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25.10.2007
18:24 Uhr
Seite 2
SPECIAL PUBLICATION
SH 136 e
Authors
Autoors
Introduction
More than 200 power plants are currently being planned or built throughout Europe with
a nominal electrical output of 300 to 1100
MW. Numerous coal-fired, supercritical new
plants are increasingly turning their attention
to a heat exchanger technology that offers
convincing technical and economic advantages over conventional U-type feedwater heaters: the header-type feedwater heater, also
called snake heater or header-type heater.
Three header-type heaters and a separate desuperheater normally form a complete highpressure heater train. They are usually installed upright, seldom horizontally, and normally have three or four water passes depending
on the piping system. The world's biggest
header-type heaters weigh more than 270
tons when empty and are used in both 1100
MW units F and G of the Neurath lignite-fired power plant in (BoA 2 and 3).
nally equipped with header-type heaters. Unlike the normal arrangement with only one
high-pressure heater train, the South African
header-type heaters are installed in two parallel piping trains with two high-pressure heaters each for historical reasons. One of the
first large-scale power plants to be equipped
with header-type heaters is Duvha, which
went into operation in 1975 with an overall
capacity of 6 x 600 MW. This example was
followed, amongst others, by the power
plants in Matla, Lethabo, Majuba and Kendal, which is currently the biggest coal-fired
power plant in the world with 6 x 686 MW
( F i g u r e 3 ).
The dynamic economic growth of the past
few years with and unexpectedly high demand for electricity has greatly depleted the
South African power plant capacity reserves.
On account of imminent power failures, a government resolution was passed to build new
coal-fired power plants between 2008 and
2018. These new plants with an overall capacity of over 20 GW will again be planned
with header-type heaters because of the convincing advantages and very good operational experience gained with header technology.
Unlike the countries named above, high-pressure header-type heaters were largely unknown for many years in the USA. American
coal-fired power plants were operated exclusively with U-type feedwater heaters until the
1990ies. However, serious damage occurred
in several U-type heaters after only 12 to 15
years of operation, benefited by a cycling
operation of the power plant. This was caused by stress-induced cracks in thick-walled
components, at least at the connection between the tubesheet and waterbox. The damage forced a reduced output operation of the
power plants, numerous unscheduled downtimes for repairs and quite often the replacement of the heaters.
With this in mind, a study was launched in
1990 by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) aiming at the identification of possibilities for avoiding damage and thus significantly improving the availability of American coal-fired power plants with a simulta-
Snake tube
Technical Advantages
The two types of heater, U-type and headertype heater, are fundamentally different in
the separation of the tube and shell sides and
design of the heat exchanger tubes. In the Utype heater, the feedwater and heating steam
are separated by the tubesheet and bundle of
U-tubes. In header-type heaters they are separated by headers and a bundle of snakeshaped tubes.
Whereas the feedwater in U-type heaters passes through the inlet side of the waterbox,
then the U-shaped tubes and finally the outlet
side of the waterbox, the feedwater in header-type heaters initially enters the inlet header, passes through the snake-shaped tubes in
three or four passes and leaves the unit via
the outlet header ( F i g u r e 4 ).
High-pressure heaters have to withstand an
internal pressure of 300 to 400 bar on their
tube side in supercritical steam power plants.
The mass flow of the feedwater ranges from
400 to 800 kg/s. Under these boundary conditions, the pressure-bearing components of
the heater can have very thick walls that react
quite sluggishly to short-term changes in
temperature. This leads to secondary stresses,
which increase with an increasing and differing wall thickness of the components.
The tubesheets have the highest wall thickness in a U-type heater. In high-output power
plants the tubesheet thickness is between 400
Figure 6. Micrograph and stress distribution in the transition area tubesheet/waterbox [5].
operation for power plants with a large number of load changes. Maximum temperature
gradients of up to 25 K per minute permit a
fast start-up and shutdown of the power plant
with service lives of 35 to 50 years. In addition, the heater section does not have to be designed as a two train system ( F i g u r e 9 ).
Profitability
An investment in a header-type heater pays
off, as shown in F i g u r e 10, as of a power
Figure 10. Heater arrangement depending on investment costs and power plant output.
Figure 11. Cause and frequency of heater damage in the USA and Europe [7].
plant output of around 500 MW. Both header-type and U-type heaters are designed as
single-train systems below this power plant
output. Whereas header-type heaters can also
be used with higher power plant outputs
currently up to 1100 MW in a single-train
arrangement, U-type heaters are normally designed as two-train systems with power plant
outputs over 500 MW on account of the increasing risk of damage due to thick-walled
tubesheets. The double piping, double the
number of U-type heaters and increased
space requirements of the two-train design
cause additional investment costs. The investment costs for U-type heaters escalate on
account of these additional components and
normally exceed the investment costs of
equivalent header-type heaters.
The operating and maintenance costs of header-type heaters are also much lower with
higher power plant outputs. The lower failure
rate and up to 4-times longer service life of
header-type heaters result in a higher availability of the power plant and much lower
maintenance costs and work. This is also
Summary
Header-type heaters are mainly found in
Europe, South Africa and Australia but are
being increasingly considered in the planning concepts for new supercritical power
plants in the USA, China and South Korea.
Around 30 coal-fired power plant units
from 600 to 1100 MW are currently being
planned or built in Germany with headertype heaters.
In header-type heaters the water and steam
sections are not separated by a tubesheet, as
in U-type heaters, but by thick-walled, forged
tubes, the inlet and outlet headers. A further
distinguishing feature compared to U-type
heaters is that the heat exchanger tubes are
snake-shaped and not U-shaped when they
pass through the steam section.
In conventional U-type heaters, the high
pressures of supercritical water/steam cycles
require tubesheets with enormous wall thicknesses. Irreparable thermal cracking often occurs already after 10 to 15 years of operation
at the joint of the tubesheets with the comparably thin-walled shell. In addition, the very
References
their excellent thermoelasticity and can be arranged in one train with low investment cost
for piping, valves and building.
[6] Podhorsky, M.: Die rechnerischen Schwerpunkte bei der Konstruktion und der festigkeitsmigen Auslegung einer Vorwrmerstrecke, VGB Heft 1/1984.
Header-type heaters allow a much more flexible mode of operation of the plant with hig-
25.10.2007
18:24 Uhr
Seite 1
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