Performance M AT T E R S ™ Application Discussion: Attemperator Spray Valve Reheater Application: During power plant load changes, dynamic variations in steam flow and heat rate occur. Allowing temperature to fluctuate during these transitions can dramatically reduce the life span of the high-temperature steam components, piping, turbine, and superheat tubing. Power plants use a range of methods to control the steam temperature, such as varying the firing rates, the position of the burners, the amount of air injection, and the feedwater flow rates; however, many of these modes are relatively slow. When undergoing plant load changes, the most common practice to control steam temperature is to overfire the boiler, heat the steam above the required temperature, and then spray water into the steam to cool it down to the required temperature. The process of injecting water into steam is called steam attemperation, and typically water is sprayed between the superheat or reheat sections of the boiler tubing. Superheat spray valves and reheat spray valves are used to control the amount of water entering the spray nozzles to manage overall temperature. Once the plant reaches steady state loads, the plant is trimmed and the levels of over-fire and waterspray are decreased. The SH and RH spray valves spray a relatively small amount of water during normal plant operation, and unless special design features are adopted, this will require valves to throttle at very low lift, near the valve seat. The startup is an extremely dynamic stage of plant operation. During startup the steam temperature after the superheat and reheat systems tends to be much higher than that during steadystate operation, which means a large amount of waterspray is required to cool the steam to the required temperature. Therefore, the spray valves operate at high capacity during startup. Once the plant reaches required loads, the heat input is primarily controlled by the burners, baffles, etc, minimizing the need for attemperation to control steam temperature. | 577 w 05/03 w ©2003 CCI w DRAG is a registered trademark of CCI. Reheater Spray Control Valve H.P. Turbine I.P. Turbine Secondary Superheater Primary Superheater Superheater Spray Control Valve Economizer Area of Boiler Deaerator Feedwater Regulator Valve Boiler Feedpump Condensate Pump DA Level Control Valve Hot Well Figure 1: Plant Schematic The spraywater source is the discharge or intermediate stage of the main feedpump. The spray valve reduces the high inlet pressure to the outlet pressure and controls the water flow. The reheat pressure is much lower than the superheat pressure, and the pressure drop in an RH spray valve is higher than in a SH spray valve. These valves operate continuously, modulating close to the seat, and erode the seat and plug, causing poor control of the steam temperature. The resulting fluctuations in steam temperature in the main steam line and reheat line impact the heat rate and the life of the steam turbine. Wide variations in the amount of spraywater during startup and during normal operation also demand high rangeability of these valves. Therefore, it is important to apply the proper control valve with the right technology to ensure excellent control under all conditions. The impact of the RH & SH spray valves on plant efficiency makes them some of the most severe control valves in a power plant. Another principal application for attemperation is in turbine bypass systems. In these systems, steam from the main steam line is bypassed to the reheat line during startup, load fluctuation, or turbine trip. Since the reheat pipes are designed for lower temperatures than the main steam pipes, the steam must be attemperated. Spraywater valves are used for this purpose. Because turbine bypass systems are typically closed, another requirement for this application is repeatable tight shutoff to protect the valve and piping components from thermal fatigue damage. �� �� �� � The best fuel to use is natural gas. This is most common in today’s boilers because of the high efficiency associated with the gas turbine, heat recovery boiler combination. Natural gas burns without any ash, so there is no short-term variation in heat absorption in the superheat and reheat sections. Thus the attemperation control is more of a continuous water flow process at constant load, and the spray is only needed to trim for any excess heat transfer capacity built into the boiler as a design margin. Attemperator Spraywater Valve Requirements g �� �� � g �� �� � ve �� � g ��������� �� Provide a precise amount of spraywater in response to the control circuit demand over the entire load range for accurate steam temperature control Handle high pressure drop (up to 3500 psi, or 240 bar) without damaging the trim components Have high rangeability to handle wide flow rate requirements � g ��� � � � Consequences of Attemperator Spraywater Valve Problems ������ ��� �� ����� � �� ������ g � � ����� ������ ����� ������ ������ ������� ������ ������� �� ����� � � � � � � � � � �� �� �� �� ���������� ���� ������������� ����� ��������� ����� ������� ����� �������� ������������� ����� ������� ��������� ������� ����� ��������� ������ ����� ������ ��������� ����� ������ ��������� ����� ������ ���������� ������� ����� ����������� ����� ������ �������� ����� ������ ���� ����� ���� ����� ������ �� ������� ������ ����� ����� ��� ����� ����� g Figure 2: Plant schematic with turbine bypass and auxiliary steam systems g The Influence of Fuel Type The process of steam temperature control – attemperation – is also related to the fuel used in the boiler. Coal is the worst type of fuel to utilize since it causes a great deal of variation in attemperation water flow. In coal burning applications, thermal absorption continually fluctuates in the superheat and reheat sections due to ash that accumulates on the superheat and reheat tubes, which is periodically blown off by soot blowers. Because the number of tubes is fixed, heat transfer declines over a period of several hours during ash buildup, and the steam temperature drops. Therefore, the quantity of attemperation spraywater required to control the steam temperature emerging from these heat exchanger sections also decreases. When the ash is blown off the tubes, the heat transfer and steam temperature rise, demanding a quick increase in the attemperator spraywater flow. Depending upon the fuel’s ash content, this cycle could be repeated as many as four to six times per day. | Ensure tight shutoff to prevent damaging effects to the valve or to the downstream equipment 577 w 05/03 w ©2003 CCI w DRAG is a registered trademark of CCI. Heat Rate Losses – Leaking spraywater valves result in overspray, lowering the throttle steam temperature. Thus additional heat input is required in the boiler to keep the throttle steam temperature at set point, which adversely affects the plant’s heat rate. A change of 34°F to 40°F (19°C to 22°C) in mainsteam temperature corresponds to roughly a 1% change in heat rate at pressures above 1800 psi (124 bar). MW losses - steam temperature below set point due to poor spray water control reduces power output. A 13 F (7 C) drop in RH temperature from a set point of 1000 F (538 C) reduces plant MW output by 1%. Temperature Control Problems – Poor steam temperature control significantly reduces the life of the main steam piping, reheat piping, and steam turbine due to thermal stress-induced fatigue. Figure 3: Cavitation damage on plug g g High Maintenance Costs – Frequent trim replacements or maintenance cycles due to trim erosion damage are costly. Production loss – Failure of spray valves or other system components can result in plant shutdown and production losses. Symptoms of Attemperator Spraywater Valve Problems g g g g Poor temperature control and excessive leakage – Caused by erosion of trim components and body due to excessive velocity inside the valve Damage of valve or piping components – Caused by overspray of cold spraywater on hot metal parts due to poor shutoff capability Cracking or fatigue failures of valve stems – Typically caused by high trim velocities, rotating forces due to turbulence, and poor design tolerances resulting in plug vibration and fatigue failure Eliminating Erosion Erosion is a function of fluid velocity cubed (erosion = kV3); therefore, limiting the fluid velocities to acceptable levels will eliminate problems associated with body, trim, and seat erosion. The damage due to high velocity on the seat ring is especially apparent when the valve modulates very close to the seat during normal operation. Consequently, the valve trim design should incorporate features to control the velocity of water impinging on the seat ring, plug, and body parts. CCI’s design incorporates three features to address trim and body erosion. The first feature is keeping velocity inside the trim below 100 ft/s (30 m/s), as recommended by ISA, using DRAG® velocity control disk stack technology. Velocity is controlled by passing water through multiple torturous paths, which have several right-angle turns. The kinetic energy of water jets exiting these torturous paths is not sufficient to cause damage to the seat or plug material. In addition, CCI uses Inconel 718 as disk stack and plug material due to its high erosion resistance. Use of isolation valves to block the control valve leakage – Caused by the spray valve’s inability to provide tight shutoff lead to manually closing the upstream isolation valve Key Features and benefits of the DRAG® Attemperator Spray Valve Solution The combination of velocity control, equal percentage characteristic, long stroke, and high seating force ensures that the valve is protected from trim erosion, achieves repeatable Class V shutoff, and maintains excellent controllability at all flows. Following are the key features and benefits of DRAG® spray control valves. Features Benefits DRAG trim controls trim exit velocity below 100ft/s (30m/s) Prevents erosion of plug, seat and valve body Equal percentage characteristic disk stack provided Reduces risk of seat and plug erosion damage since plug modulates farther away from seat at low flow High grade Inconel 718 material used for plug and disk stack Excellent erosion resistance Labyrinth grooves provided in the disk stack end plate just above the seat Protects seat from erosion by reducing velocity of clearance flow between plug and disk stack Long stroke length Outstanding flow control High seating force (>500PLI) and softer SS 316 seat ring material provided Ensures repeatable Class V tight shut off Spring energized balance seal designed for 500F (260 C) Longer life of seals Tight tolerances provided between trim components Allows very high rangeability and better control on low flows Over the plug flow configuration provided Eliminates chances of seat and plug damage due to entrapped metal particles PER grooves provided in the disk stack Figure 4: DRAG® disk stack featuring equal percentage trim The second feature is the equal percentage characteristic of the disk stack. The individual Cv of disks near the seat is kept very low so that the valve plug has to open more to get the low flow requirements for normal plant operation. This means that the valve plug throttles away from the seat, which reduces the impact of a high-velocity water stream on the seat ring. % Flow 100 90 80 70 60 50 Eliminates plug vibration by balancing pressure around the plug 40 30 20 Modified Equal % 10 0 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 % Stroke Figure 5: CCI DRAG® valves are custom characterized to provide premium valve performance A conventional valve solution using a top-guided plug or cage allows very high trim exit velocities to impinge on the cage, plug, and seat. These high fluid velocities will cause trim erosion, thereby degrading the controllability of the trim. Overall velocity control below 100 ft/s (30m/s) inside the valve and the other features incorporated in the valve trim design make CCI’s spray valve the best for this application. Figure 6: Labyrinth groove are provided to protect the plug and seat Excellent Controllability The startup and load transition conditions in the plant may demand a large amount of flow through the SH and RH spray, but during normal plant operation the amount of water required can be quite small. These varying demands for flow capacity result in a need for better controllability in the spray valve. Since the disk stack is composed of several disks, it is possible to use disks with different capacities and numbers of stages. This flexibility allows CCI to custom design a valve to fit specific process conditions at different plant operating modes. The disk stack with relatively long stroke length, an equal percentage flow characteristic (see Figure 5), and very close clearance between valve plug and disk stack provides excellent controllability to the DRAG® spray valves. In sharp contrast, the conventional top-guided or cage valve solutions offer poor control since these designs cannot easily accommodate the features incorporated into DRAG® spray valves. contact force in conventional valves is frequently the result of a supplier sacrificing performance for a lower cost. CCI’s DRAG® spray valve actuators are sized to provide at least 500 PLI (pounds per linear inch of seat ring/plug interface, 9 kg/mm) force on the plug to get repeatable Class V shutoff and to protect the seat and plug from damage. Elimination of Vibration Uncontrolled velocity and the resulting turbulence within the trim can cause significant vibration of the components. Vibration can lead to the failure of components such as the valve plug stem, valve plug, cage, actuator accessories, pipe hangers, and weld joints. In power plant design, pipe size is determined based on the velocity of the water flowing through it. In most plant designs, this velocity is limited to less than 15 ft/s (5m/s). Since valves use superior technology and better materials, ISA recommends limiting the velocity exiting the trim to less than 100 ft/s (30 m/s), which is roughly six times larger than the pipe velocity. CCI’s long-term experience in solving valve problems proves that controlling velocity can prevent vibration and erosion. DRAG® trim is selected following the ISA guideline of 100 ft/s trim exit velocity to eliminate any chance of vibration and erosion. Figure 8: PER grooves balance pressure around the plug to eliminate vibration Repeatable Class V Shutoff Conclusion One of the most important features in a spray valve is to have tight shutoff when the valve is closed. This helps prevent a high-velocity water stream from damaging the seat-plug interface. A conventional top-guided plug or cage valve solution uses very low force between the plug and the seat, which allows fluid to pass between the plug and the seat when the valve is subjected to high shutoff pressure differentials, causing wire drawing. The leakage will increase over time until the unit’s efficiency is noticeably degraded. The low CCI’s DRAG® valve provides the best attemperator spraywater control solution by addressing the failure mechanisms associated with this application and incorporating features to address each of these failure mechanisms. There are thousands of satisfied customers around the globe who take advantage of the CCI DRAG® attemperator spray control valve to improve their plant’s efficiency and reduce component damage and maintenance. ������ �� ��� �������� ����� � ������� ���� ��� ��� ���� ����� The third feature is the labyrinth grooves provided in the disk stack end plate, just above the seat ring. These grooves help to slow down the water stream flowing through the clearance between the plug and the seat ring and protect seating surface from any potential erosion. In many cases these labyrinth grooves also help increase the controllability at the minimum flow.
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