Experimental study of the solid fouling effect on the air-cooled apparatus characteristics

External fouling on the heat exchange surface of air-cooled apparatus are formed during operation, which leads to a significant increase in energy consumption and deviations from the optimal operating mode of the entire system. This phenomenon is a problem for all energy conversion systems. This paper presents the experimental study results of a complex of a commercial cooled object with real fouling on the air condenser surface. To study the effect of fouling, an experimental bench was developed – a single-stage refrigerating machine that provides cold supply to a thermostatic chamber. Three types of fouling were used: sand, fluff and dust. Fouling were picked from the operating condensers and identical in the type of heat exchange surface to the experimental sample. With a change in the quantitative and qualitative composition of the fouling, the air condenser thermal and aerodynamic characteristics and the energy efficiency of the machine as a whole were determined. The experiment showed that at maximum fouling of the heat exchange surface with sand and fluff, air movement stops. This means that at a certain thickness of sand and fluff layer, an air impermeable dense structure is formed. Dust with the same form of filling the free space for the flow remains permeable to air. Experiments showed that the qualitative composition of the fouling is the main factor that determines the heat exchanger performance. It was found that from the experimental set of fouling, roadside dust has the greatest negative effect on the condenser characteristics and the machine as a whole. The aerodynamic properties of the heat exchanger depend to some extent on the qualitative composition of the fouling. As a conclusion, it was suggested that the process nature of air flow passing through the investigated fouling can be described as gas flows in porous media.