nd

Proceedings of the 2 International

Conference on Current
Trends in Engineering and ENGINEERING
Management ICCTEM -2014
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
OF MECHANICAL
17 19, July 2014, Mysore, Karnataka, India
AND TECHNOLOGY (IJMET)

ISSN 0976 6340 (Print)

ISSN 0976 6359 (Online)
Volume 5, Issue 9, September (2014), pp. 22-30
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IJMET
IAEME

PERFORMANCE EVALUATION AND OPTIMIZATION OF AIR

PREHEATER IN THERMAL POWER PLANT
G.Shruti1,
2

Ravinarayan Bhat2,

Gangadhar Sheri3

1
(Department of Mechanical Engineering, Srinivas Institute of Technology, Mangalore, 574143, Karnataka, India)
(Associate professor , Department of Mechanical Engineering, Srinivas Institute of Technology, Mangalore, 574143,
Karnataka, India)
3
(AGM Performance, LANCO-UPCL Nagarjuna Thermal Power Plant, Padubidri, Udupi, 574113 Karnataka, India)

ABSTRACT
This paper presents a performance evaluation and optimization method of an air preheater based on routine
operation data measured onsite at LANCO-UPCL, Nagarjuna thermal power plant Padubidri, Karnataka, India. The work
focuses on the performance of Regenerative type air pre heater (model LAP 13494/2200). The performances were
evaluated before and after radial sector plate clearance adjustments with air preheater tests, and improvement is seen
along with air preheater optimization.
Keywords: Air pre heater, Air leakage, Gas side efficiency, Seals, X-ratio.
1. INTRODUCTION
Modern high capacity boilers are always provided with an air preheater. Air pre-heater is an important boiler
auxiliary which primarily preheats the combustion air for rapid and efficient combustion in the furnace Serving as the last
heat trap for the boiler system, a regenerative air preheater typically accounts for over 10% of a plants thermal efficiency
on a typical steam generator. Considering this, when evaluating the performance of an air preheater one should take into
account all of the process variables [10].
A very good method to improve the overall efficiency of a thermal power plant is to preheat the air. If the
incoming air for combustion is not preheated, then some energy must be supplied to heat the air to a temperature required
to facilitate combustion. As a result, more fuel will be consumed which increases the overall cost and decreases the
efficiency. There are many factors, which contribute to the deterioration of air preheater performance like high seal
leakage, deterioration of heat absorption characteristics of basket elements due to fouling or plugging. Close monitoring
of air pre heater performance and proper instrumentation would enable timely detection of performance degradation. The
combustion air preheater for the large fuel-burning furnaces used to generate steam in thermal power plants [5].
2. LJUNGSTROM AIR PREHEATER (LAP 13494/2200)
The Ljungstrom air preheater is more widely used than any other type of combustion air preheater in the power
industry, because of its compact design proven performance and reliability, and its fuel flexibility. The model LAP
13494/2200 means a Ljungstrom air preheater with rotor diameter of 13494mm is used in UPCL power plant. The
heights of heating elements of 4 sections are respectively 300mm, 800mm, 800mm and 300mm from top to bottom of the
rotor. The cold end heating elements of 300mm height are made of carbon plate while the hot end heating elements are

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Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Current Trends in Engineering and Management ICCTEM -2014
17 19, July 2014, Mysore, Karnataka, India

made of common carbon steel. The metal weight of one air preheater is approximately 620 tons, including 465 tons for
the rotor assembly (about 75 percent of the total weight). The air preheater is tri-sector
tri
type [10].
The model LAP 13494/2200 tri-sector
sector rotary air preheater as shown in Fig.
Fig 1 is a counter flow regenerative heat
exchanger. Specially corrugated heating elements are tightly placed in the sector compartment of the rotor. The rotor
turns at a speed of 0.99 rpm and is divided into gas channels and air channels. The air side is mad
made of primary air
channels and secondary air channels. When gas flows through the rotor, it releases heat and delivers it to the heating
elements and then the gas temperature drops; when the heated elements turn to the air side, the air passing through them
is heated and its temperature is increased. By continuing maintaining such a circulation, the heat exchange is achieved
between gas and air.

Fig. 1: Trisector rotary air preheater and its important parts [10]
2.1 Heating Elements
Heating elements are made of carbon steel sheets with special corrugations formed by pressing; the hot end
heating assemblies are profiled in accordance with shapes and sizes of individual sub-modules.
sub modules. Each assembly is formed
by alternately piling up notched
ed undulation sheets with vertical undulations and inclined turbulent corrugations and
sheets only with the same inclined corrugations one by one as shown in Fig 2. All the assemblies of both hot and cold
end heating elements are fastened by welding flat bars
b and angle steels together [3].

