16.2.

1 Feedwater Heater

The feedwater heater icon has four required connections: two for the feedwater inlet and outlet, and two for the heating
steam inlet and condensate outlet. A fifth optional connection allows adding steam or water to the shell-side, where it
mixes with the heating steam. The icon has five transpositions, toggled by F9, to facilitate connections of flashback
to/from adjacent heaters. Please review them to select the most convenient.

In both design and off-design modes, the flow rate and inlet state of the feedwater, and of any water/steam addition to the
shell, are all imposed by the network. In both design and off-design modes, the component calculates the heating steam
and drain flow rates and dictates them upon the network, with a high priority (top 20%) in the hierarchy of flow dictators.
During the design-mode calculation, the heating steam flow rate is found based on the user’s desired feedwater exit
temperature, and the surface area is sized in terms of the "UA" parameter. In off-design mode the heating steam flow rate
and the feedwater exit temperature are computed, based on the heater’s condensing ability, which depends on the
off-design value of its "UA" parameter. The latter is determined by the method of Thermal Resistance Scaling (§5.8.4).

In design-mode, the FWH component can be used to dictate the necessary pressure at its heating steam connection,
based on the user’s desired FW exit temperature and TTD (Terminal Temperature Difference). To use this feature, the
pressure of the heating steam must be ‘flexible’, which can be achieved if it originates from a splitter between two Steam
Turbine components by designating the downstream steam turbine as a "rubber component". Please review §2.4.3.2 and
sample file (S1-02)Rankine_3FWH, which describe and illustrate this feature.

The input menu for a Feedwater Heater, along with its description are given below.

Item 1. There are three modes:

0 - Design: Items 2-7 are inputs to the design-point calculation and Item 8 is displayed for information
purposes. Items 9-21 represent a hardware description that is initialised either by defaults, or by the
design-point calculation.

1 - Defined performance: Items 2-7 are inputs to the computation, but Items 9-21 are not affected.

2 - Off-design: Items 9-21 are inputs to the off-design calculation.

Item 2. The feedwater exit temperature is bounded between 32 ºF (0 ºC) and 705.5 ºF (374.2 ºC).

Item 3. The terminal temperature difference (TTD) is defined as the saturation temperature of the heating steam minus
the feedwater exit temperature. TTD may be negative if the heating steam is sufficiently superheated, and a separate
desuperheating compartment is provided within the heater, defined via Item 5. In design mode, if the terminal difference
is defined as a negative value that cannot be attained, the feedwater exit temperature will be reduced to satisfy the
minimum pinch defined by Item 6. The input value for TTD is bounded between -135 ºF (-75 ºC) and 135 ºF (75 ºC). This
broad range allows for unusual applications of this component, and is not intended for typical power plant practice, for
which the recommended range is between –4 °F (-2 °C) and 10 °F (5 °C).

Item 4. The drain cooler approach is defined as the drain cooler exit temperature minus the feedwater inlet temperature.
The lower bound for the drain cooler approach is 2 ºF (1.1 ºC). There is no upper bound at the input, but if the input would
imply a drain exit temperature above the saturation temperature of the heating steam, the program will override it during
computation, and the condensate will leave at saturation temperature. Thus, the default value of 504 ºF (280 ºC) implies
absence of a drain-cooler section.

Item 5. The residual superheat is the amount of superheat with which the steam leaves the desuperheating section of the
feedwater heater, before entering the condensing section. If the program finds this input larger than the actual superheat
of the incoming steam, it will assume that there is no desuperheating compartment within the heater, and that the
incoming steam mixes with the condensing steam. Thus, the very large default value for Item 5 implies no physically
separate desuperheating section. If the user wishes to install a desuperheating section, he or she should enter a smaller,
practical value for Item 5. A typical value for a heater with a desuperheating section would be in the vicinity of 30 °F (15 °
C).

Item 6. The minimum pinch is bounded between 1 ºF (0.56 ºC) and 40 ºF (22.2 ºC). The wide range is intended to allow
for unusual applications, and the typical range for power plant applications is between 3½ °F (2 °C) and 9 °F (5 °C). If the
program finds that the minimum pinch would be violated during the computation, the feedwater exit temperature (Item 2)
will be reduced to avoid the violation.

