Fuel 251 (2019) 316–327

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Fuel
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Full Length Article

Fouling and thermal-hydraulic characteristics of aligned elliptical tube and T

honeycomb circular tube in flue gas heat exchangers
⁎
Song-Zhen Tang, Ming-Jia Li , Fei-Long Wang, Zhan-Bin Liu
Key Laboratory of Thermo-Fluid Science and Engineering of Ministry of Education, School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, Shaanxi
710049, China

G R A P H I C A L A B S T R A C T

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: In this paper, aiming at resolving the contradictions of heat transfer enhancement, resistance reduction and soot-
Ash fouling blowing effect of common heat transfer surfaces, aligned elliptical tube bundle (AETB) and honeycomb tube
Elliptical tube bundle (HCTB) were proposed for the high dust content conditions, and the fouling characteristics and thermal-
Honeycomb hydraulic performance before and after fouling were investigated. Firstly, the thermal-hydraulic performance of
Fouling thermal resistance
aligned circular tube bundle (ACTB), AETB, conventional staggered circular tube bundle (SCTB) and HCTB in the
Correlation
clean state were compared, and advantages of AETB and HCTB were verified. Secondly, based on the ash fouling
Waste heat utilization
model and prediction method established by the author’s group, fouling distribution and morphology of AETB
and HCTB were obtained, and ash fouling and thermal-hydraulic characteristics were examined by para-
meterization. Finally, in the range of geometry parameters studied in this paper, the correlations of the
asymptotic value of fouling thermal resistance Rf∗ in fouling state, Nusselt number Nu and friction factor f in
clean state were developed. Results show that the relative deviations between the predicted results and the
numerical values is within 4%, which indicates that the proposed correlation is of sufficient accuracy for en-
gineering purposes, and can accurately predict the thermal-hydraulic characteristics of flue gas heat exchanger.
The results of this paper can provide a reference for development and engineering application of the heat-
transfer surface for the efficient recovery of industrial flue gas waste heat.

1. Introduction alleviating the energy crisis, a large number of high-efficiency heat

exchangers have been developed for different industrial applications.
To increase the economic benefits of energy conservation for However, the gas-side medium of the gas-liquid heat exchangers is

