Fouling - Progress of Fouling With Time

Progress of Fouling With Time

Deposit on a surface does not always develop steadily with time. The following fouling scenarios can be distinguished, depending on the nature of the system and the local thermohydraulic conditions at the surface:

• Induction period. Sometimes, a near-nil fouling rate is observed when the surface is new or very clean. This is often observed in biofouling and precipitation fouling. After the "induction period", the fouling rate increases.
• "Negative" fouling. This can occur when fouling rate is quantified by monitoring heat transfer. Relatively small amounts of deposit can improve heat transfer, relative to clean surface, and give an appearance of "negative" fouling rate and negative total fouling amount. Negative fouling is often observed under nucleate-boiling heat-transfer conditions (deposit improves bubble nucleation) or forced-convection (if the deposit increases the surface roughness and the surface is no longer "hydraulically smooth"). After the initial period of "surface roughness control", the fouling rate usually becomes strongly positive.
• Linear fouling. The fouling rate can be steady with time. This is a common case.
• Falling fouling. Under this scenario, the fouling rate decreases with time, but never drops to zero. The deposit thickness does not achieves a constant value. The progress of fouling can be often described by two numbers: the initial fouling rate (a tangent to the fouling curve at zero deposit loading or zero time) and the fouling rate after a long period of time (an oblique asymptote to the fouling curve).
• Asymptotic fouling. Here, the fouling rate decreases with time, until it finally reaches zero. At this point, the deposit thickness remains constant with time (a horizontal asymptote). This is often the case for relatively soft or poorly adherent deposits in areas of fast flow. The asymptote is usually interpreted as the deposit loading at which the deposition rate equals the deposit removal rate.
• Accelerating fouling. Under this scenario, the fouling rate increases with time; the rate of deposit buildup accelerates with time (perhaps until it becomes transport limited). Mechanistically, this scenario can develop when fouling increases the surface roughness, or when the deposit surface exhibits higher chemical propensity to fouling than the pure underlying metal.
• Seesaw fouling. Here, fouling loading generally increases with time (often assuming a generally linear or falling rate), but, when looked at in more detail, the fouling progress is periodically interrupted and takes the form of sawtooth curve. The periodic sharp variations in the apparent fouling amount often correspond to the moments of system shutdowns, startups or other transients in operation. The periodic variations are often interpreted as periodic removal of some of the deposit (perhaps deposit re-suspension due to pressure pulses, spalling due thermal stresses, or exfoliation due to redox transients). Steam blanketing has been postulated to occur between the partially spalled deposits and the heat transfer surface. However, other reasons are possible, e.g., trapping of air inside the surface deposits during shutdowns, or inaccuracy of temperature measurements during transients ("temperature streaming").