Item 7. The normalised pressure drop across the feedwater side is bounded between 0 and 0.5.

Item 8. THERMOFLEX calculates and displays the design-point shell pressure for information purposes. The steam
condenses at a temperature equal to the sum of the feedwater exit temperature and the terminal difference. The design
shell pressure is the saturation pressure at this temperature:

where
Design point shell pressure
=
Saturation pressure
=
Feedwater exit temperature
=
TTD = Terminal temperature difference

The feedwater exit temperature ( ) and the TTD are defined by Items 2 and 3, respectively.

Item 9. The off-design set point shell pressure is initialised by the design-point calculation. If, at off-design, the heating
steam pressure is found to be above the set point shell pressure, the heating steam is throttled to the set point shell
pressure. If the heating steam pressure is found to be below the set point shell pressure, then the actual shell pressure
falls to that of the heating steam. The fact that the design-point calculation initialises Item 9 at the design-point shell
pressure may require attention by the user, since in many cases, Item 9 should be set higher to avoid unnecessary
throttling at off-design.

Items 10-12 define how the total thermal resistance is apportioned at the design conditions. These items are used to
scale the heat transfer and compute "UA" in OD mode according to the method of Thermal Resistance Scaling (§5.8.4).

Items 13 & 14 are outputs from the design point calculation and are used to compute the off-design heat transfer using
the Thermal Resistance Scaling method (§5.8.4).

Item 15 is the overall heat transfer ability "UA" for the condensing section at design-point flow conditions. This is
calculated in design mode and available for modification by the user in OD mode. Increasing it is tantamount to
purchasing and installing a design with a larger condensing section. This UA (and the UA's of the other two sections) are
used in OD mode to calculate the heat transfer to the feedwater according to the method of Thermal-Resistance Scaling
(§5.8.4).

Item 16 is the overall heat-transfer ability for the drain-cooling section at design-point flow conditions. This is calculated in
design mode and available for modification by the user in OD mode. Increasing it is tantamount to purchasing and
installing a heater with a larger drain-cooling section. This UA (and the UA's of the other two sections) are used in OD
mode to calculate the heat transfer to the feedwater according to the method of Thermal-Resistance Scaling (§5.8.4).

Item 17 is the overall heat-transfer ability for the desuperheating section at design-point flow conditions. This is
calculated in design mode and available for modification by the user in OD mode. Increasing it is tantamount to
purchasing and installing a heater with a larger desuperheating section. This UA (and the UA's of the other two sections)
are used in OD mode to calculate the heat transfer to the feedwater according to the method of Thermal-Resistance
Scaling (§5.8.4).

Item 18 is used to compute the pressure drop across the feedwater side in off-design mode.

Item 19 is a correction factor applied to the heat transfer coefficient, computed by THERMOFLEX using the scaling rules.

Items 20 & 21 are exponents used to compute the off-design heat transfer according to the method of Thermal Resistance
Scaling (§5.8.4).
16.2.2 Feedwater Heater with Pump

THERMOFLEX includes a Feedwater Heater with an integral pump that forwards the drain water, adding it to the
feedwater at the delivery point. This sort of heater is commonly used in steam power plants for the first LP feedwater
heater after the condenser. It is unsuitable for District Heating or other heating applications, where the condensate from
the heating steam cannot be mixed with the less-pure water being heated.

The specifications and computation logic for this component are virtually identical to those for the previous component,
given in §16.2.1 above, except for the two additional descriptors for the pump:

9. Pump isentropic efficiency [%] 80

10. Pump mechanical/motor efficiency [%] 92
Item 9 gives the pump’s isentropic efficiency (§5.7.1).

Item 10 represents the overall efficiency that accounts for mechanical losses in gears, bearings, etc, as well as electrical
inefficiencies in the motor that drives the pump.

Menu items11-23 for this component are identical to menu items 9-21 for the feedwater heater without a pump, described
in §16.2.1 above.