Computational investigation of fluid flow and heat transfer of an economizer by porous medium approach

Abstract

Computation of fluid flow and heat transfer in an economizer is simulated by a porous medium approach, with plain tubes having a horizontal in-line arrangement and cross flow arrangement in a coal-fired thermal power plant. The economizer is a thermal mechanical device that captures waste heat from the thermal exhaust flue gasses through heat transfer surfaces to preheat boiler feed water. In order to evaluate the fluid flow and heat transfer on tubes, a numerical analysis on heat transfer performance is carried out on an 110 t/h MCR (Maximum continuous rating) boiler unit. In this study, thermal performance is investigated using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation using ANSYS FLUENT. The fouling factor ε and the overall heat transfer coefficient ψ are employed to evaluate the fluid flow and heat transfer. The model demands significant computational details for geometric modeling, grid generation, and numerical calculations to evaluate the thermal performance of an economizer. The simulation results show that the overall heat transfer coefficient 37.76 W/(m2K) and economizer coil side pressure drop of 0.2 (kg/cm2) are found to be conformity within the tolerable limits when compared with existing industrial economizer data.