Flownex Tutorials

Tutorial 21

Feedwater Heater
Problem Description
A typical Power Plant Low Pressure (LP) Feedwater heater plant is illustrated in the figure below.
LP Feedwater heater 1 only comprises a condensing section, in contrast with LP2 and LP3 which also include a drain
sub cooling zone. In this case study we will only look at LP1.
The dimensions of the horizontal cylindrical vessel containing the tubes of LP1 are as follows:
• Vessel diameter = 2 [m]
• Length = 15 [m]
There are 2 incoming flow branches to the LP heater shell, one carrying bleed steam (Branch 1), the second one
distillate from upstream LP heaters (Branch 2).
Condensate from the CEP flow through the tubes (Branch 3).
The only exit branch is at the bottom of LP1, directly to the distillate Pump, designated Branch 4.
There are 692 tubes in parallel each with:
Steam from turbine section
• Length = 14.3 [m] 1
• Tube diameter = 25.4 [mm]
2
• Tube wall thickness = 0.75 [mm]

3
Condensate

4
LP 3 LP 2 LP 1
 Problem Description (Continued)
1 Bleed steam
m = 24.305 kg/s
P = 44.4 kPa 2 Distillate from upstream LP
x = 0.972
heater
m = 38.554 kg/s
Steam from turbine section P = 126.3 kPa
T = 79.2 °C

3 Condensate from CEP

m = 345.984 kg/s
P = 1905 kPa
T = 34.3 °C

4 Distillate pump
m = 62.859 kg/s
P = 42.58 kPa
LP 3 LP 2 T = Tsaturated liquid
LP 1
Summary Slide
 Step 1: Open the template
 Step 2: Save the project
 Step 3: Inspect the network
 Step 4: Specify Feedwater Drum Properties
 Step 5: Design for Feedwater Drum Level
 Step 6: Create bleed steam inflow valve
 Step 7: Create LP Heater 2 distillate inflow valve
 Step 8: Create the Feedwater heater tubes
 Step 9: Create Feedwater heater heat transfer element
 Step 10: Design the Feedwater tube flow resistance and heat transfer coefficient
 Step 11: Run Designer
 Step 12: Create a Snap
 Step 13: Create a transient simulation
 Step 14: Create a transient simulation
 Step 15: Running a transient simulation
 Step 16: Create the transient event
 Step 17: Run the transient event
 Step 1: Open the template
a

c d

a. Select the Open icon.

b. Select the directory where Flownex is installed, open Program Files, FSE – Non Nuclear, Tutorials.
c. c template folders are Compressed (zipped) folders that
Select All files (*.*) as the selected file type (the different
needs to be extracted by right clicking on the selected template and choosing the extract option before it can be
opened).
d. Select Tutorial 21 and Press Open.
Step 2: Save the project

a. Open the File menu and select

Save Project As.
b. Enter Tutorial 21 at File name.
c. Press Save.
 Step 3: Inspect the network
a. Select the Extraction pump and open the properties
window.
b. The Pump or fan curve is already assigned, you can
view the pump characteristics in the Flownex Library.
c. Select the outlet Boundary Conditions and view
their properties.
d. Feedwater drum Pressure boundary is set to 42.58 b
kPa and its Quality boundary condition is set to 0.
e. The Feedwater distillate extraction pump outlet
Pressure boundary is set to 1891.43 kPa.

a b

e
Step 4: Specify Feedwater Drum Properties

a. Select the LP Heater 1 drum node

b. Set the drum volume to 30 m3
c. At the Volume fraction inputs, specify the Volume
Fraction to “Yes”. This will enable the user to
specify a level for the drum. In other words the
vapor and liquid phases in this node are separated
and not homogeneous.
d. Set the Fraction for the Extraction pump to 0.
This means that the connection is made at the e
bottom of the drum (node) and only liquid will be b
extracted. Should the fraction be made 1, the
connection will be made at the top of the drum
f
(node) and only vapor will be extracted.
c
e. Set Vessel Shape to Cylindrical horizontal.
f. Set the Diameter to 2 m. d
Step 5: Design for Feedwater Drum Level
a. Select the drum boundary condition and set the “Quality”
to 0.007. This is just an initial guess value and may vary
depending on the problem.
b. Open the Designer setup and add a new “Designer a
Configuration”. The default settings can be used.
c. Select the drum “Level” in the drum node “Results”
window and drag to the designer window “Equality
Constraints” Set “Target Value” to 0.15 m
d. Select the “Quality” in the drum boundary condition
window and drag to the designer window “Independent f
Variables”. Set the minimum and maximum values to
0.006 and 0.009 respectively.
e. Select “Run Designer”
f. Check that the designer converged and that the drum
Level = 0.15 m

