System and method of determining fouling location of shell and tube heat exchanger

An apparatus for determining a fouling location of a shell and tube heat exchanger, the apparatus comprising processing circuitry configured to:

• partition a simulation model of the heat exchanger into multiple segments, each of the multiple segments corresponding to a different one of multiple operating scenarios of the heat exchanger;
• generate, for each of the multiple operating scenarios, temperature data and pressure drop data from the simulation model of the heat exchanger, the fouling location of the heat exchanger corresponding to a respective segment in each of the multiple operating scenarios;
• classify the temperature data and the pressure drop data based on the multiple segments of the simulation model of the heat exchanger by inputting the temperature data and the pressure drop data to one or more machine learning classification algorithms;
• and
• determine the fouling location of the heat exchanger and a value of accumulated fouling at the fouling location based on the classified temperature data and the classified pressure drop data.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a program executable by at least one processor to perform:

• partitioning a simulation model of a heat exchanger into multiple segments, each of the multiple segments corresponding to a different one of multiple operating scenarios of the heat exchanger;
• generating, for each of the multiple operating scenarios, temperature data and pressure drop data from the simulation model of the heat exchanger, the fouling location of the heat exchanger corresponding to a respective segment in each of the multiple operating scenarios;
• classifying the temperature data and the pressure drop data based on the multiple segments of the simulation model of the heat exchanger by inputting the temperature data and the pressure drop data to one or more machine learning classification algorithms;
• and
• determining the fouling location of the heat exchanger and a value of accumulated fouling at the fouling location based on the classified temperature data and the classified pressure drop data.