The impact of fouling on performance evaluation of evaporative coolers and condensers

Fouling of evaporative cooler and condenser tubes is one of the most important factors affecting their thermal performance, which reduces effectiveness and heat transfer capability with time. In this paper, the experimental data on fouling reported in the literature are used to develop a fouling mod...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of energy research 2005-11, Vol.29 (14), p.1313-1330
Main Authors: Qureshi, Bilal A., Zubair, Syed M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied sciences
Devices using thermal energy
Energy
Energy. Thermal use of fuels
evaporative condensers
evaporative coolers
Exact sciences and technology
fouling model
Heat exchangers (included heat transformers, condensers, cooling towers)
Heat transfer
Theoretical studies. Data and constants. Metering
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Summary:Fouling of evaporative cooler and condenser tubes is one of the most important factors affecting their thermal performance, which reduces effectiveness and heat transfer capability with time. In this paper, the experimental data on fouling reported in the literature are used to develop a fouling model for this class of heat exchangers. The model predicts the decrease in heat transfer rate with the growth of fouling. A detailed model of evaporative coolers and condensers, in conjunction with the fouling model, is used to study the effect of fouling on the thermal performance of these heat exchangers at different air inlet wet bulb temperatures. The results demonstrate that fouling of tubes reduces gains in performance resulting from decreasing values of air inlet wet bulb temperature. It is found that the maximum decrease in effectiveness due to fouling is about 55 and 78% for the evaporative coolers and condensers, respectively, investigated in this study. For the evaporative cooler, the value of process fluid outlet temperature Tp,out varies by 0.66% only at the clean condition for the ambient wet bulb temperatures considered. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
ISSN:0363-907X
1099-114X
DOI:10.1002/er.1120