Energy Conversion and Management 64 (2012) 344350

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Energy Conversion and Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enconman

CFD modeling of fouling in crude oil pre-heaters

Mahmoud Bayat a,, Javad Aminian b, Mansour Bazmi a, Shahrokh Shahhosseini b, Khashayar Shari a
a
b

Research Institute of Petroleum Industry (RIPI), West Blvd. Azadi Sport Complex, P.O. Box 14665-1998, Tehran, Iran
Department of Chemical Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST), P.O. Box 16765-163, Narmak, Tehran, Iran

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 13 February 2010
Received in revised form 3 May 2012
Accepted 3 May 2012
Available online 27 September 2012
Keywords:
CFD
Modeling
Crude oil
Fouling
Asphaltene
Pre-heater

a b s t r a c t
In this study, a conceptual procedure based on the computational uid dynamic (CFD) technique has been
developed to predict fouling rate in an industrial crude oil pre-heater. According to the developed CFD
concept crude oil was assumed to be composed of three pseudo-components comprising of petroleum,
asphaltene and salt. The binary diffusion coefcients were appropriately categorized into ve different
groups. The species transport model was applied to simulate the mixing and transport of chemical species. The possibility of adherence of reaction products to the wall was taken into account by applying a
high viscosity for the products in competition with the shear stress on the wall. Results showed a reasonable agreement between the model predictions and the plant data. The CFD model could be applied to
new operating conditions to investigate the details of the crude oil fouling in the industrial pre-heaters.
2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Crude oil fouling is a very complex phenomenon that occurs
due to the simultaneous activities of several chemical and physical
mechanisms. Some of these mechanisms occurring in pre-heat
exchangers of crude distillation units are deposition of waxes, salts
and corrosion products, chemical reaction fouling, sedimentation
and bio-fouling. The cost of fouling in reneries of industrialized
courtiers has been estimated to around $1.3 billion per year [1].
It arises from additional fuel required for the furnace, production
loss during undesirable shutdowns, off-line and on-line cleaning
devices and also environmental penalties. The role of asphaltene
and salt deposition in crude oil fouling is ambiguous. Panchal [1]
were the rst to introduce threshold fouling concept. The concept provides a semi-empirical basis for interpretation of fouling
data in terms of deposition and suppression mechanisms. Threshold condition is in fact the boundary between fouling and no-fouling zones. A number of threshold fouling models have been
developed based on the Ebert and Panchal model in order to extend the prediction accuracy for various types of crude oil [24].
Panchal et al. [2] have added the Prandtl number to the rst version of threshold fouling model and extended its applicability to
crude oils with Prandtl number between 2.5 and 8.2. Polley et al.
[3] proposed the use of tube wall temperature instead of lm temperature in the deposition term and also employed Reynolds number instead of wall shear stress in the suppression term and
Corresponding author. Tel.: +98 21 48259767; fax: +98 21 48259738.
E-mail address: bayatm@ripi.ir (M. Bayat).
0196-8904/$ - see front matter 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2012.05.003

obtained more accurate results for an Alaskan crude oil. Yeap

et al. [4] have performed an extensive review on evaluating several
threshold fouling models applying various laboratory and plant
data sets. These models produce reasonable results for laboratory
experiments, whereas they give rough predictions when they have
applied to the industrial situations [4].
Vahdat Azad et al. [5] have proposed a novel graphical method
for increasing period of desirable heat transfer operation of heat
exchanger networks (HENs) without requiring cleaning process.
In this method the time schedules and places of replacing high
fouling rate streams with those of low fouling rate are determined;
thereby more opportunity of fouling formation is given to the HEN.
With a systematic experimental study, Herz et al. [6] demonstrated
that the degree of surface roughness has a strong impact on the
deposition of calcium sulfate in a stainless steel tube. They showed
that the fouling layer on a rough surface has a stronger adhesion
and shorter induction period than those on a smooth surface.
Recently, the application of numerical methods such as blackbox modeling and optimization techniques to investigate crude
oil fouling phenomenon has obtained much attention due to the
tremendous evolution in digital computing [711]. Aminian and
Shahhosseini evaluated the application of articial neural network
(ANN) to predict the complex behavior of fouling phenomenon for
several types of laboratory and industrial crude oil heat exchangers
[7,8]. Their proposed formulations based on the ANN approach
indicated better predictions in comparison with three different
threshold fouling models. Radhakrishnan et al. have also employed
the ANN approach to predict fouling in pre-heat exchangers of
CDUs and successfully proposed a preventive maintenance

