M. A.

Habib1
e-mail: mahabib@kfupm.edu.sa
Influence of Boiler Load Swing
I. Al-Zaharnah Rates on Effective Stresses of
M. El-Shafei Drum Boiler Riser Tubes
S. A. M. Said
In this paper, different rates of steam flow (swing rates) are used to demonstrate the
N. Merah transient changes in both the drum-boiler steam pressure and the wall temperature levels
in addition to stresses in the walls of steam risers. A MATLAB code was written to integrate
Department of Mechanical Engineering, the nonlinear dynamic governing equations for solving the water volume, the drum pres-
King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, sure, and the steam quality at the exit of the riser tubes. The same code is also used for
Dhahran 31261, Saudi Arabia calculating the steam riser inner and outer wall temperatures based on the inner wall
heat transfer coefficient. The temporal riser pipe pressure and the inner and outer pipe
wall temperatures have been incorporated into an ANSYS model for calculating the effec-
S. Al-Anizi tive combined thermal and pressure-caused stresses numerically. The combined effective
stress fluctuation for the highest swing rate (40%) is found to be too low to induce any
M. Y. Al-Awwad damage in the riser tube. The controlled pressure level has been compared with an actual
pressure reading from an existing drum boiler under operating conditions for the purpose
M. Hajji of validating the control parameters employed in the study. An optimization method for
reducing the steam pressure overshoot level in the boiler is also proposed.
Department of Consulting Services, 关DOI: 10.1115/1.4001653兴
Saudi Aramco,
Keywords: boiler dynamics, boiler control, drum boiler, riser tube, effective stresses
Dhahran 31311, Saudi Arabia

1 Introduction
Steam generators that are commonly used in many industrial
processes may experience rapid and dynamic changes in the steam
demand. The rapid increase in steam demand results in a rapid
decrease in drum pressure. The decrease in drum pressure is nor-
mally met by a corresponding rise in the firing rates, thus, heat
flux along the riser and downcomer tubes are increased and may
result in tube overheating due to an increase in the riser wall
temperature and therefore riser effective stresses. The problem
impact is not only due to the cost of replacing defective parts, but
also due to the frequent need of system shutdown and the possible
imminent safety hazards. To avoid such a problem, limits of boiler
load swing rates to control boiler firing in order to prevent tubes
overheating, high pressure fluctuations, and effective stresses are
to be investigated.
A research in the area of boiler performance under dynamic
operation includes optimization of control methods to avoid sud-
den changes in thermal and mechanical stresses. It also includes
research during boiler start-up and boiler swing. Dynamic simu-
lation models of boilers provide a very cost effective tool to study
plant transient characteristics with the aim to improve the design
and control strategies to meet stringent operational requirements.
The dynamic performance of boilers and steam generators has
been a major subject of study, and several investigations have
been conducted on controlling their performance. Maintaining ac-
ceptable levels of working thermomechanical stresses in compo-
nents of boilers and steam generators during start-up, shutdown,
and load changing is one of the main criteria employed for opti-
mizing the operational performance of boilers and steam genera-
tors. Controlling the internal pressure and the associated steam
1
Corresponding author.
Contributed by the Pressure Vessel and Piping Division of ASME for publication
in the JOURNAL OF PRESSURE VESSEL TECHNOLOGY. Manuscript received July 27, 2009;
final manuscript received April 21, 2010; published online October 20, 2010. Assoc.
Editor: Hyunjae Park.
temperature change rates during the heating and cooling changes
is necessary for minimizing the developed stresses in the walls of
boiler components.
Motivated by a model-based control, Astrom and Bell 关1兴 de-
veloped a nonlinear dynamic model for drum boilers. The model
describes the complicated dynamics of the drum, downcomer, and
riser components. The model is based on physical parameters of
the plant such as the boiler configuration, the operating param-
eters, and the state variables. The goal was to develop a model
which captures the key dynamical properties over a wide operat-
ing range. Kim and Choi 关2兴 developed a model for water level
dynamics in the drum-riser-downcomer loop of a natural circula-
tion drum-type boiler. The model is based on basic conservation
rules of mass, momentum, and energy, together with the constitu-
ent equations. The work provides an investigation of the response
of water level dynamics to changes in steam demand and/or heat-
ing rate. The results were compared with those of Astrom and Bell
关1兴. Like the model by Astrom and Bell 关1兴, the assumption of
metal temperature being equal to the steam saturation temperature
and the linear variation of the steam quality along the riser tubes is
employed. Franke et al. 关3兴 utilized the MODELICA software for
modeling the thermofluid processes of a simple drum boiler dur-
ing the start-up period. The model was based on mass and energy
conservation equations together with property relations for liquid
and vapor phases. The model was applied to a 70 MW coal-fired
boiler, considering important components such as the furnace,
economizer, superheaters, headers, spray water injection, and long
pipes. A drum boiler start-up simulation program for controlled
and natural circulation boilers was developed by Li et al. 关4兴. The
model is based on the principles of mass, energy, and momentum
conservations. The simulation results were compared with experi-
mental measurements.
On the control side, Silva et al. 关5兴 described the application of
a predictive adaptive controller to the regulation of superheated
steam temperature in a commercial boiler. The objective of the
investigation was testing the use of a predictive adaptive control-
ler for the regulation of superheated steam temperature in the
presence of load changes. The work of Kruger et al. 关6兴 proposed

