Applied Mechanics and Materials Online: 2012-12-13

ISSN: 1662-7482, Vols. 241-244, pp 2139-2143

doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.241-244.2139
© 2013 Trans Tech Publications Ltd, Switzerland

Numerical Analysis of Stress and Temperature Coupled Field

for Boiler Superheater in Thermal Power Plant

Rui Zhu1,2,a, Jianxing REN1,b

1
School of Energy and Environment Engineering, Shanghai University of Electric Power, Shanghai,
200090, China
2
State Key Laboratory of Mechanical System and Vibration, Shanghai Jiao Tong University,
Shanghai, 200240, China
a
[email protected], [email protected]

Keywords: Superheater, Boiler, FEM analysis, Stress field, Temperature Field, Coupled Field

Abstract: Boiler failure is the main power plant boiler operation fault. And boiler superheater tube is
one of the important reasons for boiler failure, which affects the safe and stable operation of power
generation equipment. Structure design and calculation of boiler superheater has important influence
on performance and life of boiler, so three-dimensional structural model of boiler superheater is built
in this paper. Based on the finite element method boiler superheater in temperature and stress coupled
field are analyzed. The highest temperature, maximum stress, and distribution characteristics of stress
and temperature couple field of boiler superheater including straight and elbow section are computed.
The date on the actual operation of a power plant was used in the process of analysis. And thermal
physics and mechanical properties of the boiler superheater tube were taken full consideration. It
provides a reliable basis for reasonable design and safety evaluation of the boiler superheater.

1 Introduction
With the further enforcement of the West Development strategy and sustainable development strategy
in China, the national economy gets fast and stable development, and the construction of electrical
energy meets a golden period for rapid development. In recent years, a large number of overseas
import and domestic large-scale boilers have been put into operation, with the parameters of which
raises from the ultrahigh pressure to subcritical, and then develops to supercritical and
ultra-supercritical.There are some key technical issues for study and solve urgently to adopt
large-scale boiler unit. For instance, the research and development of high-strength and heat-resistant
alloy steel, the research of reliability and security in boiler operation, the fault monitoring and
diagnosis technology of the boiler unit, the life of metallic materials management, etc. In these topics,
the research of reliability and security in boiler operation is more important issue, which affects
directly the development of coal-fired power generation technology and its application in business as
a mature technology .
Superheater is one important part of Steam boiler, and schematic diagram of the boiler is shown
in Fig.1 . Boiler heating surface as well as pressure parts consists of water wall, superheater, reheater
and economizer. Superheater is the highest operating temperature of heating surface in boiler pressure
parts. Detailed discussions on superheatertube failures have been discussed by French [1] and
Jones[2]. failure analysis on the SA213-T12 superheater tube by visual inspection, in situ
measurements of hardness and finite element analyses is presented by Purbolaksono [3]. A numerical
method to determine the proper rate of spray water mass flow to be supplied to an injection
attemperator was presented by Zima [4].
As the power industry in china is growing into large power plants and large power grids stage,
the over-temperature burst and leakage in upper furnace superheater is a growing problem with the
increasing boiler capacity, which caused unplanned outages of about 20% of the total running time
and is an important factor of affecting the power plant safety. Superheater section works in the high
temperature and pressure conditions[5-6], and it is also low-cost, so its material safety margin is small,

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2140 Industrial Instrumentation and Control Systems

and its work status changes apparently with the change of boiler operating conditions. Therefore,
domestic large-capacity boiler heating surface temperature is accident-prone in recent years, and
large-capacity boilers from abroad is no exception. Statistics shows that four leakage accounts for
70% unplanned outages of the total running time, and the highest proportion of which is the
high-temperature superheater pipe explosion, so is has already become a threat to the safe operation of
power plant.

Figure. 1 Schematic diagram of the boiler

2 Theoretical Analyses
It needs nine stress components to describe a point’s stress state in the common case. Due to shear
τ τ τ τ
stress of reciprocal theorem, xy and yx , yz and zy , τ zx and τ xz equal respectively. The
independent components are six now, which is seemed to be combination of three groups uniaxial
stressess and three groups shear stresses. So we can work out every strains corresponding different
stresses components with Hooke’s law and horizontal deformation factor (Poisson’s ratio), and then
stack them:

(1)

(2)
 Applied Mechanics and Materials Vols. 241-244 2141

(3)
Eq.1 is Physical equation, Eq.2 is geometric equation and Eq.3 is balance equation. Where G is
shear strain modulus; E is elastic modulus and is Poisson’s ratio.

