Chemical Engineering Research and Design 1 3 0 ( 2 0 1 8 ) 138–153

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Chemical Engineering Research and Design

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/cherd

Applying artificial neural networks for systematic

estimation of degree of fouling in heat exchangers

Ehsan Davoudi a , Behzad Vaferi b,∗

a Department of Chemical Engineering, Lamerd Branch, Islamic Azad University, Lamerd, Iran
b Young Researchers and Elite Club, Shiraz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shiraz, Iran

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Deposition of undesired materials on the heat transfer surface is one the most challeng-
Received 30 June 2017 ing problems for application of heat exchangers. Experimental measurements of degree of
Received in revised form 29 fouling are both difficult and time-consuming, and often do not provide accurate results. To
November 2017 overcome these problems, artificial neural networks (ANN) is employed for predicting the
Accepted 8 December 2017 fouling factor from some easily measured variables of the system. Indeed, fouling factor is
Available online 20 December 2017 estimated as a function of density, velocity and temperature of the fluid, its oxygen content,
hydraulic diameter of the fluid passage, surface temperature, and time. Correlation matrix
Keywords: analyses justified that the highest interrelation exists between these independent variables
Heat exchanger and fourth roots of fouling factor.
Solid deposition The ANN model was developed and validated using a huge databank including 11,626
Fouling factor experimental datasets for fouling factor in portable fouling research unit (PFRU) and single
Artificial neural networks tube heat exchangers collecting from six different literatures. The best training algorithm
and the optimum numbers of hidden neuron were determined through minimizing the
computational effort and maximizing some statistical accuracy indices, respectively. It was
concluded that Bayesian regulation backpropagation approach has the best performance
among the considered training algorithms. Moreover, the two-layer perceptron neural net-
work with ten hidden neurons was found as the best ANN topology. This ANN model
predicts the experimental values of fouling factor with overall AARD% = 5.42, MSE = 0.0013,
RMSE = 0.0355, and R2 = 0.977819. The simplicity of the developed ANN model and its small
levels of error for huge experimental databank are some of the key features of our model.
© 2017 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Heat transfer is a branch of transport phenomena that dealing with
energy transportation between material bodies with a temperature dif-
ference as the driving force (Tertsinidou et al., 2016). This is of critical
importance because better efficiency of heat transfer will result more
heat recovery from the process (Liu et al., 2004; Sheikholeslami and
Ganji, 2016). Heat exchanger is one of the most well-known equip-
ment in power engineering, petroleum refineries, chemical industries,
food industries and so on tries to transfer thermal energy between
two or more fluids for purpose of heat recovery and energy manage-
ment (Shah and Sekulic, 2003). Double pipe, spiral, plate frame, shell
and tube are some of the most widely used types of industrial heat

Abbreviations: AAC, average of absolute of coefficients; AARD, absolute average relative deviation; AI, artificial intelligence; ANN, arti-
ficial neural network; CFB, cascade-forward back-propagation; DO, dissolved oxygen; FRFF, fourth roots of fouling factor; GR, generalized
regression; h, hour; HTRI, heat transfer research incorporated; MLFFN, multi-layer feed forward network; MLP, multi-layer perceptron;
MRE, mean relative error; MSE, mean square error; NARX, nonlinear auto-regressive with exogenous; PCC, Pearson correlation coefficient;
PFRU, portable fouling research unit; RBF, radial basis function; RMSE, root mean square error; V, variable name; V, normalized values.
∗
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: vaferi@iaushiraz.ac.ir (B. Vaferi).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cherd.2017.12.017
0263-8762/© 2017 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
 Chemical Engineering Research and Design 1 3 0 ( 2 0 1 8 ) 138–153 139

