The main objective of this study was to investigate the effect of a superimposed flow oscillation on milk fouling. This approach was effective in reducing fouling and showed a potential application in plate heat exchangers in the food industry.
Pulsed flow is a measure to enhance heat transfer as well as to increase the wall shear stress around the plates’ contact points, changing the hydrodynamic conditions under which fouling occurs. Although less protein deposited under flow pulsation, the variation of the pulsation conditions had a negligible effect on the protein content in the fouling layer. However, the mineral deposition was significantly decreased with increasing pulsation amplitude or Strouhal number. A decrease of 50% of the fouling resistance could be reached at Sr = 0.078 by a continuous flow pulsation or at Sr = 0.156 by a pulsation every 10 s.