CFD studies on burner secondary airflow

In many fossil power plants operating today, there is insufficient means to assure the proper balancing of the secondary airflows between the individual burners of wall-fired units. This mismatch leads to decreased boiler efficiency and increased emissions. In this study, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling of a fossil power plant wind box was performed. The model solved the three-dimensional Reynolds averaged Navier–Stokes equations with the k–ε turbulence model. The CFD results were validated by the experimental data taken from a 1/8th scale model of a wall-fired fossil unit. Simulations under various mass flow rates specified at inlet, various baffle positions and two opening conditions of the burners were obtained to identify the optimum design in terms of the equalization of the secondary airflow through the burners. This study demonstrated that the combination of experimental and CFD approach can be an effective tool in the research of burner secondary airflow balancing.