COAL MILL PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT

BY CFD ANALYSIS
OBJECTIVES
•To minimize erosion rate of the coal mill parts.

•To achieve the coal fineness of the order 70 % of 200 mesh size by improving the
secondary classifications

• To achieve uniform velocity at the bowl vanes

•To achieve the design velocity at coal mill outlet.

 COAL MILL PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT PARAMETERS

Effective quantity of primary air.

Primary classification improvement.

Secondary classification improvement

Optimized classifier operation.

Avoiding short circuiting of classifier.

Laminar upward flow at mill outlet.

Proper sized orifices in outlet pipes.

Proper raw coal size.

Spring compression to be optimized.

Condition of grinding elements.

Effective reject hopper evacuation.

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COAL MILL PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT PARAMETERS

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 COAL MILL PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT PARAMETERS

 Primary air is supplied by P.A. fan through air pre heaters to coal mill or in some boilers, P.A. fan
pressurize hot air received from air pre heaters and then supply to mills.
 Hot primary air drives moisture from coal and acts as carrier to transport pulverized coal to the
boiler through pipes.
 Output is pulverized coal having required fineness.
 For complete combustion coal should have fineness of 75% through 200 mesh and 99.5% through 50
mesh.
 Primary air + coal mixture flowing through each coal pipes should have minimum velocity of 18
m/sec, Temp. around 80 degrees C , and air/coal ratio of 1.8 -2.
 Fuel flow through pipes be balanced within range of +/-10%.
 Finer is the coal, better is the flow distribution.
 Higher velocity with inferior distribution, will allow less time to burn the coal particles within
furnace.
 Combustion may take place in upper part of furnace, and increase temperatures at furnace exit, 5
super heaters, re heaters etc.
 COAL MILL PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT PARAMETERS

 Operator thinks that it is the best mill as there is no problem of spillage of coal as reject and sharing
more load (handling more tonnage of coal).
 Hence keeping P.A. to coal ratio more than 1.8 works satisfactorily as far as boiler loading is concerned
but is detrimental for combustion for following reasons.
1. Reduction in coal retention time in coal mill for fine grinding.
2. Increase in velocity through classifier to carry coarse particles to coal pipes causing poor fuel flow
balance.
3. Poor flame stability at lower loads,
4. Higher flue gas temperature leaving air pre heater.
5. Increased furnace exit gas temperature as delayed combustion occurs in upper part of furnace.
6. Higher slagging in furnace.
7. Increased wear on coal pipes and coal burners.

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 COAL MILL PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT PARAMETERS

 it is utmost essential to supply P.A. air only

1.8 times coal flow only.
 Solution to avoid coal spillage is not high
primary air flow but reducing the throat gap.
 Velocity of 38 to 40 m/sec is required at
throat of the mill to avoid coal spilling as
reject. It will help in maintaining correct
velocity of air and coal mixture in coal pipes.

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 COAL MILL PERFORMANCE OPTIMISATION

CFD designed vanes ensures the following objectives

 Vane wheel be installed with correct annular gap to achieve this velocity.
 Moreover the air flow be directed towards centre of mill to achieve primary classification and also
necessary turbulence to dry out coal.
 Further classification i.e. secondary classification can be achieved by classifier vanes set at equal and
correct angle.

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 Boundary Conditions

Coal Mill of 210 MW Unit

 Inlet Mass Flow Rate- 55 TPH

 Outlet Pressure- 294 mmWC

 Particle Mass Flow Rate- 30 TPH

 Particle Density- 1200 Kg/m3

 Temperature at Outlet – 80 degree C

 CFD RESULTS
WALL SHEAR

MODIFIED EXISTING

MAX.WALL SHEAR-3.074 PASCAL MAX.WALL SHEAR-5.631 PASCAL

Note- Wall shear proportional to erosion rate

 CFD RESULTS
TURBULENCE KINETIC ENERGY

MODIFIED EXISTING

Uniform velocity at the vanes

MAX.TKE-6.459 M2/S2 MAX.TKE-17.16 M2/S2

Note- TKE is proportional to pressure drop
BIG PARTICLE PATH WITH PARTICLE DIAGNOSTICS

MODIFIED EXISTING

Particle size more then 100 micron

% of Particle leaving – 6.93 % % of Particle leaving – 23.52%
SMALL PARTICLE PATH WITH PARTICLE DIAGNOSTICS

MODIFIED EXISTING

Particle size less then 50micron

% of Particle leaving – 87.03 % % of Particle leaving – 68.62%
MWI ADVANCED TECHNIQUE OF ROTATING THROAT AND DEFLECTOR
BENEFITS
• Minimize Coal Rejects
• Optimize vectoring for improved grinding
• Optimize primary air flow controllability.
• Optimized pulveriser and furnace residence time.
• Improved Coal Fineness
• Reduced air/fuel ratio
• Reduced available “Free Oxygen” in the
High temperature flame core.
• Deflector sets an open area to maintain an acceptable
velocity to keep coal particles in suspension and prevent
coal spillage

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ACHIEVEMENTS

•Achieved design outlet velocity @ 23.47 m/s.

