Preliminary study of particulate fouling in a high temperature controlled experimental facility

Fouling is a highly complex process and numerical modeling of fouling has been an evasive task. One of the reasons for this is attributed to the lack of detailed experimental data. In-situ experiments performed at the power plants give a global picture of the overall deposition process in a qualitative manner. However, detailed understanding of the underlying mechanisms becomes difficult. This is due to the fact that too many parameters like varying particle composition and size, gas phase dynamics, chemical reactions etc. are lumped together in such experiments. On the other hand, controlled lab-scale experiments that have been reported are meager and those that have been published are performed either at low temperatures or at very high temperatures (>1000 °C). In order to understand the underlying mechanisms of particulate fouling and to provide experimental data for validation, a high temperature controlled fouling experimental facility has been built. The facility is a vertically oriented closed loop wind tunnel with which parameters like gas phase temperature, velocity and particle concentration can be controlled. The setup was tested for proper operation and preliminary experiments were performed on particulate fouling over a circular cylinder as function of gas phase velocity and temperature. It was found that the gas phase velocity and temperature has a major influence on particulate fouling. This is a preliminary study and will be extended in future.