Infrared thermography observations of crystallization fouling in a plate heat exchanger
Jure Berce, Matevž Zupančič, Matic Može, Iztok Golobič
Abstract
Heat exchanger performance is significantly reduced in the presence of impurities in one or both fluid streams, frequently by deposits of inversely soluble salts. Accordingly, immense efforts were and still are spent to combat, predict, and investigate such fouling problems to mitigate the reduction of heat transfer performance. In this study, calcium carbonate crystallization fouling in a corrugated plate heat exchanger was investigated. Fouling was monitored using temperature and flow measurements, and, for the first time, coupled with infrared thermography observations. We show a clear and measurable local difference between clean and fouled conditions, regardless of operating conditions. Infrared measurements of temperature permit conclusions about flow distribution and the spatial location of areas with severe fouling. Compared to the clean state, completely skewed isotherms after fouling point out channel blockage and flow obstructions, resulting in large scale flow re-distribution within the channel. The presented results exhibit a clear benefit of this approach for heat exchanger fouling studies and serve as a foundation for future research of dynamic operation, transient response, and computational models.