WATER COOLED CONDENSER

INTRODUCTION
Surface condensers: - In surface condensers, the exhaust steam and water do not come into
direct contact. The steam passes over the outer surface of the tubes thorough which a supply
of cooling water is maintained. This type of condenser is useful where water is available in
large quantities it is usually very impure, for example, sea water and river water, but such
impurities have little effect upon its cooling properties. . In this case the purity of the cooling
water does not matter because apart from any leakages which may occur it is never in contact
with the condensate.
CONSTRUCTION DETAIL OF CONDENSER-- 210 MW -UNIT-6/STAGE-2/TPS-II
The condenser of 210 MW units 4 to 7/Stage-II/TPS-II is a rectangular shell of surface type.
The exhaust steam flow pattern in the condenser is down flow. The circulating water flow is
of double pass type and the lower tubes are in series with the upper tubes. The condenser is
with divided water boxes to have the tube nest in two parts in order to have 50% operation
during on load leak testing and maintenance. The circulating water system is of closed circuit
type with a cooling tower. The condenser primarily comprises of

Condenser supports

Hot well

Condensing chamber

Condenser neck

End tube plates

Tube nest

Water boxes

Air removal system

Steam dumping device.

The condenser is rated to handle 442 t/hr. of exhaust steam at the parameters of
0.1033 ata and 46.1O. C

Fig. Condenser

1. Condenser Supports
The condenser is supported on 24 springs in the two rows (2 x 12) in order to have flexible
connection with the turbine. It is rigidly connected to the base (Bottom half) of the LP cylinder of
the turbine. This kind of support for condenser ensures effective dampening of vibration and shock
and also gives provision for thermal expansion of the LP cylinder of the turbine, condenser neck
and condenser itself.

Since the condenser has been floated over the springs, empty weight of the condenser is taken
by the springs along with partial operating weight. The remaining operating weight is taken
by the turbine foundation. While conducting hydraulic test in the shell side of the condenser
water is to be filled up into steam space up to one meter above the top tube row. Prior to
filling water into condenser steam space for testing, jacking screws provided with spring
support should be used for ensuring water weight being passed on to them, to avoid over
stressing of springs. Prior to putting the system back in operation, condenser must be floated
over springs to avoid excessive upward thrust being passed on to the turbine foundation.

Fig. Condenser supports

2. Hot-well:
The Hot well is in the lower part of the condenser to form a storage tank for main condensate. It
also collects the drains entering through flash boxes. It is a water reserve in the thermal cycle
along with de-aerator and boiler drum. Hot well is divided in the middle through a partition. The
purpose is to separate the condensate condensed in each half of the condenser nest for better
identification of tube leaking zone. Conductivity measurements are to be done in each

condensate outlet from the hot well to give a warning of any leakage of circulating water into
the condenser.
Two lines from the bottom of the hot well will take the main condensate to the suction of the
condensate extraction pumps. The hot well is provided with 2 level columns having level
glasses, level switches and level transmitters. It is also provided with 3 nos of drains at its
bottom. Normal water level in the hot well is 750mm and its capacity is designed to be for 3
minutes of pumping by a CEP.
3. Condensing Chamber
The condensing chamber is a shell where the exhaust steam of turbine comes into contact with
the tube nest and gets condensed. It is floated on spring supports and welded to the condenser
neck and its top. The end tube plates secured to the shell provide support for the tube nest.

4. Condenser Neck:
This is the part of the condenser to form an interconnection between the condensing chamber
and LP turbine. It is designed such that the exhaust steam of turbine reaches the condensing
chamber with a relatively low velocity and very low-pressure drop. The make-up water line
and LP bypass steam lines join the condenser at the neck.
5. End Tube Plates
The end tube plates are perforated plates, which separate the water boxes from the condensing
chamber. There are 4 end tube plates, two on each side of the condenser, to have divided water box
construction. The circulating water tubes have been roller expanded into end tube plates. These tube
plates ensure a perfect sealing so that the purity of the main condensate is not affected. They are also
designed for withstanding against the difference in pressure between the condensing chamber and the
water box. The end tubes are cladded with stainless steel plates on C.W side for corrosion protection.

6. Tube Nest:
1.

2.

The thickness of the tubes should be as small as possible to have high rate of heat
transfer. The tubes are of outer diameter 25.4 mm and thickness of 0.7112 mm.
16418 Nos. of tubes are provided in the condensing zone and 1240 Nos. of tubes in air
cooling zone.