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: mjli1990@mail.xjtu.edu.cn (M.-J. Li).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2019.04.045
Received 4 October 2018; Received in revised form 1 March 2019; Accepted 6 April 2019
Available online 13 April 2019
0016-2361/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
S.-Z. Tang, et al.
Nomenclature
a long axis diameter, mm
Am total heat-transfer area, m2
b short axis diameter, mm
C flue gas concentration, g·m−3
cp specific heat, J·kg−1·K−1
D diameter of circular tube, mm
dp particle diameter, μm
f friction factor
h heat transfer coefficient at clean state, W·m−2·K−1
h0 heat transfer coefficient at fouling state, W·m−2·K−1
Nu Nusselt number
p pressure, Pa
PEC performance evaluation criteria, (Nu/Nu0)/(f/f0).
Δp pressure drop, Pa
Q heat transfer rate, W
Rf the fouling thermal resistance, m2·K·W−1
S inclined pitch, mm
S1 transverse pitch, mm
S2 longitudinal pitch, mm
Tin inlet gas temperature, K
Tw tube wall temperature, K
usually unclean flue gas. The fouling deposited on the heat transfer
surfaces weakens the heat transfer performance obviously and destroys
the stability and safety of the system seriously [1,2]. Taking economizer
as an example, a few millimeter thick loose ash layer can narrow the
heat transfer performance about 25% [3]. Simultaneously, extra
monetary losses can be caused by heat transfer tubes’ failure and soot-
blowing operation. Therefore, the investigation on the heat transfer
performance of tube bundles at fouling state is significant and the effect
of ash fouling should be fully considered in the design process of heat
exchangers.
In order to evaluate the ash fouling potential of different heat
transfer surfaces, many empirical fouling indices have been developed.
Fouling factors are commonly used and additional surface areas are
increased for designing the flue gas heat exchanger [4]. Based on the
fundamental analysis of the ash composition and the fusibility data,
these indices can be easily obtained. However, due to the variation of
flue gas flow properties, such as velocity and temperature, and different
arrangements of heat exchanging surface, the effect of fouling on heat
transfer performance under different geometry and operating para-
meters cannot be well estimated [5]. Besides, the on-line calculation
method of the fouling thermal resistance [6] was widely studied, but
this method is not suitable for guiding the development of novel heat
exchangers. Therefore, it is necessary to obtain the correlations of heat
transfer, flow resistance and fouling thermal resistance by numerical
simulation.
Considerable research has been conducted on the fouling char-
acteristics of heat exchangers. Han and He et al. [7,8] compared the
particle deposition characteristics of the aligned circular tube bundle,
aligned elliptical tube bundle, staggered circular tube bundle and
staggered elliptical tube bundle, and found that using staggered ellip-
tical tube can effectively decrease the deposit ratio. Zheng and Yang
et al. [9] simulated the growth of ash fouling on the tube bundle and
indicated that increasing the tube wall temperature can increase the
stickiness of the ash fouling surface. Paz et al. [10] modeled the process
of transportation, adhesion, and removal of particles from the surface,
and evaluated the fouling layer thickness. Comparison of predicted
values of ash fouling thickness at different locations with experimental
values indicates that the numerical model is acceptable. Tong and He
et al. [11] simulated the fouling processes on a single tube and analyzed
the effects of particle diameters and inlet velocities on the fouling
317
Fuel 251 (2019) 316–327
ΔT the logarithmic average temperature difference, K
u flue gas velocity, m·s−1
up particle velocity, m·s−1
um average velocity at the minimum cross section, m·s−1
Greek symbols
φ the heat effective coefficient
λ thermal conductivity, W·m−1·K−1
μ dynamic viscosity, Pa·s
ρ density, kg·m−3
σ relative inclined pitch, S/D
σ1 relative transverse pitch, S1/2b
σ2 relative longitudinal pitch, S2/2a
Subscripts
in inlet
n numerical value
out outlet
p predicted value
w wall
characteristics, but the effect of ash fouling on heat transfer perfor-
mance was not considered. Tang and He et al. [12,13] established a
fouling model considering deposition and removal mechanisms, pre-
dicted the fouling characteristics and morphology by fouling model and
dynamic mesh method, and discussed the effect of geometric and op-
erating parameters on fouling rate. Pérez et al. [14,15] predicted the
fouling characteristics and shapes of the tube bundle of a Kraft Re-
covery Boiler with a dynamic mesh model and evaluated the effect of
tube transversal spacing on the fouling, and heat transfer performance.
Wang and He et al. [16,17] investigated the fouling characteristics and
heat transfer performance after fouling on the H-type finned tube heat
exchangers and got a correlation of the Nusselt number after fouling
with the geometric and operating conditions. Yrjölä et al. [18] estab-
lished a calculation procedure to analyze the effect of fouling on heat
transfer process of the convection section in a biomass boiler and
compared the calculation values with the results of the finite element
method and the verification measurements. Kuan and Styles et al. [19]
established a 1D fouling model for predicting the thermal effectiveness
reduction of real EGR coolers. They used the model to predict the long-
term fouling state based on the actual fouling data and studied the
applicability of the model to different sizes and geometries. Hosseini
and Khoshkhoo et al. [20] experimentally and numerically investigated
the fouling and flow resistance characteristics of a compact heat ex-
changer, and examined the effect of particle size and velocity on de-
position characteristics. Furthermore, Kuruneru and Sauret et al. [21]
developed a coupled CFD-DEM model to study the effect of oscillatory
solid-gas flows on the particulate fouling in porous media. A simple
brush-cleaning strategy of metal foam heat exchangers was proposed
and verified [22]. Bayat et al. [23] investigated the fouling rate of an
industry crude oil pre-heater base on the equilibrium relationship be-
tween the viscosity of products and shear stress.
In addition, considerable work has been carried out to optimize the
tube shape and arrangement to reduce fouling. Bouris et al. [24,25]
proposed the elliptic-shaped and droplet-shaped tube bundle arrange-
ments and investigated the ash deposition rate. Compared with the
aligned circular tube bundle, the ash deposition rate of the elliptic-
shaped and droplet-shaped tube bundle was reduced by about 73% and
75%, respectively. Abd-Elhady et al. [26] investigated the ash deposi-
tion characteristics by installing a tapered baffle on the windward side
of the heat-transfer tube, analyzed the effect of the apex angle of cone-
S.-Z. Tang, et al.
shaped tubes. Mavridou and Bouris [27] conducted the numerical
evaluation of a tube bundle heat exchanger combining different tube
diameters in an aligned arrangement. Li and Du et al. [28] numerically
studied particles deposition and distribution on a rhombic tube bundle
heat exchangers. The numerical results were compared with the ex-
perimental results of HRSG in a cement plant, and ash deposition shape
was observed. The authors previously investigated the characteristics of
particle deposition on the heat-transfer surface arranging attached cy-
linders on the rear side of the tubes. The key structural parameters were
optimized by using the orthogonal method, and a combination of
parameters which can effectively decrease the deposition rate of par-
ticles was obtained [29].
It can be observed that many researchers have carried out studies on
the reduction of ash fouling in terms of tube type and tube bundle ar-
rangement. However, heat transfer performance, pressure drop, and the
effect of ash fouling on heat transfer performance has not been com-
prehensively considered. In addition, some studies did not consider the
manufacturing difficulty and soot-blowing effect.
Therefore, based on a comprehensive fouling model established by
the authors, heat transfer performances of AETB and HCTB heat ex-
changers at fouling state are investigated. In this paper, firstly, the
thermal-hydraulic performances of different tube bundles including
ACTB, AETB, SCTB and HCTB were investigated and compared. Then,
based on the comparison result, the effect of geometric parameters on
heat transfer characteristics before and after ash fouling were con-
sidered. Finally, correlations representing the results were obtained
based on the nonlinear curve and surface fitting.
2. Computational methodology
2.1. Physical model
In waste heat recovery applications, aligned and staggered circular
Velocity inlet Tube wall
Velocity inlet Tube wall
Fig. 1. Schematic diagrams of four tube bundles: (a) ACTB; (b) SCTB; (c) AETB; (d) HCTB.
318
Fuel 251 (2019) 316–327
tube bundles are widely used. For aligned circular tube arrangement,
although the fouling phenomenon of heat-transfer surfaces is more
serious, ash fouling is easy to be cleaned and friction resistance is lower.
Meanwhile, for staggered circular tube arrangement, fouling is less and
heat transfer performance is higher, but the fouling is more difficult to
clean. There is an obvious contradiction between heat transfer perfor-
mance, friction resistance and soot-blowing effect. Therefore, in order
to enhance the heat transfer performance, decrease friction resistance
and reduce fouling, the aligned elliptical tube and honeycomb circular
tube arrangements were proposed and the performances of those were
studied in this paper.
The cold water flows in the tube side, while the flue gas is cooled by
flowing across tube bundles. According to the periodicity of tube bun-
dles, a 2D heat transfer surface model is built. To examine the effect of
tube type and arrangement, the ACTB and SCTB are employed and
compared with AETB and HCTB. Schematic diagrams of four tube
bundles are shown in Fig. 1. The grey area is the computational domain
of tube bundles. In order to ensure the flow uniformity and no backflow
of the outlet, the computational domain is extended 4 times and 10
times the longitudinal pipe spacing in the upstream and downstream of
the tube respectively. To highlight the layout of the bundle, tube ar-
rangements are shown in Fig. 2.
It is noteworthy that some parameters are kept the same with each
other, which is to ensure the values of all parameters are the same
except for the tube pitch. Fly ash composition is chosen from the Ref.
[12], and the equivalent physical properties of the fly-ash are calculated
by the volume weighted average method. The basic physical properties
of different constituents originate from the Refs. [30–32]. The specified
values of the geometry dimensions and computational conditions are
presented in Table 1.
Periodic Outflow
Periodic Outflow
S.-Z. Tang, et al. Fuel 251 (2019) 316–327