conventional and nuclear power plants and oil and gas refineries are
some of those industries that concern with fouling problem (Bansal and
Nomenclature
Chen, 2006; Bott, 1995; Stoller, 2009; Young et al., 2011). Taborek (1997)
de Equivalent diameter (m) reported that the first industrial problem of fouling was observed in
dRf /dt Fouling rate (m2 K/kW h) the USA power industry in 1880 (Taborek, 1997). It seems that the first
scientific research about fouling was done by Orrok in1910 (Orrok, 1910).
E Activation energy (J/mol)
It is obvious that various variables including the geometry of heat
f Transfer function
transfer surface, operating condition of fluid and heat exchanger, and
n Neuron output
time have sever effect on the amount of fouling (Asomaning, 1990, 1997;
N Number of experimental data
Feiz, 2015; Srinivasan, 2008; Sundaram, 1998; Watkinson, 1968). There-
qave Heat flux (kW/m2 ) fore it is difficult to develop an empirical or semi-empirical correlation
Q Volumetric flow rate (m3 /s) for accurate prediction of fouling factor by considering all of these vari-
R2 Regression coefficient ables. Artificial neural networks (ANN) that are simple, straightforward,
Rf Fouling factor (m2 K/kW) low cost and time-effort artificial intelligence (AI) paradigms, and often
Rg Gas constant provide promising results for modeling of complicated systems can be
t Time (h) considered for estimating the fouling factor in heat exchangers (Lalot
Tb,ave The average temperature of bulk (◦ C) and Pálsson, 2010; Navvab Kashani et al., 2012; Vaferi et al., 2016).
A few works relating to application of artificial intelligence method-
Tf Fluid temperature (◦ C)
ologies in various aspects of heat exchangers have been done up to
Ts,ave The average temperature of heat transfer sur-
now (Diaby et al., 2016; Díaz et al., 1999; Gupta et al., 2017; Lalot and
face (◦ C)
Pálsson, 2010; Verma et al., 2017). For prediction of the fouling factor in
Ts,0 Initial temperature of heat transfer surface (◦ C) a cross-flow heat exchanger, Lalot and Palsson used ANN methodology
U0 Heat transfer coefficient at clean condition (Lalot and Pálsson, 2010). Required database for both clean and dirty
(kW/m2 K) heat exchanger is generated by numerical simulation of the process
w Weight coefficient (Lalot and Pálsson, 2010). They considered inlet and outlet tempera-
x Independent variable ture of the cold fluids, the inlet temperature of the hot fluid, mass
flow rate of cold and hot fluids were the inputs of the artificial neu-
Subscripts/superscripts ral network, while the fouling factor was an output of the model (Lalot
ave Average and Pálsson, 2010). Romeo and Gareta (2006) improved the amount of
b Bulk power production from an industrial biomass boiler through develop-
ing a hybrid ANN and Fuzzy-Logic methodology for controlling and
cal Calculated
optimizing the fouling factor. Radhakrishnan et al. (2007) designed
e Equivalent
a statistical-based method for prediction of outlet temperature from
exp Experimental
both shell and tube side of shell and tube heat exchangers. Inde-
f Fouling pendent variables classified into four groups 1—operating variables,
max Maximum value 2—maintenance variables, 3—scheduling variables, and 4—crude prop-
min Minimum value erties (Radhakrishnan et al., 2007). The root means square errors (RMSE)
mix Mixture of 0.93% and 1.83% was reported for prediction of the shell and tube
norm Normalized value outlet temperatures, respectively (Radhakrishnan et al., 2007).
o Overall Aminian and Shahhosseini (2008) obtained mean relative error
s Surface (MRE) of %26.23 for predicting the fouling rate of crude oil pre-heaters
using a four layers feedforward neural network model. The veloc-
Greek symbols ity of crude oil, tube surface temperature, and tube diameter were
employed as independent variables of the ANN model (Aminian and
 Density of fluid (kg/m3 )
Shahhosseini, 2008). Fouling threshold in crude oil pre-heaters was
 Velocity of the fluid (m/s)
predicted as a function of surface temperature, Reynolds, and Prandtl
ω Mass fraction
numbers using a neuro-based model (Aminian and Shahhosseini,
2009). Garcia proposed a novel supervision strategy to detect, isolate,
and accommodate faults in a closed loop temperature control of a heat
exchangers (Farajollahi et al., 2010; Kern and Kraus, 1972; Shirvan et al.,
exchanger on the basis of a dynamic and static ANN-based modeling
2016). On the other hand portable fouling research unit and single
techniques (Garcia, 2012). Navvab Kashani et al. (2012) proposed an
tube heat exchanger have found high popularity in academic studies
optimized ANN model based on moving window technique with 3-5-1
(Asomaning, 1990, 1997; Feiz, 2015; Srinivasan, 2008; Sundaram, 1998;
configuration for online monitoring and prediction of crude oil foul-
Watkinson, 1968). Optimum design, appropriate control of operating
ing behavior for an industrial shell and tube heat exchangers. Shell
conditions, systematic cleaning and planned maintenance for heat
and tube side input temperatures and tube side crude oil flow rate
exchangers could improve their energy transfer efficiency and maxi-
were considered as the independent variables of the proposed model,
mize amount of energy recovery (Hajabdollahi and Hajabdollahi, 2016;
while the output variable was chosen to calculate the fouling factor
Hultmann Ayala et al., 2016; Kim et al., 2016; Rao and Saroj, 2017; Zubair
(Navvab Kashani et al., 2012). Application of local linear wavelet neural
et al., 1997).
network model for prediction of temperature differences on both tube
Fouling is an undesired operating problem that creates by accumu-
and shell side and efficiency of heat exchanger has been investigated
lation of solid materials on the heat transfer surface of heat exchangers
by Mohanty and Singru (2014). The normal tap water was the cold fluid,
(Jamialahmadi and Müller-Steinhagen, 2007; Turakhia et al., 1984). Foul-
while the hot fluid was hard water having the hardness within a range
ing factor (Rf ) is a numerical indicator for the amount of solid materials
of 500–550 ppm of NaOH (Mohanty and Singru, 2014). Recently, the
deposited on the heat transfer surface (Turakhia et al., 1984).
multi-layer perceptron neural network with input structure using non-
Fouling which is a major unresolved and long-standing problem in
linear auto-regressive with exogenous (NARX) was employed to predict
various industries directly reduces the performance of heat exchangers
the fouling resistance in shell and tube heat exchanger (Biyanto, 2016).
by adding an unwanted thermal resistance to energy transfer (Buchelli
An artificial neural network model with thirteen hidden neurons pro-
et al., 2005; Tang et al., 2017; Yeap et al., 2004). Food industry, water
vides the RMSE of 1.38 × 10−5 for prediction of fouling heat resistance
treatment process, pulp and paper manufacturing, fiber production,
(Biyanto, 2016).
140 Chemical Engineering Research and Design 1 3 0 ( 2 0 1 8 ) 138–153
1.1. Motivation and novelty of our study
Fouling formation is an undesirable operating phenomenon that
reduces the amount of energy recovery from heat exchanger networks.
Therefore, it is necessary to prevent its formation or try to minimize it
using appropriate scenarios. Prior to control or minimization of fouling
formation, it’s inevitable to develop a reliable model that could estimate
fouling factor with acceptable accuracy. Our proposed model is simple,
straightforward, and the most generalized approach for the considered
task. There’s developed no empirical, semi-empirical or even intelligent
model that cover such a wide ranges of experimental data up to now.
Our model not only was designed using 11626 experimental datasets,
but it also provides an excellent accuracy for prediction of the dynamic
fouling factor in various conditions.
2. Method
2.1. Artificial neural networks
Artificial neural networks are intelligent paradigms that try
to model various phenomena by simulating the process of
learning of human beings (Ghaffarian et al., 2014; Rahimi
et al., 2015). ANN has widely accepted technique as a promis-
ing tool for solving complex engineering problems in real life
(Vaferi et al., 2015). ANN which is categorized in parallel com-
putational methods constitutes of highly interconnected but
simple computing elements i.e. artificial neurons (Yeh, 1998).
The artificial neural network can simply create by placing neu-
rons in some successive and interconnected layers. There exist
two major patterns for connecting the layer of neurons to each
other i.e. feed-forward and recurrent (Gurney, 1997). The pro-
cedure for calculation of output signal (n) for artificial neuron
can be mathematically expressed by Eqs. (1) and (2).

