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CFD modeling of fouling in crude oil pre-heaters

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DOI: 10.1016/j.enconman.2012.05.003

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 Energy Conversion and Management 64 (2012) 344–350

Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect

Energy Conversion and Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enconman

CFD modeling of fouling in crude oil pre-heaters

Mahmoud Bayat a,⇑, Javad Aminian b, Mansour Bazmi a, Shahrokh Shahhosseini b, Khashayar Sharifi a
a
Research Institute of Petroleum Industry (RIPI), West Blvd. Azadi Sport Complex, P.O. Box 14665-1998, Tehran, Iran
b
Department of Chemical Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST), P.O. Box 16765-163, Narmak, Tehran, Iran

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this study, a conceptual procedure based on the computational fluid dynamic (CFD) technique has been
Received 13 February 2010 developed to predict fouling rate in an industrial crude oil pre-heater. According to the developed CFD
Received in revised form 3 May 2012 concept crude oil was assumed to be composed of three pseudo-components comprising of petroleum,
Accepted 3 May 2012
asphaltene and salt. The binary diffusion coefficients were appropriately categorized into five different
groups. The species transport model was applied to simulate the mixing and transport of chemical spe-
cies. The possibility of adherence of reaction products to the wall was taken into account by applying a
Keywords:
high viscosity for the products in competition with the shear stress on the wall. Results showed a reason-
CFD
Modeling
able agreement between the model predictions and the plant data. The CFD model could be applied to
Crude oil new operating conditions to investigate the details of the crude oil fouling in the industrial pre-heaters.
Fouling Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Asphaltene
Pre-heater

1. Introduction
Crude oil fouling is a very complex phenomenon that occurs
due to the simultaneous activities of several chemical and physical
mechanisms. Some of these mechanisms occurring in pre-heat
exchangers of crude distillation units are deposition of waxes, salts
and corrosion products, chemical reaction fouling, sedimentation
and bio-fouling. The cost of fouling in refineries of industrialized
courtiers has been estimated to around $1.3 billion per year [1].
It arises from additional fuel required for the furnace, production
loss during undesirable shutdowns, off-line and on-line cleaning
devices and also environmental penalties. The role of asphaltene
and salt deposition in crude oil fouling is ambiguous. Panchal [1]
were the first to introduce ‘‘threshold fouling’’ concept. The con-
cept provides a semi-empirical basis for interpretation of fouling
data in terms of deposition and suppression mechanisms. Thresh-
old condition is in fact the boundary between fouling and no-foul-
ing zones. A number of threshold fouling models have been
developed based on the Ebert and Panchal model in order to ex-
tend the prediction accuracy for various types of crude oil [2–4].
Panchal et al. [2] have added the Prandtl number to the first ver-
sion of threshold fouling model and extended its applicability to
crude oils with Prandtl number between 2.5 and 8.2. Polley et al.
[3] proposed the use of tube wall temperature instead of film tem-
perature in the deposition term and also employed Reynolds num-
ber instead of wall shear stress in the suppression term and
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +98 21 48259767; fax: +98 21 48259738.
E-mail address: bayatm@ripi.ir (M. Bayat).
obtained more accurate results for an Alaskan crude oil. Yeap
et al. [4] have performed an extensive review on evaluating several
threshold fouling models applying various laboratory and plant
data sets. These models produce reasonable results for laboratory
experiments, whereas they give rough predictions when they have
applied to the industrial situations [4].
Vahdat Azad et al. [5] have proposed a novel graphical method
for increasing period of desirable heat transfer operation of heat
exchanger networks (HENs) without requiring cleaning process.
In this method the time schedules and places of replacing high
fouling rate streams with those of low fouling rate are determined;
thereby more opportunity of fouling formation is given to the HEN.
With a systematic experimental study, Herz et al. [6] demonstrated
that the degree of surface roughness has a strong impact on the
deposition of calcium sulfate in a stainless steel tube. They showed
that the fouling layer on a rough surface has a stronger adhesion
and shorter induction period than those on a smooth surface.
Recently, the application of numerical methods such as black-
box modeling and optimization techniques to investigate crude
oil fouling phenomenon has obtained much attention due to the
tremendous evolution in digital computing [7–11]. Aminian and
Shahhosseini evaluated the application of artificial neural network
(ANN) to predict the complex behavior of fouling phenomenon for
several types of laboratory and industrial crude oil heat exchangers
[7,8]. Their proposed formulations based on the ANN approach
indicated better predictions in comparison with three different
threshold fouling models. Radhakrishnan et al. have also employed
the ANN approach to predict fouling in pre-heat exchangers of
CDUs and successfully proposed a preventive maintenance