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Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Current Trends in Engineering and Management ICCTEM -2014
17 19, July 2014, Mysore, Karnataka, India

Fig. 2: Heating Elements

2.2 Sealing System
Usually air leaks in to the gas in the air preheater due to pressure differences. This leakage air decreases the
flue gas temperature without extracting the heat. To reduce the air leakage seals are provided. It is an implied
requirement that the rotating parts should have some working clearance between the static parts to avoid any
interference between them. Here, in air preheaters, rotors are constructed to have higher
higher clearance to take care of
thermal expansion and these gaps are close with the flexible seal leaves. Major types of seals used in power plant.

Radial seals
Axial seals
Bypass seals
Circumferential seals

The main purpose of these seals is to reduce the leakage between the gas and air. Fig 3. Shows sealing system of
the Air pre heater.[6]

Fig. 3: Sealing System

3. EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP
UP AND PROCEDURE
3.1 Principle of Operation
Air preheater performance test is conducted on rotary regenerative air preheater to improve the efficiency of the
air preheaters. Various performance indices like air preheater leakage, gas side efficiency, X-ratio
X ratio are determined using
this test. A single carbon steel tube with portable gas analyzer and digital thermometer
thermometer is used for performance
evaluation.
3.2 Test Procedure
The Instruments used are: Gas analyzer, Digital thermometer, static probe.
3.2.1 Test Set Up Operating Conditions of Test Runs
Test runs are conducted at an easily repeatable level at defined baseline conditions at full load with same
number of mills in service and same total air levels as previous tests. The operating conditions for each test run are as
follows.
a. No furnace or air heater soot blowing is done during the test.
b. Unit operation
ion is kept steady for at least 60 minutes prior to the test.

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Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Current Trends in Engineering and Management ICCTEM -2014
17 19, July 2014, Mysore, Karnataka, India

c.
d.

Steam coil Air heaters (SCAPH) steam supply is kept isolated and gas recirculation dampers if any, are tightly
shut.
No mill change over is done during the test.

The test run duration will be the time required to complete two traverses for temperature and gas analysis. Two
separate test crews should sample the gas inlet and outlet ducts simultaneously.
3.2.2 Traverse locations Gas side
a. The gas inlet traverse plane should be located as close as possible to the air heater inlet. This is done to ensure
that any air ingress from the intervening duct/ expansion joints is not included in air heater performance
assessment.
b. The gas outlet traverse plane should be located at a suitable distance downstream the air heater to allow mixing
of the flow to reduce temperature and o2 stratification. However, it should not be located downstream of other
equipment or access ways that might contribute to air ingress.
3.2.3 Traverse locations Airside
a. The air inlet traverse plane should be located after any air heating coils and as close as possible to the air heater
inlet. Since the entering air temperature is usually uniform, a single probe with 2 or 3 temperature measurement
points is adequate.
b. The air outlet traverse plane should be located at a suitable distance downstream the air heater to allow mixing
of the flow to reduce the gas stratification as shown in Fig 4.

Fig. 4: Traverse location- airside [10]

3.2.4 Ports and Probes
Typical test port and probe used for the test is shown in Fig 5.

Fig. 5: Ports and Probes [10]

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Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Current Trends in Engineering and Management ICCTEM -2014
17 19, July 2014, Mysore, Karnataka, India

Tubes numbered 1,2,& 3 are carbon steel 3/8 OD tubes and tube no. 4 is carbon steel 12-15 mm OD. Tubes
numbered 1, 2& 3 are for gas sampling while tube no. 4 is for carrying thermocouple wires for temperature measurement.
d is the flue gas duct width at the test cross-section.
3.2.5 Flue Gas Composition & Temperature
A representative value of flue gas composition (O2 / CO2/ CO) is obtained by grid sampling of the flue gas at
multiple points in a plane perpendicular to the flow at air heater inlet and outlet using a portable gas analyzer. Two
complete sets of data are collected for each traverse plane during each test run to ensure data repeatability.
A typical cross section of the flue gas duct with an 18- point grid is shown in Fig 6. Along with a typical probe.
Each dot indicates a sampling point for measurement of gas composition and temperature.

Fig. 6: Cross section of Flue gas duct [10]

Flue gas samples are drawn by a vacuum pump from the test grid probes and sent to a portable gas analyzer
through a gas conditioning system. Similarly, a representative value of temperature is obtained by grid measurement of
flue gas temperature at multiple points in a plane perpendicular to the flow at air heater inlet and outlet using multi point
probes.
A single tube probe with portable analyzer can also be used for traversing duct cross section. Marking / etching
is done on the sampling tube at d/6, d/2 & 5d/6, if d is the duct depth. The probe is inserted in each port & samples are
drawn at different depths as per markings. Temperatures of flue gas are also measured at the same locations using a
similar single tube temperature probe.

