International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 128 (2019) 739–747

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhmt

Research on the three-dimensional wall temperature distribution and

low-temperature corrosion of quad-sectional air preheater in larger
power plant boilers
Qiannan Zhang a, Fengzhong Sun a,⇑, Changxian Chen b
a
School of Energy and Power Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, China
b
Fujian Ningde Nuclear Power Co., Ltd, Fujian 352000, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: To overall control the wall temperature of rotary quad-sectional air preheater and ensure the safety of
Received 19 February 2018 boiler units, it is important to research its three-dimensional temperature field. Computational fluid
Received in revised form 12 July 2018 dynamics method (CFD) is used to simulate the heat transfer performance of a 300 MW circulating flu-
Accepted 2 September 2018
idized bed (CFB) boiler. The temperature of rotor heating surface is defined as user-defined scalar
(UDS) to solve scalar equation. Numerical results which are validated by experimental data present
the essential parameters such as three-dimensional temperature, heat flux and heat transfer distribution
Keywords:
of both working fluid and heating surface. The temperature difference between working fluid and heating
Quad-sectional
Air preheater
surface, heat transfer quantity per unit volume are also obtained. Numerical results show that the differ-
Low-temperature corrosion ent materials and types of heating surface will cause the differences in heat transfer performance
Numerical calculation between cold end and hot end. The temperature of working fluid are different between cold end and
hot end, resulting in volume flow changing to make the scouring velocity different. That is the structural
reason for the distinctions in heat transfer performance. It is concluded that low-temperature corrosion
mainly occurs in the heating surface at the inlet of hot end in flue gas channel, where the metal temper-
ature need to be kept above acid dew point so as to retard the low-temperature corrosion.
Ó 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Contents

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 740
2. Physical description and mathematical modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 741
2.1. Physical description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 741
2.2. Mathematical modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 741
2.2.1. Assumptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 741
2.2.2. Governing equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 741
3. Numerical analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 742
3.1. Physical parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 742
3.2. Boundary conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 742
3.3. Numerical schemes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 742
4. Model validation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 742
4.1. Modeling and grid generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 742
4.2. Evaluation of grid independence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 743
4.3. Thermal calculation results. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 743
5. The radial temperature and three-dimensional temperature field of quad-sectional air preheater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 743
5.1. The radial temperature distribution of quad-sectional air preheater. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 743
5.2. The three-dimensional temperature distribution of quad-sectional air preheater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 743
6. Conclusions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 746

⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: sfzh@sdu.edu.cn (F. Sun).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2018.09.006
0017-9310/Ó 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
740 Q. Zhang et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 128 (2019) 739–747

Nomenclature

cp heat capacity of metal heating surface (kJ/(kg∙K)) v velocity component of y axe in the Cartesian coordinate
C resistance coefficient system (m/s)
CB coefficient of heat-exchanger elements vi velocity component of working medium in rotor heating
CL correction factor at the inlet surface (m/s)
CT coefficient considered the temperature difference be- x coordinate value of x axe (m)
tween working medium and heating surface y coordinate value of y axe (m)
d equivalent diameter of heat-exchanger elements (m)
k convective heat transfer coefficient between working Greek letters
fluid and heating surface (W/(m2∙K)) q density of flue gas or air (kg/m3)
L dimensionless height qA area density of heat-exchanger element (m2/m3)
n rotation speed of rotor (r/min) u user-defined scalar
Nu Nusselt number / undetermined scalar
Pr Prandtl number of working medium U dimensionless angle of rotation
Re Reynolds number of working medium x angular velocity of rotor (rad/s)
Su source item of user-defined scalar u r porosity of cross section which depends on the heat-
S£ inherent source item generated by the interaction be- exchanger element of rotor heating surface at the hot
tween working fluid and rotor heating surface and cold end
S0£ inherent source item of motion governing equation k heat conduction coefficient of working medium (W/
T temperature difference between working fluid and (m∙K))
heating surface (K) C/ generalized diffusion coefficient of undetermined scalar
u velocity component of x axe in the Cartesian coordinate /
system (m/s) Dpi pressure drop (Pa)

