INVESTINGATION ON THE HEAT TRANSFER IN A CFB BOILER

Jin Xiaozhong, Lu Junfu, Liu Qing, Li Yong, Zhang Jiansheng, Xing Xing and Yue Guangxi Thermal Engineering Department, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China Abstract
Local bed to wall heat transfer coefficient in the furnace of a 75t/h CFB boiler was measured with a heat flux probe and bulk density sampling probe which were developed by Tsinghua University. The test result shows the strong relation between local heat transfer coefficient with the local bulk density and the bed temperature. The result was compared with the data from literature. According to the experimental data, a semi-empirical model was developed to predict the local heat transfer coefficient based on the bed temperature and bulk density. The prediction of the model is basically matching the published data.

Keywaords: CFB boiler, heat transfer, measurement, semi-empirical model PERFACE

CFB technology is one of the advanced coal combustion technology which is flexible for different fuels and is low emission in SO2 and NOX. So that CFB technology is developing rapidly in China. After the CFB improvement program in the 8th five years plan, the CFB boiler with the steam capacity of 75t/h has already been commercialized in China. Up to now, almost 400 units of CFB boilers with capacity of 75t/h or less are in commercial operation in China. These boilers offer us an opportunity to conduct the investigation on the heat transfer along the water wall in the industrial scale which is extremely important for the scaling engineering design of a CFB boiler. The heat transfer in the furnace of CFB boiler is different with that of PC boiler in nature. In the furnace of traditional PC boilers, the solid particle concentration in flue gas is very low, while the temperature of flame is relative high. So that radiation makes major contribution on the heat transfer between flue gas and furnace wall. While in CFB boiler furnace, the solid concentration is much higher, besides the temperature in the furnace is only around 8500 C. So that radiation and particle convective heat transfer are both important and the particle concentration influences both radiation and convection. People found long time ago that convection can be distinguished into gas convection and particle convection heat transfer in the furnace of CFB boiler and the contribution of gas convection on heat transfer is very low (Mickleyo and Trilloiy(1949)). Particle convection heat transfer is directly related to the particle concentration (Wu et al (1987), Pasu and Nag(1987)). This conclusion was proved by the experimental result in laboratory ( Nag and Ali (1990), Mahalingam
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and Kolar (1991), Mahalingam and Kolar (1993)). The component of gas convection on convective heat transfer is less than 10-20% in the case of CFB (Ebert et al.(1993)). So far most published literature on heat transfer in CFB furnace were based on the investigation in the laboratory. The literature on the heat transfer in CFB based on the data from industrial scale CFB boiler is very few. This might be because the difficulty in field test or the commercial reason. Leckner and his colleagues once made the investigation on the heat transfer coefficient between bed and water wall in a 12MW hot water CFB boiler [Andersson and Leckner(1987), Andersson and Leckner(1992)). Four test technologies were used to measure the heat transfer coefficient on water wall. They found that the average heat transfer coefficient along the wall of the furnace is 100-160W/M2Kand the local heat transfer coefficient is 50-280W/M2K depending on the superficial velocity; height of furnace ( that causes different down flow) and position. Werdermann et al did the hot test in two commercial CFB boilers. They found the down flow along the wall decreases the radiate heat transfer coefficient dramatically; bulk density is the most important factor to control the heat transfer coefficient; that match the conclusion from the laboratory investigation. Generally, the bed to wall heat transfer coefficient can be expressed as the function of bulk density (Werdermann and Werther (1994)): (1) The heat transfer coefficient increases as the cross section average bulk density increases. The data of it is around 100-200W/M2K. This data is also influenced by bed temperature and the height of the heating surface. Clearly, as temperature increases, the radiation is enhanced, besides, the increased conductivity of flue gas also promote the heat transfer. While in the case of high solid loading, the temperature of solids flowing down along the water wall shall be cooled down. Such solid particle boundary layer with temperature lower than the center flow, certainly weaken ( by means of radiation) of enhance ( by means of particle convection) the bed to wall heat transfer. It is well known that particle size influence the solid convection heat transfer. In CFB furnace, because of the length of water wall is relative longer, the thick down flow also weakens the influence of particle size on the particle convection heat transfer. Many researchers in China also investigated the same topic, and some progress has been achieved on the laboratory experiment and modeling(Li et al.(1994), Yang (1996)). While at present time, no matter modeling work or the test data from laboratory scale CFB facility both are not well done and can not directly used for engineering design. More hot test data is needed from the industrial scale CFB boilers.

= ab W/M2K

MEASUREMENT TECHNOLOGY OF HEAT TRANSFER IN A CFB BOILER

BOILER TESTED
The heat transfer measurement was conducted on a CFB boiler with the steam capacity of 75t/h (50MWth). The basic parameter of the boiler, the schematic of the boiler and the fuel analysis can be seen in another literature(Lu, et al.(1998)). Test points were located at different height on the side water wall of the furnace. The geometric of the furnace is 3000mm6000mm20000mm, which is made by 51100( pitch)
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water wall. The bed temperature is 9200 C during the test.

