Fouling of Air Cooled Condensers On the Air Side
2012
Matune, Nicholas J.
As the electrical power demand increases and water resources become more limited, fouling on the air side of Air Cooled Condensers (ACC) is a growing concern. ACC's are widely used as a method to exhaust waste heat from power plants to the environment while using very little water. Generally fouling on the air side is neglected but with wider implementation of ACC, demands need to be considered to maximize efficiency. Air fouling is partially due to the following: pollen, dust, insects, leaves, and large debris. Fouling limits the convection heat transfer coefficient of the condenser and can cause an increase in backpressure to the turbine or incomplete condensing. Either case will result in a decrease in the plant efficiency and power output. The objective of this study was to experimentally and computationally calculate the convection heat transfer coefficient for both a clean and fouled condenser. Bee pollen was selected as the experimental fouling particle, and engineering data for similar particles were used for the computational model in ANSYS Fluent. Both the experimental and computational results have similar trends showing pollen has a negative impact on the heat transfer. The experimental results show between a 15% and 20% reduction in the coefficient of heat transfer while the computational results show between a 6% and 9% reduction. Suggestions for future work are included to further improve upon this research.
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