M. Bayat et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 64 (2012) 344350

345

Nomenclature
Ao
Cp
Dj
Ft
hi
Gk
Gx
hideal
hio
ho
ID
JC
JL
JB
JR
JS
Jl
k
_
m
Nu
OD
p
Q
rj
R
Rf
Re

overall heat transfer area, m2

specic heat capacity, J kg1 K1
mass diffusion coefcient of species j, m2 s1
temperature correction factor
tube-side HTC, W m2 K1
production rate of k in Eq. (7)
production rate of x in Eq. (8)
ideal tube-side HTC, W m2 K1
tube-side HTC based on tube outside diameter, W m2 K1
shell-side HTC, W m2 K1
tube inside diameter, m
bafe cut correction factor
bafe leakage correction factor
bundle bypass correction factor
laminar ow correction factor
unequal bafe spacing correction factor
wall viscosity correction factor
production rate of turbulent kinetic energy
crude ow rate, kg s1
Nusselt number
tube outside diameter, m
pressure, kPa
total heat load, W
intrinsic reaction rate of species j
universal gas constant, J kmol1 K1
fouling resistance, m2 K kW1
Reynolds number

scheduling tool using plant operating data [9]. A similar plan

was pursued by Sanaye and Niroomand [10] and Rodriguez and
Smith [11] in the heat exchanger networks (HENs) of petrochemical and renery plants, respectively. These researchers have
developed, separately, similar numerical methods based on the
effectiveness-NTU approach to model the HENs and determine
the amount of fouling deposited to estimate the overall heat transfer and pressure drop versus time. By dening two similar objective functions based on the total operating cost they have
predicted an optimal cleaning schedule for the HENs in each plant
with noticeable economical savings [10,11]. In the above mentioned studies the details of uid ow, temperature gradients
and component concentrations on the rate of fouling were ruled
out due to black-box or empirical approaches they employed.
Investigation of fouling phenomenon using white-box approaches such as the computational uid dynamic (CFD) is limited
to a little number of studies. Brahim et al. [12] have simulated crystallization of CaSO4 on a at plate using the commercial CFD code,
FLUENT. Walker and Sheikholeslami [13] have also investigated
the effects of velocity and residence time on the isothermal and
non-isothermal ow domain, where calcium sulfate precipitation
occurs. Zhang and Li [14] studied particle deposition of air in a
3D turbulent duct ow under different air speeds, applying RANS
equations and Lagrangian particle tracing approach. In another
study Zhang et al. [15] have investigated the effects of relaxation
time, particle size, air speed, turbulent ow development proles
and surface orientations on the predicted deposition rates of particles. They have reported that particle deposition rate in the developing turbulent ow section is higher than that in the fully
developed turbulent ow section. It has been shown that air velocity and particle size are the main factors inuencing particle deposition rate in ventilation duct ows.
The previous studies suffer the lack of a systematic strategy for
CFD modeling of crude oil fouling in the industrial shell-and-tube

St

u
UC
UD
Yj
Yk
Yx

Stanton number
velocity vector, m s1
clean overall HTC, W m2 K1
dirty overall HTC, W m2 K1
mass fraction of species j
destruction rate of k in Eq. (7)
destruction rate of x in Eq. (8)

Abbreviations
ESDU
Engineering Sciences Data Unit
SST
Shear Stress Transport
HTC
Heat Transfer Coefcient
Subscripts
b
bulk
w
wall
Greeks

q
e
x

l
lt
r

density, kg m3
dissipation rate of turbulent kinetic energy in ke equation
dissipation rate of turbulent kinetic energy in kx equation
dynamic molecular viscosity, kg m1 s1
turbulent dynamic viscosity, kg m1 s1
turbulent Prandtl number