Fig. 7: Gas Analyzer

Fig 7 shows typical gas analyzer used in the test to measure oxygen percentage in the flue gas. After completing
the testing of all the ports of a air preheater, calculations can be done as per the following formulae.
Air leakage =

(O 2 gl O 2 ge) * 0.9 * 100

( 21 O 2 gl )

(1)

AL * (Tgl Tae)
+ Tgl
100

(2)

Tgnl =

Gas side Efficiency GSE = (Temp drop/ Temp head)*100

GSE =

(Tge Tgnl )
*100
(Tge Tae)

X ratio =

26

Wairout
Wga sin

(3)

Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Current Trends in Engineering and Management ICCTEM -2014
17 19, July 2014, Mysore, Karnataka, India

X ratio =

Tga sin Tgnl

Tgasout Tairin

(4)

Weighted air inlet temperature

=

 
   
  
   
 




(5)
Weighted air outlet temperature
=

 
   
  
   
 




(6)
Total air flow= primary air flow + secondary airflow
(7)
4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
The experiments were conducted on a Ljungstrom air preheater. After determining the performance indices like
air leakage, GSE, X-ratio, using data from Table 1, radial Sector plate clearance is adjusted manually to improve the
efficiency of air preheater.
The following parameters are obtained using gas analyzers and digital thermocouple before adjusting the sector
plate.
Table 1: Parameters before adjusting sector plate clearance
Parameters
Values
Avg. Flue Gas Temp - APH In
331.33C
Avg. Flue Gas Temp - APH out
136.03C
Avg. Flue Gas O2 - APH Inlet
4.61 %
Avg. Flue Gas O2 - APH outlet
6.61 %
Avg. Primary Air to APH Temp In
39.83C
Avg. Primary Air from APH Temp Out
289.62C
Avg. Secondary Air to APH Temp In
32.94C
Avg. Secondary Air to APH Temp out
298.47C
Total Secondary Air Flow
1583.9ton/hr
Total Primary Air Flow
504.11ton/hr
Air Leakage =

(6.61 4.61) * 0.9 * 100

( 21 6.61)

AL = 12.5%
Total air flow = primary air flow + secondary airflow
= 504.11+1583.9
= 2088.01 ton/hr
Weighted air inlet temperature

(1583.9 * 32.94) + (504.11 * 39.83)

( 2088.01)

Tae= Tair in = 34.64C

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Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Current Trends in Engineering and Management ICCTEM -2014
17 19, July 2014, Mysore, Karnataka, India

Weighted air outlet temperature

(1583.9 * 298.47) + (504.11 * 289.62)

( 2088.01)

Tair out= 296.33C

Tgnl =

12.5 + (136.03 34.64)

+ 136.03
(100)

Tgnl = 148.72C
Gas side Efficiency GSE =

(331.33 148.72)
* 100
(331.3 34.64)

GSE = 61.54%
X-ratio =

(331.33 148.72)
* 100
( 296.33 34.64)

X-ratio = 0.69
After finding performance indices, radial sector plate clearance is again adjusted manually at cold state. Table 2
and Table 3 shows sector plate clearance values adjusted in different direction.

Table 2: Sector plate

Clearance (APH A side)

Reading
point
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L

Table 3: Sector plate

Clearance
earance (APH B side)

Reading
point

Distance between sector plate

and radial seal
Hot end
Cold End
2.7
1.6
2.0
1.7
2.4
1.5
2.2
1.5
2.3
1.7
2.2
1.9
6.4
30.0
6.7
30.0
5.8
29.8
5.5
30.2
5.6
31.1
5.0
30.7

A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L

28

Distance between sector

plate and radial seal
Hot end
Cold End
6.3
1.6
6.4
1.7
6.0
1.4
5.6
1.4
7.0
1.5
7.0
1.4
12.0
30.7
11.6
30.6
12.0
30.0
11.5
30.0
12.0
30.5
12.0
30.7

Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Current Trends in Engineering and Management ICCTEM -2014
17 19, July 2014, Mysore, Karnataka, India

