Atmospheric Residue in U-Tube heat exchanger

[roker]

Hello all,

It is "common practice / conservative design" not to use u-tubes for potential fouling fluids like atmospheric residue from crude distillation, in the thermal design it is considered by the fouling factor.
What are the reasons not to use u-tubes? since the flow in the U part is in same velociy, on the other hand there are now techniques to clean fouled u-tubes (see CONCO and others).

Thanks for advise.

Regards,
roker

 

[gr2vessels]

roker,
The common practice and conservative engineering approach will remain always valid, particularly when the consequences of failure are considerable. However, the conservative engineering practice does not exclude U-tubes in fouling service, provided careful design is applied. If the consequence of blocked/fouled tubes in the exchanger would only be an additional outing for cleaning (and you have the confidence that your cleaning process gives an acceptable run between outages), the U-tubes are fine. Remember, mechanical cleaning can be applied for straight tubes, not U-tubes.
cheers,
gr2vessels

 

[roker]

gr2vessels,

thanks,

please see link for cleaning u-tubes:

http://www.concosystems.com/tubecleaners.php?tcleaners=ConcoUTubeCleaners

regards,
roker

 

[gr2vessels]

Obviously, if the Conco system provides acceptable cleaning, the U-tubes are OK in your application. I have never used this "cleaner" before, but seems to be effective at work. I also hate to think of plugging a U-tube because of a tube cleaner stuck in the bend..
cheers,
gr2vessels