A study on the formation of fouling in a heat exchanging system for river water

When the water flowing inside of the heat transfer equipment such as heat exchangers, condensers, and boilers is heated, calcium, magnesium sulfate, and other minerals in the water are deposited and built up for scales on the heat transfer surfaces. When those scales accumulate on the heat transfer surfaces, their performance of the heat transfer become progressively reduced due to the increase of the heat transfer resistance. The mechanism of this reduced heat transfer is called fouling. This study investigated the formation of the fouling in a heat exchanger with river and tap water flowed inside of it as a coolant. In order to visualize the formation of the fouling and to measure the fouling coefficients, a lab-scale heat exchanging system was used. Based on the experimental results, it was found that the formation of fouling for river water was quite different with the formation for tap water