Intelligent Prediction Approach of Fouling Location in Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger

Fouling build-up phenomenon is one of the most challenging problems for heat exchangers in the industry, which leads to a degradation of system efficiency, an increase of production cost, and a harmful environmental impact. In this work, we investigate the impact of fouling location on heat exchanger's outlet streams. In order to simulate fouling location, multi-segments heat exchanger model was built using PetroSIM process simulator. Results show that the closer fouling is to the heat exchanger outlet, the clearer is the impact on the outlet stream measurements. Furthermore, an artificial intelligence model was built in order to estimate the location of fouling using the existing measurement.