IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 26, NO.

2, MAY 2011

775

Estimating the Parameters of Dynamic Model

of Drum Type Boilers Using Heat Balance Data
as an Educational Procedure
Ramezan Ali Naghizadeh, Student Member, IEEE, Behrooz Vahidi, Senior Member, IEEE, and
Mohammad Reza Bank Tavakoli

AbstractThe procedure for deriving the parameters of drum

type boilers dynamic model for long-term transient stability
studies by use of heat balance data is presented in this paper.
The main purpose of the work is to exhibit a regular procedure
using available heat balance data of the steam plant boiler and
thermodynamic properties of saturated steam and water, to be
suitable for educational purposes. The parameters are shown to
be in reasonable range. The model response to step changes with
and without control loop is simulated and discussed as well. Furthermore, a practical scenario of the studied steam power plant is
presented and the measured data are compared with simulation
results.
Index TermsDrum boiler, dynamic modeling, long-term stability.

I. INTRODUCTION

OWER system stability studies are classified into different

categories depending on the physical nature of included
phenomena, severity of disturbances, and the time span that
must be taken into consideration. An accurate and suitable mathematical representation of power system components is very
significant for dynamic stability studies. In order to simulate the
dynamic behavior of large interconnected power systems over
a long time interval following a disturbance in the system, it is
necessary to model thermal power plant slower dynamics [1].
Prime mover and energy supply systems modeling can be important affecting the long-term dynamic performance of electrical networks. Standard dynamic models for each prime mover
system component were introduced previously for simulation
programs and other purposes [2][5]. In almost all of the published standards and even text books, the procedure of deriving
such standard model parameters has not been described appropriately, as in some cases there is no model data provided by the
manufacturer.
From an educational point of view, a power system engineer or student who needs such models for dynamic studies
should understand the nature of the process, physical principles,
and mathematical relations between parameters. Based on this
Manuscript received December 23, 2009; revised May 18, 2010; accepted
July 19, 2010. Date of publication September 02, 2010; date of current version
April 22, 2011. Paper no. TPWRS-00997-2009.
The authors are with the Department of Electrical Engineering,
Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran 15916-34311, Iran (e-mail:
naghizadeh@aut.ac.ir; vahidi@aut.ac.ir; banktavakoli@aut.ac.ir).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPWRS.2010.2061879

knowledge about the procedure, parameter identification can be

explained in a comprehensible way.
Boiler pressure effects and its control actions in steam power
plants are relatively slow which result from the thermodynamic
changes that must be considered for predicting the behavior of
bulk power systems in long-term stability studies with the time
frame of interest ranging from tens of seconds to several minutes. In order to perform such studies, appropriate models as
well as precise parameters are required.
The aim of this paper is to illustrate the procedure of deriving
the IEEE drum type boiler models parameters for a real steam
power generation plant using available data of the steam generation process of a specific unit and thermodynamic tables of
saturated steam and water properties as a guideline for power
system engineering education. This paper is in succession with
two previous works by the authors in which procedures for deriving the parameters of steam turbine and heavy duty gas turbine are presented [6], [7].
The rest of the paper is organized as follows: In Section II,
an overall description of the steam power unit cycle is presented. Drum type boiler model for long-term dynamic analysis
is briefly described in Section III. In Section IV, the boilers
model parameters calculation using real steam power plant data
is presented. Section V shows the simulation and step response
of the derived model with verification of the extracted model,
and Section VI concludes the paper.
II. FOSSIL FUEL STEAM POWER PLANT PROCESS
Fig. 1 shows a simplified schematic diagram of the fossil fuel
steam power plant process. In such power plants, fossil fuels are
used as primary energy source to produce superheated steam in
the boiler. Various sections of turbine convert the steam energy
to mechanical energy which finally produces electrical power
by means of the synchronous generators. In reality the system
is much more complicated than what is shown in the figure.
Drum type boilers are widely employed for steam generation
in thermal power plants. As suggested by its name, this type of
boiler employs a large drum as a reservoir for fluid that is at an
evaporation temperature. This type of boiler system generally
includes a drum, water walls (risers), a down comer, an economizer, and a superheater. The drum is located on the top of the
water wall tubes and is used to separate steam flow from the
saturated water so that it can proceed to the superheater as a saturated heatable vapour [1]. It also serves as a storage space for
boiler water, which is distributed from the steam drum to the

0885-8950/$26.00 2010 IEEE

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 26, NO. 2, MAY 2011

Fig. 1. Simplified schematic of the fossil fuel steam power plant process.

