Escolar Documentos
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Shuhong Huang
College of Energy and Power Engineering,
A Compartmental Model for
Huazhong University of Science & Technology,
Wuhan 430074, China
Supercritical Coal-Fired Boiler
Yanping Zhang1
College of Energy and Power Engineering,
Systems
Huazhong University of Science & Technology, A compartmental furnace model for supercritical coal-fired boiler systems is presented in
Wuhan 430074, China this paper. Instead of the traditional lumped parameter method, the furnace is divided to
e-mail: zyp2817@hust.edu.cn seven compartments along the height based on the positions of the burner groups. The
lower six compartments correspond to the six groups of burners, respectively. This model
Xing Xu provides the possibility to connect the pulverization system and the furnace, the variabili-
College of Energy and Power Engineering, ty of the combustion property caused by changes of the pulverization system can be stud-
Huazhong University of Science & Technology, ied by switching the operating conditions. To evaluate the proposed model, simulation
Wuhan 430074, China results are compared with available data from a 600 MW supercritical coal-fired boiler
and reasonably good agreement is achieved. The simulation results also show that the
Yu Li compartmental model features a better precision than the lumped parameter modeling.
College of Energy and Power Engineering, This model allows for evaluating different control strategies and subsequently proposing
Huazhong University of Science & Technology, optimization strategies for boiler system operation. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4025959]
Wuhan 430074, China
Keywords: compartmental model, pulverization, furnace, simulation
Yong Wang
College of Energy and Power Engineering,
Huazhong University of Science & Technology,
Wuhan 430074, China
1 Introduction for thermal power generation units, every component of the power
plant is modeled through mass and energy conservation equations.
Considerable research attention has been given to power gener-
Kim and Gupta [4,5] propose a simple drum-type boiler model
ation units due to higher efficiency, better cost effectiveness, bet-
mainly using a signal flow diagram. Matsu [6] builds a new set of
ter use of energy resources and environmental concerns. With the
models of thermal power generation units for accuracy
operating parameters, such as steam pressure and steam tempera-
improvement in the dynamic characteristics using Variable Voltage
ture, getting higher and the systems getting more complicated, to
and Variable Frequency inverter. Eborn and Nilsson [7] from
ensure the optimal operating of units is more important. A numeri-
Oxford University present an object-oriented approach to model
cal simulation platform that can accurately illustrate the unit per-
and simulate a thermal power generation unit based on a model
formance is indispensable.
database called K2. Femminell [8] presents an application of a set
Large-capacity thermal power generation units are complicated
of codes running on a computer network for dynamic simulation of
thermal systems affected by different uncertain factors, such as
power generation units. As for the modeling of special subsystems,
status of the equipments, environmental temperature, and the
Wong and Niu [9] establish a boiler model focusing on heat transfer
characteristics of coal. A lot of simulation researches for thermal
by a zoning method. Zhang and Tewari [10,11] build a dynamic
power units have been done so far, and the accuracies of their
model for a condensate system. Zhou [12] builds an air preheater
results vary depending on different simulation platforms. The
model. Wang [13] establishes many independent models for auxil-
WITNESS [1] from the UK, ROSE from Canada, and CE2TRAN
iary machines such as coal mills and air preheaters. Seo [14]
from the USA are all popular simulation platforms in European
presents a model for feed-water system which is based on Alstom
and American areas. Tsinghua University and North China Elec-
models. Wang [15] builds a multilayer model of boiler economizer
tric Power University establish the ISSE [2] and STAR-90 plat-
to study the performances on off-design conditions. Bhambare [16]
forms, respectively. These simulation platforms, which are
uses a lumped parameter approach to simulate a coal-fired natural
expensive and mostly tailored for certain power generation units,
circulation boiler. Ilamathi [17] models the unburned carbon in bot-
are designed for training purposes. Although those platforms are
tom ash using an artificial neural network (ANN).
very good at imitating operational sequences of power units for
The lumped parameter method is commonly adopted for building
training, it is difficult for them to accurately capture the real per-
the furnace model by assuming the furnace to be filled the gas with
formance of thermal power units. The key point that differentiates
homogeneous thermal characteristics. It is satisfied for the aim of
the functions of different simulation platforms is the math models
capturing the dynamic behavior of the system when running in the
for power units and their components.
design point. There will be an unaccepted deviation between the
With regard to model developing and simulating of large-
model simulation results and the actual movement parameters
capacity thermal power units, Joao [3] presents a simulation code
when the boilers operation conditions fluctuate significantly. Wang
[18] and Chen [19] divide the furnace into three compartments
1
Corresponding author. (upper, intermediate, and lower area) to model them separately. Pei
Contributed by the Advanced Energy Systems Division of ASME for publication [20] and Cao [21] develop the compartmental model further by sub-
in the JOURNAL OF ENERGY RESOURCES TECHNOLOGY. Manuscript received December 2,
2012; final manuscript received August 19, 2013; published online January 15, 2014. dividing the combustor zone into four compartments by taking the
Assoc. Editor: Muhammad Mustafizur Rahman. furnace hopper as an independent region.
where War is the water content of the raw coal. This modifi-
cation formula was initially proposed by Hanowski [25] in
Germany.