3. Analysis of stress and temperature coupled field by FEM

3.1 Operational parameters of superheater
The thermal analysis data is obtained from the actual data of a power plant. Rear platen superheater is
adopted to do analysis in this paper. Some data needed of a power plant boiler superheater are listed in
Table 1 below.
Table 1 Part of the superheater operating parameters
Name Value
Rear superheater refrigerant inlet temperature[°C] 453.8
Rear superheater gas exit temperature[°C] 535.3
Rear superheater flue gas outlet temperature[°C] 1014.2
Rear superheater inlet temperature of flue gas[°C] 1154.4
Rear superheater steam inlet pressure[Mpa] 16.77
Rear superheater steam outlet pressure[Mpa] 16.47
3.2 Modeling and analysis process
Due to the superheater pipe axis is symmetric, it can be simplified as two-dimensional structure to
simplify the analysis model as well as improve the analysis efficiency. The analysis results directly
reflect the actual operating conditions.
Table 2 Some parameters of superheater structure
Project heat area outer diameter wall thickness number wall temperature limits
Units (m2) (mm) (mm) (piece) (°C)
50.8 5.7,7.8
620
54 5.9
50.8 6.4
54 6.9,7.2 620
Rear superheater 1,940 60.3 10.7 27×15=405
50.8 8.9,9.9 620
50.8 5.9,6.9
648
54 6.4
50.8 5.9,7.9 815

The analysis need to pay attention to the following points

(1) This paper chooses the third type of boundary conditions under steady-state thermal analysis
according to the temperature field in the boiler superheater, which specifies the surface heat transfer
coefficient h and the surrounding fluid temperature between the objects on the boundary and the
surrounding fluid. Rear superheater tube parameters are as follows
2142 Industrial Instrumentation and Control Systems

(2)This paper analysis a small part in the middle segment of furnace tube as a model with limited
parameters, so there will be some deviation between the derived data and the actual value.
(3) The working fluid in inside and outside furnace tube flows in the opposite direction with the
flue gas. In the analysis process, gas exit temperature is in correspondent with the gas inlet
temperature. That is, the temperature of the working fluid in the tube gradually increased along the
flow direction, the flue gas temperature is gradually reduced.
In the modeling establishment of superheater pipe, some parameters of superheater structure is
shown in Table 2, and parameters of data analysis used shown in Table 3, we can only analyze a part
in superheater furnace tube bending assuming that the furnace tube is a continuous 12Cr1MoV steel.
The attribute of material in this paper is chosen, which is listed in Table 4, and the superheater
analysis model and its meshing chart are individually shown in Fig.3 and Fig.4
Table3 Parameters of data analysis used
Rear superheater tube outer diameter (mm) 54
Rear superheater tube inner diameter (mm) 47.6
Rear superheater tube wall thickness (mm) 6.4
Analysis and selection of material height (mm) 100
Table 4 Material Properties of 12Cr1MoV
Temperature[°C] 100 300 580
Elastic modulus [Mpa] 2.11e5 1.95e5 1.56e5
Poisson's ratio 0.3 0.3 0.3
Thermal expansion coefficient 1.303e-5 1.355e-5 1.43e-5

Figure. 2 Analysis model Figure. 3 Meshing chart

4 Conclusions
Superheater is an important part of steam boiler. It is the highest operating temperature of heating
surface in boiler pressure parts. It works in a poor environment because of high temperature and high
pressure, so it has a very large possibility of damage. The three-dimensional structural model of
superheater is built, the stress and temperature coupled field for superheater is analyzed by using finite
element method. From the analysis we can get the conclusion(shown in Figure. 4,5,6):
(1) Elbow segment temperature gradient can be seen from the superheater bends temperature field
distribution map: temperature increases from the inner to outside wall , including the maximum
temperature of the outer wall of the 1154 ° C, the lowest temperature 453.7 °C.
(2) The stress field analysis of Superheater tube bends is that the surface loading imported
refrigerant temperature will be 453.8° C and the temperature of outer surface of loaded imports of flue
gas will be 1154.4° C if the inner wall of the furnace tube exerts a uniform pressure load 16.77MPa.
 Applied Mechanics and Materials Vols. 241-244 2143

(3) Elbow segment of the maximum thermal stress occurs in the bend at the maximum value of
1.019, the maximum stress of elbow at the value of 0.43858, and the minimum stress of elbow at the
value of 0.672E-04. So the structure design and the material in the position is to be appropriate to
meet well with the demand.

Figure. 4 Temperature distribution isoline of superheater tube

Figure. 5 Thermal stres distribution result chart Figure. 6 Thermal stress coupled field result chart

Acknowledgements
This work is partially supported by the “085 Knowledge Innovation Program” Project funding, the
fifth key subject of Shanghai Education Commission (Grant No. J51304), and the third phase of
undergraduate education center construction project of Shanghai Education Commission.

References
[1] French David N. New York: A Wiley-Interscience Publication, John Wiley and Sons Inc.; 2000.
[2] Jones DRH. Eng. Fail. Anal. Vol. 11(2004), p. 873–893.
[3] Purbolaksono, J., Ahmad, J., Beng, L.C., Rashid, A.Z.; Khinani, A., Ali, A.A. Eng. Fail. Anal.
Vol. 17 (2010), p. 158-167
[4] Zima, W. Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng. Part A J. Power Eng. Vol. 220 (2006), p. 793-801
[5] H. Othman, J. Purbolaksono, B. Ahmad. Engineering Failure Analysis. Vol.16 (2009), p. 329-339
[6] Ming Chen, Xiaoli CUI, Bang LI, Hongtao Gui. Journal of Engineering for Thermal Energy and
Power. Vol.23 (2008), p. 298-302, 331