What is meant by scaling or fouling?
Fouling refers to the accumulation of unwanted material on solid surfaces, most often in an aquatic environment. The fouling material can consists of either living organisms (biofouling) or be a non-living substance (inorganic or organic). Other terms used in the literature to describe fouling include: deposit formation, encrustation, scaling, scale formation, crudding, and deposition. The last four terms are less inclusive than fouling; therefore, they should be used with caution. Fouling phenomena are common and diverse, ranging from fouling of ships, natural surfaces in the marine environment (marine fouling), fouling of heat-transferring components through ingredients contained in the cooling water or gases, and even the development of plaque or calculus on teeth, or deposits on solar panels on Mars, among other examples. This article is mostly devoted to the fouling of industrial heat exchanger systems, although the same theory is generally applicable to other varieties of fouling
