Fouling and its effect on the thermal performance of heat exchanger tubes

Abstract

The phenomena of fouling and corrosion in heat exchanger tubes commonly encountered in industrial practice are reviewed in two phases. In the first phase, the influence of physical and chemical properties of petroleum crude on scaling and fouling are reviewed. Further, in the second phase a generalized hypothesis is provided for unsteady analysis as function of time with the aid of logarithmic, exponential and Power law variation of fouling factors with time. The time dependent thermal characteristics of typical parallel and counter flow heat exchangers are established with the aid of time dependent fouling factors. The approach presented is in good agreement with the reported values of a petroleum refinery. Thus, a method to estimate the critical period for maintenance of the heat exchanger is established treating fouling as a time variable occurrence.