CFD Simulation for Analyzing Velocity and Pressure Drop In Primary Duct of Air Preheater

Abstract

Air preheater performance in power plants plays a crucial role in increasing the thermal efficiency and thereby provides a better utilization of waste heat from flue gases. But presence of higher velocity gradient and poor pressure distribution among the flow passages results in boundary layer separation in the airpreheater duct which increases turbulence of air hence lowers the thermal efficiency. This paper aims at studying different velocity and pressure differences present in the primary duct and measure to counter them with the help of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis tool fluent 14.0.