3.

Method for making tube to end plate expansion joint on at both ends of the tube is by
roller expansion. Quality of expansion joints determine whether there is any seepage of
cooling water into steam space which has a bearing on the scaling of the water wall tubes
of the boiler, steam purity and silica deposition on last stage turbine blades. To ensure very
high quality of the expansion joints the expansion is carried out by torque controlled
expander tools. The holes should have good finish and minimum ovality. The expanders
should be set to achieve 7 to 10 % wall thinning
The intermediate tube plates at twelve places on each side provide the support for the
tubes. These intermediate support plates serve the following purposes:

To support the weight of the tubes thereby preventing sagging of these tubes

To provide increased strength to withstand the force of direct impingement of

the exhaust steam.

To curb flow induced vibration.

4.

The tubes are placed horizontally with an inclination of 0.5 degree towards the front water
box side for self-draining during circulating water pump tripping or plant shutdown.

5.

The principal factors to be taken into consideration when determining the tube spacing are low
steam velocity between condenser tubes, uniform distribution of the steam over the whole
condensing surface and equal pressure at the top and bottom rows of tubes. A computerized
design is used to optimize tube spacing, tube cross section and condensing surface of the
condenser. The tube spacing is broken up to a large extent by the arrangement of the condenser
tubes in bundles. Wide lanes from top to bottom are left between the tube bundles so that the
steam can also reach the lower rows of the tubes without incurring appreciable pressure loss.
The steam then flows sideways from these lanes into the tubes

7. Water Boxes:
Since the condenser is constructed with divided water boxes, there are totally 4 water boxes. Two
front water boxes are divided horizontally to have 2 passes of the circulating water. The water
makes its entry at the bottom and leaves at the top of the front water box. The reversing chamber
at the rear acts as an interconnecting chamber for bottom and top passes. All the water boxes are
provided with vents and drains. The inlet and outlet circulating water pipes join the front water
boxes through expansion joints. Water box inside surfaces have been protected against corrosion
by application of protective coating over the surfaces in contact with the

circulating water. Water boxes incorporate hinge arrangement to facilitate the removal of
cover for enabling leak detection, re-tubing and cleaning of tubes etc.,
8. Air off Take System:
Although the condenser is theoretically expected to condense the entire quantity of exhaust
steam, practically a small quantity of steam will remain in the vapour state along with the air
ingresses into the system and non-condensing gases. This uncondensed vapour and the air
will have to be removed by means of ejectors in order to sustain the vacuum inside the
condenser. The system, which collects the uncondensed vapour and the air from the
condenser, so as to enable ejection is known as AIR OFF TAKE SYSTEM.
As explained earlier, the pattern of exhaust steam flow is Down Flow and the exhaust steam
gets condensed before reaching the bottom. Hence the air and the uncondensed vapour will
reach the bottom space of the tube nest in each side.
At the bottom space of the tube nest of each side, a horizontal pipe with perforations at its
bottom surface only is provided for collecting the air and the uncondensed vapour. A zone
called as air cooling zone is formed below these 2 pipes. The air and the uncondensed
vapours existing at the bottom space (above the hot well water level) gets sucked (through the
air cooling zone) into these horizontal pipes are in communication with the ejectors through
two vertical pipes, there is vacuum inside these pipes.
Since the air and uncondensed vapour flow over the surfaces of 1240 Nos. of circulating
water tubes separately provided in air cooling zone, the reduction in specific volume of the
air and the uncondensed vapour takes place (due to temperature reduction) resulting in
reduction of the volumetric load on the ejectors.

9. Steam Dumping Device:

Two numbers of Steam Dumping devices are provided for the condenser for dumping bypassed steam
(from LP bypass system) directly into the condenser during start-up, load throw-off etc., Each device
is provided with an orifice plate which reduces the bypassed steam pressure to approximately
condenser pressure. The pressure of bypassed steam has already been reduced partially due to
throttling in LP bypass control valve. Moreover, injection of main condensate into the bypassed steam
is done here to reduce the temperature.

100% steam dumping can be carried out in condenser for a maximum duration of 10 minutes,
and within this time, Unit operation is required to be brought down to 60% and then the Unit
may be operated continuously.

