Tuesday 2 June 2015

Heat exchanger cleaning

Heat exchanger cleaning There is a need to clean pipes and tubes of various diameters at  industry enterprises. Tubes and tube bundles of heat exchangers need to be periodically cleaned of scale, sediment and rust, which lead to reduced productivity of technological equipment and the loss of final product quality.
The principle of hydrodynamic cleaning is based on the application of the water jet as a working body, which is delivered into the working zone through special nozzles under high pressure. Various modifications of hydro heads are used as the nozzles. These heads work under conditions of different diameter of tubes and different thickness of deposits.

Compared with traditional methods, cleaning with water under pressure has a number of decisive advantages:
  • alkalis, acids and other chemicals, that create problems related to the preservation of the environment, are not used when cleaning;
  • any deposits are effectively removed , regardless of their physical properties and chemical composition;
  • high productivity allows to reduce downtime of processing equipment, i.e. direct and indirect production costs.
  • possibility to clean fully clogged beams of heat exchangers and pipes
Dependence of excessive fuel consumption on thickness of scale on walls of a heat exchange equipment

From the diagram it can be seen that a layer of scum even in thickness of 0.1 - 0.2 mm increases fuel consumption respectively by 1.5 - 3% and with thickness of scale of 1 mm - up to 7%.
Experience in operating hydro equipment shows that the pressure that is optimal for cleaning of heat exchangers and boilers is 500-1500 bar. In exceptional cases where there is a problem to clean particularly hard sludge, ultra-high-pressure monitors up to 2500 bar may be required. In both cases the hydro-jet method restores the heat-exchange characteristics of devices and the carrying capacity of pipelines with diameter from 10 to 150 mm and more.

Cleaning of inner walls of pipes and tube space is performed by nozzles, selected by considering tubes diameter, thickness and nature of impurity. Reactive power of the water jet by means of location and orientation of holes in nozzles enforces the nozzles, driving them forward and rotation (in rotating nozzles). When using nozzles with a front jet or two intersecting front jets, the material in front of the nozzle is also destroyed. Nozzles can be used with hoses (flexible peaks) as well as with hard-peaks. Some nozzles, having a predominance of frontal jets and requiring forced feed may only be used with hard peaks.

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