Improvement of Operating Performance of a Cast-Iron Heat Exchanger by Application of a Copper Alloy Coating

Abstract

The paper deals with possibility to improve operating performance of cast-iron heat exchangers by providing them with a copper alloy (CuTi2Cr) with the use of the flame spraying method. A test exchanger was cast of a gray cast iron with vermicular graphite in ferritic-pearlitic matrix obtained in production conditions at KAW-MET Iron Foundry with the wire method used to vermicularize the material. The test samples were two plates cast in sand molds, of which one was given a flame-sprayed CuTi2Cr coat on one side. The operating performance of such model cast-iron heat exchangers, with and without CuTi2Cr coating, was tested on a set-up for determining the heat flow rate (thermal power) transferred by the heat exchanger to environment. The obtained results indicate that the value of the heat flow rate characterizing the CuTi2Cr-coated cast-iron heat exchanger was by 10% higher compared to the flow rate of heat conveyed to environment by the heat exchanger without coating.