International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 4, Issue 5, May-2013 204

ISSN 2229-5518

Boiler Drum Level Control by Using Wide Open Control

with Three Element Control System

T. Rajkumar*, Mrs.V.M.Ramaa Priyaa**

*
Studying M.TECH – E&I, Barath University, Chennai.
Email: rajaainstrumentation@gmail.com
**Assistant Professor-E&I, Barath University, Chennai.
Email: ramaa.priyaa@gmail.com

ABSTRACT
The boiler drum level control with DCS in thermal power station, with some modification is taken as a
project work and the paper presentation is given below.
Steam generation in the boiler is proportional to the power generation by supplying a required steam flow to
the turbine. As the steam flow is proportional to the Power generation, always there will be fluctuations in the
drum level. If the drum level goes below the desired lower drum level, there will be a every possibility of
starvation of water tubes inside the furnace is expected and the boiler may get damaged and if the water level

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in the drum raises above the desired upper drum level, there will be a carryover of water particles in the dry
steam flowing to the turbine and thus the turbine blade damage is expected. In order to meet out the steam
requirement , to safeguard the boiler water tubes and to safe guard the turbine blades the boiler drum water
level control plays an important role in thermal power station.
The main objective of the boiler–turbine system control is to meet the load demand of electric power while
maintaining the pressure and water level in the drum within tolerances. The advanced control algorithm is
derived for changing function of single element to three element transfer, Which is Wide Fast Combination of
batch and continuous type operations such that plant steam load characteristics varies continuously and
usually unpredictably. Here we used the wide opening technology for conservation of the energy.

Key word: Boiler drum, three elements, feed water flow, steam flow and water level in drum.
water carryover into the super-heater or the turbine
may cause damage resulting in extensive
1. Introduction maintenance costs or outages of either the turbine or
The control system for a boiler–turbine unit usually the boiler. If the level is low, overheating of the water
needs to meet the requirement of the amount of water wall tubes may cause tube ruptures and serious
in the steam drum must be maintained at a desired accidents, resulting in expensive repairs, downtime,
level to prevent overheating of the drum or flooding and injury or death to personnel. A rupture or crack
of steam lines. This is critical for the safe and most commonly occurs where the tubes connect to
economic operation of a power plant. the drum.
1. Learn why drum level control is critical for Providing tight water level control in a drum is
boiler safety. accomplished by utilizing one of three types of drum
2. Boiler damage due to low water level is one level control: single-element, two-element, or three-
of the largest issues. element.
3. Proper drum level control minimizes The term 'single-element' is derived from single
downtime and cost. variable: drum level influence on the feed-water
valve position. While single-element drum level
4. Drum level control is critical to good boiler control is acceptable for steady boiler load
operation, as well as safe boiler operation. conditions; as load changes become more frequent,
The drum level must be controlled to the limits unpredictable, or severe; this type of level control
specified by the boiler manufacturer. If the drum cannot respond quickly enough to compensate.
level does not stay within these limits, there may be
water carryover. If the level exceeds the limits, boiler

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The term 'two-element' is derived from two variables: • Bumpless transfer between single element
steam flow and drum level influence on the feed- and three element control by using Steam
water valve position. Flow as a Control Element.
The term 'three-element' is derived from three • One Motor Driven Boiler Feed Pump
variables: steam flow, feed water flow and drum level (MDBFP) and Two Turbine Driven Boiler
influence on the feed-water valve position. Wide Fast feed pumps (TDBFP) are used to control
Combination of batch and continuous type operations feed water flow .During Unit Start up
such that plant steam load characteristics varies MDBFP is used to feed the water to drum
continuously and usually unpredictably. and after synchronizing the unit TDBFPs
will come into line.
1.1 Existing control system
• Use of Variable Speed Pump motor for feed
• Drum Level Control is implemented in the
water flow control decreases power
PID controller.
consumed by the motor during low load
• Changeover between single element and operation.
three element causes drum level variation.
• In addition to the differential pressure type
• Feed-water flow is controlled through Feed drum level measurement, Hydra step based
water regulating control valve by two Intelligent Water Level Indicator and
constant speed motor driven pumps. Electric Water Level Indicator with Drum
• Drum level compensation includes steam level Television is located in the Operator
temperature, drum pressure. Station for monitoring.
• Auxiliary power consumed by the constant

