A Study on the Development of Fouling and Plugging Margin Evaluation Methods for Shell-and-Tube Heat Exchangers

다관원통형 열교환기의 파울링 및 관막음 여유 평가법

As operating time of heat exchangers progresses, fouling generated by water-borne deposits increases and thermal performance decreases. The fouling is known to interfere with normal flow characteristics and reduce thermal efficiencies of heat exchangers. The heat exchangers of nuclear power plants have been analyzed in terms of the heat flux and heat transfer coefficient at test conditions based on the ASME OM-S/G-Part 2 as a means of heat exchanger management. It is hard to estimate the heat performance trend and to establish the future management plan. This paper describes the fouling evaluation method which can evaluate the thermal performance for heat exchangers and estimate the future fouling variations and the plugging margin evaluation method which can reflect the current fouling level developed in this study. To develop the fouling and plugging margin evaluation methods for heat exchangers, fouling factor was introduced based on the ASME O&M codes and TEMA standards. For the purpose of verifying the two evaluation methods, the fouling and plugging margin evaluations were performed for a component cooling heat exchanger in a nuclear power plant.