Thinking about Heat Transfer Fouling: A 5 × 5 Matrix

TLDR: In this paper, the authors classified thermal fouling of heat transfer surfaces into five principal categories, up to five in number, and discussed the successive events that characterize most fouling situations.

Abstract: Fouling of heat transfer surfaces, which leads to high economic penalties and is still dealt with by heat exchanger designers by the crude TEMA approach, is classified into five principal categories. The measurement of thermal fouling is considered critically, and this is followed by a discussion of the successive events, up to five in number, that characterize most fouling situations. The resulting 5×5 matrix of fouling categories and sequential events illustrates the fact that the fundamental fouling problem has now been mainly resolved, at least for liquid-solid interfaces, although it still remains largely unsolved.