down comer tubes. During normal operation, the steam drum is

kept about half full of water.
The water walls absorb radiant heat in the furnace. The hot
flue gases leaving the furnace transfer heat by radiation and
convection to the superheater, reheater, and economizer successively. The feed water is preheated in the economizer to produce
hot feed water for boiler.
This is a relatively complicated thermodynamic process
which operates at subcritical pressures as long as there is some
finite density difference between the saturated steam and water
phases. In high pressure subcritical boilers, constant volume circulating pumps are utilized to maintain an essentially constant
rate of circulation through the down comers and water walls.
The turbine valve and/or fuel system is controlled to maintain
the throttle steam pressure, while the steam temperature in the
superheater is controlled by spraying water.

Fig. 2. Physical system of boiler pressure effects. (a) Schematic view. (b) Electric analogue model.

III. DRUM BOILER MODEL

An adequate mathematical model of the steam generation
process is necessary for long-term dynamic studies. Some valuable works have added to our knowledge of boiler behavior as
an element in a dynamic system [3][5]. The suggested model
for drum type boiler and its control schemes is described in the
following sections.
A. Model Description
Actually, the steam generation process in the boiler system is
a huge distributed one and this is approximated in the modeling
procedure by two lumped storage volumes for the drum and
superheater which are connected trough an orifice representing
the friction pressure drop through the superheater and piping.

The equivalent physical system and its electrical analogue are

shown in Fig. 2.
This boiler model is derived based on first principles of mass,
volume and energy balance with some simplifying assumptions
for pressure/flow dynamics [5]. The boiler model suggested by
IEEE working group reports for power system dynamic studies
is shown in Fig. 3.
The energy input to the boiler, which is primarily the heat re.
leased in the furnace, generates steam in the water walls
of the drum is proportional to the inThe steam pressure
tegral of the net inflow
to the storage volume
,
of the steam inlet of the turbine is
and the throttle pressure
passing
proportional to the integral of the net inflow
. Flow into the
through the storage volume of superheater

NAGHIZADEH et al.: ESTIMATING THE PARAMETERS OF DYNAMIC MODEL

Fig. 3. Mathematical model of boiler pressure effects [3].

storage volume
and out of the storage volume
is
obtained as proportional to the square root of pressure difference between the two storage volumes.
is determined by the heat release
Steam generation flow
in the furnace with a time lag due to the heat capacitance of the
. Finally, the fuel system dynamics can
water wall metal
and a dead time
.
be represented by a time constant
It can be seen from Fig. 3 that there are two major nonlinearities in the plant: one from the governor valve position to the
flow rate through the valve and its control system and another
from the steam flow in superheater because of the square root
relationship between pressure drop and steam flow. Comparatively, the latter is insignificant compared to the former [3].
The recommended model is a simplified model since it is limited to pressure/flow effects. However, field tests have shown
that this model is precise enough for the purpose of long-term
power system stability studies [8].
B. Boiler Turbine Controls
Traditionally, conventional turbine control operates in a
boiler follows turbine mode where changes in steam generation
are initiated by turbine control valves and the boiler controls
respond with appropriate action upon sensing steam pressure
and flow. Another mode of control is the turbine follows boiler
mode where turbine valves are controlled to regulate the boiler
pressure. As a compromise, integrated boiler and turbine
control may be used to achieve both a quick turbine response
and limiting of the changes in the boiler variables. More details
about these control schemes and other control alternatives of
the prime-mover systems can be found in the literature [1], [4].
As the purpose of this work is to study the boiler dynamic
behavior itself, only the boiler follows turbine control mode is
considered. In this control mode, a proportional-integral controller is usually employed to regulate the throttle pressure via
fuel signal.
The model parameters of a specific unit can be derived by
conducting field tests. However, the parameters of the drum type
boiler model can also be derived by the procedure discussed in
the next section.

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Fig. 4. General steam generation process in drum and water walls.