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2. Boiler Drum Level Control
speed motor is high.
The drum level must be controlled to the limits
• Controlling Feed water flow through the specified by the boiler manufacturer. If the drum
control causes large flow variations. level does not stay within these limits, there may be
1.2 Proposed work water carryover. If the level exceeds the limits, boiler
water carryover into the super-heater or the turbine
• Drum Level Control Algorithm is may cause damage resulting in extensive
implemented in the Advanced Adaptive PID maintenance costs or outages of either the turbine or
Controller Block in the FCP270 Field the boiler. If the level is low, overheating of the water
Control Processor. This project uses four wall tubes may cause tube ruptures and serious
advanced PID controller Blocks, Signal accidents, resulting in expensive repairs, downtime,
selector Blocks and Characterizer Blocks. and injury or death to personnel. A rupture or crack
• There are six Differential Pressure type most commonly occurs where the tubes connect to
Level Transmitters are used to measure the the drum. Damage may be a result of numerous or
drum level, out of which three transmitters repeated low drum level conditions where the water
are located on the left side of the drum and level is below the tube entry into the drum.
three are located on the right side of the When the drum level gets too low, the boiler must
drum. Four Pressure transmitters are to have a boiler trip interlock to prevent damage to the
measure the drum pressure for density tubes and cracks in the tubes where they connect to
compensation. the boiler drum. The water tubes may crack or break
• Signal Selector block provides automatic where they connect to the drum, or the tubes may
selection of process variable depending rupture resulting in an explosion. The water tube
upon the status of the variables. Average damage may also result in water leakage and create
value of left and right side level transmitters problems with the drum level control. The water
are used as compensated drum level leakage will affect the drum level because not all the
measurement. water going into the drum is producing steam.
• Calculated value of drum level measurement Poor level control also has an effect on drum pressure
is used for the generation of alarm shut control. The feed water going into the drum is not as
down signals for Boiler such as drum level hot as the water in the drum. Adding feed water too
Low, Low Low, High and High High. fast will result in a cooling effect in the boiler drum
reducing drum pressure and causing boiler level
shrinkage.

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3. Shrink and Swell

Shrink and swell must be considered in determining
the control strategy of a boiler. During a rapid
increase in load, a severe increase in level may occur. LI
Shrink and swell is a result of pressure changes in the
drum changing water density. During a rapid increase
in load, a severe rise in level may occur because of an STEAM DRUM
increase in volume of the bubbles. This increased
volume is the result of a drop in steam pressure from
the load increase and the increase in steam generation
DOWNCOMER LT
from the greater firing rate to match the load
increase. If the level in the drum is too high at this RAISER
time, it may result in water carryover into the super
heater or the turbine. The firing rate cycle can result
in drum pressure cycles. The drum pressure cycles DOWNCOMER HEADER
will cause a change in drum level.
The firing rate change has an effect on drum level, Figure-2 Boiler drum level management
but the most significant cause of shrink and swell is
rapid changes in drum pressure expanding or 4. Drum Level Measurement
shrinking the steam bubbles due to load changes. The FIG-2 is an example of the arrangement of a
Typically, for redundancy, there are three different differential drum level measuring transmitter. The
methods used to measure drum level. In the “Boiler

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differential transmitter output signal increases as the
drums/level measurement” example,STEAM
SATURATED the bull’s eye differential pressure decreases. The differential
technology is a direct reading level measurement. pressure range will vary between 10 and 30 inches,
The differential pressure transmitter represents the depending on the size of the boiler drum, with a zero
level control measurement. suppression of several inches. On the high pressure
side of the measuring device, the effective pressure
equals boiler drum pressure plus the weight of a
water column at ambient temperature having a length
equal to the distance between the two drum pressure
connections. On the low pressure side, the effective
pressure equals boiler drum pressure, plus the weight
of a column of saturated steam having a length from
the upper drum pressure connection to the water
WATER level, and the weight of a column of water at
STEAM saturation temperature having a length from the water
level to the lower drum pressure connection.
On high pressure boilers, a condensate pot is
connected on the top water leg to keep the leg full of
condensate. If the condensate level varies in the top
connected leg, the drum level measurement will not
be accurate. On low pressure boilers, a condensate
pot may not be required. The “Drum level
connections” image is an example of the correct
method of installing a differential pressure
transmitter. The correct installation allows the
sediment to remain in the blow down line without
getting into the transmitter.
Problems with drum level measurement can be a
result of improper installation of the sensing legs
Figure-1 the water in the steam drum contains steam from the boiler drum to the transmitter. It is critical
bubbles that lines be sloped at least a half inch per foot from
the boiler drum to the transmitter. If not properly

