Journal of Emerging Trends in Engineering and Applied Sciences: Research Areas

Article Title: Maintenance Optimization of a Marine Heat Exchanger Subject to Fouling
by Ezenwa Alfred Ogbonnaya, Kombo Theophilus-Johnson, Hyginus Ubabuike Ugwu, Charles Ugochukwu Orji, Chigozie Ebunuoha

Abstract:
Engineers are often expected to improve the requirements of process plants to increase their efficiencyies. Processes which use heat transfer equipment need to be frequently maintained for these reasons. With a view to optimize the performance of the equipment, this paper therefore provides the results of two maintenance strategies to combat the menace of fouling in order to increase shell and tube heat exchangers performance. The high-pressure water jetting and chemical cleaning techniques were used in this work for units A and B heat exchangers of a process plant. Periodic monitoring was also used to predict the performance of the equipment. This approach capitalized on the overall heat transfer, pressure drop and fouling factor to optimize the performance of marine heat exchangers. Performance data were taken for a period of ten weeks before and after cleaning from 15kW heat exchanger units A and B, which were under the same condition of deterioration recommended prior to maintenance. The results revealed that before the heat exchanger units were shut down for maintenance, the overall heat transfer was 9778.4kw, which was likeable to 65.19% of the design value, while that of unit B rose to 12255.90kw, which is 81.71% of the design value. Furthermore, after the maintenance the overall heat transfer effectiveness of unit A rose to 14563.46kw, which is 97.19% of the design value. The results proved that high pressure water jetting method is best in combating fouling for performance recovery

Keywords: optimization, maintenance strategy, fouling, marine heat exchangers, downtime, combating, performance recovery

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