State of the Art and Trends in the Design and Operation of High- and Low-Pressure Heaters for Steam Turbines at Thermal and Nuclear Power Plants in Russia and Abroad: Part 1. Heater Types and Designs

Abstract

The modern state in design, calculation, and operation of heaters used in the steam-turbine regeneration systems in Russia and abroad is reviewed and analyzed. The first part of the article gives a list of companies producing steam-turbine feedwater heaters and the market shares occupied by the countries producing these apparatuses. The ranges of operating parameters for the feedwater heaters of Russian and foreign steam turbines are indicated. The article gives the types of heat exchangers included in the regenerative feedwater heating system and serving as high- and low-pressure heaters that are adopted in Russia and abroad, including contact apparatuses and plate-type heaters. Specific examples of arranging such apparatuses at power plants in different countries are given. Advantages and drawbacks associated with the use of contact and plate-type apparatuses as turbine unit feedwater heaters are discussed. Different designs of shell-and-tube high- and low-pressure feedwater heaters adopted in the United States, Europe, and Russia are presented. The designs of particular high- and low-pressure heaters characteristic of different domestic and foreign producers are described. Methods for arrangement and structural makeup of different functional areas of the heater’s heat-transfer surface are shown. The advantages and drawbacks of header-and-helical coil-type high-pressure heaters and tubular apparatuses for the similar purpose, including chamber-type apparatuses, are discussed in terms of thermal efficiency, reliability, and repairability. It follows from the presented data that there is no commonly accepted approach to designing the considered apparatuses, and that there is mutual influence of manufacturing experience, design trends, and heater manufacturing traditions in different countries.