0196-8904/$ - see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2012.05.003
 M. Bayat et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 64 (2012) 344–350 345

Nomenclature

Ao overall heat transfer area, m2 St Stanton number

Cp specific heat capacity, J kg1 K1 
u velocity vector, m s1
Dj mass diffusion coefficient of species j, m2 s1 UC clean overall HTC, W m2 K1
Ft temperature correction factor UD dirty overall HTC, W m2 K1
hi tube-side HTC, W m2 K1 Yj mass fraction of species j
Gk production rate of k in Eq. (7) Yk destruction rate of k in Eq. (7)
Gx production rate of x in Eq. (8) Yx destruction rate of x in Eq. (8)
hideal ideal tube-side HTC, W m2 K1
hio tube-side HTC based on tube outside diameter, W m2 - Abbreviations
K1 ESDU Engineering Sciences Data Unit
ho shell-side HTC, W m2 K1 SST Shear Stress Transport
ID tube inside diameter, m HTC Heat Transfer Coefficient
JC baffle cut correction factor
JL baffle leakage correction factor Subscripts
JB bundle bypass correction factor b bulk
JR laminar flow correction factor w wall
JS unequal baffle spacing correction factor
Jl wall viscosity correction factor Greeks
k production rate of turbulent kinetic energy q density, kg m3
m_ crude flow rate, kg s1 e dissipation rate of turbulent kinetic energy in k–e equa-
Nu Nusselt number tion
OD tube outside diameter, m x dissipation rate of turbulent kinetic energy in k–x equa-
p pressure, kPa tion
Q total heat load, W l dynamic molecular viscosity, kg m1 s1
rj intrinsic reaction rate of species j lt turbulent dynamic viscosity, kg m1 s1
R universal gas constant, J kmol1 K1 r turbulent Prandtl number
Rf fouling resistance, m2 K kW1
Re Reynolds number

