Dispersions of oil in water are encountered in a variety of industrial processes leading to a reduction in the performance of the heat exchangers when thermally treating such two phase fluids. This reduction is mainly due to changes in the thermal and hydrodynamical behavior of the two phase fluid. In the present work, an experimental investigation was performed to study the effects of light oil fouling on the heat transfer coefficient in a double-pipe heat exchanger under turbulent flow conditions. The effects of different operating conditions on the fouling rate were investigated including: hot fluid Reynolds number (the dispersion), cold fluid Reynolds number, and time. The oil fouling rate was analyzed by determining the growth of fouling resistance with time and through pressure drop measurements. The influence of copper oxide (CuO) nanofluid on the fouling rate in the dispersion was also determined. It was found that the presence of dispersed oil causes a reduction in heat transfer coefficient by percentages depending on the Reynolds number of both cold and hot fluids and the concentration of oil. In addition, the time history of fouling resistance exhibited different trends with the flow rates of both fluids and its trend was influenced appreciably by the presence of CuO nanofluid. K E Y W O R D S copper oxide, dispersion, double-pipe heat exchanger, fouling, heat transfer, nanofluid, oil Heat Transfer-Asian Res.

The effect of impeller geometry on bubble breakage in a stirred tank was investigated for a range of impeller Reynolds number (Re) using a high speed imaging method. The bubble dynamic behavior and breakage mechanism were investigated for four different impeller geometries namely, two-flat blades impeller, four-flat blades impeller, four-twisted blades impeller, and two-pinned blades impeller. The performance of each geometry was investigated by determining the breakage probability and number of fragments (daughter bubbles) produced. The contributions of dominant breakage mechanisms for each geometry were specified and discussed by identifying the breakage locations relative to the impeller. Three main breakage mechanisms were observed, namely: bubble collision with the blade, bubble breakage by blade shear, and breakage by turbulent fluctuation away from the blade. The number of fragments by each breakage mechanism was specified for the entire range of Re. The four-flat blades impeller exhibited the highest breakage probability and produced the highest number of fragments. The Pinned blades gave a high performance compared to the smooth blades, especially at higher Re. This is considered to be due to the high turbulence level provided by this type of impeller. The twisted blades impeller showed low bubble breakage probability compared with the other geometries. Breakages by collision with the blades and by shearing effect resulted in a higher number of fragments compared to the breakages caused by turbulent fluctuations. The number of fragments produced by ‘collision with blade’ exhibited a higher dependence on Re than by ‘blade shear’ or by ‘turbulent fluctuations’.

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Fouling of oils on heat exchanger surfaces and pipelines is a common problem in a variety of industrial applications. This is because the oil deposits on the heat transfer surface causes an increase in pressure drop and a decrease in heat exchanger efficiency. In the current work, oil fouling in double pipe heat exchanger was investigated and mitigated using a surface‐active agent for the flow of a dispersion fluid containing different dispersed oil fractions in water. The effect of the dispersed oil fraction (5%vol and 10%vol) and temperature (35°C‐55°C) on the oil fouling rate was studied and discussed under turbulent flow conditions for both hot and cold fluids. Different amounts of alkylbenzene sulfonate as a surfactant were added to reduce the fouling rate under turbulent flow. It was found that the fouling thermal resistance (Rf) increases when the fluid temperature decreases. The higher the dispersed oil fraction, the higher the Rf for all temperatures due to higher oil deposition. Addition of 0.2%vol to 0.5%vol of alkylbenzene sulfonate caused an appreciable reduction in Rf depending on oil fraction and Reynolds number. The mitigation percent was higher for a lower Reynolds number, reaching up to 96%.

The heavy metals are considered dangerous pollutants which harm health and environment. The adsorption process is the cost effective process to get-rid of heavy metal efficiently.  In this study, the adsorption bed of Nickel is simulated by using COMSOL Multiphysics to find the effect of different operating parameters namely; flow rate, temperature and pollutant concentration on adsorption bed efficiency.  The modeling of non-isothermal adsorption bed based on experimental isotherms kinetic of previous work is developed too. The results showed that the optimal conditions to generate maximum removal efficiency of heavy metal were at 50◦C inlet temperature, 0.1 M inlet concentration, and 80 ml/min flow rate to achieve removal values higher than 50 % of long operation period time.