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sloped, air pockets may form in the lines creating element control, two controllers are required because
improper drum level measurement. the controller tuning is different.
When a differential pressure transmitter is used to
measure drum level and the instruments used are
sensitive to density variation, density compensation STEAM
techniques must be employed. A mass steam flow
and water flow signal is required for two and three
element control systems. LT

5. Boiler Feed Water Control DRUM

L/LAG
Some boilers utilize a reasonably steady load so only WATER
drum level control from single element drum level
measurement is possible. Single element control is
used on boilers during startup or low load regardless P I
of capacity or rapid load swings. Single element FCD
control has often been unsatisfactory because some of
FEED WATER
the newer boiler designs have minimum water
storage compared to the steaming rate of the boiler. A Fx
majority of the larger sized units and those subject to
rapidly fluctuating loads require different methods of Figure-3 Single element control
control. A two element system controlling the feed
water control valve from the steam flow signal and

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resetting the drum level signal is able to handle some
LT PT
of the less difficult systems. Larger units with small
storage capacity related to throughput, and units
experiencing severe, rapid load swings, usually
require three element controls, whereby water flow is PY
matched with steam flow and reset from the drum
level signal.
DRUM
5.1 Single Element Feed Water Control
Single element drum level control measures drum
level only. This is a simple feedback control loop. LIC
The mass of the water flow and the steam flow must
be regulated so mass water flow equals the mass
steam flow to maintain drum level. The feed water
control regulates the mass water flow to the boiler. FCD
The effects of the input control actions interact, since
firing rate also affects steam temperature and feed
water flow affects the steam pressure, which is the Figure-4 Single element feed water control
final arbiter of firing rate demand. The overall system
must be applied and coordinated in a manner to
The output signal is modified and adjusts the final
minimize the effects of these interactions. The
control device. The diagram for a P&ID would
interactions can be greatly affected by the control
typically be in ISA symbols (Figure 4).The final
system design. If the boiler operates under varying
control device can be a control valve, pump speed
steam pressure, the calibration of the liquid level
control, or a combination of both. For simplicity,
transmitter will also vary with steam density.
redundant transmitters are not shown on the P&ID
When a single element control system is drawings.
implemented, the level transmitter (LT) sends a
signal to the level controller (Figures 3 and 4). The 5.2. Two element feed water control
process variable (input signal) to the controller is
compared to the set point (SP). Single element The two element control scheme utilizes steam flow
control is the minimum feed water control system. in addition to drum level. This is a simple feedback
When the system consists of single and two or three plus feed forward control system (Figure 5) with a
secondary variable that has a predictable relationship

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with the manipulated variable. The secondary point. By adding feed water flow, the measured
variable, steam flow, causes the manipulated variable variable is the feedback to the controller, therefore
to change the primary variable. The steam flow measuring what is being controlled. Control is
adjusts the feed water control valve based on steam improved by adding mass flow compensation to drum
flow signal and the drum level controller signal. As level, steam flow, and water flow. FEED WATER
the steam flow increases or decreases, the steam flow
MAIN STEAM SIDE DRUM
adjusts the output of the summer and directly sets the
feed water final element. FT
PT TT LT
PT
DRUM SIDE MAIN STEAM SIDE
TT
FT