scheduling tool using plant operating data [9]. A similar plan
was pursued by Sanaye and Niroomand [10] and Rodriguez and
Smith [11] in the heat exchanger networks (HENs) of petrochemi-
cal and refinery plants, respectively. These researchers have
developed, separately, similar numerical methods based on the
effectiveness-NTU approach to model the HENs and determine
the amount of fouling deposited to estimate the overall heat trans-
fer and pressure drop versus time. By defining two similar objec-
tive functions based on the total operating cost they have
predicted an optimal cleaning schedule for the HENs in each plant
with noticeable economical savings [10,11]. In the above men-
tioned studies the details of fluid flow, temperature gradients
and component concentrations on the rate of fouling were ruled
out due to black-box or empirical approaches they employed.
Investigation of fouling phenomenon using white-box ap-
proaches such as the computational fluid dynamic (CFD) is limited
to a little number of studies. Brahim et al. [12] have simulated crys-
tallization of CaSO4 on a flat plate using the commercial CFD code,
FLUENT. Walker and Sheikholeslami [13] have also investigated
the effects of velocity and residence time on the isothermal and
non-isothermal flow domain, where calcium sulfate precipitation
occurs. Zhang and Li [14] studied particle deposition of air in a
3D turbulent duct flow under different air speeds, applying RANS
equations and Lagrangian particle tracing approach. In another
study Zhang et al. [15] have investigated the effects of relaxation
time, particle size, air speed, turbulent flow development profiles
and surface orientations on the predicted deposition rates of parti-
cles. They have reported that particle deposition rate in the devel-
oping turbulent flow section is higher than that in the fully
developed turbulent flow section. It has been shown that air veloc-
ity and particle size are the main factors influencing particle depo-
sition rate in ventilation duct flows.
The previous studies suffer the lack of a systematic strategy for
CFD modeling of crude oil fouling in the industrial shell-and-tube
heat exchangers. The focus of this work is to include lumped-reac-
tions for asphaltene and salt components through the species
transport model and use of appropriate molecular diffusion coeffi-
cients to predict fouling behavior in crude pre-heaters using CFD
technique. This study is established, mainly, based on an innova-
tive conceptual idea to predict the probability of reaction product
adhering to the tube wall and subsequent thickening of the fouling
layer.
2. Problem description
An industrial shell-and-tube heat exchanger comprising of 618
tubes located in a one-pass shell with 24 baffles was modeled
using the CFD technique based on a single tube model. The exchan-
ger is located in the pre-heat train of crude distillation unit (CDU)
in Tehran oil refinery and heats up the crude oil coming from stor-
age tanks using a high temperature fraction, iso-feed, flowing
through the shell-side. At the pre-heater inlet, crude oil and iso-
feed temperatures were varied between 186–220 °C and 272–
298 °C, respectively. Along the exchanger, temperature of crude
oil increased to the range of 224–256 °C while the iso-feed temper-
ature decreased to about 226–259 °C. The crude volume flow rate
was also in the range of 641 and 854 m3 h1 yielding the tube Rey-
nolds numbers in the range of 2e5–2.9e5.
3. Numerical modeling
Crude oil was assumed to be composed of three pseudo-compo-
nents; petroleum, asphaltene and salt. In general, thermo-physical
properties of different crude oils vary widely. In addition, their
temperature dependencies and reactivity, strongly determined by
their composition, can differ noticeably. The correlations for petro-
leum, presented in Table 1, have been obtained based on the labo-
ratory data available in the Tehran oil refinery.
346 M. Bayat et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 64 (2012) 344–350

Table 1
Thermo-physical properties of petroleum and other pseudo-components.

Density (kg m3) Viscosity (kg m1 s1) Thermal conductivity (W m1 K1) Heat capacity (J kg1 K1)
*
Petroleum 834.4  0.276Tb c  exp (d/33.28) 0.145  0.0001Tb 1671 + 4.4563Tb
Asphaltene 850 0.006 0.123 1500
Coke 900 150,000 1.500 1500
Saltb 850 0.006 0.123 1500
Saltw 900 180,000 1.500 1500
*
c ¼ 2:2085e  7  T 2b  1:3e  4  T b þ 1:9271e  2, d = 1.51Tb + 568.84.

 
Density, thermal conductivity and heat capacity of the other @ @ @p @ @u
ðqu
 Þ þ ðqu u
Þ ¼  þ ð l þ lt Þ þ qg ð2Þ
components have a minor role in crude oil fouling behavior. There- @t @ x @ x @ x @ x
fore, they were considered as typical values for fouling precursors
Using Fick’s law for diffusion, the species transport equation for
and reaction products. However, as a part of the developed CFD
species j is given as:
concept, the viscosity values of asphaltene, coke and salts were as-
 
sumed to be varied in a wide range. The assumption plays a major @ @ @ @Y j
role in the development of the fouling layer on the tube wall. The ðqY j Þ þ ðqY j u
Þ ¼ qDj  rj ð3Þ
@t @ x @ x @ x
possibility of adhering of fouled species (coke and saltw) to the wall
is determined based on the competition between their apparent where Dj is the mass diffusion coefficient and rj is the net reaction
high viscosities and the shear stress on the wall. rate of species j computed as follows:

