Numerical evaluation of a heat exchanger with inline tubes of different size for reduced fouling rates

This paper describes the numerical evaluation of a novel cross flow tube bundle heat exchanger that combines tubes of different diameter in an inline arrangement for the purpose of reducing gas side particulate fouling rates while preserving acceptable levels of heat transfer and pressure drop performance. Three arrangements are compared: a common inline tube bundle heat exchanger with cylinders of equal diameter and two other arrangements that consist of alternately placed cylinders with a diameter ratio of d/D = 0.5, at two different transverse spacings. Numerical calculations are performed in order to study heat transfer, pressure drop and fouling rates from flue gases with suspended ash particles. The alternating tube sizes achieve a suppression of the vortex shedding mechanism that has previously been shown to enhance downstream particle deposition. Results show that, compared to the standard arrangement, the tube bundle with unequal cylinders placed at the largest transverse spacing achieves a significant (∼30%) reduction in particle deposition rate without sacrificing acceptable values of heat transfer per unit volume and low pressure drop.