Conflict of interest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 747

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 747

1. Introduction solution which was considered heat conduction along axial direc-
tion had higher precision [13]. The influence of other parameters
Air preheater is an important component of circulating fluidized on the temperature distribution of heating surface, flue gas and
bed (CFB) boiler equipment. According to operation characteristics air were researched, and experiment was compared with numerical
of CFB, the pressure of primary air can be up to 25–30 kPa [1]. values to testify the accuracy of numerical calculation [14]. In the
Therefore, primary air channel is placed between left-secondary meanwhile, the specific expression of heat transfer equation was
and right-secondary air channel to effectively reduce the air leak- gave by Ref. [14]. Wang [15–17] proposed analytical-numerical cal-
age caused by the differential pressure between adjacent air chan- culation model for tri-sectional air preheater, and carried out the
nels, that is quad-sectional air preheater. numerical iteration to obtain the temperature field of heating sur-
The thermal calculation method for traditional bi-sectional air face and fluid. By assuming that the distribution of heating surface
preheater is not applicable to quad-sectional air preheater any and fluid were linear along rotation and axial direction, Leng [18]
longer [2]. The quad-sectional air preheater operates in the region solved the heat transfer differential equation by Laplace transfor-
where the flue gas temperature is low, that will cause the low- mation to get the temperature distribution in air preheater. Gan
temperature corrosion to exist in heat exchange plate [3,4]. Zhang [19–21] used Pelcet number to evaluate the importance of convec-
[5] established heat balance equation for bi-sectional air preheater tion for heat transfer. For quad-sectional air preheater, only Jin [1]
by using the finite-difference method for iterative solution, but the proposed the calculation method based on finite-difference
accuracy of temperature field was still to be verified by actual pro- method, but its modeling and iterative process were complicated
ject. For tri-sectional air preheater, Yan [6] and Liu [7] used the to make the results debatable.
finite-volume method to make the heat transfer process more The low-temperature corrosion usually occurs in the area with
stable, and established energy conversation equation by regional lowest temperature of air preheater. The influencing factors of low-
discretization. However, the iterative process needed strict space temperature corrosion are the amount of condensation, the con-
step and leaded to divergent calculation easily [8]. Chi [9] installed centration of sulfuric acid and the wall temperature of heating sur-
thermocouple in the cold end of air preheater to measure the tem- face. Based on the above factors, the low-temperature corrosion
perature variation of metal. But the installation measurement can be prevented. The heating surface of quad-sectional air pre-
points were complex to cause the results influenced by its structure heater is designed along the axial direction, including hot, middle
and operation easily. The solution process of three-dimensional and cold end. The cold end is most vulnerable to low-
temperature field obtained by analytical method was complicated temperature corrosion, hence the corrosion-resistant materials
[10], hence the numerical method was usually adopted to comple- are used in the cold end. Only the heating surface of cold end need
ment experiment and theory. In the numerical calculation, Skiepko to be replaced when materials changed, which can simplify the
[11] took account into the heat conduction of heating surface, flue maintenance of heating surface and reduce cost effectively. In
gas and air when deduced analytical solution of heat transfer equa- order to overall control the wall temperature of air preheater to
tion for bi-sectional air preheater [12]. It indicated the analytical prevent low-temperature corrosion in some position, it is impor-
 Q. Zhang et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 128 (2019) 739–747 741

tant to research the three-dimensional temperature distribution of is produced by the axial temperature difference in metal
air preheater. heating surface exists. The proportion of sealing area is
Based on FLUENT software, a three-dimensional model of quad- small, and the metal heating surface passes through the seal-
sectional air preheater is established and its stable operation con- ing area for a short time, so the heat conduction of metal
ditions are simulated. Then, the temperature of rotor surface is heating surface is neglected. Hence the temperature distri-
defined as user-defined scalar (UDS), and UDS scalar equation is bution of metal heating surface is considered to be
built. Finally, the three-dimensional temperature field and heat unchanged.
transfer capacity for working fluid and heating surface are pre- (2) Air leakage mainly occurs at the inlet and outlet of air pre-
sented. The heat transfer performance in the hot and cold end, heater, which has little effect on heat transfer process, thus
and the dangerous zone where low-temperature corrosion easily the air leakage is neglected.
occurs are investigated. (3) The heat transfer between fluid and heating surface is
mainly along axial direction, therefore the metal heat con-
2. Physical description and mathematical modeling duction along radial and axial directions of heating surface
is negligible.
2.1. Physical description
2.2.2. Governing equations
As shown in Fig. 1, the air preheater transfer heat from the hot In the quad-sectional air preheater, flue gas flows down to the
flue gas to the cold air by using a rotating matrix of compact plates. bottom and air flows up to the top to complete the countercurrent.
The heating surface rotates at a certain speed to pass the flue gas, Therefore, the flow process can be described by the three-
left-secondary, primary and right-secondary air channels. The flue dimensional constant Navier-Stokes governing equation [22] as
gas scours flue gas channel down to bottom while primary and sec- following:
ondary air scour their air channels in the opposite direction. Hot
div ðqu/  C/  grad/Þ ¼ S/ þ S0/ ð1Þ
flue gas is cooled when scours the heating surface of flue gas chan-
nel; then the heating surface rotates through every air channel to where q is the density of flue gas or air; u is the velocity vector; / is
release heat while the air is heated; finally, the heating surface the undetermined scalar, such as velocity component ui, tempera-
returns flue gas channel to realize a cyclical process of ‘‘absorb ture t, turbulent kinetic energy k and turbulent dissipation rate e;
heat-release heat”. C/ is the generalized diffusion coefficient of undetermined scalar;
In order to ease low-temperature corrosion and change heating S0£ is the inherent source item of motion governing equation; S£
surface easily, the heating surface is divided into cold and hot end is the inherent source item generated by the interaction between
(part of heating surface contains middle end). Generally, the heat working fluid and rotor heating surface.
transfer in the hot end is better, while the metal corrosion resis- The resistance of rotor heating surface when the working med-
tance in the cold end is higher. ium moves can be expressed in pressure drop:

