Radiator Sets Cleaned Online

Engines kept in service as cleaning conducted online

Summary

The positioning of equipment at a power station in Turkey led to regular problems for the operator. Local weather and environmental conditions were such that fin-fan radiator sets on generator diesel engines were subject to regular fin fouling.

Challenge

• The Turkish power station lies close to the borders with Iraq, Syria and Iran.
• The location causes problems for the radiators that cool nine diesel engines used for power generation.
• Each engine has a set of four radiators and these have been prone to regular fouling.
• A combination of the prevailing wind direction and the particularly dusty environment caused by very hot summers led to debris being dragged into the fin-fan radiators.
• The engines were also sited in a dip so the recirculation effect of the air continued to foul the equipment.
• These factors led to unsatisfactory cooling performance on a number of occasions and left the diesel engines susceptible to overheating.

Solution

• The Tube Tech team sent to Turkey used a special fin-fan/radiator cleaning technique that the company has developed in-house.
• The bespoke system utilises dedicated lances and jets with optimised water pressures and volumes that produce a dual cleaning action.
• The development of Tube Tech’s lances and nozzle arrangements meant that only limited amounts of scaffold were required.
• This reduced the overall cost of the operation as the system had the ability to reach into all corners of the plenum.
• In a two-stage operation to increase air flow the jetting system removed the thickest deposits which are always on the suction side of the finned bank then the radiators are flushed to remove loosened debris.
• When the Tube Tech team had completed its work all the engines were registering an increase in performance and running at design speed without overheating.
• The engines were kept in service as the Tube Tech work was carried out so the station suffered no loss of power generating capacity during the cleaning.

Tube Tech Comment

Scott Donson, Technical Sales Manager: “We used a Tube Tech International bespoke cleaning technique. Fouling on radiators operating in these conditions is commonplace but it is the way in which they are cleaned that is critical to ensure optimum performance. Tube Tech had responsibility for the whole contract and that included the shipping of equipment, customs clearance and internal transfer.”