Modelling the convective zone of

a utility boiler

Norberto Fueyo
Antonio Gómez

Fluid Mechanics Group

University of Zaragoza
Contents
 Motivation
 2D example
 Geometrical modelling
 Mathematical modelling
 2D validation
 Application to a 350 MW(e) boiler
 Conclusions
 Further work
Motivation
 Furnace modelling
Aim:
• Modelling
• Simulation
• Validation
of
• Multiphase flow (including
turbulence),
• Heat transfer (including
radiation)
• Pollutant (NOx) formation
in
• Furnace of power-production
utilities
Strategy (‘divide and conquer’)

= +
(Model Convective
coupling zone
Furnace
through
boundary
conditions)
 Convective-zone modelling
Aim:
• Modelling
• Simulation
• Validation
of
• Fluid flow (including
turbulence) and
• Thermal fields (gas and
tube sides)
• Heat transfer
in In Out
• Convective zone of
boiler
Model input
 Geometrical data (tubes, banks, etc)
 Fluid (shell-side and tube-side) and solid (tube)
properties
 Operating conditions (inlet mass-flow rates, inlet
temperatures, etc)
Model output
 Detailed fields of:-
Velocity
Pressure
Turbulence
Shell fluid, tube fluid and wall temperature
Shell-to-wall and tube-to-wall heat-transfer
coefficients
Heat-transfer rate (W/m3)
 Overall heat-transfer rate, per tube-bank (W)
A 2D example
Complex 2D case
Hotter gas in

Colder gas out

Manifold Vapour in/out
2D: pressure contours
2D: shell-side temperature
2D: Tube-side temperature
2D: Wall (tube) temperature
2D: Shell-side heat-transf coef
2D: Tube-side heat-transf coef
Geometrical modelling
The problem
 Geometrically complex problem
Tubes
Tube-banks
Interconnections
 Tubes representented as distributed, sub-grid
features
 Specify geometry in ASCII file
 Subordinate mesh to geometry
Strategy (schematic)
Convective-zone
database Parser program
(ASCII) (in-house made)

Simulation
parameters Geometrical
(Q1) data, mesh,
etc

Simulation (Earth)

Graphical results:
Numerical results (PHOTON, TECPLOT)
Element types

 General data
 2D tubebanks (tube wall)
 3D tube banks
 Bank arrays (2D, usually)
 Manifolds (virtual)
Internal
Inlets
Outlets
Data required for each element
 Feature name
 Position and dimensions
 Tube orientation
 Internal and external tube diameter
 Tube pitch
 Tube material
 Fluid velocity
 Fluid Cp, Prandtl number, density, viscosity
 Tube-bank conectivity
 Some others ...
Typical database entry
[tubebank]
type = 3D [[connect]]
long_name = Lower_Economizer_1 From_bank = ent1
short_name = Ecoinf1 In_face = South
Out_face
[[descrip]] Link
posi = (14.323,1,22.61)
dime = (6.34,8.24,2.3)
alig = +2
diam = 50.8
pich = (146.26,0,83.3)
poro
dint = 46
velo
dens
enul
pran
mate = SA.210.A1
Mathematical modelling
Main physical models - shell side

 Full Navier-Stokes equations, plus enthalpy

equation, plus turbulence statistics (typically, k-
epsilon model)
 Full account of volume porosity due to tube-bank
presence
 Shell-side pressure-loss via friction factors in
momentum equations
 Shell-side modification of turbulent flowfield due
to presence of tubes
 Empirical heat-transfer correlations, based on
tube-bank geometry (diameters, pitch, etc)
 Simple (but flexible) account of shell-side fouling
Main physical models - tube side

 One-directional enthalpy equation (along the tube

direction)
 Mass-flow rates in the tubes obtained from mass
balance
 Empirical heat-transfer correlations, based on
tube geometry (diameter)
Results
Applications
 2-D, multiple tube-bank configuration
(functional validation)

 2-D, single tube-bank configuration

(numerical validation)

 3-D convective zone

(validation in real-case application)
2D validation
 Validation with single-bank configuration:
Air V T1
ST

SL

D
NL
Tw

NT
T2
Single-bank: Test cases
Case L (m) NT NL ST (m) SL (m) D (m) Ts Tt V
(K) (K) (m/s)
1 0.75 20 15 0.038 0.038 0.019 17 0 8

2 1.0 12 8 0.0285 0.057 0.019 10.5 0 7

3 1.0 14 14 0.015 0.015 0.01 44.8 0 5

4 1.0 5 20 0.02 0.02 0.01 -120 0 10

5 4.0 10 10 0.05 0.05 0.025 -163 45 5

Single-bank: thermal results
Case T2 T2 T2vap T2vap Q Q
theory simul theory simul theory simul
(K) (K) (K) (K) (KW) (KW)
1 342.0 341.2 375 375 90 92

2 303.7 303.5 328 328 33.0 34.8

3 342.9 342.1 373 373 60.7 63

4 480.0 485.6 400 400 79 80.77

5 636.5 634.2 345 343.6 940.9 911.6

 Theory: Log Mean Temp Difference method (1-4)

and Number of Transfer Units method (5)
Single-bank: pressure loss
Case Theor 1 Theor 2 Simulat
(Pa/m) (Pa/m) (Pa/m)
1 670.89 893.79 490

2 1821.18 2445.97 3452

3 2623 3431 4000

4 1317 1705 1394

5 132.18 155.93 145

 Theor 1: Grimison correlation

 Theor 2: Gunter and Shaw correlation
350 Mw boiler

 NB: still not fully converged, but nevertheless ...

 Physically plausible

 Results follow
Boiler layout
V Turbine
L

Final reheater
Dividing walls
Turbine

Reheater
2SH

1SH

Vapour
UE

Gases
1SH Primary Superheater
LE
2SH Secondary superheater
Flue gas
UE Upper economizer Vapour Gases

LE Lower economizer
Typical geometry
 As interpreted by the
graphics program from
database
 Some bounding walls
not plotted for the sake
of clarity
Computational mesh
 75x64x142
 Approx 680,000 cells
Shell-side temperature
Flow field (velocity vectors)
Pressure field
Shell temperature
Tube-side temperature
Tube-wall temperature
Heat-transfer rate

 NB per cell
Tube-side heat-transfer coeff
Comparison with measurements
Element Qdot Qdot
(measured) (computed)
Reheater 113 MW 131 MW

Primary 88 MW 94 MW
Superheater
Economiser 86 MW 111 MW

 Results not fully converged

 Effect of fouling to be studied
 Geometry not 100% accurate
Computational details

 Finite-volume formulation of equations

 Number of cells: approx 670,000 (75x64x142)
 Number of dependent variables: 8 (pressure
correction, 3 shell-side velocity components, k,
epsilon, tube-side and shell-side enthalpy)
 Running time:
Around 12 minutes CPU time per sweep
(PENTIUM 300)
Around 1500 iterations to convergence