2.2. Mathematical modeling Dpi ¼ C v i ð2Þ

where Dpi is the pressure drop; vi is the velocity component of
The model of the quad-sectional air preheater has been devel- working medium in rotor heating surface; subscript i represents
oped using FLUENT application. two components which are perpendicular to the axial direction of
rotor; C is the resistance coefficient. Affected by the rotor heating
2.2.1. Assumptions surface and the barrier between radial and transverse baffle, the
The assumptions for governing equations are as follows: working fluid almost moves along the axial direction of rotor, so C
can be taken as infinity. As the source of momentum, C is a constant
(1) The zone between each channel is sealing area to reduce air which can be up to 5 orders of magnitude.
leakage, so there is no convective heat transfer between the The heating surface rotates counterclockwise with the rotor,
fluid in different channels. Only the heat conduction which and its motion governing equations are as follows:

Fig. 1. Operation principles of rotary quad-sectional air preheater.

742 Q. Zhang et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 128 (2019) 739–747

u ¼ x  y ð3Þ them. The temperature of rotor heating surface (UDS, u) is set to

make it transmit every channel numerically. The Fluent software
v ¼xx ð4Þ is used to compile user-defined functions (UDF) to achieve setting
for the boundary condition of heating surface temperature. Assign-
np ing the value of u at the inlet of flue gas channel to make it equal to
x¼ ð5Þ
30 the value of u at the rotary outlet of right-secondary channel.
where u, v are the velocity components of x or y axes in the Carte-
sian coordinate system, respectively; x, y are the coordinate values; 3.3. Numerical schemes
x is the angular velocity of rotor; n is the rotation speed of rotor.
Based on the motion equation of heating surface, the tempera- The finite volume method is employed to discretize governing
ture of heating surface is defined as (UDS) u, therefore the govern- equations, while the second-order upwind scheme is applied to
ing equation is: improve the accuracy of convection term. However, the first-
@ðquuÞ @ðqv uÞ order upwind scheme is adopted in the initial stage of iteration
þ ¼ Su ð6Þ to enhance its stability, while the central difference scheme is used
@x @y
to solve diffusion term.
Among them, the relationship between source item Su and the The SIMPLEC algorithm is utilized to couple the pressure and
source item of energy conservation equation S£ can be written as: velocity fields, while the corresponding sub-relaxation factors are
Su set.
S/ ¼  ð7Þ The calculated convergence criterion is that the residual of
ð1  rÞ  cp
energy term is less than 106 and the residuals of other unknown
where cp is the heat capacity of metal heating surface; r is the scalars are less than 104. The results require the variation of flue
porosity of cross section, which depends on the heat-exchanger ele- gas temperature at the outlet is less than 0.1 K in the continuous
ment of rotor heating surface in the hot and cold end. iteration for 50 times.
The specific equation of working fluid source item is:
S/ ¼ k  qA  ðT  uÞ ð8Þ 4. Model validation
where qA is the area density of heat-exchanger element; k is the
In order to validate the model, Table 1 gives the dimensional
convective heat transfer coefficient between working fluid and
and operational parameters of the quad-sectional air preheater in
heating surface; T is the temperature difference between working
300 MW circulating fluidized bed (CFB) boiler.
fluid and heating surface.
The equivalent diameter of heat-exchanger elements is taken as
a qualitative size. The convective heat transfer coefficient between 4.1. Modeling and grid generation
flue gas and air side can be calculated by Eq. (9).
Based on the velocity inlet condition of fluid which is obtained
kd
Nu ¼ ¼ C B C L C T  Re0:8  Pr 0:4 ð9Þ from Ref. [16], the inlet channel model between flue gas and air is
k
established to fit the velocity function at different radius. This
where Nu is the Nusselt number; d is the equivalent diameter of paper assumes that the coefficients of medium and drag are the
heat-exchanger elements; k is the heat conduction coefficient of same when the fluid passes through any flue gas and air channel.
working medium; Re, Pr are the Reynolds or Prandtl number of The temperature and velocity of flue gas and air at the inlet plane
working medium; CB is the coefficient of heat-exchanger elements; are equivalent.
CL is the correction factor at the inlet; CT is the coefficient consid-
ered the temperature difference between working medium and
Table 1
heating surface.
The operating parameters of quad-sectional air preheater in 300 MW CFB.

