Power Plant Ductwork
by Dr. Jeffrey Franklin
Ultimately the challenge of this case is to optimize the design of both the duct routing and internal flow control devices within a ducting system located between the boiler and the pollution control equipment for a large power plant. In order to evaluate candidate designs, a simulation is required to accurately characterize the gas velocity, temperature, and pressure patterns within the ducting system.
While the geometry involved in this case may seem simple at first glance, it is in fact nontrivial when you consider the need to model viscous flow with many flow control devices and flow paths.
A hybrid polyhedral/hex/tet mesh was used to most effectively model the viscous flow with multiple turns and many flow control devices. An up-wind scheme was employed to solve the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations. A standard K-epsilon turbulence model was used with wall functions.
A stable solution was achieved with maximum efficiency. Initial solutions were validated by comparison to other popular commercial CFD codes. The customer was able to significantly improve the ductwork system armed with the highly cost-effective Azore solution.