k
sum = wr xr + b (1)
r=1
n = f (sum) (2)
wr is the weight and b refers to the bias coefficient of neu-
ron that added to the product of inputs (xr) and their specific
weight coefficients. The operator which is the net output of
each neuron passes through that is called activation or trans-
fer function (f) and has different types such as linear, radial
basis, logarithmic sigmoid and hyperbolic tangent sigmoid. In
this study Eq. (3) is employed as the transfer function for neu-
rons in both input and output layers. Eq. (3) is called tangent
sigmoid transfer or activation function.
esum − e−sum
n = f (sum) = (3)
esum + e−sum
This function compact its inputs into [−1 1].
If an artificial neural network is trained with an ade-
quate number of data using a suitable learning algorithm,
it can provide acceptable results for relating independent
and dependent variable(s) even for most complex nonlinear
multi-variable systems (Singh and Singh, 2005; Vaferi et al.,
2014b). Conjugate gradient, back propagation, cascade corre-
lation, particle swarm optimization, evolutionary techniques
and genetic algorithms are some of the most well-known
training algorithms in the field of ANN (Amini et al., 2013;
Nawi et al., 2013). It was reported that some types of ANN
methodologies are more useful for data modeling and func-
tion approximation and others are appropriate for solving
conceptual problems (Basheer and Hajmeer, 2000). The multi-
layer perceptron (MLP) neural network which has feed-forward
structure is likely the most well-known topology for func-
tion approximation and regression-based studies (Gibbs et al.,
2006; Maier et al., 2000; Topçu and Sarıdemir, 2008). The MLP
neural network as it name clearly indicates can have any num-
ber of the layer with specified number of neurons in each layer.
The firs layer is responsible for receiving the information of
independent variable(s) from external source. It transfers the
data to the next layer after performing mathematical manipu-
lation according to Eq. (1) on the entry signal(s). This procedure
continues as far as the manipulated entry information reach
the last layer. The last layer is responsible for calculation of
the output signal(s) of the MLP neural network model.
The major advantages of MLP neural network over
empirical correlations are cohesiveness and multiple appli-
cability, well-known flexibility and the strength of their
back-propagation algorithm, requirement of relatively little
memory and their rapidity, ability to learn complex relation-
ships between input and output patterns, independence from
statistical distribution assumptions, ability to increase the
number of adjustable parameters (Gholami et al., 2018; Dach
et al., 2016; Hagan et al., 1996).
2.2. Training
The process of adjustment of weights and biases of the MLP
neural network by a set of experimental data is often referred
as training or learning stage. As mentioned earlier, the neuron
is the smallest element of the ANN models. Therefore, for a
MLP network with given structure, the number of weights and
biases are known. During the training process, MLP starts with
a random initial value for these parameters, and the training
algorithm tries to adjust their values using the provided exper-
imental data (Hassanpour et al., 2018; Yilmaz and Kaynar,
2011). Indeed, the training algorithm adjusts these parameters
by minimizing the deviation between experimental and pre-
dicted values of the dependent variable(s). The performance
of the trained MLP network should then be validated by exper-
imental datasets i.e. test subset that were not used during the
training process.
Training is an iterative procedure that tries to adjust
weights and biases of the MLP network by minimizing an
observed deviation between actual and predicted values by
the model. It starts with initial values for MLP parameters and
their values modified by increasing the number of iteration i.e.
epoch. As soon as the observed deviation reach a pre-specified
value, training finished and weights and bias found their best
values.
2.3. Data acquisition
By considering both fouling rate correlations and published
literature data, it can be simply concluded that the fouling
formation depends on some factors including:
- Temperature, velocity and type of operating fluid,
- Geometry and temperature of heat transfer surface,
- Geometry of fluid passage,
- And time (Asomaning, 1990, 1997; Feiz, 2015; Srinivasan,
2008; Sundaram, 1998; Watkinson, 1968). A large amount
of experimental data is necessary for designing an arti-
ficial intelligence (AI) approach that could relate fouling
factor to its associated independent variables. In this study,
Table 1 – Summary of collected experimental datasets including type of fluids and heat exchangers, ranges of operating conditions, and number of data points (Asomaning, 1990,
1997; Feiz, 2015; Srinivasan, 2008; Sundaram, 1998; Watkinson, 1968).
Type of fluida Type of heat Fluid density Surface Fluid Pipe Fluid velocity D.Ob Time (h) Fouling factor Nc
exchanger (kg/m3 ) temperature (◦ C) temperature (◦ C) diameter (m) (m/s) (ppmw) (m2 K/kW)

10% heavy oil–90% fuel oil PFRU 866.467 170.23–409.2 60–140 0.0144 0.65–0.94 0 0–50 0.000370–0.8160 2786
5% heavy oil–95% fuel oil PFRU 858.664 192.12–372.5 83.7–86.2 0.0144 0.75 0 0.5–49 0.00068–0.6720 529
15% heavy oil–85% fuel oil PFRU 874.414 194.49–341.4 84.4–87 0.0144 0.75 0 0–50 0.0004–0.47538 397
20% heavy oil–80% fuel oil PFRU 882.507 196.64–339.0 84.1–85 0.0144 0.75 0 0–50 0.0004430–0.0468 381
10% heavy oil–90% paraflex PFRU 870.571 185.0–369.38 82.3–83.6 0.0144 0.75 0 0.5–47 0.0003–0.6115 228
1% pentane–10% heavy PFRU 863.308 224.2–376.57 86 0.0144 0.75 0 0–6.5 0.0008–0.5528 40
oil–89% fuel oil

Chemical Engineering Research and Design 1 3 0 ( 2 0 1 8 ) 138–153

3% pentane–10% heavy PFRU 857.058 215.58–365.8 86 0.0144 0.75 0 0–4.67 0.00350–0.56420 29
oil–87% fuel oil
5% pentane–10% heavy PFRU 850.898 212.54–381.2 83.3 0.0144 0.75 0 0–4.5 0.0034–0.6213 28
oil–85% fuel oil
10% heavy oil–90% fuel PFRU 866.769 216.55–375.3 83.5–84 0.0144 0.75 0 0.5–20 0.0046–0.5971 193
oil–1000 ppmw of benzoyl
peroxide
10% heavy oil–90% fuel PFRU 866.657 200.1–373.06 83.8–84.6 0.0144 0.75 0 0.33–20 0.001540–0.5857 181
oil–1000 ppmw of
ethanediol
10% heavy oil–90% fuel PFRU 866.637 220.04–231.6 84.5 0.0144 0.75 0 0–46 0.0013–0.0461 271
oil–1000 ppmw of
Thiophenol.
Syncrude sweet blend (ssb) PFRU 867.896 206.11–358.3 60.35–133.4 0.0147 0.44–0.77 0–91.68 0.17–147.7 0.0001–1.3956 4256
7.15% ATBd –92.85%paraflex PFRU 862.519 272 85 0.0159 0.5 1.12603 20 1.607652 1
7.4% ATB–92.6% paraflex PFRU 862.788 403 80 0.0159 0.31 0.92994 40 0.747863 1
7.6% ATB–92.4% paraflex PFRU 863.003 429 95 0.0159 0.6 0.60329 48 0.132462 1
15% ATB–85% paraflex PFRU 871.041 465–640 90–95 0.0159 0.5 0.66–0.89 26–72 0.1894–0.632 3
Light sour blend (LSB) PFRU 845.1 286.3–401.2 206.95–278.2 0.005225 0.75 0 0–46.2 0.0014–0.0801 211
provided by shell Canada
Ltd.
Sour heavy gas oil Single tube 846.504 136.33–258.9 100.13–240.66 0.00871 0.88–7.45 0 0–388.8 0.1680–1.6056 701
10% (1-decane)–90% PFRU 797.762 202.67–220.3 79.5–97 0.0147 0.56 322.101 3.33–49.66 0.002–03090 140
kerosene
10% (4-vinyl-1- PFRU 807.45 208.3–264 76.5–93 0.0147 0.56 314.252 1–47.3 0.0029–0.1577 140
cyclohexene)–90%
kerosene.
10% indene–90% kerosene PFRU 820.37 186–420.33 66.5–94.5 0.0147 0.56 0–293.243 0–49.67 0.0006–0.7596 536
10% one-hexadecene–90% PFRU 802.18 200–284.7 78–96.5 0.0147 0.56 318.437 2–48 0.0007–0.2693 139
kerosene
10% dicyclopentadiene–90% PFRU 819.272 182–292.3 71.5–95.5 0.0147 0.56 0–298.028 0–49.67 0.0034–0.5284 434
kerosene

a
Mass percent compositions of mixtures are presented.
b
Concentration of dissolved oxygen in the fluid.
c
Number of experimental data.