S2 S2

S2
S1

S1

S1
(a) (b) (c) (d)
Fig. 2. Geometric parameters of four tube arrangements.

Table 1 2.3. Fouling model

The geometry dimensions and computational conditions.
Parameter Value Parameter Value
The fly ash particles in the flue gas are transported to the heat-
transfer surface through inertial collision, Brownian motion and tur-
Circular tube diameter, D 38 mm Flue gas velocity, u 5 m∙s−1 bulent diffusion, etc. When the particles collide with the wall, deposi-
Major axis length of elliptic 46.4 mm Inlet gas temperature, Tin 420 K tion, rebound and removal behavior occur at the same time, and then
tube, a
Minor axis length of elliptic 23.2 mm Tube wall temperature, 350 K
the porous fouling layer is formed on the heat-transfer surface [34].
tube, b Tw The fly-ash fouling model of the heat-transfer surface includes a
Particle diameter, dp 5 μm Flue gas concentration, C 14 g∙m−3 particle deposition sub-model and a removal sub-model. The specific
implementation process is described as follows. 1) The criterion of
critical collision angle is introduced, that is, when the incident angle is
2.2. Numerical methods greater than the critical angle, the particles will not be deposited and
the deposition behavior is not affected by normal velocity. 2) When the
In gas phase modeling, the gas phase is assumed to be in- incident angle is less than the critical angle, the elastic or plastic state of
compressible fluid and the physical properties of the gas phase is as- the incident and target particles is judged according to the limit elastic
sumed constant. Furthermore, flow status between the heat-transfer velocity. 3) The energy conservation equation of the normal collision
tubes is considered in the turbulent regime and unsteady state. In order between the incident and target particles is established, and the critical
to accurately predict the flow characteristics between the tubes, SST k- velocities of the incident particles rebound, deposition and removal are
w turbulent model was adopted [12]. In this work, the thermal-hy- obtained in the elastic or plastic state, respectively. 4) At the same time,
draulic model of different tube bundles based on the finite volume the moment balance equation between the fluid and the target particles
method was developed using the ANSYS FLUENT software [33]. The deposited on the fouling layer. When the fluid force moment acting on
governing equations of continuity, momentum, energy and turbulent the particles exceeds the moment of the adhesion force, the rolling
are is detailed in Ref. [12]. removal occurs and the corresponding critical shear velocity of the fluid
In addition, discrete phase method (DPM) with Discrete-Random- is calculated.
Walk Model is used to track particle trajectories. The particle mass According to the calculated critical velocities of rebound, deposition
loading is quite low and the particle size is small (Table 1), so the in- and removal behaviors, the judgment criteria of fouling are established.
fluence of the solid particles on the gas flow is negligible, and one-way The detailed derivation process of the ash fouling model can be found in
coupling method is adopted. The particles are considered to be sphe- our previous work [12].
rical, non-rotating and dense enough. Under the particle size range and
flue gas conditions studied in this paper, only the particle drag force is 2.4. Numerical validation
considered according to the Ref. [12]. The particle motion equation is
calculated according to Newton's second law, which is detailed in Ref. To determine the accuracy of the model, grid independence has to
[12]. be assessed firstly. Taking the case (S1/D = 2.0, S2/D = 2.0) as an ex-
ample, the different meshes are generated with local refinement
method. Based on the assessment results of grid independence, the
reasonable grid size is selected. On this basis, a comparison between

Windward
Side

Leeward
Side

(a) Experimental results (b) Numerical results

Fig. 3. Comparison of fouling layer on tube wall [35].

