A heat exchanging system includes one or more heat exchanging portions, wherein each heat exchanging portion includes an optimized internal fin structure. The optimization of the optimized internal fin structure includes receiving existing heat exchanging system information, analyzing exterior fluid flow around the one or more heat exchanging portions as a heat flux analysis, determining boundary conditions of a heat flux distribution based on the heat flux analysis, receiving material properties of the one or more heat exchanging portions, and designing the optimized internal fin structure based on the existing heat exchanging system information, the boundary conditions of the heat flux distribution, and the material properties of the one or more heat exchanging portions.

Systems and methods are provided for evaluating performance of a heat exchanger, such as a condenser, using rules-based logic. A plurality of sensors can measure various operating properties of the heat exchanger and transmit corresponding measurement information to a controller. The controller can (i) evaluate the measurement information for a plurality of rules in which each rule considers an operating parameter of the heat exchanger that is based on the measurement information to provide a set of operating values; compare the set of operating values to a rules matrix in which each of a plurality of possible diagnoses for the heat exchanger are associated with a corresponding set of predetermined values from a set of the plurality of rules; and (iii) based on the comparison, determine at least one likely diagnosis for the heat exchanger from among the plurality of possible diagnoses.

A heat exchanger apparatus has a heating stage with a product side and a hot water side and a cooling stage with a product side and a coolant side, and also regeneration stages with treated and un-treated product sides. There are valves including a cooling stage outlet valve, and pressure sensors, and pumps for pumping process liquid through the product sides. A PLC controller is programmed to operate the pumps with outlet valves closed to pressurize the product sides of the stages at a pressure dynamically maintained by control of the pumps in response to sensed pressure. The valves are controlled to firstly vent the heating and cooling sides of the heating and cooling stages with the product sides pressurized, and then in a second phase to vent the downstream (treated) product sides of regeneration stages. Also, an in-line holding time test is performed by monitoring time for step rises in temperature to reach a temperature sensor and the outlet end of a holding tube.

A method for the detection of leaks in a heat exchanger having discrete first and second fluid flow paths is disclosed. The method comprising the steps of introducing a contaminant fluid into the first flow path (13) and testing for the presence of the contaminant fluid in the second flow path (14), wherein the pressure in the second flow path (14) is maintained below atmospheric pressure. The pressure in the second flow path may be maintained, for example, at between 0.1 bar (110.sup.4 N/m 2) and 1 bar (110.sup.5 N/m 2) below atmospheric pressure. Apparatus for carrying out the method is also disclosed.

A method for checking quality of a heat exchanger includes the steps of: performing a liquid pressure test for the heat exchanger including a first flow path and a second flow path adjacent to the first flow path by filling the first flow path and the second flow path with a liquid in a pressurized state; discharging the liquid from the first flow path and the second flow path; and promoting evaporation of the liquid remaining in the first flow path and the second flow path by reducing pressure inside each of the first flow path and the second flow path using a vacuum pump. The step of promoting evaporation of the liquid is performed to feed heated gas into the first flow path and the second flow path.

A method of controlling cooling water treatment at a cooling tower may involve measuring operating data of one or more downstream heat exchangers that receive cooling water from the cooling tower. For example, the inlet and outlet temperatures of both the hot and cold streams of a downstream heat exchanger may be measured, optionally along with a flow rate of the cooling water stream passing through the heat exchanger. Data from the streams passing through the heat exchanger may be used to determine a heat transfer efficiency for the heat exchanger. The heat transfer efficiency can be trended over a period of time and changes in the trend detected to identify cooling water fouling issues. A chemical additive selected to reduce, eliminate, or otherwise control the cooling water fouling can be controlled based on the changes in heat transfer efficiency detected at the downstream heat exchanger.

A system and method for cleaning coils in a fired heater is provided. The cleaning system includes a data acquisition tool configured to pass through the coils to acquire data. The cleaning system is configured to establish a pre-cleaning fouling baseline derived from the data for the coils. The cleaning system is configured to develop an optimized cleaning plan for the coils based on the pre-cleaning fouling baseline. The optimized cleaning plan includes a focused cleaning for a fouling area in the coils. The cleaning system further includes at least one cleaning pig configured to clean the coils based on the optimized cleaning plan. The cleaning system further includes a decoking truck for cleaning the coils with the cleaning pig based on the optimized cleaning plan.

A motor driving device capable of reliably detecting a malfunction in the performance of a heatsink. The motor driving device includes a heat generating element, a heatsink, an electric power detecting part for detecting a consumed power of the heat generating element, a temperature detecting part for detecting a temperature of the motor driving device, a temperature change calculating part for calculating, as a detected valuation, an amount of change in the temperature within a predetermined time, a reference determination part for determining a reference amount of change in the temperature based on the temperature and the consumed power, and a temperature change judging part for comparing the reference amount of change with the detected amount of change, and judges whether the detected change is different from the reference change.

A heat exchanger network retrofit method including analysis, targeting and retrofitting an existing heat exchange network (HEN) to lower the annual operating cost. The revamped/retrofit design is based on one of two mathematical techniques: Simulated Annealing (SA) and Fixed Structure.

A method for establishing a corrosion protection system for an air cooled condenser is disclosed. The method includes receiving data associated with the physical properties and chemical process conditions of the air cooled condenser, utilizing a chemical process modeling component to simulate conditions of the air cooled condenser, and identifying an optimized corrosion protection system based on an evaluation of iteratively altered input variables.