PT LT PT FT TT

PY
P/TY
TY

PY P/TY

LIC

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LIC FY

LY LY FIC
DL

FIC DL

FCE

FCE

Figure-6 Three element feed water control

Figure-5 Two element feed water control
6. Control System Configure
If the conditions are ideal, as in Figure 4, the feed The drum level controller is configured to be either a
water flow would be equal to steam flow, and the reverse- or direct-acting controller. This depends on
level in the drum would be maintained. If feed water the configuration of the final control device and the
pressure is not constant, as seen in Figure 5, the failsafe mode of the control valve. If the control
changes in pressure would affect feed water control. valve fails closed, the controller is configured to be a
reverse-acting controller. If the control valve fails
5.3 Three element feed water control
open, the controller is configured to be a direct-acting
Three element controls utilizes steam and water flow controller. The final control element may be a control
in addition to drum level (Figure 6). This is a simple valve, speed control, or a combination of both. Speed
feedback, feed forward, and cascade control loop. control is used to reduce line pressure drop and is
The steam flow adjusts the feed water control valve also used in combination with a control valve to
based on the steam flow signal and the drum level establish greater turn down.
controller signal. As the steam flow increases or
decreases, the steam flow adjusts the output of the
summer and directly sets the feed water controller set

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6.1 Drum Level Measurement common type of equation that may have two or more
inputs depending on the vendor algorithm/function
block. A basic equation performing the same function
should be available with most control systems.
K (a) + K (b) + K (c) ± Bias = output
Considering two inputs to the summer, set both K
values to 1. Set the bias to -50%. With the drum level
controller in manual mode and the drum level at the
desired set point, set the controller output to 50%.
The 50% output is offset by the -50% bias in the
H summer equation. Therefore, the steam flow signal
input to the summer will equal the summer output.
Considering a pound of steam equals a pound of
water, the drum level would be maintained during all
load changes. Even though swell and shrink may
occur on load swing, the steam flow modifies the
feed water rate.

8. Result
8.1 Normal condition

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Figure-7 drum level measurement

- Water Level of Steam Drum in mm

H - Elevation of Reference Water Column in mm.
- Zero Water Level, elevation between water
sampling control centers to the center line of drum in
mm
Density of Water column in Reference
Container in N/m3.
- Density of Saturated steam in Steam drum in
N/m3.
- Density of Saturated water in Steam drums in
N/m3. 8.2 Parameter value changed depends on load
= variation (water level low))
=
Density of water in balance container is related to
ambient temperature.

7. Summer
A summer occurs when two or more values come
into an equation and the output equals the sum of the
inputs in percent based on the K values. The
functions are referred to as function blocks or
algorithms. The summer equation is used although
the equation is not functioning as a summer. The
equations used will vary with the control systems
specified, including the number of inputs. The
equation below represents three inputs: a, b and c.
Only two inputs are used in Figure 7. This is a

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8.3 Parameter value changed depends on the load substation are carried with no manual intervention.
Also the use or embedded system reduces the whole
variation (water level high)
size of the control instruments and also increase the
sensitivity of the system (detects the fault in very
short time). In the existing system there is a
drawback of time delay in the detection of fault. This
drawback is eliminated here by use of embedded
system technology.

12. Acknowledgement
I would like to sincerely thank to
Mr. CHRISTOPHER, EXECUTIVE ENGINEER in
C&I of Mettur thermal Power Station, Mettur Dam
for his incessant inspiration, constructive crisis’s,
keen interest and warm encouragement throughout
8.4 Trip condition the project period and for his valuable guidance
during the whole project and a non source of
inspiration and support to all.

REFERENCES

[1] M. Iacob, G.-D. Andreescu, Drum-boiler

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control system employing shrink and swell
effect remission in thermal power
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on Ultra Modern Telecommunications and
Control Systems and Workshops (ICUMT),
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978-1-4577-0682-0, pp. 1-8, Oct. 2011. ieee

9. Conclusion [2] E.H. Gurban, G.-D. Andreescu, SCADA element

solutions using Ethernet and mobile phone
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control is greatly improved by PC based control for
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primary-secondary processes, with significantly
and power plant, (in book chapter 8: Process
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Control and Automation Applications),
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in Instrument Engineers' Handbook Vol. 3:
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Process Software and Digital Networks, 4th
base control system for the water level control has
Edition, Eds.: B.G. Liptak, H. Eren, CRC Press,
successfully replaced the human operator to gain
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The whole system can be integrated for the
networking purpose where automatic controls of the

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