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S.-Z. Tang, et al. Fuel 251 (2019) 316–327

Nusselts number Nu with different Reynolds number Re obtained by significantly enhanced. The HCTB is of a special staggered arrange-
CFD model and empirical correlation in Ref. [12]. The maximum de- ment, but the disturbance of the fluid is slightly lower than the con-
viation of the Nusselt number is less than 9%, which indicates that the ventional staggered arrangement. Additionally, compared with the
numerical model has good accuracy. Besides, the focus of this paper is
to study the fouling characteristics, therefore it is necessary to compare
the numerical results of fouling with the experiment results. The fouling 140
experiment under the condition of cold state is presented in Ref. [35]. aligned circular tube
The comparison results are presented in Fig. 3, which indicates the aligned elliptical tube
fouling model has better prediction accuracy [12]. According to the 120 staggered circular tube
above comparisons, it can be considered that the numerical model has honeycomb circular tube
reasonable accuracy. The model is used to predict thermal-hydraulic
and fouling characteristics of different heat-transfer surface. 100

Nu
2.5. Parameter definition
80
The definitions of characteristic and non-dimensional parameters
are given as follows:
60
ρu m D
Re =
μ (7)
40
Q = Ḣ out − Hin
̇ (8) 8000 12000 16000 20000 24000
Q Re
h=
Am ΔT (9) (a) Nusselt number Nu versus Re
hD 0.6
Nu =
λ (10)
aligned circular tube aligned elliptical tube
Δp 0.5 staggered circular tube honeycomb circular tube
f=
1/2ρu m2 N (11)

Nu/ Nu 0 0.4
PEC =
f / f0 (12)
0.3
1 1
Rf = −
f

h h0 (13)
0.2
h
φ=
h0 (14)
0.1
where, um is the average velocity at the minimum cross section, D is the
equivalent diameter, Hin ̇ and Ḣ out are the fluid enthalpy rates at the
inlet and outlet sections, Am is the total heat-transfer area, ΔT is the 0.0
logarithmic average temperature difference, Δp is the pressure drop 8000 12000 16000 20000 24000
between the inlet and outlet sections, N is the number of tubes row, Rf is Re
the fouling resistance, φ is the heat effective coefficient, h and h0 are the (b) Friction factor f versus Re
heat transfer coefficient before and after fouling, PEC is the evaluation
indicator representing comprehensive performance, subscript ‘0’ re- 6
presents the performance parameters of the reference surface. aligned elliptical tube
5 staggered circular tube
3. Results and discussion honeycomb circular tube

3.1. Performance comparison of different tube bundle arrangements 4

To compare the overall performance of different tube bundle ar-

3
PEC

rangements, the geometry dimensions are set as follows. Both the

transverse and longitudinal pitches of the ACTB, AETB, and SCTB are
76 mm. The transverse and longitudinal pitches of the HCTB are 2
131.64 mm and 38 mm, which means the oblique pitch of the HCTB is
76 mm. Fig. 4 shows the variation of the thermal-hydraulic character-
1
istics of four tube bundle arrangements with Re, and the corresponding
velocity is 5–9 m∙s−1.
The variations of Nusselt number Nu with Re are shown in Fig. 4. 0
From Fig. 4(a), it can be seen that at the same Re, Nu of the HCTB is the 12000 15000 18000 21000 24000
highest, and that of SCTB is the second, and that of AETB is the lowest. Re
The reason can be summarized as follows. For staggered arrangement, (c) Comparison of PEC
the mainstream fluid is severely disturbed, the development of the
boundary layer is destroyed, and the heat transfer performance is Fig. 4. Performance comparison: ACTB, AETB, SCTB and HCTB.

320
S.-Z. Tang, et al. Fuel 251 (2019) 316–327

circular tube bundles, the average velocity of the fluid inside the el- 10.0
liptical tube bundle is relatively low, therefore the heat transfer per- 1-row
formance of the AETB is relatively poor. 2-row -20° +20° θ
Fig. 4(b) presents the variations of the friction factor f with Re. It 8.0 3-row
can be seen that the friction factor f of the AETB is the smallest, that of

the HCTB is the second, and that of the SCTB is the largest. Following
features may be pointed out. Firstly, compared with the ACTB, the
average flow velocity between the tubes of the AETB is low, and the
windward area of the elliptical tube is smaller, so less mechanical en-
ergy is dissipated. Secondly, the HCTB has a similar flow path to the
ACTB and has a large transverse pitch, but the HCTB is also a staggered
arrangement, therefore the flow resistance of the HCTB is between the
SCTB and the HCTB.
The comparison of the overall performance PEC of the different
layouts with the same Re is presented in Fig. 4(c), where the ACTB is set
as a comparison reference. It can be observed in Fig. 4(c) that, both the
AETB and HCTB have higher overall performance. Although the SCTB
has the highest heat transfer performance, the pressure drop is also the
highest, so the PEC of the SCTB is low. Moreover, in the waste heat
recovery applications of dusty flue gas, the ACTB is usually selected
instead of the SCTB owing to the advantage of easily soot-blowing.
Therefore, according to the above comparative analysis, it can be
concluded that the AETB and HCTB with better thermal-hydraulic and
soot-blowing performances are more suitable for dust-containing en-
vironment.
However, there is a lack of research on the AETB and the HCTB.
Therefore, in this paper, it is necessary to study the fouling character-
istics and thermal-hydraulic performances of these two arrangements.
3.2. Parameter study on fouling characteristics of aligned elliptical tube
bundle
3.2.1. Fouling characteristics and distribution
The deposition of fly ash particles on the heat transfer surface de-
pends not only on the collision behavior between particles and fouling
layer, but also on the following motion of particles in the fluid. When
the flue gas velocity is 5 m/s, the particle diameter is 5 μm, the relative
transverse pitch σ1 and relative longitudinal pitch σ2 are both 2.0
(where σ1 = S1/2b and σ2 = S2/2a), the velocity field, the particle
motion characteristics and the ash fouling morphology are analyzed in
6-row AETB, as shown in Fig. 5.
It can be observed from Fig. 5(a) that the boundary layer of the fluid
is separated from the back side of the tube, resulting in reflux and
vortex. Affected by the tube bundle, the vortex is bound between the
Fouling thickness / mm
6.0
4.0
2.0
0.0
-150 -100 -50 0 50 100 150
θ/°
Fig. 6. Circumferential distribution of fouling layer thickness of AETB.
front and back rows of the tube bundle and does not enter the main-
stream completely. At the same time, it can be seen that there is ob-
viously following property of the particles. Most of the particles move
with the mainstream, and only a few particles are involved in the wake
vortex. It can be seen from Fig. 5(b) that, ash fouling in the first row is
mainly concentrated near the upwind stagnation point. This is because
particles are prone to collide with the wall near the upwind stagnation
point under the action of particle inertia to form the ash fouling layer.
In addition, ash fouling of the rear tube is mainly within 20°–60° on the
windward side of tube, which corresponds to the reattachment area of
the rear tube where the tail vortex of the front row tube falls off.
Combined with the distribution of ash fouling thickness in the cir-
cumference of the tubes (Fig. 6) the maximum thickness of ash fouling
appears on both sides of the tube which is 20° to the windward. This is
because there is a transverse scouring speed in front of the rear tube,
which causes less particle deposition and more removal. At the same
time, ash fouling in the rear of the tube is relatively slight, which is
mainly due to the smaller windward area of the elliptical tube, thus
reducing the possibility of the particle deposition on the back side of the
tubes.
3.2.2. The effect of geometric parameters in the fouling state
The transverse and longitudinal pitches can significantly change the
flow state of the fluid between the tube bundles, disturb the