IV. DERIVATION OF THE MODEL PARAMETERS

In this section, the required equations for derivation of parameters of the standard model shown in Fig. 3 are presented and
then the model parameters of a real steam power plant boiler are
extracted.
A. Required Equations
The storage constant of drum and superheater can be defined
as the change in mass of stored steam per change in pressure.
So, the storage constant of superheater can be approximated by

(1)
where
,
, and are the mass, volume and density of
the stored steam in kg,
, and
, respectively. In many
cases, there is more than one superheater in series with each
other which are located after the drum output. In this case, the
contribution of all superheaters can be approximated by [5]

(2)
where denotes the number of superheater section. In order to
calculate
, the volume and pressure of each superheater
section and connecting steam leads are required. It is worth
mentioning that pressure and flow units in boiler model are in
per unit and the storage and time constants are in seconds (see
Fig. 3). Therefore, (2) must be modified by normalizing
around the operating point as follows:

(3)
and
are quiescent values of related superheater
where
section pressure and steam flow, respectively.
Drum and water walls contain saturated water which makes
. The
it more complicated to express the storage constant

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 26, NO. 2, MAY 2011

steam generation process in water walls and drum is shown in

Fig. 4. The symbols in this figure represent the saturated water
and steam properties as follows:

TABLE I
DATA OF A 160-MW STEAM UNIT

mass of saturated water in water walls and drum

(kg);
mass of saturated steam in water walls and drum
(kg);
specific volume of saturated water

specific volume of saturated steam

enthalpy of saturated water (kJ/kg);

TABLE II
SUPERHEATER DATA

enthalpy of saturated steam (kJ/kg).

The change in the mass of stored steam per change in pressure
in the system shown in Fig. 4 can be obtained by application of
small perturbation forms of mass, volume, and energy balance
equations as follows [5]:

(4)
(5)

(6)
and assuming
By solving these equations for
the storage constant of drum and water walls can be
expressed by (7) at the bottom of the page, where the subscript
denotes the variables quiescent values. Similar to storage
should be normalized in vicinity of
constant of superheater,
the operating point. Then we have

(8)
where
is drum pressure and
is the steady state value
of steam mass flow rate in drum output. According to Fig. 3,
the superheater coefficient can be determined by the following
equation:

(9)
As it will be seen in the next section, the overall boiler dynamics is slow. On the other hand, the fuel dynamics are faster
than steam generation dynamics. Furthermore, the typical range

of these parameters is narrow for large fossil fuelled steam units

and it would be quite exhausting to derivate them using typical
available plant data [3]. Therefore, typical values of these parameters are to be used which are based on field tests of different
plants [4].
B. Case Study
Operating data are always available in an existing steam
power plant such as heat balance map (HBM) and dimensional
data of different components. An example of HBM can be
found in [6]. Here, the case study is a gas fired steam unit with
160-MW generation capacity and a natural circulation drum
type boiler (no circulating pump). The required data for estimating the parameters of boiler model are extracted from HBM
at nominal load. Usually, the volumes of the unit components
are available for steam unit. The required data for estimating
the boiler model parameters are presented in Tables I and II.
As illustrated in Table II, the case study steam unit has three
superheater sections in which the saturated steam is converted
into dry steam for high pressure turbine. As mentioned before,
in order to calculate the total contribution of superheaters in
storage constant, we need the volume and pressure of each section and density function of the steam. The superheater of the
case study unit consists of six pipe sets which are mounted on
the heating wall of the furnace. If the volumes of the superheater
sections are not available, they can be obtained by diameter,
length and number of the pipe sets.
Using thermodynamic tables of steam [9] and a curve fitting
program, the density of saturated steam for the operational range

(7)

NAGHIZADEH et al.: ESTIMATING THE PARAMETERS OF DYNAMIC MODEL

of the unit in superheaters (9000 kPa to 10 000 kPa) can be expressed by a function of pressure as follows ( in kPa):

779

TABLE III
DRUM TYPE BOILER MODEL PARAMETERS (SEE FIG. 3)

(10)
Then, according to (3) and Tables I and II the storage constant
of the superheaters can be expressed by the following equation:

According to (7) and (8), there are more parameters required

compared to
. The values of
and
for calculation of
are given in Table I. Similar to the density of steam (10), the
enthalpy and specific volume of saturated steam and water can
be approximated by functions of drum pressure using thermodyare approximated by
namic tables [9]. Thus, , , , and
quadratic functions of pressure. For the operating range of 9000
kPa to 10 000 kPa approximate expressions are ( in kPa):

(11)
These functions and their derivatives can be used in (7) to
. Furthermore, the total mass of saturated steam and
derivate
water are necessary. Depending on the boiler design, the steady
state volume of saturated steam and water can be estimated.
Total mass of saturated steam and saturated water can be easily
calculated by their total volume and the specific volume in operating pressure of drum using (11). As mentioned before, the
steam drum is kept about half full of water during normal operand
ating conditions. Therefore, the approximate values of
are

Fig. 5. Ten percent change in turbine valve, 100% load point without pressure
control.

