Application of CFD in thermal power plants

2.2 Finite element method

Computational uid dynamics (CFD) are used to understand complex thermal ow regimes in power plants. The
thermal power plant may be divided into dierent subsectors and the CFD analysis applied to critical equipment/components - mainly dierent types of heat exchangers - which are of crucial signicance for ecient
and trouble free long-term operation of the plant.

Finite element method uses piece wise functions valid on

elements to describe the local variations of unknown ow
variables. Here also a set of algebraic equations are generated to determine unknown co-ecients.

2.3 Finite volume method

Overview

Finite volume method is probably the most popular

method used for numerical discretization in CFD. This
The thermal power station subsystem involves multiphase method is similar in some ways to the nite dierence
ow, phase transformation and complex chemical reac- method. This approach involves the discretization of the
spatial domain into nite control volumes. The governtion associated with conjugate heat transfer.
ing equations in their dierential form are integrated over
each control volume. The resulting integral conservation
laws are exactly satised for each control volume and for
the entire domain, which is a distinct advantage of the nite volume method. Each integral term is then converted
into a discrete form, thus yielding discretised equations at
the centroids, or nodal points, of the control volumes.

3 Application of CFD in thermal

power plants
3.1 Low NOx burner design
Typical layout of thermal power plant

When fossil fuels are burned, Nitric oxide and Nitrogen

dioxide are produced. These pollutants initiate reactions
which result in production of ozone and acid rain. NOx
formation takes place due to (1) High temperature combustion i.e. thermal NOx and (2)Nitrogen bound to fuel
i.e. fuel NOx and which is insignicant. In the majority of cases the level of thermal NOx can be reduced by
lowering ame temperature. This can be done by modifying the burner to create a larger (hence lower temperature) ame, in turn reducing the NOx formation. The
role of CFD analysis is vital for design and analysis of
such low NOx burners. Many available CFD tools, such
as CFX, Fluent, Star CCM++ with dierent models as
RNG k- turbulence models with hybrid and CONDIF
upwind dierencing schemes has been used for analysis
purpose and the data obtained with these analysis helped
in modifying the burner design in turn lowering the adverse eect on the environment due to NOx formation
during combustion.[1]

2
2.1

Methods
Finite dierence method

Finite dierence method describes the unknowns of the

ow problem by means of point samples at the node
points of a grid co-ordinate lines. Taylor series expansions are used to generate nite dierence approximations of derivatives in terms of point samples at each grid
point and its immediate neighbours. Those derivatives
appearing in the governing equations are replaced by nite dierences yielding an algebraic equation.
1

3.2

5 FURTHER READING

CFD analysis of economiser

The economiser is a crucial component for ecient performance of a thermal power plant. It is a non-steaming
type of heat exchanger which is placed in the convective
zone of the furnace. It takes the heat energy of the ue
gases for heating the feed water before it enters the boiler
drum. The thermal eciency/boiler eciency largely depends on the performance of the economiser. CFD analysis helps in optimizing the thermal performance of the
economiser by analysing the pressure, velocity and temperature distribution, and to identify the critical areas for
further improvement with the result obtained by CFD
analysis.

3.3

CFD analysis of superheaters

Superheaters, which are generally placed in the radiant

zone of the furnace, are used for increasing the temperature of dry saturated steam coming out from boiler drum
and to maintain the required parameters before sending
it to the steam turbine. The thermal eciency of a thermal power plant depends on the performance of the superheater. The CFD analysis of superheaters is done
at design stage and later at the troubleshooting and performance evaluation during the operation of the plant.
The CFD results obtained can be useful for the maintenance engineer to make suitable predictions of the tube
life and make suitable arrangements for the high temperature zone to reduce the erosion of the tube coil and restricting the tube leakage problem. CFD analysis consists of modelling the superheater and doing analysis to
study the velocity, pressure and temperature distribution
of the steam inside the superheater. The uneven temperature distribution of steam in the tube leads to boiler tube
leakage. CFD also helps to study the eect of the operating parameters on the tube erosion rate. Thermal power
plants operates round the year and it is not always possible to shut down and analyse the problem. CFD helps in
this.

3.5 CFD application in other areas of thermal power plants

There are some other areas of importance where CFD can
play a signicant role in performance and eciency improvement. The unbalanced coal/air ow in the pipe systems of coal red power plants leads to non-uniform combustion in the furnace, and hence an overall lower eciency of the boiler. A common solution to this problem
is to put orices in the pipe systems to balance the ow.
If the orices are sized to balance clean airow to individual burners connected to a pulverizer, the coal/airow
would still be unbalanced and vice versa. The CFD with
standard ke two-phase ow model can be used to calculate pressure drop coecients for the coal/air as well as
the clean air ow.[3]
The CFD is also used to obtain the numerical solution
to address the problem of water wall erosion of the furnace of a thermal power plant. This is caused by ame
misalignment, thermal attack and erosion due to the contact with chemicals. The ame misalignment occurs
because of alteration in uid dynamics factors due to
burner geometry. CFD results show velocity proles,
pressure proles, streamlines and other data that is helpful in understanding the uid ow phenomena inside the
equipment.[4] It is clearly evident from above examples
how crucial is the application of CFD in addressing the
bottlenecks in thermal power plants, improving power
plant eciency and assisting in maintenance decisions.

4 References
[1] P. J Stopford, Recent Application of CFD Modeling in
the Power Generation and Combustion Industries, Applied Mathematical Modeling, Vol 26, Pg. No. 351-374,
2002.
[2] Cristiano V. da Silva, Maria Luiza S. Indrusiak, Arthur B.
Beskow " CFD Analysis of the Pulverized Coal Combustion Processes in a 160 MWe Tangentially-Fired-Boiler
of a Thermal Power Plant Journal of the Braz. Soc.
of Mech. Sci. & Eng. OctoberDecember 2010, Vol.
XXXII, No. 4.

CFD analysis of pulverized coal combustion

[3] SowjanyaVijiapurapua, JieCuia, SastryMunukutla CFD

application for coal/air balancing in power plants
AppliedMathematicalModelling30(2006)854866

In a thermal power plant combustion of fuel, especially

pulverized coal, is of signicant importance. Proper and
complete combustion, with the required proportions of
air and fuel, is required for total energy transfer to water
for steam generation and to reduce pollutants. CFD models based on fundamental conservation equations of mass,
energy, chemical species and momentum can be used to
simulate the ow of air and coal through the burners. The
results obtained from CFD analyses give insight to identify the potential areas for improvement.[2]

[4] Jairo Z. Souzaa, Leonardo P. Rangel Numerical Simulation of Coal Boiler at Electric Thermal Plants Using
Computational Fluid Dynamics 10th International Symposium on Process Systems Engineering - PSE2009

3.4

5 Further reading
Krunal .P Mudae, Hemant S. Farkade CFD analysis of economizer in a tengential red boiler, Inter-

3
national Journal of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering (IJMIE) ISSN No. 2231 6477, Vol-2,
Iss-4, 2012.
Ajay N. Ingale, Vivek C. Pathade, Dr. Vivek H. Tatwawadi CFD Analysis of Superheater in View of
Boiler Tube Leakage International Journal of Engineering and Innovative Technology (IJEIT) Volume
1, Issue 3, March 2012
H.Versteg, W.malalasekra " An Introduction to
Computational Fluid Dynamics Second edition,Pearson Publications.

6 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

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