c d
 Step 6: Create bleed steam inflow valve
a. Add the Steam Inflow valve to the LP Heater 1 drum , use the
Restrictor with discharge coefficient to model the valve.
b. Set the steam inflow boundary conditions to a “Pressure” of 44.4
kPa and a “Quality” of 0.972. The water is in the two phase b
region, thus specifying the quality will allow the Flownex solver
to calculate the fluid temperature.
c. The Restrictor with discharge coefficient will now be used to
regulate the steam flow. In the restrictor no pressure recovery
takes place and the total velocity component is lost. In the
g
Restrictor window select the “Diameter option” and set the a
Discharge coefficient to 1.
d. Open the Designer window and add a new “Designer
Configuration” called “Steam Valve”
e. Drag the “Diameter” in the Restrictor window to the Designer
“Independent Variable” window and set the minimum and
maximum to 0.5 and 1 respectively
f. In the Restrictor “Results” window select the “Total mass flow”
and drag to the Designer “Equality Constraints” window. Set the
“Target Value” to 24.305 kg/s.
g. Select the “Designer” option and run the solution, Check that the
designer converged

f e
 Step 7: Create LP Heater 2 distillate inflow valve
a. As for the steam inflow valve, a Restrictor with discharge
coefficient can be used as a valve to regulate the distillate inflow
from LP heater 2 into LP heater 1 drum. The boundary a
conditions for the distillate from LP heater 2 are as follows:
Temperature = 79.2 ˚C and Pressure = 126.3 kPa. The water
is in the single phase region and we need to specify the
temperature, and not the quality.
b
b. Similarly to how we designed the steam inflow valve, we can
again use the designer to design the distillate inflow valve
diameter to give a distillate mass flow of 38.554 kg/s.
c. Once a solution is found we can now analyze the results
obtained. Select the LP heater 1 drum node and open the
“Results” window.
d. The pressure is fixed on the Feedwater drum, thus Flownex
calculates the “Mass source” (inflow or outflow of fluid) at the
node. To keep the level constant at the specified pressure, thus
obtaining mass balance for the node. It can be seen that there is
a very small mass source (8.0625 E-05 kg/s) which may be c
caused by inaccuracies in the pump curve specified, this is
however negligible in the overall simulation. d
e. The quality is fixed on the Feedwater drum, thus Flownex
calculates the “Energy source” (inflow or outflow of energy) at
the node to keep the level constant at the specified quality, thus
obtaining energy balance for the node. It can be seen that there e
is an energy source of -55024.5 kW which means that this
amount of energy is removed from the drum to keep the level
constant and the node in energy balance. This is the amount of
energy that will be removed by the Feedwater flowing through
the Feedwater heater tubes.
 Step 8: Create the Feedwater heater tubes
a. Set up the network as shown in the figure and
set the Feedwater heater tubes inlet boundary as
follows: Pressure = 1905 kPa and Temperature
= 34.3 ˚C.
b. Select the Feedwater heater tubes and include
the following information:
c. Wall thickness = 0.75 mm
d. Inlet diameter = 0.0254 m
e. Length = 14.3 m
f. Diameter = 0.0254 m
g. Roughness = 40 μm
h. Number of increments = 5.
a
i. Number in parallel = 692. This is the number of
similar parallel tubes used in the simulation.
j. K forward = 0 (for now). This is the loss
coefficient for the tubes and may be used to b
simulate the losses through valves, orifices,
bends etc. We will use the designer at a later
stage to determine the loss coefficient to give the
desired mass flow through the tubes.

The Pipe Incrimination will vary from simulation to simulation and should ultimately be determined by an
incrimination dependence study. A minimum of 2 increments is used with the heat transfer element.
 Step 9: Create Feedwater heater heat transfer element
a. Select the heat transfer element.
b. In the heat transfer window select “Use downstream pipe area”. (This is the
Feedwater heater tubes’ area).
c. Select “Convection” for the upstream heat transfer, (upstream in this case is the
outside of the Feedwater tubes) and specify a constant heat transfer coefficient of
14000 W/m2K (We will design for the heat transfer coefficient later).
b
d. Select “Convection” for the downstream heat transfer, (downstream in this case is
e
the inside of the Feedwater tubes) and specify “calculate h”.
e. The material layers (this is the tube wall) are set up by selecting “layers” and adding
a layer.
f. The material thickness is specified as 0.75 mm
g. The material data is specified as shown in the figure. The “Number of nodes”
divides the material thickness into increments. The material conductivity can be
specified in the cross and parallel directions for materials with different directional c
properties.
d

a
e
 Step 10: Design the Feedwater tube flow resistance
and heat transfer coefficient
a. Open the designer and add a new “Designer Configuration”
b. We will now use the designer to design the upstream (tube outside) heat transfer coefficient and the flow loss
coefficient inside the tube. This will be done simultaneously.
c. We will use the designer to determine the upstream heat transfer coefficient in order to give an energy source of 0 kW on
the LP heater 1 drum. Select the upstream heat transfer coefficient “h” as the ”Independent variable” and set the
minimum and maximum values to 8000and 20000 respectively. Select the Feedwater drum “Energy source” as the
“Equality Constraint” and set the target value to 0 kW
d. Simultaneously we will use the designer to design the tube loss coefficient in order to give a mass flow through the
Feedwater tubes of 345.984 kg/s. Select the flow loss coefficient “K forward” as the “Independent variable” and set the
minimum and maximum values to 10 and 30 respectively. Select the Feedwater tube “Total mass flow” as the “Equality
constraint” and set the “Target value” to 345.984.

