Mathematical Modelling and Simulation of Fouling of Nigerian Crude Oil Equipment Installations

The aim of this research work was to develop Mathematical Model to Predict the Fouling of Nigeria Oil Equipment Installation. The term fouling can defined as the deposition of unwanted material on heat transfer equipment, which results in an increase in thermal resistance to heat transfer and subsequent loss of equipment thermal efficiency. The modelling equation formulated was based on the principle of fouling process being in unsteady state condition. That is, the rate of deposition is not equal to the rate of removal. In other words, there is an accumulation. The final mathematical model developed representing the fouling of Nigeria Oil equipment was obtained as: () 2 r 3 4 f 1 2 r g s f b 0 C.Cd E WR C C exp C dt R T R A = − ρ ⋅ . The correlation between the experimental and simulated result obtained using Average Absolute Deviation (A.A.D) was between 0.0131- 0.0201. The fluid temperature of 43°C and 63°C and wire temperature 200°C, 250°C and 300°C were the operating conditions for the investigation and prediction. The model was simulated using VISUAL BASIC 6.0 to predict the fouling behaviour. The results obtained showed that refinery Naptha fouls very heavily and this fouling decreases with increasing fluid and wire temperature. Fouling was very severe for wire temperature 200°C and fluid temperature 46°C. The main mechanism of fouling for refinery Naptha was chemical polymerization