u
m·s-1

(a) Before fouling

(b) After fouling

Fig. 5. Particle distribution and fouling morphology.

321
S.-Z. Tang, et al.
morphology and distribution of the ash fouling on the heat-transfer
surface, and affect the thermal-hydraulic performance in the fouling
state.
In clean state (i.e. t = 0 moment), Fig. 7 depicts the variation of the
Nu number with time. It can be observed that with the increase of re-
lative transverse pitch σ1, the Nu number decreases. It can be explained
that the increase of the transverse pitch increases the cross-section area
between the transverse tubes, reduces the average flow velocity of the
fluid, and makes the heat transfer performance decline rapidly. In ad-
dition, it can be found that the Nu number increases with the increase of
relative longitudinal pitch σ2. This is because with the increase of
longitudinal pitch, the influence of the tail vortex of the front row tube
on the rear tube is decreasing, and the heat transfer performance of the
rear tube tends to be that of a single tube. Meanwhile, it also can be
seen that the effect of transverse spacing on heat transfer performance
is more significant than that of the longitudinal pitch.
In the ash fouling state, it can be seen from Fig. 7 that the Nu
number decreases rapidly with the increase of time. This is due to the
formation of ash fouling layer on the heat-transfer surface. The heat
transfer performance of the heat exchanger is obviously deteriorated
because of the low thermal conductivity of the ash fouling layer which
makes the main thermal resistance in the ash fouling layer. With the
growth of ash fouling layer, the deposition and removal of particles are
basically in a balanced state, and the growth of ash fouling is inhibited,
which results in the gradual decrease of the effect of the fouling on the
heat transfer performance. But for the larger transverse and long-
itudinal pitch, the interaction between each tube and the inhibition
effect of tube bundle on ash fouling are weak, which make the ash
fouling in a state of continuous growth and the asymptotic trend of heat
transfer performance is still not significant.
In order to compare intuitively the effect of transverse and long-
itudinal pitches on the heat transfer performance in the ash fouling
state, Fig. 8 shows the variation of the thermal effective coefficient φ of
different tube pitch over time during the fouling growing process. The
horizontal coordinates represent the Nu number of the tube bundles
with different pitch in the clean state, and the data points represent the
thermal effective coefficients φ at different times in the fouling state
from top to bottom. It can be seen that, within the calculation time, the
effect of the transverse pitch on the thermal effective coefficient φ is
more significant than longitudinal pitch in the fouling state. Although
the heat transfer performance of small transverse pitch is higher, taking
σ1 = 1.5 as an example, the reduced degree of thermal effective coef-
ficient φ at the same time is the largest. After 20 h, the thermal effective
coefficient has been reduced to less than 0.80, which means that the
heat transfer performance is reduced by more than 20%. Therefore, the
soot-blowing time should be selected reasonably to ensure the efficient
operation of the heat exchanger.
Similarly, Fig. 9 shows the variation of the friction factor f over
time. In the clean state, it can be observed that the friction factor f
decreases gradually with the increase of the transverse pitch. It can be
understood that increasing the transverse spacing reduces the average
velocity of fluid within the tube bundles and decreases the friction re-
sistance along the path. In addition, with the increase of longitudinal
pitch, the friction factor f increases and tends to stabilize. Under the
larger longitudinal pitch, more fluids are alternating within the tube
bundles, and more mechanical energy is dissipated, resulting in greater
flow resistance.
In fouling state, it can be seen that the ash fouling layer has little
effect on the friction factor f under the small relative longitudinal pitch,
but the change of the friction factor f is obvious when the pitch is larger.
In addition, for tube bundles with the different pitches, the friction
factor f after fouling may increase or decrease. This is due to the change
of fouling morphology, resulting in a different change of flow re-
sistance.
Fig. 10 presents the variation of the PEC of tube bundles with dif-
ferent transverse and longitudinal pitches in ash fouling state. It can be
322
Fuel 251 (2019) 316–327
seen that with the increase of transverse pitch, the PEC increases gra-
dually. This is due to the increase of transverse pitch, resulting in the
reduction in Nu number, but the reduction of the friction factor f is
more obvious, so that the synthesis can be improved. At the same time,
with the increase of longitudinal pitch, the PEC is significantly reduced
and tends to be stable. By contrasting the PEC of different pitch, it can
be concluded that the larger transverse pitch and the smaller long-
itudinal pitch are beneficial to the improvement of the overall perfor-
mance. Based on the results of the previous section, tube bundles
(σ1 = 2.5, σ2 = 1.5) are most suitable for the waste heat recovery of
dust-containing flue gas within the range of parameters in this paper.
3.2.3. Multiple correlation of AETB
In the case of waste heat recovery of dust-containing flue gas, the
design of flue gas heat exchanger is usually carried out by fouling
thermal resistance or fouling factor. Therefore, according to the Eqs.
(10) and (13), the Nu number of the tube bundles with different pitch is
converted into fouling thermal resistance. Taking the specific tube
bundle (σ1 = 1.5 and σ2 = 2.0) as an example, the curve of the fouling
thermal resistance with time is fitted by the exponential function, as
shown in Fig. 11. It can be seen that the fouling thermal resistance
shows asymptotic characteristics with the increase of time, and the
fitting curve is in good agreement with the numerical results. At the
same time, it can be found that the fouling resistance reaches a stable
value when time tends to be infinitely large. The intersection of the
tangent of the fouling thermal resistance curve at the origin and the
asymptotic value (Rf = Rf*) exists, and the corresponding x-axis corre-
sponds to the characteristic time tc in the asymptote equation
(Rf = Rf*(1 − e−t/tc)), which represents the time required for the
fouling thermal resistance to reach 63% of the asymptotic value.
The correlation between fouling thermal resistance and time of
AETB with different transverse and longitudinal pitches is fitted by the
asymptote equation. Then the asymptotic values of fouling thermal
resistance on the heat transfer surface under different transverse and
longitudinal pitches are obtained, as shown in Fig. 12(a). The quadratic
function is used to fit the nonlinear surface and the fitting surface is
presented in Fig. 12(b). It can be observed that smaller transverse or
longitudinal pitch helps to reduce the fouling resistance on the heat
transfer surface and the fouling resistance is lowest when σ1 = 2.5 and
σ2 = 1.5. At the same time, the fitting correlation is shown in Eq. (15).
R∗f = 0.0687 − 0.04684 ∗ σ1 − 0.06428 ∗ σ2 + 0.00032 ∗ σ12 + 0.01454 ∗ σ22
+ 0.0457 ∗ σ1 ∗ σ2 − 0.01052 ∗ σ1 ∗ σ22 (15)
In order to better guide the practical application of AETB, the cor-
relations of Nu number and the friction factor f in clean state are
σ2=1.50 σ2=2.00 σ2=2.50
180.0
σ1=1.50 σ1=2.00 σ1=2.50
160.0
140.0
Nu
120.0
100.0
80.0
60.0
0 5 10 15 20 0 5 10 15 20 0 5 10 15 20
t/h
Fig. 7. Effects of tube pitch on Nu number.
S.-Z. Tang, et al. Fuel 251 (2019) 316–327