141
d
Atmospheric Tower Bottoms Provided by Syncrude Canada.
142 Chemical Engineering Research and Design 1 3 0 ( 2 0 1 8 ) 138–153
11,626 experimental datasets for fouling factor in a sin-
gle tube and portable fouling research unit are collected
from six different literatures (Asomaning, 1990, 1997; Feiz,
2015; Srinivasan, 2008; Sundaram, 1998; Watkinson, 1968).
Table 1 shows the summary of our collected experimental
databank including independent and dependent variable(s),
their ranges, and number of available data for each operat-
ing fluids.
Our experimental dataset that includes 23 different oper-
ating fluids covers surface temperature of 136–640 ◦ C, the
fluid temperature of 60–278.2 ◦ C, fluid velocity of 0.31–7.45 m/s,
hydraulic diameter of 0.005–0.016 m, the oxygen content of up
to 322 ppmw, and time period of up to 389 h (Asomaning, 1990,
1997; Feiz, 2015; Srinivasan, 2008; Sundaram, 1998; Watkinson,
1968). The associated fourth roots of fouling factor are from
0.0841 to 1.0126 m2 K/kW. Independent variable and its effect
on the fouling factor is tried to be investigated in more detail in
the following subsections (Asomaning, 1990, 1997; Feiz, 2015;
Srinivasan, 2008; Sundaram, 1998; Watkinson, 1968).
2.3.1. Type of operating fluid
Deposition of dissolved, suspended or chemically generated
species from fluids onto the heat transfer surface is attributed
for fouling formation. Therefore, the fluid type is a factor
that has the severe effect on the fouling factor. As it can be
seen in Table 1, the collected database considers the effect of
many fluid mixtures on the extent of fouling in wide ranges of
operating conditions. Based on three-parameter correspond-
ing state theory, it was firstly tried to define all fluids based on
their critical temperature, critical pressure, and acentric fac-
tor simultaneously (Carruth and Kobayashi, 1972). Since these
properties were not presented in the considered literatures,
and moreover there was no information for calculating them,
just density at 20 ◦ C is applied as an indicator for type of fluids.
In this study, the density of mixtures is calculated by Eq. (4).
1 
k
ω reaction is controlled fouling reaction, initial fouling rate
i
= (4)
mix i
i=1
where  is density of the pure liquids, and ω is their weight
fractions in the mixture.
2.3.2. Surface temperature
It has been claimed that the temperature of heat trans-
fer surface may increase, decrease, or has no effect on the
fouling resistance (Awad, 2012; Awad et al., 2007; Epstein,
1983, 1987; Haghshenasfard et al., 2015; Müller-Steinhagen,
1998; Ramasamy and Deshannavar, 2014; Shetty et al., 2014;
Watkinson and Epstein, 1970). Eq. (5) presents an Arrhenius
type equation for relating initial fouling rates on the temper-
ature of heat transfer surface (Epstein, 1987; Haghshenasfard
et al., 2015; Müller-Steinhagen, 1998).
(dRf /dt)0 = A1 exp(−E/Rg Ts,0 ) (5)
where Rg shows the gas constant, and E is an activation energy.
Therefore, it can be said that the surface temperature has a
complex effect on the fouling factor. Wherever it is required,
the temperature of heat transfer surface is calculated using
Eq. (6).
 