heat exchangers. The focus of this work is to include lumped-reactions for asphaltene and salt components through the species
transport model and use of appropriate molecular diffusion coefcients to predict fouling behavior in crude pre-heaters using CFD
technique. This study is established, mainly, based on an innovative conceptual idea to predict the probability of reaction product
adhering to the tube wall and subsequent thickening of the fouling
layer.
2. Problem description
An industrial shell-and-tube heat exchanger comprising of 618
tubes located in a one-pass shell with 24 bafes was modeled
using the CFD technique based on a single tube model. The exchanger is located in the pre-heat train of crude distillation unit (CDU)
in Tehran oil renery and heats up the crude oil coming from storage tanks using a high temperature fraction, iso-feed, owing
through the shell-side. At the pre-heater inlet, crude oil and isofeed temperatures were varied between 186220 C and 272
298 C, respectively. Along the exchanger, temperature of crude
oil increased to the range of 224256 C while the iso-feed temperature decreased to about 226259 C. The crude volume ow rate
was also in the range of 641 and 854 m3 h1 yielding the tube Reynolds numbers in the range of 2e52.9e5.
3. Numerical modeling
Crude oil was assumed to be composed of three pseudo-components; petroleum, asphaltene and salt. In general, thermo-physical
properties of different crude oils vary widely. In addition, their
temperature dependencies and reactivity, strongly determined by
their composition, can differ noticeably. The correlations for petroleum, presented in Table 1, have been obtained based on the laboratory data available in the Tehran oil renery.

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M. Bayat et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 64 (2012) 344350

Table 1
Thermo-physical properties of petroleum and other pseudo-components.
Density (kg m3)
Petroleum
Asphaltene
Coke
Saltb
Saltw
*

Viscosity (kg m1 s1)

834.4  0.276Tb
850
900
850
900

c  exp (d/33.28)
0.006
150,000
0.006
180,000

Thermal conductivity (W m1 K1)

Heat capacity (J kg1 K1)

0.145  0.0001Tb
0.123
1.500
0.123
1.500

1671 + 4.4563Tb
1500
1500
1500
1500

c 2:2085e  7  T 2b  1:3e  4  T b 1:9271e  2, d = 1.51Tb + 568.84.




@
@
@p @
@u
 qu
u
 
qg
qu
l lt
@t
@ x
@ x @ x
@ x

Density, thermal conductivity and heat capacity of the other

components have a minor role in crude oil fouling behavior. Therefore, they were considered as typical values for fouling precursors
and reaction products. However, as a part of the developed CFD
concept, the viscosity values of asphaltene, coke and salts were assumed to be varied in a wide range. The assumption plays a major
role in the development of the fouling layer on the tube wall. The
possibility of adhering of fouled species (coke and saltw) to the wall
is determined based on the competition between their apparent
high viscosities and the shear stress on the wall.

where Dj is the mass diffusion coefcient and rj is the net reaction

rate of species j computed as follows:

3.1. Calculation domain and grid

rj M w;j

Using Ficks law for diffusion, the species transport equation for
species j is given as:



@
@
@
@Y j

qY j qY j u
q
Dj
 rj
@t
@ x
@ x
@ x

Nr
X
r j;k

k1

A 2D computational domain was adopted to reduce the CPU

time associated with numerical simulation. The symmetric ow
domain together with the boundary conditions is shown in Fig. 1.
The tube length and diameter were considered 500 and 25 mm,
respectively. In other words, the fouling behavior in the whole
industrial shell and tube heat exchanger was mimicked using a single 0.5 m tube long. The main drawback of this geometry is that it
could not be used to predict pressure prole along the exchanger
due to its shorter length compared to the industrial geometries.
However, prediction of pressure prole is not the aim of this study.
The geometry was discretized applying 62,500 quadrilateral
cells. The choice of very ne mesh grid in the whole radial direction
was aimed at considering the ability to predict very thick fouling
layers occurring in the very long industrial operation periods.
3.2. Governing equations
The partial differential equations governing the turbulent ow
in the tube-side could be written in a Cartesian coordinate system
as follows.
The conservation equation of mass is:


@ q @ qu
0

@ x
@t

The conservation equation of momentum is:

velocity
inlet

As shown in Eq. (4), rj represents the sum of the Arrhenius reaction rates over the Nr reactions that the species j participate in. Mw,j
is the molecular weight of species j and rj,k is the Arrhenius rate of
production/consumption of species j in reaction k. It will be discussed later that reactions will occur at the tube wall surface
resulting in the surface deposition of product species.
The energy conservation equation is:


!
@
@
@p @
@T X
@Y j
 
qE qEu
keff

hj Dj
Sh
@t
@ x
@ x @ x
@ x
@ x
j
5
where the two terms of the second part on the right-hand side of Eq.
(5) represent energy transfer due to conduction and species diffusion, respectively. Sh is also the heat of chemical reaction computed
as follows:

Sh

X h0j
rj
Mw;j
j

where hj is the enthalpy formation of species j and rj is the net rate

of production of species j shown in Eq. (4).
The turbulent viscosity term (lt) was computed based on the
SST version of kx model [16]. The SST model employs the ke
model [17] for the regions far away from the walls and the standard kx model [18] near the wall. The turbulent kinetic energy

axis
x

wall

Fig. 1. Flow domain, grid and boundary conditions.

