Numerical Investigation of Simultaneously Deposition and Re-Entrainment Fouling Processes in Corrugated Tubes by Coupling CFD and DEM

The deposition of particulate fouling on flue gas heat exchanger surfaces results in decreased heat transfer. Even though an increasingly amount of work is done on the design of clean heat exchanger surfaces, the effect of fouling remains a challenge. As some heat exchanger designs are more prone to fouling deposit than others, detailed fouling considerations have to be taken into account in the initial design process of new heat exchangers.
This study presents initial simulations of particulate fouling in the corrugated tube heat exchanger type. Using a mechanistic Euler-Lagrange approach, where Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software OpenFOAM is coupled to the Discrete Element Method (DEM) software LIGGGHTS using the coupling software CFDEM. A four-way coupling is used to model fluid-particle and particle-particle interactions and thereby allowing for a particle fouling layer to build up along the heat surfaces.