供理论依据。     

Numerical investigation of fouling on cross-flow heat exchanger tubes with conjugated heat transfer approach

Although fouling on heat exchanger tubes is extensively investigated, due to the lack of energy resources, the effects of fouling on heat exchangers is still an important area of study and gaining more and more attention every day. In this study we investigated the effects of fouling on heat transfer and flow structures numerically for cross-flow heat exchanger tube geometry. The distributions of temperature, heat transfer coefficient and heat flux at the surface of fouling were obtained for single and double layer fouling cases. In the analysis, Reynolds number and the blockage ratio were fixed to 100 and 0.1 respectively. We used ANSYS software in our analyses and compared some of our results with the literature.     

Modeling and Prediction of Shell-Side Fouling in Shell-and-Tube Heat Exchangers

Fouling is a challenging, longstanding, and costly problem affecting a variety of heat transfer applications in industry. Mathematical models that aim at capturing and predicting fouling trends in shell-and-tube heat exchangers typically focus on fouling inside the tubes, while fouling on the shell side has generally been neglected. However, fouling deposition on the shell side may be significant in practice, impairing heat transfer, increasing pressure drops, and modifying flow paths. In this paper, a new model formulation is presented that enables capturing fouling on the shell side of shell-and-tube heat exchangers including the effect of occlusion of the shell-side clearances. It is demonstrated by means of an industrial case study in a crude oil refinery application. The model, implemented in an advanced simulation environment, is fitted to plant data. It is shown to capture the complex thermal and hydraulic interactions between fouling growth inside and outside of the tubes, the effect of fouling on the occlusion of the shell-side construction clearances, and to unveil the impact on shell-side flow patterns, heat transfer coefficient, pressure drops, and overall exchanger performance. The model is shown to predict the fouling behavior in a seamless dynamic simulation of both deposition and cleaning operations, with excellent results.     

Influence of sintering on the growth rate of particulate fouling layers

This article addresses the question; why the gas-side temperature affects the rate of particulate fouling of heat exchangers? An experiment was carried out in a gas-cooler of a full-scale biomass gasifier to investigate the influence of the gas-side temperature on the strength, structure and growth rate of particulate fouling layers. It is observed that the particulate fouling rate in the gas cooler decreases with sintering, which is a function of the gas-side temperature. Detailed impaction experiments are carried out to investigate the influence of sintering on the removal of particles from a particulate fouling layer due to an incident particle impact as well as the sticking of an incident particle to a particulate fouling layer. Sintering of a fouling layer lowers significantly the ability of an incident particle to stick to the fouling layer or to remove particles out of the layer. However, particles that are still able to deposit on the sintered fouling layer will not sinter immediately, and can be removed due to the incident particles impact. The removal of newly deposited particles on a fouling layer due to incident particles becomes easier as sintering of the fouling layer takes place. Accordingly, it may be stated that sintering reduces the fouling rate of heat exchangers by lowering the deposition of new particles and increasing the removal rate of newly deposited particles. This explains why the growth rate of particulate fouling layers decreases with the gas-side temperature.     

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.     

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.     

Influences of bubble formation on different types of heat exchanger fouling

In this paper, a systematic comparison is performed to investigate fouling of suspended particles under forced convective and subcooled flow boiling heat transfer. For this purpose, two different types of fouling are separately considered: crystallization fouling of dissolved CaSO₄ particles in water and particulate fouling of suspended Al₂O₃ particles in n–heptane. The effect of hydraulic parameters such as fluid velocity and also bubble generation under subcooled flow boiling are studied. Results of the experiments demonstrate that creation of boiling condition in the heat exchanger has opposite influence in these two types of fouling. It means that bubble generation on the heat transfer surface promotes scale formation under crystallization fouling. This is due to the fact that increased bubble generation creates higher supersaturation beneath the vapor bubble, therefore, increasing the crystal concentration in the boundary layer. On the other hand, boiling condition inhibits the scale formation under particulate fouling because the suspended particles are repelled from the boundary layer by the strong turbulences created by the swarm of bubbles.     

Perfluoropolyethers Coatings Design for Fouling Reduction on Heat Transfer Stainless-Steel Surfaces

The scope of this research is to obtain a film coating on stainless-steel surfaces in order to reduce the interaction between the metal surface and the precipitates, so as to mitigate fouling in heat exchangers. Perfuoropolyethers were used to obtain nano-range fluorinated layers in order to make hydrophobic the stainless-steel surfaces. A pilot plant with two identical heat exchangers was built to investigate the ability of the hydrophobic coating of preventing fouling. The heat exchangers, installed in parallel, operated at the same temperature and pressure conditions, namely, laminar flow regime and inlet flow temperatures of 291–293 K for cold streams and 313–333 K for hot streams. We compared the heat transfer performance of the two heat exchangers. After a 5-month operation, the decrease in the heat transferred was 56% for the coated heat exchanger and 62% for the uncoated heat exchanger. Moreover, the increase of heat transfer resistance due to scale on the uncoated heat exchanger, with respect to the coated one, was three times higher.     

Air-cooled heat exchanger inlet flow losses

The primary purpose of this experimental investigation is to determine the influence that differences in air-cooled heat exchanger geometry have on heat exchanger inlet air flow losses. Heat exchanger geometry would not only include details pertaining to the heat exchanger finned tubes, but also the orientation of the heat exchanger finned surfaces with respect to the inlet air flow as well as to the inlet air angle of incidence on the heat exchanger. It is found that the inlet air flow losses are independent of the average air velocity through the heat exchanger. Inlet air flow losses increase with a decrease in the inlet air angle of incidence. The orientation of the heat exchanger finned surfaces has an effect on the inlet air flow losses and is primarily a function of the tube cross-sectional profile of the finned tubes. An equation based on the experimental results is formulated to calculate the heat exchanger inlet air flow losses. It is also shown that the geometric details of the heat exchanger finned tubes or heat exchanger core used in the construction of the heat exchanger could have a pronounced effect on the inlet air flow losses.     

A Large Eddy Simulation of Plate-Fin and Tube Heat Exchangers with Small Diameter Tubes

Plate-fin and tube heat exchangers are extensively studied both experimentally and numerically. However, data on the fluid flow and heat transfer in the exchanger passage with small diameter tubes have not been accumulated enough. With a large eddy simulation technique (LES), this study performs a detailed investigation of the fluid flow and heat transfer in a plate-and-tube channel with tubes of diameters as small as 5.2 mm. The conservation equations for mass, heat, and momentum were solved by the proposed LES model. It was found that the LES model is appropriate to predict the fluid flow and heat transfer. Compared to heat exchangers of larges tubes, the heat exchangers exhibit much higher heat transfer coefficients with small tubes. The fin efficiencies are improved with small tubes.