Energy Equipment and Systems

Energy Equipment and Systems

Numerical study of the temperature distribution of combustion products in different parts of the fire-tube boilers to evaluate boiler steam generation

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors
Maryam Hassani 1
Mahtab Askari 2
Ramin Kouhikamali 3
1 Damadej Espadan Company, Isfahan, Iran
2 Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran
3 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, Iran
10.22059/ees.2025.2053471.1502
Abstract
In this research, a three-pass fire tube boiler has been numerically simulated in order to investigate temperature distribution of combustion products in different parts of a sample boiler. The turbulent flow of the flame and combustion products are simulated by the finite volume approach by using Discrete Ordinates model to simulate radiation and Species Transport model to simulate combustion phenomenon. Each part has been separately simulated with inlet characteristics of the outlet of the last part and the smoke temperature distribution in each part has been presented. In addition, effective parameters of burner capacity, furnace type (corrugated or plain), furnace and tube length and diameter have been studied on the temperature distribution of combustion product and boiler performance. According to the obtained results, with increasing the length by 55% or diameter by 54% of the furnace, steam production increases by 6.56% and 1.5% respectively. With corrugating the furnace, the gas outlet temperature reduces and the boiler capacity of steam production increases. Reducing the diameter of the tubes by 20% and increasing the length of the tubes by 25% in the 2nd pass and 18% in the 3rd pass (with the same heat transfer surface of the tubes in pass 2 and 3), leads to steam production increase by 3% and 1.68%, respectively. Results showed that for larger proportion of 3rd pass tubes, boiler performance increases. Also increasing in the burner capacity (by 33%) leads to same value increase in the steam production.
Keywords
Fire-Tube Boiler
CFD Simulation
Geometrical Study
Boiler Performance
Burner Capacity
Temperature Distribution

Subjects

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Energy Equipment and Systems
Volume 13, Issue 3 - Serial Number 3
Summer 2025
Pages 363-380