X
Nr

3.1. Calculation domain and grid rj ¼ M w;j r j;k ð4Þ

k¼1

A 2D computational domain was adopted to reduce the CPU As shown in Eq. (4), rj represents the sum of the Arrhenius reac-
time associated with numerical simulation. The symmetric flow tion rates over the Nr reactions that the species j participate in. Mw,j
domain together with the boundary conditions is shown in Fig. 1. is the molecular weight of species j and rj,k is the Arrhenius rate of
The tube length and diameter were considered 500 and 25 mm, production/consumption of species j in reaction k. It will be dis-
respectively. In other words, the fouling behavior in the whole cussed later that reactions will occur at the tube wall surface
industrial shell and tube heat exchanger was mimicked using a sin- resulting in the surface deposition of product species.
gle 0.5 m tube long. The main drawback of this geometry is that it The energy conservation equation is:
could not be used to predict pressure profile along the exchanger  !
due to its shorter length compared to the industrial geometries. @ @ @p @ @T X @Y j
ðqEÞ þ ðqEuÞ ¼  þ keff  hj Dj þ Sh
However, prediction of pressure profile is not the aim of this study. @t @ x @ x @ x @ x j
@ x
The geometry was discretized applying 62,500 quadrilateral
ð5Þ
cells. The choice of very fine mesh grid in the whole radial direction
was aimed at considering the ability to predict very thick fouling where the two terms of the second part on the right-hand side of Eq.
layers occurring in the very long industrial operation periods. (5) represent energy transfer due to conduction and species diffu-
sion, respectively. Sh is also the heat of chemical reaction computed
3.2. Governing equations as follows:

X h0j
The partial differential equations governing the turbulent flow Sh ¼ rj ð6Þ
in the tube-side could be written in a Cartesian coordinate system j
Mw;j
as follows. 0
The conservation equation of mass is: where hj is the enthalpy formation of species j and rj is the net rate
of production of species j shown in Eq. (4).
@ q @ qu  The turbulent viscosity term (lt) was computed based on the
þ ¼0 ð1Þ SST version of k–x model [16]. The SST model employs the k–e
@t @ x
model [17] for the regions far away from the walls and the stan-
The conservation equation of momentum is: dard k–x model [18] near the wall. The turbulent kinetic energy

y axis
velocity pressure
x outlet
inlet
wall

Fig. 1. Flow domain, grid and boundary conditions.

 M. Bayat et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 64 (2012) 344–350
k and turbulent frequency x are computed by the following
relations:
  