Parameter Value
3. Numerical analysis
Rotor diameter/mm 14 800
Central cylinder diameter/mm 3100
3.1. Physical parameters
Rotor speed/(r∙min1) 0.75
Heat exchanging elements in the hot end 2.78DU, the thickness is
The volume flow of working fluid in air preheater changes with 0.5 mm, Q235
temperature, which can affect the heat transfer process between Heat exchanging elements in the cold end 2.78DU, the thickness is
working fluid and heating surface eventually. As a result, based 0.8 mm, is equal to corten
The height of heat transfer in the hot end/mm 1200
on the thermophysical properties of standard flue gas and air, the The height of heat transfer in the cold end/mm 400
density and conductive functions of flue gas and air are fitted by Total heating area in the hot end/m2 64,338
UDF. The function which take temperature as independent variable Total heating area in the cold end/m2 21,446
is ultimately obtained. Air leakage coefficient 0.06
Flue gas temperature at the inlet/°C 311
Primary air temperature at the inlet/°C 44.8
3.2. Boundary conditions Left-secondary air temperature at the inlet/°C 34.8
Right-secondary air temperature at the inlet/°C 34.8
Boundary conditions are considered similar to that of real con- Flue gas volume at the inlet/(kg∙s1) 384
Primary air volume at the inlet/(kg∙s1) 110
ditions. The mass flow condition is applied at the inlet of working
Left-secondary air volume at the inlet/(kg∙s1) 83
fluid, while the pressure outlet condition is used for the outlet of Right-secondary air volume at the inlet/(kg∙s1) 83
working fluid. Furthermore, the no-slip boundary condition is The angle of flue gas/(°) 165
taken into consideration at the outer wall of rotor, the wall of cen- The angle of primary air/(°) 55
tral cylinder and the axial face on junction of sealed channel, and The angle of left-secondary air/(°) 40
The angle of right-secondary air/(°) 40
then the standard wall function method is adopted to deal with
 Q. Zhang et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 128 (2019) 739–747 743

