Thermal-hydraulic calculation and analysis of a 600 MW supercritical circulating fluidized bed boiler with annular furnace

The development of supercritical Circulating Fluidized Bed (CFB) boiler has great economic and environmental value. An entirely new annular furnace structure with outer and inner ring sidewalls for supercritical CFB boiler has been put forward by Institute of Engineering Thermophysics (IET), Chinese Academy of Sciences and Dongfang Boiler Group Co., Ltd. (DBC). Its outer and inner ring furnace structure makes more water walls arranged and reduces furnace height availably. In addition, compared with other additional evaporating heating surface structures such as mid-partition and water-cooled panels, the integrative structure can effectively avoid the bed-inventory overturn and improve the penetrability of secondary air. The conditions of the 600 MW supercritical CFB boiler including capability, pressure and mass flux are harsh. In order to insure the safety of boiler operation, it is very necessary to analyze the thermal-hydraulic characteristics of water-wall system. The water-wall system with complicated pipe arrangement is regarded as a network consisting of series-parallel circuits, pressure nodes and linking circuits, which represent vertical water-wall tubes, different headers and linking tubes, respectively. Based on the mass, momentum and energy conservation, a mathematical model is built, which consists of some simultaneous nonlinear equations. The mass flux in circuits, pressure drop between headers, outer vapor temperature of water-wall system and metal temperature data of tubes at the boiler maximum continuous rating (BMCR), 75% BMCR and 30% BMCR loads are obtained by solving the mathematical model. The results show that the vertical water wall design with smooth tubes in the 600 MW supercritical CFB boiler is applicable.