1
Ts, ave = Tb, ave + qave × Rf + (6)
Uo
here qave and Uo represents the average heat flux and overall
heat transfer coefficient, respectively (Agbisit et al., 2003).
2.3.3. Fluid temperature
Similar to surface temperature, the fluid temperature has also
a complex effect on the fouling resistance. Various behaviors
including increasing, decreasing and no variation in fouling
factor with increasing of fluid temperature were reported up
to now (Asomaning, 1997; Eaton and Lux, 1984; Sundaram,
1998). Increasing of initial fouling rate with temperature was
often justified by the degradation and deposition of active
bulk spices (Sundaram, 1998). On the other hand, increasing
the solubility of those materials that are responsible for the
formation of foulant and decreasing of viscosity with fluid
temperature are the reasons that often provided for expla-
nation of decreasing of fouling factor with fluid temperature
(Asomaning, 1997; Eaton and Lux, 1984).
2.3.4. Hydraulic diameter of the fluid passage
It is well understood that both fluid velocity and Reynolds
number are functions of fluid passage area. Furthermore, foul-
ing threshold is related to the Reynolds number (Yang and
Crittenden, 2012). Therefore, hydraulic diameter of the fluid
passage is considered as independent variables for calculation
of the fouling factor.
2.3.5. Velocity of the fluid
There are relatively contradictory reports in the literature for
influence of fluid velocity on the fouling resistance (Paterson
and Fryer, 1988). For considering the effect of velocity on the
fouling factor three main classes were proposed (Asomaning,
1997; Paterson and Fryer, 1988). 1—If the fluid phase is respon-
sible for controlling the fouling reaction, fouling rate may
be dependent on inverse of the fluid velocity, 2—if surface
is independent of the fluid velocity, 3—if fouling is con-
trolled by both mass transfer to the surface and surface
reaction, increasing the fluid velocity increases the fouling
rate (Asomaning, 1997; Paterson and Fryer, 1988). Velocity of
the fluid is obtained by Eq. (7).
4Q
v = (7)
 de 2
2.3.6. Oxygen content of the fluid
Effect of oxygen on the fouling resistance is greatly dependent
on its amount and type of the operating fluid (Niu et al., 2007).
The concentration of dissolved oxygen is often estimated by
ASTM methods, D 2779-92 and D3827-92.
2.3.7. Time
Fouling is a time varying phenomenon which has the
well-known sequential events including initiation, transport,
attachment, removal, and ageing (Bohnet, 1987; Epstein, 1983;
Muller-Steinhagen et al., 2009). It is obvious that amount of
fouling increases by time, therefore it is considered as an inde-
pendent variable for modeling of the fouling factor.
Thus, operational independent variables for prediction
of fouling factor of fluids in PFRU and single tube heat
 Chemical Engineering Research and Design 1 3 0 ( 2 0 1 8 ) 138–153
Fig. 1 – Architecture of the proposed MLP model including both independent and dependent variable(s).
exchangers using MLP network are density of the fluid, tem-
perature of heat transfer surface, fluid temperature, hydraulic
diameter of the fluid passage, velocity of the fluid, concentra-
tion of dissolved oxygen in the fluid, and time.
As shown in Fig. 1, the developed MLP network for esti-
mation of the fouling factor in PFRU and single tube heat
exchangers is constituted of three layers. The first layer
presents values of the independent variables and the output
layer responsible for providing the value of dependent variable
i.e. fouling factor.
2.4. Preprocessing on the collected databank
Our previous experiences have clearly justified that perform-
ing some sort of normalization or scaling on both independent
and dependent variable(s) not only increases the training
speed but it also helps the training algorithm overcome the
saturation of adjusted parameters of the ANN model. There-
fore, in the current study, both independent and dependent
variables have been scaled in the interval [−0.99 0.99] using
Eq. (8).
  V−V 
min
V = 0.99 −1 + 2 × (8)
Vmax − Vmin
where V represents the numeric value of each independent or
dependent variables, V shows the normalized values, Vmin and
Vmax is the minimum and maximum value of each variable,
respectively.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Selection the best transformation for the
dependent variable
In this study, it has been tried to transform the fouling fac-
tor in such a way that it presents the highest relationship
143
with the independent variables. To doing so the correlation
matrix analyses using the Pearson approach are applied for
measuring the strength of relation between transformed foul-
ing factor with the independent variables (Ariana et al., 2015).
Pearson approach provides a value between −1 and +1 for indi-
cating both strength and kind of relation between each pair of
variables. The value of −1 indicates the highest inverse rela-
tionship, +1 indicates the most strength direct relationship,
while the zero value referred as no relationship between the
considered variables.
Fouling factor to the power of 0.25 0.5, 0.75, 1, 2, and its log-
arithm, exponential, sinuous and tangent are considered as
the transformations. Values of the correlation coefficients for
various independent–dependent variables and their absolute
average value are presented in Table 2. Since the correlation
coefficients for all of the independent variables have non-zero
values, their selection is likely verified. Since it is interested to
use the most powerful relationship, it is better to focus on their
absolute average values. It can be simply seen that the fourth
roots of fouling factor (FRFF) have the highest absolute average
value of for correlation coefficients amongst the considered
transformations (the bold row). Therefore, this transforma-
tion which provides the most powerful relationship with the
considered independent variables is selected as dependent
variables.
Therefore, instead of modeling of raw values of fouling fac-
tor, it is better to work with its fourth roots.
3.2. Selection the topology of the ANN model
Appropriate design of ANN model requires a systematic pro-
cedure for finding the optimum number of hidden layers and
most importantly determination the best number of neu-
rons in each hidden layer (Vaferi et al., 2014a). Literature has
demonstrated that target variable of 95% of the multi-variable
system can be accurately estimated by the MLP networks with
just one hidden layer (Cybenko, 1989). Accordingly, it was
144 Chemical Engineering Research and Design 1 3 0 ( 2 0 1 8 ) 138–153

Table 2 – Finding the best transformation for fouling factor through comparing the Pearson coefficients of independent
variables.
Dependent Fluid Surface Fluid Pipe Fluid Dissolved Time AACa
variable density temperature temperature diameter velocity oxygen

Rf 2 −0.1217 0.0143 0.0315 −0.3763 0.2063 −0.0045 0.3668 0.1602

Rf −0.1420 0.1249 −0.0195 −0.3739 0.2704 0.0384 0.3518 0.1889
Rf 0.75 −0.1398 0.3547 0.1630 −0.0451 0.2747 −0.3508 0.0517 0.1971
Rf 0.5 −0.1331 0.3594 0.2027 −0.0768 0.2682 −0.3163 0.0640 0.2029
Rf 0.25 −0.1214 0.2385 −0.1126 −0.2703 0.2474 0.0730 0.3611 0.2035
Rf 0.1 −0.1121 0.2540 −0.1336 −0.2379 0.2273 0.0759 0.3571 0.1997
log Rf −0.1052 0.2599 −0.1461 −0.2147 0.2107 0.0765 0.3509 0.1949
 
exp Rf −0.1347 0.0760 0.0020 −0.3810 0.2460 0.0194 0.3784 0.1768
 
sin Rf −0.1429 0.1453 −0.0284 −0.3635 0.2766 0.0465 0.3287 0.1903
 
tan Rf −0.0157 −0.0043 0.0051 −0.0542 0.0287 −0.0025 0.1156 0.0323

a
Average of absolute of coefficients.

supposed that a MLP network having one hidden layer is able

Table 3 – Determination the best topology of the MLP
to estimate the FRFF in PFRU and single tube heat exchangers. network through investigation of various statistical
On the other hand, the optimum number of neurons in hid- accuracy indices over overall dataset.
den layer has tried to be determined by maximization of some
Number of AARD% MSE RSME R2 -value
statistical accuracy indices. The considered statistical indices hidden neurona
are absolute average relative deviation (AARD%), mean square
errors (MSE), root mean square errors (RMSE), and regression 1 15.85 0.0102 0.1010 0.803658
2 10.38 0.0047 0.0684 0.915199
coefficient (R2 -value). The AARD%, MSE, RMSE, and R2 -value
3 9.16 0.0034 0.0580 0.939802
are mathematically expressed by Eqs. (9)–(12), respectively. 4 8.34 0.0031 0.0552 0.945538
5 7.55 0.0024 0.0494 0.956732

100  |FRFFi − FRFFi |

N exp
cal 6 6.68 0.0018 0.0425 0.968086
AARD% = exp (9) 7 6.82 0.0020 0.0449 0.964312
N FRFF 8 6.08 0.0015 0.0389 0.973368
i= i
9 6.06 0.0016 0.0399 0.972026
2 10 5.42 0.0013 0.0355 0.977819
1 
N
 exp
 11 5.64 0.0014 0.0380 0.974643
MSE = FRFFi − FRFFical (10) 12 5.37 0.0012 0.0350 0.978464
N
i=1 13 5.12 0.0013 0.0365 0.976616
14 5.01 0.0012 0.0343 0.979311


15 4.54 0.0009 0.0303 0.983902

N
 
2
16 4.57 0.0009 0.0308 0.983403

exp

FRFF − FRFF cal
17 4.50 0.0009 0.0299 0.984411
 i i
18 4.40 0.0009 0.0308 0.983379
i=1
RMSE = (11) 19 4.10 0.0008 0.0278 0.986484
N
20 4.00 0.0008 0.0285 0.985805

a
The best obtained results among 30 various trained network per
 N
2 
N
 each topology.
exp exp cal 2
FRFFi − FRFF − FRFFi − FRFFi
2 i=1 i=1
R =

