A Study on the Characteristic of Fouling Factor of a Laboratory Scale Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger

Abstract

Heat exchangers have been commonly used in industrial processes such as thermal power plant, chemical process, air conditioner device, refrigerator, even in some bigger energy processes like oil and gas. The performance of a heat exchanger is not permanently the same during daily and even annually uses whereas one of the most common causes is the fouling factor. In this research, the performance of a laboratory scale heat exchanger was observed by the inlet and outlet temperature of hot oil and cold water fluids based on characteristic of fouling factor. The flow rates were kept constant at 0.72 m 3 /hour for shell and 0.468 m 3 /hour for tube. The observation time was at 06.00 am, 12.00 am, 18.00 pm, 24.00 pm every day for six respective days. The result shows that ΔT changes irregularly during the observation while the fouling factor increases regularly and decreases significantly by the end of the observation.