Therefore, the computational domain of model is simplified as heater. The bottom center of shaft is defined as origin, and radial
shown in Fig. 2. The whole computational domain is divided into distance, circumferential angle, the height of air preheater are
four sector regions, as can be seen in Fig. 3. defined as X-axis, Y-axis, Z-axis, respectively.
The operation conditions and calculation methods can be set as
last chapter. 5.1. The radial temperature distribution of quad-sectional air
preheater
4.2. Evaluation of grid independence
Fig. 5(a) and (b) shows the air and flue gas temperature distri-
Under the same design conditions in the same air preheater bution at the outlet of quad-sectional air preheater, respectively.
(flue gas and air temperature at the inlet as can be seen in Table 1), Fig. 6 presents the temperature distribution of heating surface.
the five structured hexahedral grids with quantity of 108,800, As seen, the temperature distribution of heating surface is exposed
195,840, 259,200, 324,000, 432,000 are used. The results of calcu- to a cycle of ‘‘cooling-heating” along the rotor rotation direction.
lation with different grid systems are listed in Table 2. From the Figs. 5 and 6 illustrates that under the same circumferential angle
results of calculation, there is little difference of flue gas tempera- and height, the temperature of fluid and heating surface are on the
ture at the outlet in different grid systems when the number of whole the same at different radial distances, while the temperature
grids increases to 259,200, as shown in Fig. 4. It is found that grid distribution is basically similar. The temperature distribution of
number including 324,000 wedge cells is appropriate for the sim- fluid and heating surface are different in the center and periphery
ulation and the results are independent of grid number. of rotor, that might be related to adiabatic boundary condition and
numerical diffusion.
4.3. Thermal calculation results
5.2. The three-dimensional temperature distribution of quad-sectional
For evaluating the accuracy of the modeling approach, Table 3 air preheater
shows the simulation results for the average flue gas temperature
at the outlet in boiler maximum continuous evaporation (BMCR) In this paper, the radial radius r = 4 m is the representative to
design condition and compares them with actual operation values. obtain the three-dimensional temperature field in the air pre-
As can be seen from Table 3, the deviation of average flue gas heater. As shown in Fig. 7, dimensionless height and rotation angle
temperature at the outlet between calculation value and operation are coordinates, wherein: dimensionless height L = 0–0.2 is for cold
value is 6.9 K, while the relative deviation is 4.81%. The devia- end, L = 0.2–1 is for hot end; dimensionless rotation angle U = 0–
tions of primary air and average secondary air temperature at 0.55, 0.55–0.68, 0.68–0.87 and 0.87–1 is for flue gas channel,
the outlet between calculation values and operation values are left-secondary air channel, primary air channel and right-
2.0 K and 2.2 K, respectively, while the relative deviations are secondary air channel, respectively.
0.71% and 0.78%, respectively. The main reason for deviations is In Fig. 7, the three-dimensional temperature distribution of air
whether actual air volume of air leakage is considered when calcu- and flue gas in the air preheater is presented. It can be seen that
lating the volume of flue gas, primary air and secondary air at the the flue gas and air temperature are directly proportional to the
inlet, which enhances the heat transfer efficiency of air preheater. dimensionless height L. By decreasing the dimensionless height,
As seen, the results are in good agreement and the maximum rel- the flue gas and air temperature is gradually reduced. As seen, pri-
ative deviation is 4.81%. All of the results indicate that the three- mary air temperature at the inlet is slightly higher than secondary
dimensional numerical model can accurately calculate the temper- air temperature, while the air temperature at the outlet changes
ature field of internal working fluid and heating surface. smoothly along rotation direction. Fig. 8 presents that the flue
gas and air temperature are approximately linear with rotation
5. The radial temperature and three-dimensional temperature direction. By increasing the rotation angle, the flue gas tempera-
field of quad-sectional air preheater ture at the outlet is increased while the air temperature at the out-
let is decreased.
Since the quad-sectional air preheater is a rotary air preheater, Compared Fig. 9 with Fig. 7, it can be concluded that the varia-
cylindrical coordinate is utilized to locate any point in the air pre- tion of flue gas and air temperature also reflect in the heat flux of

Fig. 2. The computational domain of air preheater model.

744 Q. Zhang et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 128 (2019) 739–747

Fig. 3. The sector surface and longitudinal section mesh diagram of air preheater.

Table 2
Comparison of outlet temperature with different grid quantity.

Temperature/°C The number of grids

108 800 195 840 259 200 324 000 432 000
The flue gas temperature at the outlet 124.3 124.6 136.6 136.6 136.7
The air temperature at the outlet Left-secondary air 293.7 293.9 294.8 294.8 294.7
Primary air 282.8 283.1 284.5 284.5 284.4
Right-secondary air 270.2 270.5 272.5 272.5 272.4