The extracted and assumed parameters of drum type boiler

dynamic model are listed in Table III. The fuel time delay
is assumed to be 0 for gas or oil fired units [5]. A brief discussion
of boiler/turbine dynamic interaction is discussed in the next
section.
V. SIMULATION AND VERIFICATION
Table III represent the summary of assumed and derived parameters for the boiler model. The response of the boiler model
to 10% change in steam valve position with and without pressure control loop for two operating points is presented in the
following subsections.
A. Response Without Pressure Control

Finally, all required data for estimating the storage constant

of drum are ready, therefore using (8) we extract

Parameter
can be obtained from pressure drop between
drum and turbine. According to Table I, at full load
the drum and throttle pressures are 98 500 kPa and 90 000 kPa
respectively. According to (9) we extract:

Figs. 5 and 6 show the response of steam flow, drum pressure, and throttle pressure to a change in turbine control valve
flow area with no change in energy input to the boiler for 100%
and 50% load points, respectively. In this situation, the change
in steam flow will be transient as energy is drawn from boiler
and superheater storage. It can be seen that the change in steam
flow results from change in steam flow area and boiler pressure
deviations.
The dynamic of steam generation process is slower than
dynamics of other components of the power plant. Hence, its
behavior should be considered in long-term transient stability
studies where the time frame of phenomena is in the range of
tens of seconds to several minutes.

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Fig. 6. Ten percent change in turbine valve, 50% load point without pressure
control.

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 26, NO. 2, MAY 2011

Fig. 8. Ten percent change in turbine valve, 50% load point with pressure control.

Fig. 9. Fuel input changes for 10% change in turbine valve.

Fig. 7. Ten percent change in turbine valve, 100% load point with pressure
control.

According to the derived equations for storage constant of

superheater and drum, the volume of system components, operating pressure and steam mass flow have great influence on
these parameter values.
B. Response With Pressure Control
In conventional boiler control systems, changes in turbine
valve are considered as disturbance to the system and the energy
input to the process is adopted to provide the demand for steam
based on throttle pressure error [3]. A two mode control (proportional-integral) operating on throttle pressure error is properly tuned for the process lags to ensure the response to lie in
turbine valve flow area.
Figs. 7 and 8 show the pressure and steam flow deviations of
the studied boiler for 100% and 50% load points, respectively.
In this situation, throttle pressure and consequently steam flow
are maintained in desired operating values.

Fig. 9 shows fuel input signal change

for two operating
points simultaneously. We observe that in the case of 100% operating point, more fuel is required compared to 50% operating
point in transient state.
C. Verification of the Extracted Model
The load of the power system changes independently and
the system and power plant(s) operators should provide it with
an appropriate planning. Altering the output power of a power
plant causes dynamic changes in thermodynamic parameters of
the steam generation process. One of these practical situations
is studied here. In modern power plants, the operating conditions including some important thermodynamic parameters of
the power generation process are recorded and saved for future
requirements. In order to verify the presented procedure of drum
type boiler model parameters extraction, practical recorded data
of the studied power plant are investigated to find a dynamic behavior to confirm the simulation results in the same conditions.
The output active power of the studied steam power plant in
selected situation is depicted in Fig. 10. In this situation, the
output active power decreases and then increases in a 30-min

NAGHIZADEH et al.: ESTIMATING THE PARAMETERS OF DYNAMIC MODEL

Fig. 10. Measured active power of the steam power plant (P = 160 MW).

Fig. 11. Steam valve position; measurement and simulation results.

time duration which makes it an interesting occasion to verify

the simulation results.
The same practical conditions are implemented in the standard dynamic model (Fig. 3) with previously extracted parameters (Table III). Valve position is controlled by the governor and
fuel is controlled to maintain the throttle pressure in appropriate
range. Valve position, drum pressure, and fuel signals are shown
in Figs. 1113, respectively, which were available in recorded
parameters. As it can be seen, there is a good agreement between measurement and simulation results that verifies the extracted parameters for the standard dynamic model of drum type
boiler.
VI. DISCUSSIONS AND CONCLUSIONS
This paper presented a simple procedure to extract the model
parameters of a real steam power plant drum boiler based on
heat balance map and thermodynamic tables for power system
dynamic stability studies. The required equations to estimate
the parameters were presented and the simplifying assumptions
were stated for each parameter. It is shown that the derived parameters are consistent with previously reported typical values

781

Fig. 12. Drum pressure; measurement and simulation results.