N
 exp
2 It is obvious that the efficiency of the MLP network
FRFFi − FRFF improves by increasing the number of hidden neuron up to
i=1 ten, and thereafter a little improvement is observed even by
(12) developing large MLP approach and spending higher compu-
tational effort. Therefore, a single hidden layer feed-forward
where FRFF represents the fourth roots of fouling factor. network containing ten hidden neurons (the bold row) was
FRFFexp and FRFFcal are the fourth roots of experimental and found to be the optimum topology for prediction of FRFF in
predicted fouling factor respectively. FRFF is the average PFRU and single tube heat exchangers. It can be clearly seen
value of fourth roots of the experimental fouling factor. that the selected MLP network provides overall AARD% = 5.42,
MSE = 0.0013, RMSE = 0.0355, and R2 = 0.977819.
3.2.1. Number of hidden neurons It is worthy to note that to eliminate the effect of initial
Table 3 summarizes the results of sensitivity accuracy analy- guess of weights and biases on the performance of the devel-
ses for finding the best number of hidden neurons. Various oped MLP networks, each topology is trained 30 times and only
MLP network with one to twenty neurons is constructed, the best results were reported.
trained, tested, and their quantitative accuracy was calcu-
lated. The optimum number of hidden neurons is often 3.2.2. Training algorithm
selected by finding the smallest MLP network that provides Here the focus is concentrated on the finding of the learn-
an acceptable accuracy. ing algorithm. Various training algorithms were examined
 Chemical Engineering Research and Design 1 3 0 ( 2 0 1 8 ) 138–153 145

3.3. How to use the designed MLP paradigm?

Other researchers can simply utilize the developed MLP model

Fig. 2 – Procedure of adjusting parameters of the MLP
approach by minimization the mean squared errors during
training stage.
and comparisons are made among their computational time
and accuracy. Indeed it is desired to find the algorithm that
provides accurate predictive accuracy with low computational
effort.
Therefore, the MLP network with optimum configuration
is trained with different training algorithms. Overall AARD%,
MSE, R2 and computational time per epoch for twelve different
algorithms are presented in Table 4. By considering both accu-
racy and computational effort it is obvious that the Bayesian
regulation backpropagation provides the relatively best per-
formance (the bold row). Although the Levenberg–Marquardt
presents the smallest overall AARD% and MSE and the high-
est value for R2 , but the Bayesian regulation provides relatively
similar accuracy with a lower computational time. Therefore,
it seems that the Bayesian regulation training algorithm is the
most appropriate training algorithm for the considered task.
As mentioned earlier, the training stage is an iterative opti-
mization procedure. Variation of observed deviation between
actual and predicted values of FRFF in term of MSE versus opti-
mization iteration i.e. epoch is presented in Fig. 2. It is obvious
that the value of MSE decreases continuously and finally, it
reaches the desired MSE of 4.4 × 10−3 after 1645 iterations.
for estimation the value of fourth roots of fouling factor by
knowing its structure and parameters. Our developed MLP
model has single hidden layer with ten neurons, all neurons
have tangent transfer function. The values of weights and
biases of the MLP model should also be provided to use it for
prediction of the FRFF. Table 5 reports the value of both weight
and bias of the MLP network.
Now, by using the following simple procedure it is pos-
sible to calculate the value of FRFF using the designed MLP
paradigm.
1. Normalize all of the independent variables into inter-
val of [−0.99 0.99] using Eq. (8). It should be arranged as 7 × 1
vector.
2. Multiply the first seven columns of Table 5 by the
obtained normalized variables in the previous stage (Do not
count the Neuron column.).
3. Add the obtained results in stage 2 to the eighth column
of Table 5.
4. Use Eq. (3) for calculating n for all ten elements of step 3.
5. Multiply transpose of the results obtained in step 4 by
the ninth column of Table 5.
6. Add the value of the last column of Table 5 i.e. 7.3954 to
the result of step 5.
7. Calculate n for the value obtained in step 6 using Eq. (3).
8. Map the obtained result in step 7 into experimental
ranges of fourth roots of fouling factor i.e. [0.1899 0.879] using
Eq. (13).
(FRFFmax − FRFFmin )
FRFF = (n + 0.99) × + FRFFmin (13)
2 × 0.99
9. Obtained value in step 7 presents the estimated FRFF by
the proposed MLP approach.
It should be mentioned since the parameters of our
intelligent model are adjusted by experimental data of the
considered system, it can be said that it could provide good
predictions for interpolation between the ranges of experi-
mental data that were previously used for their development.
Similar to other regression-based models, AI-based models
have poor accuracy for extrapolation. Ranges of applica-
tions of our AI-based model covers surface temperature of

Table 4 – Comparison the AARD%, MSE, R2 and training speed of various training algorithms over whole datasets.
Training algorithm AARD% MSE R2 -value Training speed
(s/epoch)a

Conjugate gradient backpropagation with 7.90 0.0025 0.9548 0.02619

Powell–Beale restarts
Conjugate gradient backpropagation with 8.03 0.0028 0.9504 0.02508
Polak–Ribiere updates
Gradient descent backpropagation 19.67 0.0140 0.7157 0.00801
Gradient descent with adaptive learning rate 15.01 0.0077 0.8576 0.00798
Gradient descent with momentum backpropagation 19.63 0.0138 0.7272 0.00817
Gradient descent with momentum and adaptive 13.26 0.0062 0.8853 0.00830
learning rate backpropagation
Levenberg-Marquardt backpropagation 5.42 0.0013 0.9778 0.06636
Scaled conjugate gradient backpropagation 7.61 0.0025 0.9547 0.01305
BFGS quasi-Newton backpropagation 6.25 0.0017 0.9703 0.02641
Bayesian regulation backpropagation 5.59 0.0014 0.9747 0.06205
One-step secant backpropagation 7.88 0.0027 0.9523 0.02604
Resilient backpropagation 10.21 0.0039 0.9293 0.00811

a
Installed memory (RAM) = 2.43 GB, and 2.2 GHz Intel Core i7 central processing unit (CPU).
146 Chemical Engineering Research and Design 1 3 0 ( 2 0 1 8 ) 138–153

Table 5 – Weight and bias coefficients of the MLP network with optimum architecture.
Neuron Hidden layer Output layer
a
Weights (wij ) and biases Weights (wij )b and biases

Fluid Surface Fluid Pipe Fluid Dissolved Time biases FRFF bias
density temperature temperature diameter velocity oxygen