@ @ @ lt @k
ðqkÞ þ ðqu  kÞ ¼ Gk  Y k þ lþ ð7Þ
@t @ x @ x rk @ x
  
@ @ @ lt @ x
ðqxÞ þ ðqu  xÞ ¼ Gx  Y x þ lþ ð8Þ
@t @ x @ x rx @ x
where Gk and Gx are production terms of k and x and Yk and Yx
represent the destruction rates. rk and rx are also the turbulent
Prandtl numbers for k and x, respectively. The expression for turbu-
lent viscosity is then computed as:
2
k  First group: molecular diffusion of bulk species (such as asphal-
lt ¼ qa ð9Þ
x
in which, the coefficient a⁄ damps the turbulent viscosity causing a
low-Reynolds-number correction. Detailed evaluations of these
parameters are explained in the original Ref. [16].
3.3. Boundary conditions
As mentioned in Section 3.1, the main boundary conditions are
shown in Fig. 1. A uniform velocity, temperature and mixture com-
position profiles were imposed at the tube inlet. The possibility of
the reverse flow at the outlet boundary, during the solution process
was taken into account. A zero flux of all quantities was also as-
sumed across the tube wall. A fixed convection heat flux, related
to the average temperature and HTC of the shell-side fluid, was ap-
plied as boundary condition for the non-isothermal tube wall. A set
of surface chemical reactions were also considered on the wall to
account for the production of species j in Eq. (3).
3.4. Development of numerical model
The unsteady state Reynolds averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS)
equations were solved, in a finite volume scheme, for an incom-
pressible turbulent flow applying the SST version of the k–x mod-
el. As discussed in the previous section, this model appears to be
appropriate for investigation of fouling phenomenon. The pres-
sure–velocity coupling was handled by the SIMPLE algorithm and
the convection terms were discretized using the second order up-
wind scheme [19]. The appropriate under relaxation factors were
imposed to avoid instability in the solution. Arrhenius rate equa-
tion was used to determine the rate of species formation on the
tube surface. Another major part of the developed CFD model is
the contribution of chemical reactions, which lead to fouling for-
mation on the tube surface. The chemical reactions have consid-
ered based on two lumped surface reactions as follows:
2 asphaltene ! coke
ð10Þ
2 saltb ! saltw
The corresponding reaction rates shown in Eq. (11) are obtained
by comparing the model predictions and experimental data:
 r asph: ¼ 8  1020 e2e8=RT ½asph:0:5
ð11Þ
 r saltb ¼ 1:2  1021 e2e8=RT ½saltb 0:5
The above pre-exponential factors and activation energies were
also set based on the corresponding molecular diffusions and may
differ if other sets of molecular diffusions are applied.
The species molecular diffusion from the turbulent bulk to the
laminar sub-layer and their deposition on the wall was considered
applying a new strategy. This strategy assumes that there are var-
347
ious molecular diffusion coefficients and thermo-physical proper-
ties for different components in different situations. The
asphaltene diffusion coefficient has been reported to be in the
range of 1e10–1e11 m2 s1 [20,21]. This value generally has
been measured via laboratory experiments for diffusion of asphal-
tene in a resident toluene solution at the ambient conditions. How-
ever, the high temperature, low viscosity flow of petroleum in pre-
heater tubes causes asphaltene to diffuse easier into the petro-
leum. Therefore, in this study the asphaltene diffusion coefficient
through the petroleum was set to 1e7 m2 s1. In addition to
asphaltene–petroleum molecular diffusion coefficient, various
molecular diffusion coefficients were set for other pairs of the spe-
cies, which were categorized based on the following groups.
tene and saltb) through petroleum. As mentioned before the
value in this category was found to be 1e7 m2 s1.
 Second group: molecular diffusion of bulk species through the
fouled layer. As fouling progresses, fouled species layers may
stick to the tube wall based on the competition between their
high apparent viscosities and the shear stress on the wall. The
fouled layer hinders the bulk species to reach the wall and react
on it. Thus, relatively high molecular diffusions (in the order of
1e1 m2 s1) were chosen for this category to ensure that the
bulk species could pass through the fouled layer and react on
the wall.
 Third group: molecular diffusion of the fouled species through
fouled layer. The value of the molecular diffusion for this group
was chosen to be sufficiently high; 1e+0 m2 s1, to ensure that
the new fouled species could evacuate the wall surface rapidly
and the new reactants (bulk species) can reach the wall and
react on it. Another reason to consider the high values for this
category is that the new fouled species are supposed to have
the opportunity to return back to the top of the fouled layer
and subsequently cause to thicken the fouled layer.
 Fourth group: molecular diffusion coefficients of fouled species
