Evaluate heat exchanger fouling G1 Generally, Plant Notebook publishes several short articles on various topics of interest to the engineer involved in operating, maintaining or designing a cheri- cal-process-industries plant. In this issue, we deviate from that practice slightly by focusing on a single topic— the fouling of heat-exchange equipment. Fouling of heat exchangers—the accumulation of de- posits on their heat-transfer surfaces over a period of time—results in a degradation of thermal performance, ‘accompanied by an increase in operating costs. Plant operating engineers must be able to detect fouling aua assess its degree and rate of occurrence, then establish a regular maintenance schedule and an as- needed remedial-action plan, These could include soot. blowing with air or steam, washing with water, mechani cal cleaning, o chemical cleaning with an acid or alkaline solution, The first of these two articles-discusses assessing the degree of fouling in a heat exchanger, while the second. presents a graphical method of monitoring fouling over Cynthia Fabian Mascone, Eior Assessing fouling in heat exchangers KN. Murty* G To account for the gradual decrease in performance due to the accumulation of material on heat-transfer surfaces, the engineer incorporates a fouling factor into the design of a heat exchanger and provides excess surface area to allow for some fouling, During the initial operating period, orafter it has been cleaned, the unit can be expected to perform better than its rated heat-transfer capacity. However, with extended operation, the performance will gradually begin to dete- Hiorate. When the actual fouling resistance (j,) exceeds that for which the exchanger was designed (the design fouling factor, denoted j), the thermal performance (represented by U, for the actual [measured] overall heat-transfer coefficient) will drop below the rated cape bility (Wig, the rated (design) overall heat-transier coefficient) Coefficient of performance ‘The exchanger's coefficient of performance, U4/U', can be monitored and is a measure of fouling. This ratio ‘an readily be determined: (will be known from design data, and U, can be calculated by dividing the actual heat duty by the product of the surface area and the log mean temperature difference. When U,/U, drops to, say, 80%. cleaning can be done to prevent further deterioration in performance. Uy/Ugis dependent on U'zand the difference between the actual and design fouling factors, and is given by: J 1 aw Te > Te Cota Bhat Hea Bcc. Lid. Cape Resear an Deseo Ds 4a (-—_———— - 200_300 500 1,000 bes pe Leo I fra bie “ [ea censaene To | os 06: | {200 os- {300 500 oa 1,000 mi or L ~0005" 0.003 -0.001 00.007 0.003 o.005 fa) ni VR Eu Coefficient of performance depends on the difference between the actual and design fouling factors Le re ae en‘This can be rearranged and solved for f; = fet Wy — Vt e The figure illustrates the relationship between U,/Ug and (f — je) for different values of Uy As can be seen, the same degree of fouling, ie. /y — fi), will veduce the coefficient of performance by dilfer- ent amounts depending on Us. For example, if (f, — fa) 6.001 (h)(fi)¢F)/Btu, the thermal performance of a gas cooler with Uy = 20 Beu/(h)(€)CF) will be reduced by only about 2% and that of a process condenser with Uy = 200 Bru/(h){fe?)(F) by about 17%, while that of a steam condenser having a Uy = 1,000 Beu/(h)(fi?)CF) will be diminished by 50%. eeeSSSSSSSeEeeEee Monitor fouling graphically V. Ganapathy* C1 Fouling in a boiler or gas-liquid heat exchanger will cause a decrease in thermal perlormance, which will be reflected in a lowered value of the overall heat-transfer coefficient. The plant engineer can keep track of the degree of fouling and its rate of occurrence by monitor. ing U (and thus the fouling factor, #), as a function of flowrate, over time, When fouling progresses to a certain point, corrective measures (.e., shutdown for inspection and/or cleaning) can be taken—a reasonable action level would be f>0.03 for products of fuckoil or coal combustion, Procedure The method presented here is quite simple. ‘The gas Aowrate and the inlet