Modeling of the Air-side Particulate Fouling in Finned-Tube Heat Exchangers of Air Conditioners using Accelerated Particle-Loading System

The air-side particulate fouling in the heat exchangers of HVAC applications degrades the performance of cooling capacity, pressure drop across a heat exchanger, and indoor air quality. Indoor and outdoor air contaminants foul heat exchangers. The purpose of this study is to investigate and to model the air-side particulate fouling characteristics of the heat exchangers using accelerated particle loading system. The main variables of the modeling equation are face velocity and dust concentration. The modeling equation shows good agreements with the experimental results at the face velocity of 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 m/s and the dust concentration of 1.28 and . It will be very useful to predict fouling characteristics such as variations of pressure drop and heat transfer capacity in finned-tube heat exchangers of air conditioners.