Special heat transfer monitor (HTM) for the Trane Company OTEC heat exchanger

A Heat Transfer Monitor (HTM) is a sensitive device which quantifies development of biofouling in the OTEC heat exchanger surfaces in terms of degrading heat transfer coefficient as biofouling progresses. The Carnegie-Mellon University (CMU) type HTM has been successfully utilized to date for plain circular OTEC heat exchanger tubes. With the development of compact heat exchangers for OTEC with non-circular and/or complex tube geometries, a device independent HTM (Universal Monitor) concept is being sought. For the meantime, however, novel methods have been developed to extend the principles of the CMU type HTM to noncircular tube geometries. The theory, formulation, analytical solutions and laboratory test results are presented for the novel use of the CMU HTM concept with such a special tube for the Trane Company heat exchanger for OTEC.