PARTICLE TRANSPORTATION AND DEPOSITION IN HOT GAS FILTER VESSELS - A COMPUTATIONAL AND EXPERIMENTAL MODELING APPROACH

Abstract

In this project, a computational modeling approach for analyzing flow and ash transport and deposition in filter vessels was developed. An Eulerian-Lagrangian formulation for studying hot-gas filtration process was established. The approach uses an Eulerian analysis of gas flows in the filter vessel, and makes use of the Lagrangian trajectory analysis for the particle transport and deposition. Particular attention was given to the Siemens-Westinghouse filter vessel at Power System Development Facility in Wilsonville in Alabama. Details of hot-gas flow in this tangential flow filter vessel are evaluated. The simulation results show that the rapidly rotation flow in the spacing between the shroud and the vessel refractory acts as cyclone that leads to the removal of a large fraction of the larger particles from the gas stream. Several alternate designs for the filter vessel are considered. These include a vessel with a short shroud, a filter vessel with no shroud and a vessel with a deflector plate. The hot-gas flow and particle transport and deposition in various vessels are evaluated. The deposition patterns in various vessels are compared. It is shown that certain filter vessel designs allow for the large particles to remain suspended in the gas stream and to deposit on the filters. The presence of the larger particles in the filter cake leads to lower mechanical strength thus allowing for the back-pulse process to more easily remove the filter cake. A laboratory-scale filter vessel for testing the cold flow condition was designed and fabricated. A laser-based flow visualization technique is used and the gas flow condition in the laboratory-scale vessel was experimental studied. A computer model for the experimental vessel was also developed and the gas flow and particle transport patterns are evaluated.