A model to determine maximum heat flux under forced convective heat transfer regime for crude oil fouling studies

Abstract Reactive species such as asphaltenes play an important role in crude oil fouling. Crude preheat trains in petroleum refineries are the most affected due to crude oil fouling. Fouling characteristics of crude oils are generally determined through experiments in lab-scale or pilot-scale units using very high surface temperatures/heat fluxes. At very high surface temperature values, the heat transfer regime may change from forced convection to boiling. Determination of maximum heat flux or surface temperature beyond which heat transfer regime changes from forced convection to boiling is important for the study of crude preheat train fouling. In the present study, experiments were conducted using two Malaysian crude oils to estimate the maximum heat flux/surface temperature and a model to determine the maximum heat flux has been developed and validated with the experimental data. This will form the basis for selecting the operating conditions (heat flux/surface temperature) prior to the crude oil fouling characterization studies.