(3) Modification formula of particle size of coal
As for medium-speed coal mill, impact index Xd 1.
(4) Modification formula of coal grind-ability
HGI 0:57
Xg (5)
50
Fig. 1 The Schematic representation of the four corners tan-
gentially fired boiler and the compartments of furnace where HGI is the hard grove grind-ability index.
Fig. 2 The schematic plot of the model of each mill and corre- described by Eqs. (11)(14). The coal mill model consists of three
sponding compartment submodules. They are the mill capacity model, the exit temperature
model, and the heat transfer model of metal. The boiler furnace
area. The subscript w, fg, i stand for water-wall, flue gas, the ith model consists of seven submodules, which correspond to the seven
compartment of furnace, respectively. compartments of this furnace, and they are connected each other
Considering the flow of the flue gas in the furnace, suppose that with the inlet and outlet gas temperatures and gas flows.
the flue gas is incompressible ideal fluid. Employ the method The input parameters of the coal mill model include the coal
mentioned by Wang [18] to simulate the flow of the flue gas feed rate, the inlet temperature, the inlet air flow rate, and the coal
between neighbor compartments, the model can be expressed as characteristics. The output parameters include mill capacity and
the exit temperature of the coal mill. According to the configura-
Woi Wsi Wfi WLi tion of the power generation unit, each coal mill model connects
" # to a furnace submodule. The model including the mill and the cor-
Mgi X 7 X
7
responding furnace compartment is shown in Fig. 2.
P7 Wsi Wfi WLi Woi (14) Each compartment model of the furnace consists of three sub-
1 Mgi 1 1
modules, such as the radiation model, the outlet fuel-gas tempera-
ture model and the outlet fuel-gas flow rate model. It should be
Based on the model of pulverization system and furnace compart- noted that the top compartment of the furnace model is different
ment mentioned above, the total numerical compartmental furnace from the others. The top compartment of this model is the area
model can be mathematically described as where some super-heaters and reheaters are distributed. There is
no coal or primary air that has been imported in. Heat exchanger
W0i W0i1 W0i1 B
Yi ; ; 0i (15) modeling is the primary concern in this compartment, so the spe-
tgi tgi1 tgi1 Ti cific model of the top compartment is not mentioned here.
As mentioned before, this combustion system is divided to
where F function represents the algorithm of the ith compartmen- seven compartments. Each of the lower six compartments is con-
tal furnace and the arrays in the Y function stand for the effect of nected to one mill. The coal powder from the coal mill is blown
the (i 1)th and (i 1)th compartments of the furnace, and the ith into the four burners of each compartment through pipelines. The
mill of the pulverization system, respectively. And the characteris- total compartmental model can be seen from Fig. 3, which shows
tics of the coal are considered in the Y function as well, such as the connection of the each compartment model.
net calorific value of the burning coal.
Simulation Design Relative error Simulation Design Relative Simulation Design Relative
Item result figure (%) result figure error (%) result figure error (%)
Fig. 5 Response curve of outlet temperature under different Fig. 6 The temperature distribution in the furnace at different
operation conditions loads
achieved here. Moreover, the simulation results are compared with the verification of the mill submodule. Here, simulations on
the actual condition data of the running unit and a lumped parame- changes of mill capacity and outlet temperature under different
ter model so as to verify the compartmental model. loads while using coal A are carried out. As shown in Fig. 4, the
dashed line represents the given conditions of the fuel feed rate,
4.1 Verification of the Mill Submodule. Coal A, shown by and the solid line stands for the simulation results of the mill
Table 1, is the design fuel for the 600 MW power generation unit, capacity.
while two other kinds of coal (coal B and coal C) are put into As we know, in an actual running situation of a coal-
operation so as to compare with the designed fuel (coal A). The pulverizing system, the mill capacity always follows the fuel feed
characteristics of these three kinds of coal are shown in Table 1. rate changing, but there is a little delay, because of the storage
The coal and air supply of the six mills are different from each capacity. It can be seen in Fig. 4 that the mill capacity response
other when operating. When a mill runs at 100% load, the inlet curve has the same varying trend with the change of fuel feed
temperature is 241 C. Input the characteristic parameters of these rate, but it is slightly lower than the fuel feed rate, namely, it has
three types of coal, the simulation results of mill capacity and out- time delays. So, the pulverization model is in accordance with the
let temperature of pulverized coal are shown in Table 2. characteristic of the actual coal-pulverizing system.