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 a quadratic programming optimization to find the optimal refer- Table 1 The physical and steady state boiler operational data
ence values for boiler firing rate, steam pressure, and steam tem- at MCR
perature during start-up. Wang et al. 关7兴 provided an investigation
Drum saturation pressure 共kPa兲 4996.6
on intelligence-based hybrid control for power plant boiler. A hy-
Drum saturation temperature 共°C兲 263.9
brid classical/fuzzy control methodology was presented to inte- Steam mass flow 共kg/s兲 66.5
grate low-level machine control and high-level supervision for the Total energy input 共MW兲 208.2
steam temperature process of the power plant boiler. The results Vd = volume of drum 共m3兲 40
showed that the steam temperature can be stably maintained Ad = water surface area of drum 共m2兲 20
whenever disturbances are large or small, and a better control md = mass of drum 共kg兲 140,000
performance as compared with traditional methods was achieved Vr = total volume of riser tubes 共m3兲 37
关7兴. Gough 关8兴 applied an advanced control of steam superheat Di = inner diameter of a riser tube 0.0672
temperature on a utility boiler. The paper described an adaptive Do = outer diameter of a riser tube 0.0762
predictive model to the control of the superheater steam tempera- mr = total mass of riser tubes 共kg兲 160,000
ture. It was proposed to use a variable speed water pump and a Vdc = volume of downcomer tube 共m3兲 11
control system for the pump speed to account for the varying C p共=C兲 = specific heat of metal 共kJ/共kg K兲兲 0.5
pressure difference between water feed and drum pressure.
Some research papers accommodated the working stresses of
boilers in the control design and analysis of boilers and steam
ing the combined effective stresses in the riser tubes. The possi-
generators. A new control solution aiming at improving the
bility of damage induced by resulting temperature and stress
start-up procedures of boilers and explicitly taking the thermal variations is investigated. An optimized control approach is intro-
stress values of critical components into account has been pre- duced in the study.
sented by Kruger et al. 关6,9兴. The presented boiler model has
shown that it is possible to obtain boiler models using only state
variables, which can be measured or only a few additional non- 2 Modeling
measurable states. An on-line optimization of drum boiler start-up 2.1 Dynamic Model of the Drum Boilers. The boiler under
was investigated by Franke et al. 关3兴. The cost function of the consideration here is of the water-tube natural circulation type.
optimization model was taken to be in terms of the deviations of The operational and physical data of the drum boiler used in the
the steam pressure and steam flow rates from their reference val- study are presented in Table 1. The main components of the boiler
ues, while the thermal stress was taken as an output constraint. are the steam drum, the downcomer, and the riser tubes 共Fig. 1兲,
Examples of an improved main steam temperature control and which represent the complete water circulation loop. Most of ther-
operation of a drum boiler turbine bypass system were presented mal energy is added to the fluid while flowing in the riser tubes
by Peet and Leung 关10兴 to demonstrate the value of dynamic and thus boiling takes place.
capability to maintain the steam temperature deviation over wide- The following are the governing equations. The system consid-
load ranges or during rapid load changes, which can increase the ered includes the drum, riser, and downcomer. The governing
permissible rate of load change due to thermal stress limitations. equations 关1兴 consist of the conservation of mass and energy of
Taler et al. 关11兴 developed a new method for determining thermal the total system, the equations governing the phase change in the
stresses in boilers during start-up. They presented a new method drum including the steam and water volumes inside the drum, and
of transient temperature field identification in the drum on the the rate of steam condensation and the equations for the flow
basis of measured temperature changes at locations on the outer circulation in the riser-downcomer loop, which describe the trans-
insulated surface of the drum. The method’s accuracy was dem- port of mass, energy, and momentum. Thus, a set of nonlinear
onstrated by a comparison of thermal distributions obtained by differential equations representing the time dependence of the
FEM. An analysis of transient temperature and stress distribution state variables of the pressure P, total volume of water Vwt, and
in boiler components during start-up and shutdown operations has steam quality at the exit of the riser tube x can be presented in a
been presented by WJglowski et al. 关12兴. The thermal stresses matrix form as follows:
have been determined indirectly on the basis of measured tem-
perature values taken at selected points on the outer surface of a
construction element. Monitoring of boilers’ thermal and strength
operation conditions allowed finding the dangerous loads on
power boiler’s pressure elements during the boiler start-up and
shutdown operations.
From the above literature review, it can be seen that none of the
authors addressed the specific problem of thermal stress variation
due to swing rate in the boiler riser tubes. Most of the research
works that dealt with thermal stress variations in boilers and heat-
ers have done it for start-up and shutdown operations only. The
problem of the effect of different swing rates on thermal- and
pressure-caused stresses has not been explicitly addressed, nor has
this stress fluctuation effect on the tube’s life studied. The objec-
tive of this research paper is to analyze the combined thermal- and
pressure-induced stress response of the drum boiler riser tubes due
to rates of heating load that vary under controlled conditions with
the changed rates of the steam flow rate. The nonlinear dynamic
governing equations are integrated simultaneously using MATLAB
for solving the water volume, the pressure, and the steam quality
at the exit of the riser tubes. The inner and outer temperatures of
the riser tubes are calculated after solving for the heat transfer
coefficient at the inner wall of the riser tubes at different time
steps. For different swing rates of steam flow, the combined Fig. 1 Construction of the boiler furnace: water circulation
stresses are computed. A FEM model has been used for calculat- loop