1 8.0872 0.080639 1.1016 12.098 8.3053 6.3709 −93.9146 −91.7686 −0.18925 7.3954
2 1.7582 −3.2954 −73.7768 −188.12 −20.8283 −6.6517 −2.6125 37.3008 0.18812
3 0.39939 0.63617 0.17655 1.6465 0.053989 −14.3798 0.14248 −14.242 13.425
4 −322.271 −3.157 4.1162 141.79 −0.51819 −265.799 2.8918 −162.373 0.60495
5 1.9324 5.0129 −4.8214 0.096049 −3.131 1.2677 −2.0302 −4.5345 1.4941
6 8.2421 16.9621 26.2184 16.0646 −21.8827 −24.6458 −6.8502 −30.295 −0.27536
7 27.8163 1.8758 −1.9165 −11.3795 0.77457 16.835 −1.3779 6.8271 0.81019
8 −0.99502 −0.62109 −0.1367 0.89329 −0.27411 14.9374 −0.09553 13.0969 12.9357
9 −0.03482 0.054204 −0.01251 5.2551 −0.09576 −0.53288 −0.12703 −3.4258 −13.9641
10 3.2019 1.074 1.4725 −3.056 1.5461 −2.3056 2.4525 5.2649 2.9302

a
Weight connection from the input layer to hidden layer.
b
Weight connection from the hidden layer to output layer.

Fig. 4 – Values of predicted FRFF versus their experimental

Fig. 3 – Performance of the proposed model for prediction values for the testing datasets.
of fourth roots of fouling factor over the training datasets.

136–640 ◦ C, the fluid temperature of 60–278.2 ◦ C, fluid veloc-

ity of 0.31–7.45 m/s, hydraulic diameter of 0.005–0.016 m, the
oxygen content of up to 322 ppmw, and time period of up to
389 h.

3.4. Model evaluation

In this section performance of the constructed MLP model

with optimum structure tries to be evaluated. Evaluations are
done based on training and testing datasets, research groups,
as well as effect of various independent variables on the fourth
roots of fouling factor.

3.4.1. MLP’s prediction for training and testing database

Our MLP approach was trained by 75% of experimental data
(i.e. 8720 data points), hereafter they called training dataset.
Fig. 5 – Efficiency of the designed MLP paradigm for
The remaining 2906 data points were used for evaluation of
prediction of whole dataset of FRFF.
its performance by the data that were not seen by the model
previously, i.e. testing dataset. It should be mentioned that
this division is done in such a way that both training and training, testing as well as the whole of the experimental
testing datasets cover full ranges of experimental databank. datasets, respectively. Concentration the symbols for both
Figs. 3–5 illustrate a comparison between the experimental training and testing groups around the 45◦ line confirms that
datasets of fourth roots of fouling factor and their corre- the optimum MLP network predicted the experimental values
sponding estimated values by the optimum MLP network for of FRFF with acceptable accuracy.
 Chemical Engineering Research and Design 1 3 0 ( 2 0 1 8 ) 138–153 147

Fig. 6 – Accuracy of the MLP model for prediction of experimental data of various researchers group (Asomaning, 1990,
1997; Feiz, 2015; Srinivasan, 2008; Sundaram, 1998; Watkinson, 1968).

Fig. 7 – Performance of the designed MLP model for prediction of FRFF various fluids operating fluids (Asomaning, 1990,
1997; Feiz, 2015; Srinivasan, 2008; Sundaram, 1998; Watkinson, 1968).

3.4.2. MLP’s performance over data of research groups
Predictive accuracy of the proposed intelligence model over
experimental data reported by various research groups is
depicted in Fig. 6. As it can be seen from this figure, the accu-
racy is calculated in term of AARD%. It is obvious that the
highest AARD% is related to the experimental data reported by
Feiz (2015). It should be mentioned that the small number of
data of this researcher may be attributed to this level of error.
The most accurate prediction for fourth roots of fouling factor
i.e. AARD = 3.32% is obtained for experiments by Watkinson
(1968). Watkinson reported 701 experimental data for fouling
factor in single tube heat exchanger with sour heavy gas oil as
operating fluid.
3.4.3. MLP’s performance based on operating fluids
In Fig. 7, values of observed AARD% for various operating flu-
ids are illustrated. The higher AARD% is related to the 15%
ATB, 7.4% ATB, and 7.15% ATB in Paraflex, respectively. The low
numbers of experimental data for these fluids are attributed
to this level of AARDs%.
3.4.4. Parametric study
The objective of this section is to investigate an effect of vari-
ous independent variables on the behavior of the fourth roots
of fouling factor from both experimental and modeling point
of views. Moreover, some line of reasoning is given for expla-
nation of the observed behaviors.
3.4.4.1. Effect of fluid temperature on fouling factor. Experi-
mental values of fourth roots of fouling factor as a function
of surface temperature and time for various fluid tempera-
tures and their associated MLP network predictions for 10%
heavy oil in Paraflex is presented in Fig. 8. It can be seen that
the FRFF continuously increases by time, and the rate of this
148 Chemical Engineering Research and Design 1 3 0 ( 2 0 1 8 ) 138–153

Fig. 8 – Both experimental and associated MLP network predictions of FRFF as a function of surface temperature and time
for various fluid temperatures (10% heavy oil in Paraflex).

Fig. 9 – Experimental data of FRFF as function of surface temperature and fluid velocity for various times and their related
MLP network results (10% heavy oil in fuel oil).