•Achieved coal fineness at mill outlet @ 87.03% of 200 mesh.

•Turbulence inside the mill is minimized.

CONCLUSION

 Comparing the Existing and Modified design results we can conclude That , the modified design is much
better to get the required fineness with high efficiency of the coal mill as 87.03% of 200 mesh going out of
the mill as compared to existing 68.62% Reduce by 30% in 50 mesh size is expected .

 Achieved uniform velocity at the Bowl vanes

 Reduced erosion rate of the cone

 CASE 2: Tata Power Trombay

CFD ANALYSIS OF COAL MILL HOT AND COLD AIR DUCT

OBJECTIVE:
The objectives of the project are as follows :
To find out flow separation and recirculation as well flow concentrations zones in existing duct
arrangement using CFD technique.
Pressure Drop Prediction in Existing System
Iterative Analysis to modify the duct by CFD technique to reduce problematic area.
To optimize turbulence (eddy formation and formation of recirculation zones) by designing the Guide
plates & Small Duct Modifications to reduce the pressure drop.
To achieve uniform Flow distribution at the coal mill inlet by CFD technique.
To Design a Steam Inrting System
MODIFICATIONS

From APH

From APH

Coal mill _A

Coal mill _E Marked zone show modifications in duct

Figure illustrates modified model of the Col mill inlet duct

CFD RESULTS -EXISTING

Figure illustrates air flow streamlines for existing duct arrangement

CFD RESULTS -MODIFICATIONS

Figure illustrates air flow streamlines for modified duct arrangement

 CAD Model with Steam Inerting System

Coal Mill

The above figure illustrates the Inert System Design for a Coal mill (Typ.)

Probe With Nozzle Details

CAD Model with Steam Inerting System

The above figure illustrates the Inert System Design for a Coal mill (Typ.)
 CFD Results-Coal Mill A

Streamline at the Nozzles

The above image represents the velocity streamlines of steam entering the domain from the inert system design. From
the above streamlines, it can be clearly observed that the velocity of the steam entering the domain is kept as low as
possible, i.e. Approximately 2 to 4 m/s.
 CFD Results-Coal Mill A

The above image represents the velocity contours of steam entering the domain from the inert
system design. From the above contours, it can be clearly observed that the velocity of the steam entering the domain is kept as low as
possible, i.e. Approximately 2 to 4 m/s. Therefore, as the velocity of the Steam is as low as possible and also as the flow of the steam is
covered by the whole domain, raising of dust and fire explosions can be reduced.
 CFD Results-Coal Mill A

Velocity Details From Nozzles

The above image represents the velocity contours of steam entering the domain from a single nozzle in a pipe of the inert system design.
From the above contours, the plume of steam entering the system from the nozzle can be clearly observed. In the same manner, steam is
entering the domain from 36 Nozzles designed in the inert system per Probe.
 CONCLUSION
Duct Guide Plate Design
CFD analysis has been carried out for existing duct arrangement .
Existing Duct CFD Analysis shows the high turbulence, flow separation and re-circulation zone
which cause high pressure drop in the ducting
By designing the Optimized guide vane and duct plates using CFD ,the flow is nearly uniform
with optimum turbulence & completely avoiding recirculation zones.
After Modification, the Total Pressure drop reduction in cold and hot air duct is 8 mm WC and 12
mm WC .
The Flow is nearly equal in all the Coal mills
Guide Plates are working for any combination of the working Coal mill.
Steam Inerting System
The main objective of the present report is to provide a detailed information regarding the inert
system design to minimize the dust and fire explosions in the coal mill.
 So the inert system has been designed based on the CFD Analysis.Also the necessary precautions
to mitigate the risk of fire and explosions during the process of pulverizer startup and shutdown to
be taken.
The velocity of the steam entering the system is kept as low as possible. From the streamlines
plot, it can observed that the plume of steam is made to enter the whole system to reduce the risk of
fire and explosions.