Analysis of crystallization fouling in electric water heating

In the present study, the main influencing factors of crystallization fouling in electric water heating were investigated. Dependence on the saturation index and four operating parameters was analyzed, namely: liquid temperature, surface temperature, flow rate and electrical leakage current. A focus of the study was the influence of electrical leakage current on the fouling behavior and the morphology of the deposited crystal layers. The investigation shows that the aforementioned parameters influence the fouling process and crystal size growth in a different way. The experimental results were used to find a correlation between the electrical leakage current and induction time. In addition, a modeling approach is presented which allows an estimation of the fouling mass flux.