Fig. Steam dumping (throw-off) device

2.3) TECHNICAL DATA OF 210 MW UNIT 6/STAGE -2/TPS-II

CONDENSER:Design Features:
Table 3.9 Condenser Specifications
Type
Surface type, double pass with
divided water box
construction.
Design c.w. flow
22,500 m3/hr
Design cold wate
320c
temp.
Design back
76 mm of Hg (abs)
pressure
No. of tubes
15330 nos.
Tube O.D. x
25.4 x 0.7 thick
thickness,
Tube material
Stainless steel welded
ASTM A 249 TP 304
Surface area
13727 M2
C.W. velocity
1.83 m/s
Pressure drop C.W.
4.18 mwc
side
C.W. temp rise
10.80c

COOLING TOWER

DESCRIPTION OF NATURAL DRAFT COOLING TOWERS OF

STAGE-2 /TPS -2/NLC, NEYVELI:The entire shell of the hyperbolic cooling tower is supported by 72 diagonal columns on a
foundation rim beam. Precast columns and beams support the internal fill. The diameter of the
tower is progressively reduced from 94.42 metres at sill level to 53.9 metres at neck (Elevation
89.0 metre). Then it is increased progressively to 59.4 meters at top (Elevation 124.0 meters).
1. Hot Water Distribution Arrangement: The hot circulating water leaving from both water
boxes of the condenser flows in a single pipe (called hot water tunnel) towards cooling tower.
From the hot water pipe, the hot water flows up to middle of the basin through two hot water
ducts, (R.C.C.). From basin floor, the hot water rises through risers (R.C.C.) and the hot water

enters the distribution network at 10 metre elevation. The hot water from each riser is
distributed with a R.C. main distribution duct and a branch R.C.duct. From these ducts, the
water is distributed through A.C pipes which are fitted with nozzles and sprayers (Poly

Urethane).
2. Internal fill: The internal fill is of precast pre-stressed concrete splash bar (Laths). They are
arranged in 18 layers. The vertical spacing of layers is 300 mm and horizontal spacing is 150
mm to 200 mm.

3. Basin: R.C. Basin of the tower has a partition wall for independent operation. The cold water
collected at each half of the basin is led through C.I Screen to a common channel. This
channel takes the cold water to fore bay of circulating water pump house. The basin can be
isolated from the channel by wooden stop logs and intermediate clay filling arrangement.
Wind baffles are provided to avoid a break-through of air during strong wings, the wind
baffles are form the top of the basin to the bottom of the fill. The length of the wind baffle is
equal to the half of the radius from the outer end of basin, due to this arrangement, carryover
of water by wind is reduced.

Operation Data:

Table Cooling Tower Specifications

Type
Natural draft type
No.
4, 1 for each unit
Construction type
Reinforce concrete, hyperbolic,
double curvature shell with a big
beam at the base supported on
rocker columns
Total height
117 m
Base diameter
78.9 m
Throat diameter
46.7 m
Top diameter
49.77 m
Flow
25,000 m3/hr
Range of cooling
110c
Recooled water temp.
320c
Ambient wet bulb temp.
270c
Design relative humidity
50%
Approach.
50c

COOLING TOWER SAMPLE PERFORMANCE CALCULATION: -

The reading for our calculation is taken from cooling tower of UNIT-6/STAGE2/TPS-2/NLC,
NEYVELI.

Circulating cooling water at the inlet of cooling tower Circulating

cooling water at the outlet of cooling tower Wet bulb temperature
(WBT)

ti= 38.1C to =
32.1 C twb= 25.5
C

i. So,
Range = Circulating water inlet temperature at cooling tower inlet Circulating
cooling water at the outlet of cooling tower.
= t i - to

Range

= (38.1 32.1) C
= 6 C
Now,

Approach = Circulating cooling water at the inlet of cooling tower - Wet bulb
temperature
Approach

= ti - twb
= (38.1 - 25.5) C
= 6.6 C

ii. Effectiveness of cooling tower

Range

Range + Approach
R

X 100 %

Effectiveness = R + A X 100 %

= 6.6 + 6 X 100 %

= 47.6 %
iii. Evaporation loss = 0.0085 x 1.8 x circulating time x (ti - to)
= 0.0085 x 1.8 x 33000 x 6

in m /hr.

= 302.94 m /hr.
iv. Heat load

= mass of circulating water x specific heat of water x (ti - to)

3

= 33000 x 10 x 1 x6

(Sp. Heat of water = 1 kcal/kg K)

= 198 x 10 kcal/ hr.

6

So, 198 x 10 kcal/hr of heat is being rejected into the atmosphere through the cooling
tower.

60