The following parameters are obtained using gas analyzers and digital thermocouple after adjusting the sector plate.
Table 4: Parameters after adjusting sector plate Clearance
Parameters
Values
Avg. Flue Gas Temp - APH In
336C
Avg. Flue Gas Temp - APH out
135.79C
Avg. Flue Gas O2 - APH Inlet
4.19 %
Avg. Flue Gas O2 - APH outlet
5.4 %
Avg. Primary Air to APH Temp In
38.50C
Avg. Primary Air from APH Temp Out
287.27C
Avg. Secondary Air to APH Temp In
33.66C
Avg. Secondary Air to APH Temp out
300.03C
Total Secondary Air Flow
1593.03ton/hr
Total Primary Air Flow
508.5ton/hr
After adjusting the sector plate clearance another set of data were collected as shown in Table 4. Using these
parameter again air leakage, efficiency and x-ratio
x ratio are calculated. Similarly for different set of clearance adjustment
different results were obtained. And it is observed that air leakage decreased and efficiency increased gradually. By
adjusting the sector plate clearance optimized results were obtained. Using the parameters from Table 4 optimized results
were obtained.
4.1 Performance characteristics
4.1.1 Air leakage
The variation of Air leakage with various sector plate clearance adjustments is as shown in the following graph.
Fig 8 shows variation of air leakage for different trials. It s observed that air leakage gradually decreased. Air
leakage is the indicator of the condition of the air preheater seals. After adjusting the radial seal sector plate clearance the
air leakage decreased.

Air leakage

15
10
5
0
1

Trial No.
Fig. 8: Air leakage for different trails of sector plate clearance adjustments
4.1.2 Gas side efficiency
Fig 9 shows variation of gas side efficiency for different trials. It is observed that gas side efficiency gradually
increased as the area between air to the gas side between the rotor and the air preheater housing decreases.

Gas side efficiency

66
64
62
60
1

Trial No.
Fig. 9: Gas side efficiency for different trails of sector plate clearance adjustments
4.1.3 X-ratio
Fig 10 shows X-ratio
ratio for different trials. It is observed that X-ratio
ratio incresed as hot end and cold end radial sector
plate is adjusted. It indicates maximun heat is recovred in the air pre heater.

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X- Ratio

Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Current Trends in Engineering and Management ICCTEM -2014
17 19, July 2014, Mysore, Karnataka, India

0.74
0.72
0.7
0.68
0.66
1

Trial No.
Fig. 10: X-ratio
ratio for different trails of sector plate clearance adjustments
5. CONCLUSION
By reducing the area available for leakage from the air to the gas side between the rotor and the air preheater
housing by adjusting the radial sector plate reduces the air leakage and max efficiency can be obtained. And increase in xxratio indicates maximum heat recovery
overy in the Air preheater.
6. ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank LANCO
LANCO-UPCL,
UPCL, Nagarjuna thermal power plant, Padubidri, Karnataka, India
for the technical support of this work.
7. NOMENCLATURE
AL
O2 ge
O2 gl
Tgnl
Tae
Tgl
LAP
GSE

=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=

air heater leakage

percent O2 in gas entering air heater
percent O2 in gas leaving air heater
gas outlet temperature corrected for no leakage
Temperature of air entering air heater
Temperature of gas leaving air heater
Ljungstrm Air Preheater
Gas side efficiency

8. REFERENCES
Journal Papers
[1]. Mr. Vishwanath .H. H, Dr. Thammaiah Gowda , Mr. Ravi S.D Heat
Heat Transfer Analysis Of Recuperative Air
Preheater International Journal of Innovative Research in Science, Engineering and Technology Vol. 2, Issue 7,
July 2013,
[2]. Bostjan Drobnic, Janez Oman. A Numerical Model for the Analyses of Heat Transfer and Leakages in A
Rotary Air Preheater,, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 49, pp .501509,
509, 2006.
[3]. Staseik J.A., Experimental studies of heat transfer and fluid flow across undulated heat exchanger surfaces, Int.
J. Heat Transfer. Vol. 41 Nos. 6-7,pp.
7,pp. 899
899-914, 1998.
[4]. Larsen F. W., Rapid
Rapid Calculation of Temperature in a Regenerative Heat Exchanger Having Arbitrary Initial
Solid and Entering Fluid Temperatures,
Temperatures Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer Vol.10, pp.149-168,
168, 1967.
[5]. Wang .H, Analysis on Thermal Stress Deformation of Rotary Air-Preheater
Preheater In a Thermal Power Plant,
Plant Korean
J. Chem. Eng., Vol. 26, 833-839
839 , 2009.
[6]. T.Skiepko, Effect
Effect Of Reduction In Seal Clearances On Leakages In A Rotary Heat Exchanger
Exchanger, Heat recovery
system CHP 9 (6), pp. 553-559,
559, 1989.
[7]. Donald Q.Kern, Process
Process Heat Transfer,
Transfer Tata McGraw-Hill Publication, pp. 701, 2004.
[8]. Stephen.Storm, john, Guffre, Andrea Zucchelli Advancements
Advancements With Regenerative Airheater Design,
Performance And Reliability POWERGEN Europe 7-9
7 June 2011.
[9]. Sandira Alagic, Nikola Stocic,Numerical Analysis of Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow In Rotary Regenerative Air
Pre-Heaters Strojniki vestnik - Journal of Mechanical Engineering ,pp 411-417,2005
Books
[10]. UPCL manuals & images.

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