and outlet temperatures of both ‘Duids are measured. Using the heat-transfer surface area and the heat capacity of the gas, which are known, and the measured temperatures, the overall heat-ransfer coefficient is calculated. Then, 1/U is plotted against 1-08 f the gas flows inside the tubes or V—05 ifthe gas flows outside the tubes. (Note that in the figure the top horizontal-axis scale, for W-9S, was compressed by a factor of ten for convenience. This does not affect the estimation of the fouling factor or the degree of fouling) ‘This procedure is initially done when the unit is installed or immediately after it has been cleaned. Sever- al readings are taken over a period of a few days, st different Howrates and/or temperatures—whatever con- ditions occur due to normal process variations. ‘These points are plotted and a line drawn through them. The line is extrapolated leftward to W= 20, and the intercept B gives an estimate of f under clean conditions, ‘Then periodically, once every few months oF so, the procedure is repeated, each time taking several readings ‘over varying conditions, within a timespan of about a 0288-35 oasta ot Fo 1, 1,000 tum og 7200 100 70 so 4030 20 15 10 Gas outside tubes * slo mo 0D Ae EF 1716 Gavinside woes 1,000 toys Keep track of fouling by monitoring the overall heat-transfer coefficient as @ function of flowrate 42 > ERRRERTReTaRerseionaneOperating data for firetube boiler over 16 months a 7 To Original condition cate Peeereeee 15000 1,000 50, 17000 1,000 a6 8 20.000 105047710 25.000 1050 aoe 115 zao00 1050 ash 37000 1000 S105 Attar 6 months 15000 1000 aan 20.000 © 1.000 48.2, 23,000 © 1000401 10.25, 25.000 1000512, t0 30,000 105052212 37600 105056513 After 16 months 16000 1,000 siz 17000 119005225 70000 1105053875 22000 10580 sss— ag 30000 1080 ss. 10 37,000 11050588 10.75 week or less, and plotting a line. (The lines should be approximately parallel). The new fouling factor can be approximated by the value of B read from the vertical axis, and the degree of fouling that has occurred is represented visually by the distance hetween the line for the current conditions and the clean line. Basis From the energy balance around 2 watertube or fire- tube waste-heat boiler: Q= WG-7) v/a “bal the overall heat-transfer coefficient can be expressed as: v= Xo mfhirg @ Shee w ‘The heat-transfer coefficient of the gas dominates the overall heat-transfer coefficient. For firetube boilers and heat exchangers where the gas flows inside the tubes: 43 Nomenclature | 4 Constants Specific heat of the hot uid, Beu/(Ib)CF) ff Fouling factor Log mean temperature difference, ‘F. Q Rate of heat transfer, Buu/h 5 Surface area for heat transfer, 2 T, —— Hot-fluid inlet temperature, Hot-fiuid outlet temperature {) Cold-fluid inlet temperature, "F ', Cold-fluid outlet temperature, "F Saturation temperature of hot fluid, U Overall heat-tranfer coefficient, | Buu/(h) (f)CF) W Flowrate of the fluid controlling the heat transfer, Ib/h eS et | 1/U = AW-08 +B @) and for watertube boilers and heat exchangers where the gas flows over or outside plain or finned tubes: vo 164 B “ ‘The constant, which i the slope of the line of 1/U'vs W-08or I/Uvs. W-06, incorporates the fluid’s thermal and transport properties at its bulk temperature, and accounts for the contribution of fouling to overall heat transfer (in fact, B = ff) av Example ‘The table summarizes observations about a firetube wwaste-heat boiler made over a period of time. (7, and 7 are the inlet and outlet temperatures of the hot fluid, inF) ‘The points were plotted, using the bottom horizontal- axis scale labeled "Gas inside tubes,” as shown on the figure. The lowest line on the figure represents the initial operating conditions when essentially no fouling was present, and the fouling factor was about 0.002. After six months, represented by the middle line, fouling had increased somewhat; the new fouling factor was about 0.016, which is still within reasonable limits After 16 months, represented by the upper line, foul- ing had increased significantly, to a new fouling factor of about 0.084, indicating that the boiler tubes should be cleaned,