0.004

R f* Asymptotic line
0.003

-1
Rf × 10 / m ·K·W
Rf=Rf*(1-e -t/t )
c

0.002

2
-3
0.001 Numerical data
Fitting line

tc
0.000
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
t/h
Fig. 11. Fouling thermal resistance versus time.

Fig. 8. Effects of tube pitch on the thermal effective coefficients φ. respectively shown in the Eqs. (16) and (17). In the correlations, the
relative transverse and longitudinal pitches are in the 1.50–2.50 range.
σ2=1.50 σ2=2.00 σ2=2.50
0.60 Nu = 599.37781 − 414.90466 ∗ σ1 + 12.84599 ∗ σ2 + 79.71097 ∗ σ12

σ1=1.50 σ1=2.00
+ 0.94182 ∗ σ22 + 10.03238 ∗ σ1 ∗ σ2 (16)
σ1=2.50
0.50
f = 0.10648 − 0.89313 ∗ σ1 + 1.08292 ∗ σ2 + 0.21416 ∗ σ12 − 0.1862 ∗ σ22
− 0.09523 ∗ σ1 ∗ σ2 (17)
0.40
*
Table 2 compares the Nu, f, and Rf of numerical results and the
0.30 predicted ones calculated by the correlations. It can be seen that the
relative deviations of most data points of Nu and Rf* are less than ± 5%.
f

While the relative deviations of some data points of the friction factor f
0.20 are larger, but the overall trend is perfectly consistent. As a whole, the
fitting correlations can be used to predict the thermal-hydraulic per-
0.10 formance in the clean state and the fouling thermal resistance in the
fouling state.