Table 2 shows the designed figures and the simulation results of Figure 5 shows the simulation results and the designed curve of
mill capacities and outlet temperatures combusting different types mill outlet temperature at different operation conditions. The sim-
of coal at 100% load. It can be seen that the simulation results are ulation results and the designed curve match very well. The rela-
fairly close to design parameters, the relative errors are all less tive error ranges from 1.09% to 1.85%. And they are downward
than 2.0%. It fully reflects that this model is of good accuracy. trend when the fuel feed rate successive increases, and it tends
In fact, the operation load of mills is constantly changing, so smoothly. The curves mean that the heat needed to dry and heat
simulations under different operation loads are also necessary for the pulverized coal increases as the fuel feed rate increases, so the
Flue out gas temperature ( C) Simulation results Design figures Relative error (%) Simulation results Design figures Relative error (%)
Table 5 Flue gas temperature of every compartment at 100% load of different operation modes
temperature goes down while other heat coming from outside of 5 Conclusions
the mill is almost nothing. The larger load, the larger impact of
In this paper, a compartmental model of the pulverization sys-
the fuel feed rate on the outlet temperature.
tem and the combustion system of supercritical boilers is proposed
based on MATLAB/SIMULINK. The model can be used to analyze the
4.2 Verification of the Compartmental Model. Verified thermal performance of large-capacity coal-fired power genera-
simulation is carried out at the 100% boiler rated evaporating tion unit. A 600 MW supercritical boiler is taken as an example.
capacity and 75% boiler rated evaporating capacity, when all six The accuracy of the compartmental model is verified by numer-
burner groups are put into operating. Because that the compart- ical simulation. It gives adequate considerations on the distribu-
mental model for furnace is a part of the total model system of a tion of the temperature and other important parameters. It can also
power generation unit, the temperature of the water-wall, which is well indicate the thermodynamic characteristics inside the furnace
the output parameter of the steam-water system model, is consid- at different operation modes of the burner groups. So the compart-
ered as the boundary condition of the furnace model. The temper- mental model is more agreeable to the real furnace than traditional
ature of the water-wall and other input parameters for the lumped parameter model.
compartmental furnace model are shown in Table 3. The seven compartments of the furnace are divided based on
The flue out gas temperatures of the compartmental model and the positions of the burner groups. Each compartment contains a
traditional lumped parameter model are compared in Table 4, the group of burners which consists of four burners setting at four cor-
simulation results of flue gas temperature of every compartment ners of the furnace at one horizontal level. It allows to study the
in the furnace are shown in Fig. 6. combustion condition in the furnace due to different operative
It can be seen in Table 4 that the relative errors of the compart- conditions of coal mills and burners.
mental model at the 100% load and 75% load are 0.07% and The compartmental model is a part of a Cycle-Deck model sys-
0.37%, respectively, while the relative errors of the lumped pa- tem for a whole coal-fired power generation unit. The thermody-
rameter model are 2.0% and 2.3%, respectively. Obviously, the namic characteristics and their changing tendency of thermal
compartmental model features a better precision than the lumped power unit at different load conditions can be studied based on
parameter modeling. this model system. Consequently, the performance at different
Figure 6 shows that the two lines corresponding to 100% boiler load conditions can be obtained accurately, which is a good foun-
rated evaporating capacity and 75% boiler rated evaporating dation for optimization operation of the pulverization and com-
capacity are similar. The flue out gas temperature increases from bustion systems.
lower compartment to higher compartment. The temperature gets
to the maximum at the fifth compartment and then decreases at
the sixth compartment, because that the pulverized coal stream Acknowledgment
burns most fiercely at the fifth compartment while the heat gener- This research was supported by the National Basic Research
ating in the sixth compartment transfers to the super-heaters Program of China (project No. 2009CB219803) and National Nat-
through radiation. ural Science Foundation of China (Project No. 51021065).
Except the most commonly seen operation mode analyzed
above, the boiler discussed in this paper also runs in other four
modes at 100% load. The compartmental furnace model is used to References
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