increasing at early times is sharp and it slowed at the end
times. It is obvious that by passing the time and increasing
amount of deposited materials on the heat exchanger surface
the magnitude of driving force for mass transfer from bulk
fluid to the solid surface is decreased. Furthermore, deposi-
tions at early times may play a role as initial nucleates for other
deposited materials (Coletti and Hewitt, 2014; Watkinson and
Epstein, 1970). These two phenomena may be considered as
the main reasons for an explanation of variation of FRFF with
time.
Fig. 8 clearly indicates that the FRFF decreases by increasing
the fluid temperature and decreasing the surface temperature.
It seems that by increasing the fluid temperature viscosity and
Reynolds number decreases and solubility of solid materials
in bulk fluid increases. Therefore an amount of foulants shows
a decreasing pattern with increasing the fluid temperature.
Promising performance of the developed MLP model for
tracking the trend of variation of FRFF and estimation the
individual data points can be seen from Fig. 8.
We understand that the two dimensional graph is
clearer/simpler than the three dimensional one. On the other
hand, for investigation the effect of specific independent vari-
able (such as time) on FRFF of heat exchangers and plot their
variation a two dimensional graph, all other independent
variables should be completely similar. Since we have some
limitations to provide enough data points on the 2D figures,
we have to present them in 3D mode.
3.4.4.2. Effect of time on the fouling factor. Experimental data
for FRFF as a function of surface temperature and fluid velocity
for various times for 10% heavy oil in fuel oil and their related
MLP network results are depicted in Fig. 9. This figure clearly
 Chemical Engineering Research and Design 1 3 0 ( 2 0 1 8 ) 138–153
1
Exp. 1000ppmw of Benzoyl Peroxide
Cal. 1000ppmw of Benzoyl Peroxide
Exp. 1000ppmw of Thiophenol
Cal. 1000ppmw of Thiophenol
350
300
250
Surface temperature (
Fig. 10 – Effect of additive on experimental FRFF of 10% heavy oil in fuel oil and associated MLP predictions.
Surface temperature (
Fig. 11 – Experimental data of FRFF and related MLP predictions for various mixture of 10% heavy oil in Pentane and fuel oil
as a function of surface temperature and time.
shows the increasing of fouling factor with time. Moreover, for
this case FRFF is increased by increasing surface temperature
and decreasing of fluid velocity.
By increasing the fluid velocity the forces of foulants
removing overcomes to the forces of their deposition/adhesion
to the surface, and amount of fouling decreases. An excellent
agreement between experimental and calculated values by the
proposed model can be concluded from Fig. 9.
3.4.4.3. Effect of additive on the fouling factor. Effect of two
different additives i.e. Thiophenol and benzoyl peroxide on
experimental FRFF for 10% heavy oil in fuel oil flowing in PFRU
are depicted in Fig. 10, their associated predicted values by the
MLP paradigm were also presented in this figure. It can be seen
that 1000 ppm by weight of Thiophenol has sharply reduced
an amount of fouling in portable fouling research unit heat
exchanger. Similar to previous cases, in this case, MLP model
has also presented an excellent efficiency for both following
149
12
10
8
6
4
2
Exp. 1%Pentane + 89% Fuel Oil
Cal. 1%Pentane + 89% Fuel Oil
Exp. 3%Pentane + 87% Fuel Oil
Cal. 3%Pentane + 87% Fuel Oil
pattern of variation of the FRFF and estimation of all individual
experimental data points.
3.4.4.4. Effect of fluid type on the fouling factor. Effect of two
different blends of pentane – heavy oil – fuel oil on both exper-
imental and calculated values of FRFF is illustrated in Fig. 11. It
can be seen that by decreasing the pentane content (increas-
ing the fuel oil) of the operating fluid amount of fouling factor
increases. Moreover, by passing the times both cases show an
increasing pattern for FRFF.
Both experimental and MLP network results for FRFF of
various mixtures of heavy oil in fuel oil as a function of sur-
face temperature and time is illustrated in Fig. 12. It is easy
to observe that the heavy oil content of the operating fluid
produces a complex behavior in fourth roots of fouling factor.
Surface temperature has a minor effect on 5% of heavy oil in
fuel oil, while it has gradually decreased the FRFF for 20% of
heavy oil in fuel oil.
150 Chemical Engineering Research and Design 1 3 0 ( 2 0 1 8 ) 138–153
350
300
250
o
C)
Fig. 12 – Both experimental and MLP network results for FRFF of various mixtures of heavy oil in fuel oil as a function of
surface temperature and time.
1.1
300
600
400
200
100
Fig. 13 – Influence of simultaneous variation of surface
temperature and time on the FRFF—(simulation results for
fluid temperature of 209 ◦ C, fluid velocity of 6 m/s, hydraulic
diameter of 0.015 m, and dissolved oxygen of 84.6 ppmw).
Although type of operating fluid may has a complex effect
on FRFF, it can be seen that the developed MLP model shows
promising results even for the most complex situation.
3.4.5. Variation of FRFF by the influential
parameters—simulation results
As mentioned earlier, limitations for providing enough data
points on the 2D figures obligate us to present them in the
3D mode. We confess that the coordinates of the data points
and calculated lines cannot be uniquely located in our three
dimensional figures. Moreover, only the dependence of the
FRFF on some variables can be roughly recognized. Therefore,
simulating the continuous variation of FRFF as function of pair
of independent variables may be helpful for readers to recog-
nize the patterns of the dependences of the FRFF on those
variables. This might be a better way to show the behaviors of
fouling factor dependence on the influential parameters given
by the two horizontal ordinates.
Exp. 5% Heavy Oil
Cal. 5% Heavy Oil
Exp. 20% Heavy Oil
Cal. 20% Heavy Oil
1.5
0.5
0
0
200
2
400 4
Fig. 14 – Influence of simultaneous variation of surface
temperature and fluid velocity on the FRFF—(simulation
results for fluid temperature of 226 ◦ C, hydraulic diameter
of 0.015 m, dissolved oxygen of 237 ppmw at time = 175 h).
Fig. 13 illustrates the simulation results of variation of
the FRFF as function of surface temperature and time. This
result which is obtained by our developed artificial intelligent
model clearly confirms that the FRFF continuously increases
by increasing time. Complex influence of surface tempera-
ture on the FRFF can also be understood from this figure. It is
obvious that by increasing the surface temperature, the FRFF
undergone a ascending continued by descending pattern.
Simulation results for variation of the FRFF as function of
fluid velocity and surface temperature is depicted in Fig. 14.
It can be seen from this figure that the FRFF is decreased by
increasing the fluid velocity, while the surface temperature
has little effect on the considered variables.
The results of variation of FRFF for simultaneous changing
of fluid velocity and time from modeling point of view in illus-
trated in Fig. 15. This figure clearly confirmed that the FRFF
increased by increasing time and decreasing the fluid velocity.
 Chemical Engineering Research and Design 1 3 0 ( 2 0 1 8 ) 138–153
Fig. 15 – Influence of simultaneous variation of fluid
velocity and time on the FRFF—(simulation results for
surface temperature of 311 ◦ C, fluid temperature of 226 ◦ C,
hydraulic diameter of 0.0158 m, and dissolved oxygen of
237.5 ppmw).
4. Conclusion
In the present study, the fouling factor in annular heated probe
and single tube heat exchangers under various operating con-
ditions are simulated by the MLP network. Pearson correlation
coefficient indicated that the Rf 0.25 has the strongest rela-
tion with the independent variable of the systems. 11,626
experimental data were used for training the MLP network
and verifying its performance accuracy. Iterative procedure on
the MLP structure combined with minimization some error
indices confirmed that 10 hidden neurons are enough for
accurate estimation of the considered variable. Moreover, by
focusing on computational effort, it was observed that the
Bayesian regulation backpropagation approach is the best
training algorithm. Excellent performance of the designed
MLP paradigm for prediction of FRFF justifies that it is a prac-
tical tool for incorporating in a mathematical model of heat
exchangers for purpose of design, control, and optimization.
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