Monday, May 12, 2014

Effect of fouling on the thermal performance of condensers and on the water consumption in cooling tower systems

CATEGORY: WATER CONSERVATION
Proceedings of International Conference on Heat Exchanger Fouling and Cleaning, June 9-14, 2013, Budapest, Hungary
Effect of fouling on the thermal performance of condensers and on the water consumption in cooling tower systems
X. Wu (1) and L. Cremaschi (1)
xiaxiao.wu@okstate.edu , cremasc@okstate.edu
1 Oklahoma State University, School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Stillwater, OK
Abstract
Circulating water in cooling tower systems contains an excess amount of mineral ions. When this hard water is heated inside condensers, these minerals precipitate and deposition of unwanted material on the heat transfer surface reduces overall heat transfer performance. Fresh water is often used to mitigate fouling but then water conservation might become a concern.
This paper focuses on fouling effects on the thermal and hydraulic performance of condensers and on the water consumption of cooling twoere systems. Two braze plate heat exchangers and a smooth tube-in-tube heat exchanger were experimentally investigated under fouling operating conditions. A model for the mineral species dissociation and mineral precipitation on the heat transfer surfaces was developed.
By considering a semi-empirical relation for the fouling deposition strength factor, the simulation results predicted the fouling thermal resistance with an error of 30%. Model limitations and research needs for potential improvements are discussed.
Free Full Text Source: http://www.heatexchanger-fouling.com/papers/papers2013/19_Wu_F.pdf

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