In Fig. 10, the three-dimensional temperature distribution of

metal heating surface is similar to the temperature distribution
of flue gas and air in Fig. 7. By increasing the dimensionless rota-
tion angle U, the temperature of heating surface is increased at first
and then decreased. The temperature variation indicates that the
heating surface stores heat in flue gas channel, and releases heat
in each air channel. The temperature variation in each transition
zone is not obvious as shown in Fig. 10. In addition, the tempera-
ture change rate of heating surface in the cold end is smaller than
that in the hot end. The main reasons are as follows: the heat trans-
fer plate of hot end is mainly used to enhance heat transfer perfor-
mance, while the cold end mainly adopts corrosion-resistant
materials. For compressible flue gas and air, the temperature in
the hot end is higher than that in the cold end, therefore the vol-
ume flow of fluid in the hot end is larger than that in the cold
end to make the scouring speed of fluid in the hot end larger.
Fig. 11 illustrates the three-dimensional temperature difference
distribution between fluid and metal heating surface. The heat
Fig. 4. The average flue gas temperature at the outlet under different grid numbers.
transfer temperature difference in left-secondary air channel is
the largest along rotation direction, and the temperature difference
fluid. By increasing the temperature of flue gas and air, the heat in the cold end is generally larger than that in the hot end. How-
flux of fluid is gradually decreased. The variation indicates the heat ever, Fig. 12 shows the three-dimensional distribution of heat
flux distribution is similar to temperature distribution. transfer quantity per unit volume between fluid and heating sur-

Table 3
The thermal calculation results of quad-sectional air preheater under BMCR design condition.

The average temperature at the outlet/°C Operation value/°C Calculation value of model/°C Deviation/°C Relative deviation/%
Flue gas 143.5 136.6 6.9 4.81
Primary air 282.5 284.5 2.0 0.71
Left-secondary air 294.8
Right-secondary air 272.5
Average secondary air 281.4 283.6 2.2 0.78
 Q. Zhang et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 128 (2019) 739–747 745

Fig. 5. The fluid temperature distribution at the outlet of quad-sectional air preheater.

Fig. 6. The temperature distribution of heating surface of quad-sectional air preheater.

face. The heat transfer quantity per unit volume in the hot end is
generally larger than that in the cold end, that mainly because
there are many differences between hot and cold heating surface
in heat transfer performance.
In addition, as can be seen in Fig. 12, the minimum value of heat
transfer quantity per unit volume mainly appears at the inlet of
flue gas channel where heating surface leaves flue gas channel.
The maximum value appears at the inlet of air where heating sur-
face enters left-secondary air channel. The main reason for this
phenomenon is that the former zone has a lower temperature dif-
ference than the latter (as can be seen in Fig. 11).
Fig. 10 presents that the zone with lowest temperature is
located at the inlet of right-secondary air channel where mainly
uses corrosion-resistant plates in the cold end. Therefore, whether
low-temperature corrosion appears in the hot end need to be
noticed.
The low-temperature corrosion usually occurs in the heating
surface at the inlet of hot end where heating surface leaves right-
Fig. 7. The three-dimensional temperature distribution of fluid.
secondary air channel and enters flue gas channel. In order to
746 Q. Zhang et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 128 (2019) 739–747

Fig. 8. The fluid temperature at the outlet along rotation direction.

Fig. 9. The three-dimensional heat flux distribution of fluid.

Fig. 10. The three-dimensional temperature distribution of metal heating surface.
effectively reduce or prevent the low-temperature corrosion of air
preheater, the wall temperature of this region should be higher
than acid dew point. (2) The three-dimensional temperature distribution of fluid and
heating surface is obtained: the flue gas and air temperature
6. Conclusions are directly proportional to the dimensionless height L. By
increasing dimensionless angle U, the temperature of metal
Based on Fluent software, a three-dimensional numerical model heating surface is increased at first and then decreased.
of quad-sectional air preheater is established, and the accuracy of (3) The flue gas and air temperature at the outlet are linear with
this model is verified by comparing with actual operation condi- rotation direction. By increasing rotation angle, the flue gas
tions. The results obtained by simulation are as follows: temperature at the outlet is increased while the air temper-
ature is decreased.
(1) The temperature of fluid and heating surface at different (4) The temperature difference in the cold end of left-secondary
radial distances within the same circumferential angle and air channel is the biggest, while the temperature difference
height are invariable. The temperature distribution of heat- in the cold end is larger than that in the hot end. However,
ing surface is increased at first and then decreased along the heat transfer per unit volume in the cold end is smaller
rotation direction. than that in the hot end.
 Q. Zhang et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 128 (2019) 739–747 747

of any nature or kind in any product, service or company that could

be construed as influencing the position presented in.