0.00
0 5 10 15 20 0 5 10 15 20 0 5 10 15 20 3.3. Parameter study on fouling characteristics of honeycomb circular tube
t/h bundle

Fig. 9. Effects of tube pitch on the friction factor f. 3.3.1. Fouling characteristics and distribution
When the flue gas velocity is 5 m/s and the relative oblique pitch σ
σ2=1.50 σ2=2.0 σ2=2.50 is 2.00 (σ = S/D), the particle field distribution and the fouling mor-
1800.0 phology of HCTB are analyzed, as shown in Fig. 13. From Fig. 13(a), it
σ1=1.50 σ1=2.00 σ1=2.50 can be seen that the boundary layer is separated on the rear edge of the
tube, and the tail vortex is alternately oscillating within the tube bun-
1500.0
dles. Meanwhile, it can be observed that most of the particles follow the
mainstream movement and collide with the windward side of the tubes,
while fewer particles collide with the leeward side of the tubes.
1200.0
According to the fouling morphology (Fig. 13(b)) and the cir-
Nu / f

cumferential distribution of fouling layer thickness (Fig. 14), we can see

900.0 that the maximum fouling thickness appears near 30° to windward of
the tube. Additionally, there is obvious ash fouling on the leeward side
of the tubes. Because compared with the elliptical tube, the circular
600.0 tube increases the possibility of particles being trapped in the wake
vortex and deposited on the tube wall.

300.0 3.3.2. The effect of geometric parameters in the fouling state

0 5 10 15 20 0 5 10 15 20 0 5 10 15 20
Fig. 15 represents the effect of relative oblique pitch σ on Nusselt
t/h
number Nu in the fouling state. It can be seen that with the increase of
Fig. 10. Effects of tube pitch on the PEC. time, the fouling layer grows continuously, which weakens the con-
vection heat transfer between the fluid and the tube surface, so that
Nusselt number Nu decreases. In addition, it can be observed that with
the increase of the relative oblique pitch σ, the heat transfer perfor-
mance decreases and the decreasing amplitude decreases. The reason
can be explained that the larger oblique pitch makes each tube of the

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S.-Z. Tang, et al. Fuel 251 (2019) 316–327

(a) the surface of original values (b) the fitting surface

Fig. 12. The distribution of fouling thermal resistance.

Table 2
Comparison of numerical results and predicted ones.
σ1 σ2 Nup Nun Error (%) fp fn Error (%) Rf,p×10-3 Rf,n×10-3 Error (%)

1.50 1.50 161.79 159.97 1.14 0.240 0.229 4.69 2.78 2.74 1.28
1.50 2.00 164.54 167.94 2.02 0.384 0.408 5.86 2.74 2.59 5.79
1.50 2.50 167.76 166.19 0.95 0.435 0.422 3.11 2.08 2.26 7.74
2.00 1.50 101.36 104.63 3.12 0.097 0.105 7.63 2.36 2.42 2.69
2.00 2.00 106.62 100.59 5.99 0.217 0.196 10.52 4.54 4.83 6.00
2.00 2.50 112.35 115.11 2.40 0.244 0.257 4.96 3.47 3.11 11.74
2.50 1.50 80.78 79.34 1.82 0.060 0.063 4.49 2.10 2.06 1.70
2.50 2.00 88.55 91.18 2.89 0.157 0.154 2.08 6.50 6.35 2.36
2.50 2.50 96.78 95.59 1.24 0.161 0.161 0.28 5.02 5.20 3.37

Note that subscript ‘p’ and ‘n’ indicate predicted values and numerical ones, respectively.

u
m·s-1

(a) Before fouling

(b) After fouling

Fig. 13. Particle distribution and fouling morphology.

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S.-Z. Tang, et al. Fuel 251 (2019) 316–327

16.0 0.50

1-row σ =1.50 σ =1.75 σ =2.00

-30° +30°
2-row θ σ =2.25 σ =2.50
0.40
12.0 3-row
Fouling thickness / mm

0.30

8.0

f
0.20

4.0
0.10

0.0 0.00
-180 -120 -60 0 60 120 180 0 5 10 15 20 25

θ/° t/h

Fig. 14. Circumferential distribution of fouling layer thickness of HCTB. Fig. 17. Effect of relative oblique pitch σ on the friction factor f.

140.0 600.0

σ =1.50 σ =1.75 σ =2.00 σ =1.50 σ =1.75 σ =2.00

σ =2.25 σ =2.50 σ =2.25 σ =2.50
120.0
500.0

100.0
400.0
Nu / f
Nu

80.0

300.0
60.0

200.0
40.0 0 5 10 15 20 25
0 5 10 15 20 25
t/h
t/h
Fig. 18. The variation of the PEC of different oblique pitch.
Fig. 15. Effect of relative oblique pitch σ on Nu in the fouling state.

0.0040

0.0035

0.0030
Rf* / m2·K·W-1

0.0025

0.0020

Numerical data
0.0015 Fitting line

0.0010
1.50 1.75 2.00 2.25 2.50
σ
Fig. 19. The distribution of fouling thermal resistance.

Fig. 16. Effect of relative oblique pitch σ on the thermal effective coefficient φ.
increase of oblique pitch, and the thermal efficiency coefficient de-
creases exponentially with time. Because with the increase of oblique
tube bundle more independent, and its effect on heat transfer perfor-
pitch, the average velocity of fluid within tube bundles decreases,
mance decreases gradually.
which makes the particles deposition amount increase and the removal
The effect of ash fouling on the thermal effective coefficient φ of
amount decrease, and further aggravates the inhibition of the fouling
tube bundles with different oblique pitches is shown in Fig. 16. It can be
layer on the heat transfer performance.
seen that, the heat transfer performance decreases gradually with the
Fig. 17 depicts the variation of the friction factor f of HCTB over

