Correction algorithm for calculating heat transfer in air-cooling condenser based on analyzing steam condensation locations

Abstract

ABSTRACT A correction algorithm based on analyzing the steam condensation locations is proposed to address the problem of large errors when calculating the heat transfer of the air-cooling condenser (ACC) in Fluent. By building a detailed geometric model of the ACC and using radiator boundary conditions to simplify the heat-sinking tube bundle, Fluent software was used to calculate the heat transfer of the ACC under four winter operating conditions, and then, the calculation results were further corrected by applying the correction algorithm. The results show that after using the correction algorithm, the errors between calculation results and experiment data are reduced from 4.20~36.98% to 0.01~1.79%. When the electric load of the air-cooling generator set or the ambient temperature was low, the condensation velocity increased, for which there would be a local steam-free area in the heat-sinking tube bundle of the ACC, leading to large errors when using the radiator model. At this point, the correction algorithm based on the analysis of steam condensation position can serve to improve the degree of accuracy. Meanwhile, this correction algorithm can be further expanded to use in the simulating calculation of an indirect air-cooling generator set, and it is able to correct the heat transfer calculation result of the air-cooling tower by analyzing the heat transfer condition of circulating water in the heat-sinking tube bundle, so that reliable data can be provided to guide the anti-freezing of the indirect air-cooling generator set.