Modeling of combustion and hydrodynamics for a coal-fired supercritical boiler with double-reheat cycle

Abstract

Purpose

The design and retrofit of the heat exchangers in a boiler should take into account the processes occurring on the side of combustion and steam. For this reason, this study aims to couple a one-dimensional hydrodynamic model of steam with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation of flue gas.

Design/methodology/approach

Radiant/semi-radiant platen heat exchangers are simplified as plane surfaces for CFD, while convective heat exchangers are introduced into the CFD simulation as energy/momentum absorption sources.

Findings

Numerical simulation is performed for a 1,000 MWe coal-fired ultra-supercritical boiler. The calculation results are validated by the thermodynamic design data. Tube outside surface temperature, as well as ash deposit temperature distributions, are obtained.

Originality/value

Complex tube arrangements can be completed with the aid of AutoCAD, and therefore, the simulation could offer detailed information of heat exchangers. In a word, a more reliable modeling of the whole steam generation process is achieved.

Citation

Chen, T. and Wang, W.-z. (2020), "Modeling of combustion and hydrodynamics for a coal-fired supercritical boiler with double-reheat cycle", International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, Vol. 30 No. 4, pp. 1661-1675. https://doi.org/10.1108/HFF-08-2018-0456