Fouling and enhancement interactions

Abstract

Fouling has been a major barrier to the wide application of enhanced surfaces and to the use of various types of compact heat exchangers. However, data is now being accumulated from laboratory experiments which suggest that the fouling rates of plain and enhanced tubes are similar, although this data base is still very limited. In addition, there is a need to obtain a fundamental understanding of the fouling process of enhanced surfaces. These data and knowledge based are necessary to select the most cost-effective surface geometry for each end-user application. This symposium volume contains fourteen papers that focus on fouling and enhancement interaction although, for some, the emphasis is on either the enhancement or fouling aspect. The first eight papers deal directly with fouling and enhancement interactions and contribute to the technology base needed for the selection of the most cost-effective enhancement geometries. The next five papers focus on surface enhancements and the last paper discusses the effectiveness of magnetic effects on retarding the scale formation in brines.