325
S.-Z. Tang, et al.
Table 3
Comparison of numerical results and the predicted ones.
S/D Nup Nun Error (%) fp
1.50 120.0 119.34 0.54 0.372
1.75 93.61 94.55 −1.00 0.273
2.00 76.75 77.86 −1.46 0.201
2.25 71.71 69.29 3.38 0.167
2.50 67.80 68.83 −1.51 0.142
Note that subscript ‘p’ and ‘n’ indicate predicted values and numerical ones, respectively.
time before and after ash fouling. It can be seen that the friction factor f
decreases with the increasing oblique pitch. But for the different ob-
lique pitch, the friction factor f of HCTB has no obvious regularity with
the change of time. This is because with the increase of time, the fly ash
particles are continuously deposited on the heat-transfer surface and
the morphology of the fouling layer is constantly changing, which af-
fects the flow state of the fluid within the tube bundles and results in a
dynamic change in the friction factor f.
Fig. 18 shows the variation of the PEC of HCTB with different ob-
lique pitch. It can be found that the PEC of HCTB is higher when the
oblique pitch is larger. At the same time, it can be observed that the PEC
is very low when the oblique pitch is 1.50 in both clean and fouling
conditions. However, when the relative oblique pitch σ is 1.75, the PEC
decreases rapidly with the increase of time, and is less than that of
σ = 1.50. Therefore, in the practical application of HCTB, the relative
oblique pitch should be not less than 2.00.
3.3.3. Multiple correlation of HCTB
As in part 3.2.3, the Nu number of different oblique pitches at dif-
ferent time is transformed into fouling thermal resistance, and the
asymptotic value of fouling thermal resistance is also obtained by fitting
with asymptote equation. Fig. 19 gives a comparison between the nu-
merical results and the fitting curves of the asymptotic values under
different oblique pitches. It can be seen that the curve has an obvious
parabola trend. Therefore, the quadratic function is used for fitting, and
the formula obtained is shown in Eq. (18).
R f∗ = −0.02007 + 0.02152σ − 0.00485σ 2
To better guiding the practical application of HCTB, the correlations
of Nu number and f factor in clean state are respectively shown in the
Eqs. (19) and (20).
Nu = 438.41102 − 310.03147σ + 64.87888σ 2
f = 1.48613 − 1.05477σ + 0.20729σ 2
Table 3 presents the comparison between the numerical values and
the predicted ones of Nu, f and Rf* of HCTB. It can be found that the
deviations of the data points are less than ± 5%, and the correlations
have higher prediction accuracy. Therefore, the fitting correlation can
be used to predict the thermal-hydraulic characteristics in the clean
state and fouling thermal resistance in fouling state.
4. Conclusions
In view of unclean characteristics of industrial flue gas and the
contradiction among heat transfer performance, flow resistance and
soot-blowing in common heating surfaces, two kinds of heat transfer
surfaces (aligned elliptic tube bundle and honeycomb circular tube
bundle) were proposed. Then, ash fouling and thermal-hydraulic
characteristics in fouling state were studied, and the correlations which
can guide the design of heat exchanger under dust-containing condition
were obtained. The major conclusions can be described as follows.
• Comparing the prediction results of Nusselt number Nu in a clean
state and fouling morphology in fouling state with experimental
Fuel 251 (2019) 316–327
fn Error (%) Rf,p × 10−3 Rf,n × 10−3 Error (%)
0.370 0.43 1.32 1.30 1.70
0.275 −0.61 2.69 2.74 −1.74
0.206 −2.19 3.64 3.57 1.92
0.162 4.46 3.79 3.80 −0.18
0.145 −2.14 3.44 3.42 0.65
results, the results show that the prediction model of thermal-hy-
draulic and fouling characteristics is accurate.
• Based on the ash fouling model, the fouling distribution and mor-
phology of AETB and HCBT were obtained. The results show that the
fouling morphology can obviously change the flow state within tube
bundles, and the maximum fouling thickness appears near 20° and
30°with the windward of AETB and HCBT, respectively.
• For AETB: the effects of transverse pitch on Nu number in clean state
and the thermal effective coefficient in fouling state are obviously
higher than that in the longitudinal pitch. But the effect of trans-
verse pitch on friction factor f after ash fouling is not significant.
Larger transverse pitch and the smaller longitudinal pitch is bene-
ficial to improve comprehensive performance. In the range of
parameters studied in this paper, the tube bundle (σ1 = 2.5,
σ2 = 1.5) is most suitable for the dust-containing environment.
• For HCTB: in a clean state, Nu number and f factor decrease gra-
dually with the increase of oblique pitch; in a fouling state, with the
increase of time, Nu number decreases rapidly and f factor has no
obvious regularity with time, but the change is not significant.
Additionally, the relative oblique pitch should be not less than 2.00
for the practical application.
• The correlations of the asymptotic value of fouling thermal re-
sistance Rf* in fouling state, Nusselt number Nu and friction factor f
in clean state were obtained. The proposed correlations can accu-
rately predict the thermal-hydraulic and fouling characteristics of
AETB and HCTB, which are beneficial to the optimization of geo-
metry parameters under dust-containing conditions.
(18)
This article aims to obtain suitable heat-transfer surfaces that can
effectively reduce ash fouling, and provide practical guidelines for de-
signers to develop efficient heat exchangers.
(19)
Acknowledgments
(20)
This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of
China (2018YFB0605901).
The authors would also like to thank the Foundation for Innovative
Research Groups of the National Natural Science Foundation of China
(No. 51721004) and the Science and Technology Planning Project of
Xi'an (201809160CX1JC2-02).
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