3 Element Strategy

As shown below (click for large view), most boilers of medium to high pressure today
use a 3-element boiler control strategy !he term 3-element control refers to the
number of process variables ("#s) that are measured to effect control of the boiler
feedwater control valve !hese measured "#s are$
% li&uid level in the boiler drum,
% flow of feedwater to the boiler drum, and
% flow of steam leaving the boiler drum

'aintaining li&uid level in the boiler steam drum is the highest priority (t is critical
that the li&uid level remain low enough to guarantee that there is ade&uate
disengaging volume above the li&uid, and high enough to assure that there is water
present in every steam generating tube in the boiler !hese re&uirements typically
result in a narrow range in which the li&uid level must be maintained
!he feedwater used to maintain li&uid level in industrial boilers often comes from
multiple sources and is brought up to steam drum pressure by pumps operating in
parallel )ith multiple sources and multiple pumps, the supply pressure of the
feedwater will change over time *very time supply pressure changes, the flow rate
through the valve, even if it remains fi+ed in position, is immediately affected
,o, for e+ample, if the boiler drum li&uid level is low, the level controller will call for
an increase in feedwater flow -ut consider that if at this moment, the feedwater
supply pressure were to drop !he level controller could be opening the valve, yet the
falling supply pressure could actually cause a decreased flow through the valve and
into the drum
!hus, it is not enough for the level controller to directly open or close the valve
.ather, it must decide whether it needs more or less feed flow to the boiler drum
!he level controller transmits its target flow as a set point to a flow controller !he
flow controller then decides how much to open or close the valve as supply pressure
swings to meet the set point target
!his is a /-element (boiler li&uid level to feedwater flow rate) cascade control
strategy -y placing this feedwater flow rate in a fast flow control loop, the flow
controller will immediately sense any variations in the supply conditions which
produce a change in feedwater flow !he flow controller will ad0ust the boiler
feedwater valve position to restore the flow to its set point before the boiler drum
li&uid level is even affected !he level controller is the primary controller (sometimes
referred to as the master controller) in this cascade, ad0usting the set point of the
flow controller, which is the secondary controller (sometimes identified as the slave
controller)
!he third element in a 3-element control system is the flow of steam leaving the
steam drum !he variation in demand from the steam header is the most common
disturbance to the boiler level control system in an industrial steam system
-y measuring the steam flow, the magnitude of demand changes can be used as a
feed forward signal to the level control system !he feed forward signal can be added
into the output of the level controller to ad0ust the flow control loop set point, or can
be added into the output of the flow control loop to directly manipulate the boiler
feedwater control valve !he ma0ority of boiler level control systems add the feed
forward signal into the level controller output to the secondary (feedwater flow)
controller set point !his approach eliminates the need for characteri1ing the feed
forward signal to match the control valve characteristic
Actual boiler level control schemes do not feed the steam flow signal forward directly
(nstead, the difference between the outlet steam flow and the inlet water flow is
calculated !he difference value is directly added to the set point signal to the
feedwater flow controller !herefore, if the steam flow out of the boiler is suddenly
increased by the start up of a turbine, for e+ample, the set point to the feedwater
flow controller is increased by e+actly the amount of the measured steam flow
increase
,imple material balance considerations suggest that if the two flow meters are
e+actly accurate, the flow change produced by the flow control loop will make up
e+actly enough water to maintain the level without producing a significant upset to
the level control loop ,imilarly, a sudden drop in steam demand caused by the trip
of a significant turbine load will produce an e+actly matching drop in feedwater flow
to the steam drum without producing any significant disturbance to the boiler steam
drum level control
2f course, there are losses from the boiler that are not measured by the steam
production meter !he most common of these are boiler blow down and steam vents
(including relief valves) ahead of the steam production meter (n addition, boiler
operating conditions that alter the total volume of water in the boiler cannot be
corrected by the feed forward control strategy 3or e+ample, forced circulation boilers
may have steam generating sections that are placed out of service or in service
intermittently !he level controller itself must correct for these unmeasured
disturbances using the normal feedback control algorithm
Notes on Firing Control Systems
(n general, firing control is accomplished with a "lant 'aster that monitors the
pressure of the main steam header and modulates the firing rate (and hence, the
steam production rate) of one or more boilers delivering steam to the steam header
!he firing demand signal is sent to all boilers in parallel, but each boiler is provided
with a -oiler 'aster to allow the "lant 'aster demand signal to be overridden or
biased )hen the signal is overridden, the steam production rate of the boiler is set
manually by the operator, and the boiler is said to be base-loaded 'ost boilers on a
given header must be allowed to be driven by the "lant 'aster to maintain pressure
control -oilers that have the -oiler 'aster set in automatic mode (passing the
steam demand from the "lant 'aster to the boiler firing control system) are said to
be swing boilers as opposed to base-loaded boilers
!he presence of heat recovery steam boilers on a steam header raises new control
issues because the steam production rate is primarily controlled by the horsepower
demand placed on the gas turbine providing the heat to the boiler (f the heat
recovery boiler operates at a pressure above the header pressure, a separate
pressure control system can be used to blow off e+cess steam from the heat
recovery boiler when production is above the steam header demand 4ote that for
ma+imum efficiency, most heat recovery boilers are fitted with duct burners to
provide additional heat to the boiler !he duct burner is controlled with a -oiler
'aster like any other swing boiler As long as there are other large swing boilers
connected to the steam header, the other fired boilers can reduce firing as re&uired
when output increases from the heat recovery boiler