Analysis of Fouling in HVAC Heat Exchangers by CFD

Abstract

<em>The purpose of this study is to identify parameters influence on the particle deposition within fin and tube heat exchanger of air-conditioning systems by CFD analysis. First the basic sketch of periodic geometry drawn and meshing operation including boundary conditions was performed. Then the gas side properties and flow parameters were solved by ANSYS Fluent 14.5 software. Lagrangian equations used for modeling dispersed phase and effect of injecting various particle sizes evaluated by Rosin-Rammler model. Moreover turbulence effect was investigated using discrete random walk model. Consequently it is observed that deposition rate is highly affected by particles diameter in which leads to 90% deposition for particles over 30 µm in diameter.</em>