c c

d d
Step 11: Run Designer
a. Run the Designer.
b. Ensure that the designer
converged.
c. The Feedwater drum node shows
that the Energy source ≈ 0 kW
and the Feedwater tube mass
flow = 345.984 kg/s.

c
 Step 12: Create a Snap

b
a. Run a steady state solution. A “Snap” can be explained by means of a figurative photograph of the
component values. Example: A snap can be saved of a network. The user
b. Select the Snaps window.
can then change values in the network or do transient simulations where
c. Select “New Snap” certain inputs or boundary conditions are changed in the network. When
loading the saved “Snap”, the original values as saved in the “Snap” will
d. Save the Snap, for this exercise “Snap 1” be reloaded into the network.
e. To load a saved Snap, the user can select
“Load Snap” and load the desired saved
c
e
snap file.

d
 Step 13: Create a transient simulation
a. Select the “Setup” icon under the configurations tab to Transient simulations enables the user to change
edit the actions setup simulation inputs in order to determine the simulated
b. In the “Actions Setup” window, select the “Scenarios” system’s response over a period of time. In order to set
window and right click to add a “Scenario”. Name the up and solve the network “Steady State”, we fixed the
scenario “Release Boundaries” pressure and quality on nodes with level tracking
(Feedwater heater drum). In the transient simulation we
c. Right click and add an “Action” will remove the pressure and quality boundary conditions
d. Select the “Trigger” box for “Action 1” on the nodes with level tracking in order to allow the
pressure and level of these nodes to change.
e. Select “Time” under “Trigger Type”.
f. Under “Time” select the values as indicated in the figure

a
b It is important to ensure that the
“Energy source” and Mass
source” on the nodes with level
d
c tracking are ≈ 0, otherwise the
network does not have energy
and mass balance in the steady
e state.
 Step 14: Create a transient simulation
a. Select the “Target” box for “Action 1”.
b. In the “Specific Property Selection”
select the boundary condition that is
connected to the Feedwater Heater drum
(node).
c
c. Under “Property” select “Pressure
boundary condition”
d. Select “OK”
e. Select the “Value” box for “Action 1”
b
f. Select “Not specified”
g. By adding “Action 2” and repeating the
procedure, the Quality boundary for the
Feedwater Heater drum can also be
removed. d

a e
 Step 15: Running a transient simulation
a. Select the “ Actions Setup ” icon.
b. Ensure that “Release Boundaries / Action 1” is
underlined and in bold. This indicates that
“Scenario 1” is a “Run Scenario”. If this is not the
case, right click on “Scenario 1” and select “Run
Scenario”
c. Run a “steady state” solution.
d. Run a “transient” solution. e
e. Ensure that the Pressure and Quality boundary
conditions on the Feedwater Heater drum are
removed during the transient simulation.
f. The drum level and pressure should not change,
(it might change slightly if there were energy and
mass sources on the Feedwater heater drum node
in that steady state solution).
g. Stop the transient simulation.
h. To reload the initial simulation values, load the
saved “Snap 1”

It is important to remember that every time you make

changes to the network, a new “snap” should be saved
before running a transient simulation. This will enable
the user to reload the saved “snap” after running the
transient simulation.
 Step 16: Create the transient event
a. We will now set up a transient event where the
Feedwater inlet temperature changes abruptly from
34.3˚C to 40 ˚C when the simulation time reaches 1
min.
b. Open the “Actions setup” window.
c. Add “Action 3”
d. Set the “Trigger” to a Start time of 60 seconds.
e. Set the “Target” as the Feedwater inlet boundary
temperature. a
f. Select “Constant” as the “Value Type”
g. Set the “Value” as 40 ˚C.

c e d f g
 Step 17: Run the transient event
a. Before we run the transient event, we will include a graph and an output box to monitor the
results during the transient.
b. Select the Feedwater inlet boundary and drag the “Temperature” onto the canvas.
c. Select “Libraries” > Select “Components” > Select “Visualization”
d. Select and drag the “Line Graph” onto the canvas.
e. Select the Feedwater Heater drum node. Under “Results” select the “Level” and drag onto
the line graph. Repeat this for the “Total pressure”.
f. Load the saved “Snap”.
g. Run a steady state solution and then run the transient solution.

The temperature output box and d

d line graph continually updates
and reports the simulation
values. After 1 minute simulation
time the temperature output box
should change to 40˚C and the
pressure in the drum should rise
while the level in the drum
decreases as shown on the line
graph in the figure.
You have successfully completed this tutorial!