pressure
outlet

M. Bayat et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 64 (2012) 344350

k and turbulent frequency x are computed by the following

relations:

@
@
@
 k Gk  Y k
qk qu
@t
@ x
@ x



@
@
@
 x Gx  Y x
qx qu
@t
@ x
@ x



lt @k
rk @ x

7


lt @ x
rx @ x

where Gk and Gx are production terms of k and x and Yk and Yx

represent the destruction rates. rk and rx are also the turbulent
Prandtl numbers for k and x, respectively. The expression for turbulent viscosity is then computed as:
2

lt qa

in which, the coefcient a damps the turbulent viscosity causing a

low-Reynolds-number correction. Detailed evaluations of these
parameters are explained in the original Ref. [16].
3.3. Boundary conditions
As mentioned in Section 3.1, the main boundary conditions are
shown in Fig. 1. A uniform velocity, temperature and mixture composition proles were imposed at the tube inlet. The possibility of
the reverse ow at the outlet boundary, during the solution process
was taken into account. A zero ux of all quantities was also assumed across the tube wall. A xed convection heat ux, related
to the average temperature and HTC of the shell-side uid, was applied as boundary condition for the non-isothermal tube wall. A set
of surface chemical reactions were also considered on the wall to
account for the production of species j in Eq. (3).
3.4. Development of numerical model
The unsteady state Reynolds averaged NavierStokes (RANS)
equations were solved, in a nite volume scheme, for an incompressible turbulent ow applying the SST version of the kx model. As discussed in the previous section, this model appears to be
appropriate for investigation of fouling phenomenon. The pressurevelocity coupling was handled by the SIMPLE algorithm and
the convection terms were discretized using the second order upwind scheme [19]. The appropriate under relaxation factors were
imposed to avoid instability in the solution. Arrhenius rate equation was used to determine the rate of species formation on the
tube surface. Another major part of the developed CFD model is
the contribution of chemical reactions, which lead to fouling formation on the tube surface. The chemical reactions have considered based on two lumped surface reactions as follows:

2 asphaltene ! coke
2 saltb ! saltw

 r saltb 1:2  1021 e2e8=RT saltb 0:5

ious molecular diffusion coefcients and thermo-physical properties for different components in different situations. The
asphaltene diffusion coefcient has been reported to be in the
range of 1e101e11 m2 s1 [20,21]. This value generally has
been measured via laboratory experiments for diffusion of asphaltene in a resident toluene solution at the ambient conditions. However, the high temperature, low viscosity ow of petroleum in preheater tubes causes asphaltene to diffuse easier into the petroleum. Therefore, in this study the asphaltene diffusion coefcient
through the petroleum was set to 1e7 m2 s1. In addition to
asphaltenepetroleum molecular diffusion coefcient, various
molecular diffusion coefcients were set for other pairs of the species, which were categorized based on the following groups.
 First group: molecular diffusion of bulk species (such as asphaltene and saltb) through petroleum. As mentioned before the
value in this category was found to be 1e7 m2 s1.
 Second group: molecular diffusion of bulk species through the
fouled layer. As fouling progresses, fouled species layers may
stick to the tube wall based on the competition between their
high apparent viscosities and the shear stress on the wall. The
fouled layer hinders the bulk species to reach the wall and react
on it. Thus, relatively high molecular diffusions (in the order of
1e1 m2 s1) were chosen for this category to ensure that the
bulk species could pass through the fouled layer and react on
the wall.
 Third group: molecular diffusion of the fouled species through
fouled layer. The value of the molecular diffusion for this group
was chosen to be sufciently high; 1e+0 m2 s1, to ensure that
the new fouled species could evacuate the wall surface rapidly
and the new reactants (bulk species) can reach the wall and
react on it. Another reason to consider the high values for this
category is that the new fouled species are supposed to have
the opportunity to return back to the top of the fouled layer
and subsequently cause to thicken the fouled layer.
 Fourth group: molecular diffusion coefcients of fouled species
through the petroleum. Molecular diffusion value in this category is very important since it represents the possibility of separation of stuck fouled layer from the wall arising from the
competition between the adhesion forces (high apparent viscosities) and the wall shear stress. It was found that the value
should be very low. Considering very low diffusion coefcients
for this group, it is very unlikely if new fouled species can separate from the fouled layer and oat towards the petroleum
ow. The choice of molecular diffusion values in this group,
together with the third group, will result in an increase in the
thickness of the fouled layer.
 Fifth group: molecular diffusion of the bulk species through the
bulk species. This group has no signicant effect on the fouling
phenomenon and a moderate value of 1e3 m2 s1 was
considered.

