Erosion of heat exchangers due to sootblowing

The erosion rate of convection surfaces is crucial for boiler reliability. This paper presents the impact of the action of a sootblowing stream (steam and air) jet on the sustainability of tubes. The model investigations described here compared the erosion rates of a tube bank while turning on or off an additional jet stream of compressed air that simulates the operation of a sootblower. The numerical model code Fluent was used. Based on mass loss measurements and numerical calculations, it can be confirmed that the gas velocity has the greatest impact on the particulate erosion. This velocity depends on the stagnation parameters at the inlet of the nozzle. This paper presents calculations for the erosion loss of a heat exchanger built in the actual object.