Power Station Startup Curves

[PhilOos]

Hi,

I need to calculate the rate of heating of the main steam piping of a power station. However, in order to do it I need to find realistic pressure and temperature raising curves during cold startup. Do anyone know where I could get hold of such information?

 

[davefitz]

go to a library and find the "proceedings of the american power conference" over the years 1960-1995. There will be papers in each year's proceedings that include startup curves for the boiler and the rest of the plant.

For once-thru supercritical units operating prior to 1990, the curves would be unrealistically slow due to concerns for "cold water cycling cleanup"- after 1990, the combined oxygenated feedwater treatment method was utilized, which considerably reduced the time needed to startup these units.

For drum type boilers, the startup time may be considerably reduced if you also use a turbine bypass system and monitored the boiler components for thermal stress.

You will find that the startup curves for european plants are much faster than US plants; they generally use subcritical once thru steam generators, thermal stress monitoring, turbine bypasses, combined oxygenated feedwater treatment, and a strong aversion to wasting startup fuel oil due to an imported fuel tax.

 

[athomas236]

PhilOos,

What sort of plant are you looking at?

athomas236

 

[athomas236]

Back in Dec 83, I was involved in reviewing a contractor's proposals for monitoring main pipe stresses during start up. The idea was to install thermocouples on the outside of the pipe and near the inside surface and then use these measurements to determine the thro-wall temperature gradients and corresponding stresses.

Amazing what you find on your hard drive.

athomas236

 

[PhilOos]

I'm looking at a coal/oil fired natural circulation boiler, with a power output of not more than 300 MW.

 

[athomas236]

I have start up curves for natural circulation, 600MW coal fired plant.

athomas236