10

The corresponding reaction rates shown in Eq. (11) are obtained

by comparing the model predictions and experimental data:

 r asph: 8  1020 e2e8=RT asph:0:5

347

11

The above pre-exponential factors and activation energies were

also set based on the corresponding molecular diffusions and may
differ if other sets of molecular diffusions are applied.
The species molecular diffusion from the turbulent bulk to the
laminar sub-layer and their deposition on the wall was considered
applying a new strategy. This strategy assumes that there are var-

According to the CFD fouling concept mentioned above, following three phenomena, schematically depicted in Fig. 2a, will result
in formation of the rst layer of fouling in the induction period:
1. Diffusion of bulk species (such as asphaltene and saltb) through
petroleum (rst group in the diffusion category).
2. Reactions of bulk species on the tube surface based on Eq. (9).
3. Adhesion of the reaction products to the tube wall by adjusting
very high apparent viscosities for them.
On the other hand, the continuation of fouling formation and
thickening of the fouled layer in the developing period, schematically depicted in Fig. 2b, has been accounted for based on the following procedure:

348

M. Bayat et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 64 (2012) 344350

(b)

Fouling resistance (m2 K kW-1)

(a)

1.5

0.5

500

1000

1500

2000

Time (hr)
Fig. 4. Plant fouling data related to a pre-heater in Tehran oil renery.

4. Results and discussion

Fig. 2. Conceptual procedure of fouling formation in the (a) induction and (b)
developing periods.

1. Diffusion of bulk species through the fouled layer (second group

in the diffusion category).
2. Reactions of bulk species on the tube surface based on Eq. (9).
3. Diffusion of the reaction products (fouled species) through the
fouled layer to return back to the top of the fouled layer (third
group in the diffusion category).
4. Very low diffusion of fouled species (saltw and coke) through
the petroleum together with very high apparent viscosities for
them to hinder their separation from the fouled layer and subsequently thickening of the fouled layer.
Since fouling phenomenon generally occurs in the boundary
layer, the shape and thickness of the boundary layer inuences
fouling behavior. A fully developed ow is, therefore, essential to
generate an accurate boundary layer. Once the boundary conditions were set, unsteady turbulent ow equations for non-reacting
case were solved until the residuals of axial velocity were settled
and fully developed ow eld was reached. The residuals of velocity components were considered to be 1e7 in order to obtain a
fully developed ow in the 0.5 m tube long. The converged nonreactive case was, then, used as a starting point (initial guess) for
the solution of the species balance equations in the reactive case.

Plant data, collected from an industrial shell-and-tube heat exchanger, located at the pre-heat train of a CDU in Tehran oil renery, was employed to evaluate the CFD model. The data set
included inlet and outlet temperatures for both shell-and-tube
sides, crude volume ow rate in tube side, crude composition
and also cumulative time for the rst 3 months from last overhaul.
Having these plant data, calculation of the fouling resistance was
conducted based on the procedure illustrated in Fig. 3.
According to this procedure, fouling behavior for the crude oil
pre-heater is obtained as illustrated in Fig. 4.
Normal operating conditions of the pre-heater, presented in Table 2, was chosen to run the CFD model.
Employing the above operating conditions, velocity distribution
along the tube obtained for different simulation periods is illustrated in Fig. 5. The zero velocity regions represent the fouling
layer formed on the wall. It can be observed that the initial fouling
layers are developed after about 9 days (7.92e5 s) and the thickness of fouling layer is increased as time progresses.
Contours of the coke concentration stuck on the tube wall and
the corresponding velocity prole in three sections of the computational domain are shown in Fig. 6. The contours of deposited salts
(not shown here) are qualitatively as the same. It can be seen that
in the inlet section of the tube no severe fouling occurred even for
the long operation periods. However, maximum amount of fouling
is formed in the outlet section of the tube due to the more resi-

Fig. 3. Equation-based procedure for calculation of fouling resistance. (See the above mentioned references for further information.)