through the petroleum. Molecular diffusion value in this cate-
gory is very important since it represents the possibility of sep-
aration of stuck fouled layer from the wall arising from the
competition between the adhesion forces (high apparent vis-
cosities) and the wall shear stress. It was found that the value
should be very low. Considering very low diffusion coefficients
for this group, it is very unlikely if new fouled species can sep-
arate from the fouled layer and float towards the petroleum
flow. The choice of molecular diffusion values in this group,
together with the third group, will result in an increase in the
thickness of the fouled layer.
 Fifth group: molecular diffusion of the bulk species through the
bulk species. This group has no significant effect on the fouling
phenomenon and a moderate value of 1e3 m2 s1 was
considered.
According to the CFD fouling concept mentioned above, follow-
ing three phenomena, schematically depicted in Fig. 2a, will result
in formation of the first layer of fouling in the induction period:
1. Diffusion of bulk species (such as asphaltene and saltb) through
petroleum (first group in the diffusion category).
2. Reactions of bulk species on the tube surface based on Eq. (9).
3. Adhesion of the reaction products to the tube wall by adjusting
very high apparent viscosities for them.
On the other hand, the continuation of fouling formation and
thickening of the fouled layer in the developing period, schemati-
cally depicted in Fig. 2b, has been accounted for based on the fol-
lowing procedure:
348 M. Bayat et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 64 (2012) 344–350
(a)
(b)
Fig. 2. Conceptual procedure of fouling formation in the (a) induction and (b)
developing periods.
1. Diffusion of bulk species through the fouled layer (second group
in the diffusion category).
2. Reactions of bulk species on the tube surface based on Eq. (9).
3. Diffusion of the reaction products (fouled species) through the
fouled layer to return back to the top of the fouled layer (third
group in the diffusion category).
4. Very low diffusion of fouled species (saltw and coke) through
the petroleum together with very high apparent viscosities for
them to hinder their separation from the fouled layer and sub-
sequently thickening of the fouled layer.
Since fouling phenomenon generally occurs in the boundary
layer, the shape and thickness of the boundary layer influences
fouling behavior. A fully developed flow is, therefore, essential to
generate an accurate boundary layer. Once the boundary condi-
tions were set, unsteady turbulent flow equations for non-reacting
case were solved until the residuals of axial velocity were settled
and fully developed flow field was reached. The residuals of veloc-
ity components were considered to be 1e7 in order to obtain a
fully developed flow in the 0.5 m tube long. The converged non-
reactive case was, then, used as a starting point (initial guess) for
the solution of the species balance equations in the reactive case.
Fig. 3. Equation-based procedure for calculation of fouling resistance. (See the above mentioned references for further information.)
2
Fouling resistance (m2 K kW-1)
1.5
0.5
0
0 500 1000 1500 2000
Time (hr)
Fig. 4. Plant fouling data related to a pre-heater in Tehran oil refinery.
4. Results and discussion
Plant data, collected from an industrial shell-and-tube heat ex-
changer, located at the pre-heat train of a CDU in Tehran oil refin-
ery, was employed to evaluate the CFD model. The data set
included inlet and outlet temperatures for both shell-and-tube
sides, crude volume flow rate in tube side, crude composition
and also cumulative time for the first 3 months from last overhaul.
Having these plant data, calculation of the fouling resistance was
conducted based on the procedure illustrated in Fig. 3.
According to this procedure, fouling behavior for the crude oil
pre-heater is obtained as illustrated in Fig. 4.
Normal operating conditions of the pre-heater, presented in Ta-
ble 2, was chosen to run the CFD model.
Employing the above operating conditions, velocity distribution
along the tube obtained for different simulation periods is illus-
trated in Fig. 5. The zero velocity regions represent the fouling
layer formed on the wall. It can be observed that the initial fouling
layers are developed after about 9 days (7.92e5 s) and the thick-
ness of fouling layer is increased as time progresses.
Contours of the coke concentration stuck on the tube wall and
the corresponding velocity profile in three sections of the compu-
tational domain are shown in Fig. 6. The contours of deposited salts
(not shown here) are qualitatively as the same. It can be seen that
in the inlet section of the tube no severe fouling occurred even for
the long operation periods. However, maximum amount of fouling
is formed in the outlet section of the tube due to the more resi-
 M. Bayat et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 64 (2012) 344–350 349

