Development of an Air Pulse Jet Robot for Efficient Dust Removal in Air-Cooled Condensers Under Harsh Industrial Conditions

The manual water-sprinkling method has traditionally been used to clean accumulated dust from air-cooled condensers. However, this method is impractical under severe conditions—such as a 60° slope, high altitude, and high temperatures–where manual operations are impossible. Additionally, high-pressure water flow can cause physical damage and corrosion to the air cooler fins. To address these challenges, in this work, an air pulse jet robot is designed and validated for dry cleaning of accumulated dust in air-cooled condensers under harsh industrial conditions. The robot was designed to optimize cleaning efficiency and speed while reducing energy consumption. To address steep slopes, a permanent magnet absorber based on a proposed magnetic model of a Y-shaped magnetic circuit (reducing leakage flux by 42% and achieving $60^{\circ }$ slope stability) was installed on the robot base. For effective dry cleaning with air pulse jetting, a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model was developed to optimize the cleaning airflow velocity (peak velocity 65 m/s). The robot has been deployed to a thermal power plant for a 30,281 m² air-cooled condenser under severe industrial conditions. Tests conducted under different conditions, including varying ash thicknesses, particle diameters, and heat exchanger thermal resistance, showed that the robot achieved a dust removal rate of 95.6$\%$ and a cleaning rate of 125.06 m²/min, which is significantly faster than the manual watering method while eliminating water consumption and the risk of corrosion.