Atmospheric Residue in U-Tube heat exchanger
Atmospheric Residue in U-Tube heat exchanger
(OP)
Hello all,
It is "common practice / conservative design" not to use u-tubes for potential fouling fluids like atmospheric residue from crude distillation, in the thermal design it is considered by the fouling factor.
What are the reasons not to use u-tubes? since the flow in the U part is in same velociy, on the other hand there are now techniques to clean fouled u-tubes (see CONCO and others).
Thanks for advise.
Regards,
roker
It is "common practice / conservative design" not to use u-tubes for potential fouling fluids like atmospheric residue from crude distillation, in the thermal design it is considered by the fouling factor.
What are the reasons not to use u-tubes? since the flow in the U part is in same velociy, on the other hand there are now techniques to clean fouled u-tubes (see CONCO and others).
Thanks for advise.
Regards,
roker





RE: Atmospheric Residue in U-Tube heat exchanger
The common practice and conservative engineering approach will remain always valid, particularly when the consequences of failure are considerable. However, the conservative engineering practice does not exclude U-tubes in fouling service, provided careful design is applied. If the consequence of blocked/fouled tubes in the exchanger would only be an additional outing for cleaning (and you have the confidence that your cleaning process gives an acceptable run between outages), the U-tubes are fine. Remember, mechanical cleaning can be applied for straight tubes, not U-tubes.
cheers,
gr2vessels
RE: Atmospheric Residue in U-Tube heat exchanger
thanks,
please see link for cleaning u-tubes:
htt
regards,
roker
RE: Atmospheric Residue in U-Tube heat exchanger
cheers,
gr2vessels