Table 2 In Fig. 7 simulation results of the CFD model is evaluated

Simulation conditions of a pre-heater in the CDU of Tehran oil refinery.
against the plant data. It represents a comparison between the
Operating conditions Value experiment and the predictions of the CFD model. It should be
Average crude inlet temperature (K) 490 noted that the experimental fouling data points in Fig. 7 are related
Average shell-side inlet temperature (K) 538 to both shell-and-tube sides of the exchanger, since they were cal-
Average crude velocity (m s1) 0.79 culated based on the procedure depicted in Fig. 3. As a conse-
Average shell-side HTC (W m2 K1) 455 quence, the CFD model is evaluated as a total fouling predictor,
Asphaltene mass fraction 0.02
Salt mass fraction 0.01
applying the previous well-tuned parameters (viscosities and
molecular diffusions).
At first glance, it seems that the predictability of the CFD model
dence time available for the reactants. As fouling progresses, the is poor in the induction period of the fouling. It stems from the fact
available cross section area is decreased and therefore, the maxi- that, at the induction period deposition of foulants on the tube wall
mum fluid velocity is increased. causes escalation in both wall thermal resistance and available

Fig. 5. Contours of velocity profile along the tube in various operation periods.

6.84e-05 x=0 x=30 x=235 x=265 x=470 x=500

6.16e-05 Time =2.44e5 s

5.47e-05

4.79e-05 Time =7.92e5 s

4.10e-05
Time =1.58e6 s
3.42e-05

2.74e-05
Time =2.37e6 s
2.05e-05

1.37e-05
Time =6.33e6 s
6.84e-06

0.00e+00
0.015
t=2.44e5 s
t=7.92e5s
0.01 t=1.58e6 s
t=2.37e6 s
t=6.33e6 s
Tube diameter (m)

0.005

0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 0 0.5 1 1.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2

-0.005

-0.01

-0.015
Velocity (m/s) Velocity (m/s) Velocity (m/s)

Fig. 6. Contours of coke concentration and velocity profiles along the tube in various operation periods.
350
2
Induction period Developing period
Fouling Resistance (m2 K kW-1)
1.5
1 6. Acknowledgements
0.5
0 [1] Panchal CB. Fouling mitigation in the petroleum industry: where do we go
0 500 1000
Time (hr)
Fig. 7. Prediction of the CFD model from plant data related to a pre-heater in the
CDU of Tehran oil refinery.
heat transfer area [24]. In other words, deposition of the first layer
of the fouled species on the clean tube wall lead to an increase in
surface roughness and eventually increases heat transfer surface.
Therefore, at the induction period no significant reduction in the
crude inlet/outlet temperature differences could be traced. Since,
the fouling data points presented in Fig. 7 were calculated accord-
ing to the procedure depicted in Fig. 3, which was based on the in-
let/outlet temperature difference, at the induction period the
increase in fouling resistance could not be observed in the ex-
tracted plant data. However, the developed CFD model is free of
this deficiency, since the calculation of fouling resistance using
the developed CFD model is not based on the reduction of inlet/
outlet temperature difference. Therefore, simulation results shown
in Fig. 7 indicate that the developed CFD model is capable of trac-
ing fouling formation in the induction period. As a consequence,
the CFD model could be applied to other operating conditions to
investigate the details of the effect of hydrodynamics, temperature
fluctuations and component concentrations on the fouling rate of
crude oil in the industrial pre-heaters even at the induction period
of fouling.
5. Conclusion
A two dimensional CFD model has been developed to predict
crude oil fouling behavior in an industrial shell-and-tube heat ex-
changer. Components of the crude oil were assumed to be asphal-
tene, coke and salt characterized by their thermo-physical
properties. It was found that the molecular diffusion coefficients
play an important role in the modeling of crude oil fouling behav-
ior. Therefore, the binary diffusion coefficients were categorized
into five different groups based on a conceptual procedure of depo-
sition/separation phenomena. The effects of two competing factors
were considered to determine the probability of adhesion of reac-
tion products to the tube wall. These factors include the apparently
high viscosity of the fouled species and the shear stress on the wall.
The predictability of the model was assessed against a set of plant
data extracted from an industrial shell-and-tube heat exchanger.
Simulation results indicated that the CFD model is capable of pre-
dicting fouling rate in both induction and developing periods of
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M. Bayat et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 64 (2012) 344–350
fouling. In addition, the CFD model has three distinguishing new
features compared to the conventional threshold fouling models.
It can consider the effects of chemical components, shell-side
HTC and turbulent flow on the crude oil fouling rate. Hence, the
developed CFD model is expected to be helpful for evaluating crude
oil fouling rates under new operating conditions.
Experiment
CFD model
The authors would like to thank Tehran Refinery Oil Company
for providing the valuable data to conduct this research.
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