349

M. Bayat et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 64 (2012) 344350

Table 2
Simulation conditions of a pre-heater in the CDU of Tehran oil renery.
Operating conditions

Value

Average crude inlet temperature (K)

Average shell-side inlet temperature (K)
Average crude velocity (m s1)
Average shell-side HTC (W m2 K1)
Asphaltene mass fraction
Salt mass fraction

490
538
0.79
455
0.02
0.01

In Fig. 7 simulation results of the CFD model is evaluated

against the plant data. It represents a comparison between the
experiment and the predictions of the CFD model. It should be
noted that the experimental fouling data points in Fig. 7 are related
to both shell-and-tube sides of the exchanger, since they were calculated based on the procedure depicted in Fig. 3. As a consequence, the CFD model is evaluated as a total fouling predictor,
applying the previous well-tuned parameters (viscosities and
molecular diffusions).
At rst glance, it seems that the predictability of the CFD model
is poor in the induction period of the fouling. It stems from the fact
that, at the induction period deposition of foulants on the tube wall
causes escalation in both wall thermal resistance and available

dence time available for the reactants. As fouling progresses, the

available cross section area is decreased and therefore, the maximum uid velocity is increased.

Fig. 5. Contours of velocity prole along the tube in various operation periods.

6.84e-05 x=0
6.16e-05

x=30 x=235

x=265 x=470

x=500

Time =2.44e5 s

5.47e-05
4.79e-05

Time =7.92e5 s

4.10e-05
3.42e-05

Time =1.58e6 s

2.74e-05
2.05e-05

Time =2.37e6 s

1.37e-05
6.84e-06

Time =6.33e6 s

0.00e+00
0.015

t=2.44e5 s
t=7.92e5s
t=1.58e6 s
t=2.37e6 s
t=6.33e6 s

Tube diameter (m)

0.01
0.005
0
0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.2 0

0.5

1.5

0.5

1.5

-0.005
-0.01
-0.015

Velocity (m/s)

Velocity (m/s)

Velocity (m/s)

Fig. 6. Contours of coke concentration and velocity proles along the tube in various operation periods.

350

M. Bayat et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 64 (2012) 344350

fouling. In addition, the CFD model has three distinguishing new

features compared to the conventional threshold fouling models.
It can consider the effects of chemical components, shell-side
HTC and turbulent ow on the crude oil fouling rate. Hence, the
developed CFD model is expected to be helpful for evaluating crude
oil fouling rates under new operating conditions.

Fouling Resistance (m2 K kW-1)

2
Induction period

Developing period

1.5

6. Acknowledgements

1
Experiment
CFD model

0.5

The authors would like to thank Tehran Renery Oil Company

for providing the valuable data to conduct this research.
References

500

1000

1500

2000

Time (hr)
Fig. 7. Prediction of the CFD model from plant data related to a pre-heater in the
CDU of Tehran oil renery.

heat transfer area [24]. In other words, deposition of the rst layer
of the fouled species on the clean tube wall lead to an increase in
surface roughness and eventually increases heat transfer surface.
Therefore, at the induction period no signicant reduction in the
crude inlet/outlet temperature differences could be traced. Since,
the fouling data points presented in Fig. 7 were calculated according to the procedure depicted in Fig. 3, which was based on the inlet/outlet temperature difference, at the induction period the
increase in fouling resistance could not be observed in the extracted plant data. However, the developed CFD model is free of
this deciency, since the calculation of fouling resistance using
the developed CFD model is not based on the reduction of inlet/
outlet temperature difference. Therefore, simulation results shown
in Fig. 7 indicate that the developed CFD model is capable of tracing fouling formation in the induction period. As a consequence,
the CFD model could be applied to other operating conditions to
investigate the details of the effect of hydrodynamics, temperature
uctuations and component concentrations on the fouling rate of
crude oil in the industrial pre-heaters even at the induction period
of fouling.
5. Conclusion
A two dimensional CFD model has been developed to predict
crude oil fouling behavior in an industrial shell-and-tube heat exchanger. Components of the crude oil were assumed to be asphaltene, coke and salt characterized by their thermo-physical
properties. It was found that the molecular diffusion coefcients
play an important role in the modeling of crude oil fouling behavior. Therefore, the binary diffusion coefcients were categorized
into ve different groups based on a conceptual procedure of deposition/separation phenomena. The effects of two competing factors
were considered to determine the probability of adhesion of reaction products to the tube wall. These factors include the apparently
high viscosity of the fouled species and the shear stress on the wall.
The predictability of the model was assessed against a set of plant
data extracted from an industrial shell-and-tube heat exchanger.
Simulation results indicated that the CFD model is capable of predicting fouling rate in both induction and developing periods of

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