HEAT FLUX METER

A heat flux meter was designed to measure the local heat flux on the water wall. The heat flux data can be converted into local heat transfer coefficient as we know the bed temperature and surface temperature of the probe. Figure 1. is the schematic of the structure of the heat flux meter. The heat conduction element is a round steel bar in which there are three thermocouples located on the axis of the bar. There are another three thermocouples at the corresponding position on the cylinder surface in order to monitor the radial heat flow which cause the error of the measurement. The bar is covered by insulation layer except the head surface. The end of the bar is cooled by water. During the test the probe is inserted into the water wall with front surface is at the same position of the inner surface of the fin of the water wall. As heat conducted into the bar, the temperature difference measured by thermocouples is Fig1 Schematic of heat flux meter the indirect measure of the heat flux in the steel bar. If we measure the temperature of the front surface of the cylinder. probe surface t probe surface and the bed temperature tb. The local heat transfer coefficient is calculated as Eq.(2): =q0/(t b- t probe surface) (2) If the heat transfer in the cylinder is one dimension heat conduction, the steady state of the heat conduction shall cause a liner temperature profile along the axis of the cylinder. The heat flux is: q0= t / l (3) where, :heat conductivity of steel cylinder l- distance between thermocouples; t: temperature difference between thermocouples. The heat conductivity of steal is the function of temperature which has been calibrated in the laboratory. In order to detect the accumulate error of the probe, two probes were made and the constant heat source method were used to calibrate the probe. The calibration proved that the heat flux difference of two probes is within 15% (Xing Upper (1996)).
Cover

BULK DENSITY MEASUREMENT

A directive sampling method was developed Slide Cover Guide to measure the local bulk density which should be known as measuring the local heat transfer coefficient. The structure of the probe is shown in Slide Figure 2. The probe is a drawer like box with Control Bar sliding cover and bottom. As the opened box Fig2. Solid sampling probe inserted into furnace, we can close the box by slide the cover and bottom simultaneously, that can catch all particles which are going through the
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Bottom

space of the box. The weight of the caught particles over the size of the box space is the bulk density in the space we measured ( neglecting the weight of flue gas in space): =m /V (4) This measurement technology is much more directly and reliable compared with the pressure drop method.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Because of the limited 350 sampling points on the water wall, 300 the effective test data is also few. 250 See Figure. 3 -the comparison of 200 present test result and the data from 150 literature (Wu et al. (1987), Kobro 100 and Brereton (1986), Basu Kobro C[15] 850 oC Pasu P[ [16] 895 oC Basu P[16] 815 oC Y X [2] 880 oC 50 (1990)).The local heat transfer o o [16] Pasu P 730 C The Author 920 C coefficient decreases as the bulk 0 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 density decreases which potential is kg/m3 matching with the former research.. Fig.3 The experimental results compared with literature The present data is higher than the 300 other in literature which might be caused by higher bed temperature ( 9200 C) or different water wall 250 parameter. The present result can be expressed as Eq. (1) which is shown 200 in Fig. 4. A commercialized model prediction at bed temperature 8000 150 C is also shown in Fig.4. It is clear Modle 2 920 oC that the present data is higher. Commercial Modle 800 o C In order to correlate the present 100 8 16 24 32 40 48 56 data in to data at 8000C, a semi 3 kg/m empirical model was set up which is Fig.4 Modle 1 compared with a commercial model similar with Leckner model. We assume the total heat transfer coefficient is composed with two parts: radiation and convection: b =r +c r =(Tb +Tw2)*(Tb+Tw) =1/(1/b+1/w-1)
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w/m 2K

2 w/(m K)

(5) (6) (7) [w/M k ]; TW: wall surface temperature [K]; :wall

where, : Boltzmann constant, 5.67*10

surface emissivity, 0.5-0.8; b: bed emissivity, for high particle concentration, it can be seen as particle emission. The convective heat transfer coefficient is also composed of gas convection and particle convection heat transfer coefficient:
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c = g + p After the new model was correlated by present data, it can predict the heat transfer data (based on the project surface of furnace) at different bed temperature. Figure 5 show the comparison between new model prediction and that of commercial mode at same bed temperature. The difference is within 8%. Figure 6 shows the present model prediction (lines ) and the data from other literature. The difference is within 12%.

(8)

325 275
w/m2K

225 175 125 10 20

Modle 2 800 oC

Commercial Modle 800 oC

30

kg/m3

40

50

60

Fig.5 Model 2 compared with a commercial model

Dots: experimental value
2 w/m K

300 Curves: modle 2 results 200

CONCLUSION

A heat flux probe and bulk density probe were developed for Kobro [1 5] 850 o C 100 Basu P [16] 895 o C the local heat transfer coefficient Basu P [16]815 o C W U [ 2] 880 o C Basu P [16]730 o C The author 925 o C measurement in the furnace of a 00 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 industrial scale CFB boiler. kg/m3 The bulk density and the heat Fig.6 Model 1 compared with literature transfer coefficient were tested at the bed temperature 9200 C. A semi empirical model was set up and correlated by the test data, which can predict the local heat transfer coefficient on the water wall in the furnace of CFB boiler. The bed temperature and bulk density are both control factors for heat transfer coefficient according to the model prediction. The model prediction is matching with the published data from different sources.

REFERENCE
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Mickleyo H S, Trilloiy C A. Heat Transfer Characteristics of Fluidized beds. Ind. Eng. Chem. 1949, 42:1135-1147 Wu R, Lim C J, Chauki J, et al. Heat Transfer from a Circulating Fluidized Bed to Membrane Water Wall Cooling Surface. AIChE, 1987, 33:1888-1893 Basu p, Nag P K. An Investigation into Heat Transfer in Circulating Fluidized Bed. Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer, 1987, 30:2399-2409 Nag P l, Ali Moral M N, Effect of probe Size on Heat Transfer at the Wall in Circulating Fluidized Beds. Int. J. Energy res. ,1990, 14:965-974

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Note: Published in the 6th International Conference of CFBC, Weirsberg, 1999: 356~361

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