Fig. 13. Fuel; measurement and simulation results.

[3][5]. The step response of the model is demonstrated in two

operating points with and without pressure control to create a
good insight into the boilers dynamic behavior. In addition, a
practical situation of the studied power plant was investigated
to verify the obtained dynamic model parameters.
The described procedure is a good approach for power engineering students who are interested in boiler model in longterm dynamic studies. This paper provides required background
knowledge for studying the effect of actual data on the model parameters and the responses. The simplifying assumptions help
the electrical engineer to estimate missing data out of available
data. Furthermore, the importance of using thermodynamic tables is emphasized here for modeling of the steam generation
process as a dynamic phenomenon.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank Mr. S. M. H. Jamalaldini and
Mr. S. M. Sayedi of Yazd Combined Cycle Power Plant, Yazd,
Iran, for their kind cooperation and providing practical data for
this work.

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REFERENCES
[1] P. Kundur, Power System Stability and Control. New York: McGrawHill, 1994.
[2] IEEE Committee Report, Dynamic models for steam and hydro turbines in power system studies, IEEE Trans. Power App. Syst., vol.
PAS-92, no. 6, pp. 19041915, Nov./Dec. 1973.
[3] IEEE Working Group Report, Dynamic models for fossil fueled steam
units in power system studies, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 6, no. 2,
pp. 753761, May 1991.
[4] IEEE Working Group Report, MW response of fossil fueled steam
units, IEEE Trans. Power App. Syst., vol. PAS-92, no. 2, pp. 455463,
Mar./Apr. 1973.
[5] F. P. de Mello, Boiler models for system dynamic performance
studies, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 6674, Feb. 1991.
[6] B. Vahidi, M. R. Bank Tavakoli, and W. Gawlik, Determining parameters of turbines model using heat balance data of steam power unit
for educational purposes, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 22, no. 4, pp.
15471553, Nov. 2007.
[7] M. R. Bank Tavakoli, B. Vahidi, and W. Gawlik, An educational guide
to extract the parameters of heavy duty gas turbines model in dynamic
studies based on operational data, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 24,
no. 3, pp. 13661374, Aug. 2009.
[8] E. Cheres, Small and medium size drum boiler models suitable for
long term dynamic response, IEEE Trans. Energy Convers., vol. 5,
no. 4, pp. 686692, Dec. 1990.
[9] G. J. Van Wylen, R. E. Sonntag, and C. Borgnakke, Fundamentals of
Classical Thermodynamics, 4th ed. New York: Wiley, 1998.
Ramezan Ali Naghizadeh (S10) was born in
Hamedan, Iran, in 1981. He received the B.S. degree
in electrical engineering from K. N. Toosi University
of Technology, Tehran, Iran, in 2004 and M.S. degree
in electrical engineering from Amirkabir University
of Technology, Tehran, in 2007. Currently, he is
pursuing the Ph.D. degree at the Department of
Electrical Engineering of Amirkabir University of
Technology.
His main fields of interest are component modeling
and transients of power systems. He also has been
with the IGMC Company, working on extensive analysis of the Iranian power
system. He is currently with the Iran Grid Secure Operation Research Center.

Behrooz Vahidi (M00SM04) was born in

Abadan, Iran, in 1953. He received the B.S. degree
in electrical engineering from Sharif University of
Technology, Tehran, Iran, in 1980, the M.S. degree
in electrical engineering from Amirkabir University
of Technology, Tehran, in 1989, and the Ph.D.
degree in electrical engineering from the University
of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology,
Manchester, U.K., in 1997.
From 1980 to 1986, he worked in the field of high
voltage in industry as a Chief Engineer. From 1989
to the present, he has been with the Department of Electrical Engineering of
Amirkabir University of Technology, where he is now a Professor. His main
fields of research are high voltage, electrical insulation, power system transient, lightning protection, and pulse power technology. He has authored and
coauthored 200 papers and five books on high-voltage engineering and power
system.

Mohammad Reza Bank Tavakoli was born in

Kerman, Iran, in 1981. He received the B.S. in electrical engineering from Tehran University, Tehran,
Iran, in 2003 and the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in
electrical engineering from Amirkabir University of
Technology, Tehran, in 2005 and 2010, respectively.
His main fields of research are power system
dynamics and power system component modeling
and simulation. He is also with the IGMC Company,
working on extensive analysis of the Iranian power
system.