References

[1] X.F. Jin, Quad-Sector Air-Preheater Performance Evaluation Based on

Numerical Finite Difference Method, Shanghai Jiao Tong University,
Shanghai, 2007.
[2] Beijing Boiler Factory Design Department, Standard Method of Heat
Calculation for Utility Boiler, Mechanical Industry Press, Beijing, 1976.
[3] J. Wei, L. Muzio, R.D. Dunn, Formation temperature of ammonium bisulfate at
simulated air preheater conditions, 5th US Combustion Meeting 2007, Curran
Associates Inc, San Diego, USA, 2007.
[4] J. Mfnasha, D. Dunn-Rankin, L. Muzio, et al., Ammonium bisulfate formation
temperature in a bench-scale single-channel air preheater, Fuel 90 (2001)
2445–2453.
[5] Q. Zhang, Q. Wang, E.L. Wang, et al., Bio-sectional air-preheater thermal
calculation based on numerical finite difference method, Boiler Technol. 40
(2009) 25–29.
Fig. 11. The three-dimensional temperature difference distribution between fluid [6] W.P. Yan, H.Y. Li, Numerical method on heat transfer in tri-sectional
and heating surface. regenerative air heater, J. Power Eng. 29 (2009) 841–845.
[7] F.G. Liu, X.G. Zhou, Heat transfer model of tri-sectional rotary air preheater and
experimental verification, J. Mech. Eng. 46 (2010) l44–150.
[8] W. Leng, D. Wang, An improved way for thermal calculation of rotary air
preheaters, Chinese J. Power Eng. 25 (2005) 392–395.
[9] Z.H. Chi, W. Pan, G. Li, et al., Experimental studies on measuring the cold end
metal temperature of 600MW rotating air heater, Proc. CSEE 22 (2002) (2002)
129–131.
[10] W. Leng, D.L. Chen, Z.L. Zhang, Heat exchange calculation of a regenerative air
heater with analytical method, Proc. CSEE 25 (2005) (2005) l4l–146.
[11] T. Skifpko, R.K. Shah, Modeling and effect of leakages on heat transfer
performance of fixed matrix regenerators, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 48 (2005)
1608–1632.
[12] T. Skiepko, Solution of the heat transport equations for the rotational
regenerator, Archiwum Termodynamiki PAN 8 (1987) 35–53.
[13] T. Skiepko, The effect of matrix longitudinal heat conduction on the
temperature fields in the rotary heat exchanger, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 31
(1988) 2227–2238.
[14] T. Skiepko, Effect of parameter values on gas and matrix temperature fields in
rotary heat exchangers, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 32 (1989) 1443–1472.
[15] H.Y. Wang, L.L. Zhao, Z.G. Xu, et al., The study on heat transfer model of tri-
sectional rotary air preheater based on the semi-analytical method, Appl.
Therm. Eng. 28 (2008) 1882–1888.
[16] H.Y. Wang, X.L. Bi, F.Q. Si, et al., Analytical-numerical method based on the
model of heat transfer in rotary regenerator, Proc. CSEE 26 (2006) (2006) 51–
Fig. 12. The three-dimensional heat transfer quantity per unit volume between 55.
fluid and heating surface. [17] H.Y. Wang, X.L. Bi, L. Wang, et al., Dynamic simulation for heat transfer model
of rotary air preheater, Boiler Technol. 37 (2006) 31–35.
(5) Because corrosion-resistant materials is adopted in the cold [18] W. Leng, D.L. Chen, Z.L. Zang, The heat exchange calculation of rotary air
preheater based on analytical method, Proc. CSEE 25 (2005) (2005) 141–146.
end, the low-temperature corrosion is mainly occurred in
[19] Z.T. Gan, G. Yu, X.L. He, et al., Numerical simulation of thermal behavior and
the hot end of flue gas channel where air leaves right- multicomponent mass transfer in direct laser deposition of Co-base alloy on
secondary air channel. The temperature should be higher steel, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 104 (2017) 28–38.
[20] Z.T. Gan, H. Liu, S.X. Li, et al., Modeling of thermal behavior and mass transport
than dew acid point to control low-temperature corrosion
in multi-layer laser additive manufacturing of Ni-based alloy on cast iron, Int.
effectively. J. Heat Mass Transf. 111 (2017) 709–722.
[21] Z.T. Gan, G. Yu, X.L. He, et al., Surface-active element transport and its effect on
Conflict of interest liquid metal flow in laser-assisted additive manufacturing, Int. Commun. Heat
Mass Transfer 86 (2017) 206–214.
[22] C.X. Chen, Numerical Simulation of the Thermal Performance of Quad-
We declare that we have no financial and personal relationships Sectional Air Preheater and Research on the System’s Dynamic
with other people or organizations that can inappropriately influ- Characteristics, Shandong University, Shandong, 2015.
ence our work. There is no professional or other personal interest