Boiler Dynamics and Controls

Course Notes
F. P. de Mello
 Course Notes

Boiler Dynamics and Controls

Text Chapters

I. Boiler Process Dynamics and Control – Overview

II. General Principles and Structures in Boiler Controls
III. Drum Boiler Pressure Effects
IV. Drum Boiler Feedwater Controls
V. Fuel and Air Controls for Drum Boilers
VI. Furnace Draft Controls
VII. Steam Temperature Controls
VIII. Miscellaneous Control Loops
IX. Controls for Once-Through Boilers
X. Analog Control Hardware
XI. Direct Digital Control
XII. Modeling from First Principles

Appendix Material

A. Dynamic Systems – Differential Equations – Transient and Steady State

Solutions – Operational Impedance
B. La Place Transforms
C. Transfer Functions – Block Diagrams
D. Analog Computation – State Space – Numerical Methods of Differential
Equation Solutions
E. Feedback Control Concepts – Frequency Response
F. Notes on Process Control and Controller Tuning
F. P. de Mello
Consulting Engineer
Mr. de Mello graduated with BS and MS degrees in Electrical Engineering from MIT where he was
elected to Tau Beta Pi and Sigma XI. His academic experience included several test engineering and
laboratory assignments with the General Electric Company (GE) between 1945 and 1948.

In 1948, he joined the Rio Light and Power Company in Brazil and over several years held position of
increasing technical responsibility in system planning and design studies concerning expansion of the
Rio, Sao Paulo, and City of Santos systems.

In 1955, Mr. de Mello joined the Analytical Engineering Section of GE’s Apparatus Sales Division in
Schenectady. Here he undertook design and analysis studies of controls of industrial, power apparatus
and aircraft power systems, making extensive use of analog computers. In 1959, he was assigned to
specialized studies of dynamics of electrical machines, excitation control, prime-mover systems, and
overall power systems.

From 1961 to 1969, he conducted and guided extensive research efforts on modeling of dynamics of
power systems and power plants for use in advanced boiler and plant control design studies. He made
major pioneering contributions in the development of digital computer methods for dynamic analysis
and process control design. Of particular note were the development of computer techniques for the
simulation of complex boiler dynamics and for the synthesis of multivariable boiler-turbine controls for
which he was awarded GE’s Managerial and Ralph Cordiner Awards. He also made significant
contributions in the study of electrical machine dynamics, their voltage and governing controls and to
the analysis and implementation of system load-frequency controls.

Mr. de Mello joined Power Technologies, Inc., at the time of its formation in August of 1969 as Principal
Engineer, Dynamics and Control, and Secretary-Treasurer. He was appointed Vice President-Secretary in
1973. He was a Director of PTEL, PTI’s affiliate in Brazil. From 1974 to 1976, he was project manager for
PTI and PTEL in system and design studies for transmission from Itaipu, the world’s largest 800 kV
system, and served on the advisory Board of the Study Group for Itaipu transmission. Prior to his
appointment as Principal Consultant in 1987 he was Manager of PTI’s Consulting Services Department.

Mr. de Mello has three patents and authored more than 100 technical papers in IEEE, ISA, American
Power Conference, World Power Conference, and other utility industry publications, and also lectured
to professional society groups. He has served on the IEEE Systems Controls Subcommittee and the joint
IEEE Working Group on Plant Response and also served as US representative on CIGRE Study
Committees 38 and 39. He has taught dynamic and operational subjects in PTI’s Power Technology
Course and conducted one week courses given to over 2000 engineers worldwide on Power System
Dynamics.

Mr. de Mello is a Life Fellow of IEEE, a Life Fellow of ISA, a member of the National Academy of
Engineering, a registered Professional Engineer in New York State. He was awarded the IEEE Charles
Concordia Award in 2003.
Acknowledgement
This contribution to the technology of modeling and control of large steam generators, both
drum boilers, and once through, critical and subcritical, was largely based on my experience
gained while working at the Analytical Engineering Department of the Apparatus Sales Division
of the General Electric Co., Schenectady, NY, in the mid-60s, before GE’s entry into the analog
operational amplifier-based process control business with the GEMAC line. While most of this
information has been published before in various ISA and IEEE papers, it is presented here in a
cohesive manner to serve as a text to those involved in the important field of plant modeling
and control, implemented these days with distributed digital systems. The principles of control
are the same, whether analog or digital, although the digital approach makes it much easier to
use adaptive features, nonlinear logic, multiplication, division, function generation, square
roots, etc., which were expensive to implement with analog controls. The design process with
modern digital simulation tools and modeling capability can be used to greatly improve the
performance of controls through the phases of start-up and wide ranges of operating
conditions some of which, in the past, had to be handled by manual control subject to operator
error. Other very important applications of the technology are in the field of operator training
simulators.

A most important phase of the modeling effort involved field testing through extensive night
work at power stations. Especial recognition for encouraging the work of model validation by
tests goes to Carolina Power and Light with the test on Plant Robinson in 1961, to Georgia
Power which insisted on having the design of the Hagan analog controls for Plant McDonough
be done by GE, based on simulation, and for the Plant McDonough tests in 1964; to South
Carolina Electric & Gas which awarded GE the supply of a GEMAC boiler turbine control system
for its sub-critical once-through unit at the Canadys plant; to Florida Power Corp for similar
effort in the design of boiler controls for its Crystal River Plant; to Baltimore Gas & Electric for
the tests at the Crane plant; to Consolidated Edison with their tests at Astoria related to furnace
draft and implosion studies; to NY Power Authority at the Charles Poletti Plant for similar
studies.

In all this work I was blessed by the collaboration of colleagues who were of immense help in
the conduct of the tests (John C. Westcott, recently deceased) and in carrying out the
simulation studies, and testing ( D. N. Ewart, D. J. Ahner, and R. J. Mills). I am also grateful for
the encouragement and support of my manager at GE, Dr. L. Kirchmayer (deceased), W. M.
Stephens (deceased) of Georgia Power, and V. C. Summer (deceased) of South Carolina Electric
& Gas. In the computer simulation effort I had a team of expert “Green Berets,” John Undrill
whose expertise in modeling dynamic systems excelled not only in electrical large scale network
dynamic and steady state performance modeling, but also in the plant area, both hydro and
fossil-fired. Witness his work in furnace draft problems in Chapter VI.
Lou Hannett and Jim Feltes were always there to tackle computer simulation work for any type
of electrical, electro-mechanical and thermo-mechanical system. Dick Mills made enormous
contributions in the large scale plant operator training simulator area, starting at GE,
developing the software for the first nuclear plant simulator at Dresden II in the late 60s, and
then at PTI in similar applications in Scandinavia, and extending this to the fossil plant simulator
business at PTI headed by John Westcott. I mention this because a key element in this business
is the efficient and accurate modeling of components in the path of water and steam flow
through heat exchangers, steam generators with their economizers, waterwalls, superheaters,
reheaters, as well as the dynamics of the combustion process and heat transfer through the gas
path, contained in these notes.

I would also remember my deceased wife, Barbara, who bore with my frequent absence for
business including prolonged trips with plant testing, while she had the responsibility of
handling four children who turned out to be responsible and successful citizens, and to my wife
Margaret who puts up with me in my senior years.

Finally, this publication would not have been possible without the help from my good friend
Cyrus Taft who first suggested that the work merited publication, and who worked with ISA to
make this possible.