Proyecto I+D
Project PID2023-148268NB-C21 CORRUGATOR
Thermal-hydraulic characteristics and fouling mitigation in integral roughness tubes under superimposed oscillatory flow
Of National scope. With a Public character. It has been granted under a regime of Competitive.
In collaboration with other entities. Role: Member
The chemical, food, energy and pharmaceutical industries frequently require heat transfer processes for very viscous products, which generally give rise to laminar flow regimes in the heat exchanger tubes. The low film coefficients on the tube side and the tendency to fouling force heat exchanger manufacturers to design equipment with large transfer surfaces, high tube cross sections - to control pressure drop - and concentric or triplex tube-shaped assemblies, when they do not introduce scraped surface systems that generate extra operation and cleaning duties. These restrictions give rise to bulky exchangers, with high capital, operation, cleaning and maintenance costs that involve energy, time and material burdens that harm the quality of the products and the efficiency of the process. An alternative to promote heat transfer and mitigate fouling in laminar processes comes through the use of compound enhancement techniques. The CORRUGATOR project takes as its starting point the evidence of the widespread use of corrugated tubes in these applications, even when their impact on heat transfer is negligible at low Reynolds numbers. The superposition of an oscillatory flow to the net flow can generate flow patterns that give rise to transport phenomena typical of turbulent flow at low Reynolds numbers, Re<1000, favoring the reduction of the size of the equipment. Previous results from the research group in a corrugated tube (with corrugation parameters h/D=0.031, p/D=0
Researchers