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 冤 冥冤 冥冤 冥
ṁ fw − ṁs Table 2 The thermal model constants †15‡
a11 a12 0 dP/dt
a21 a22 0 dVwt/dt = Q̇ + ṁ fwh fw − ṁshs 共1兲 CO ⬍ 0.65 CO ⱖ 0.65
a31 0 a33 dx/dt Q̇ − ẋh fgṁdc C1 1.136 0.6683
C2 ⫺0.9 ⫺0.2
The model derived parameters are given by
C3 667.2 1058
C4 0.7 0.7
⳵␳w ⳵␳s
a11 = Vwt + Vst 共2兲 0.3 共C5 = 0 for vertical tubes and =0 for horizontal tubes
⳵P ⳵P C5 0.3 if Fr is greater than 0.04兲

a12 = ␳w − ␳s 共3兲

冉
a21 = Vwt hw
⳵␳w
⳵p
+ ␳w
⳵ hw
⳵p
冊 冉
+ Vst hs
⳵␳s
⳵p
+ ␳s
⳵ hs
⳵p
冊
− Vt + mmtC p
⳵ tm
⳵p
Re =
G共1 − x兲Di
␮
共12兲

共4兲 Fk is a fluid dependent parameter 共=1 for water兲

G2
a22 = ␳whw − ␳shs 共5兲 Fr is the Froude number = 共13兲
␳l2gDi

冉
a31 = ␳w
⳵ hw
⳵p
− xh fg
⳵␳w
⳵p
冊 冉
共1 − ¯␣兲Vr + 共1 − x兲h fg
⳵␳s
⳵p
+ ␳s
⳵ hs
⳵p
¯␣Vr 冊 G = mass flux =
ṁr
Ar
and Di is the pipe diameter 共14兲

⳵ ¯␣ ⳵ tm
+ 共␳s + x共␳w − ␳s兲兲h fgVr − Vr + mmtC p 共6兲 q⬙
⳵p ⳵p BO is the boiling number = 共15兲
Gh fg

a33 = 共共1 − x兲␳s + x␳w兲h fgVr

⳵ ¯␣
⳵x
共7兲 CO = convection number = 冉 冊冉 冊
1−x
x
0.8
␳s
␳w
0.5
共16兲

where ¯␣ is the average value of the void fraction along the riser where ␳w is the density of liquid phase and ␳s is the density of the
tube, Vr is the volume of the riser tubes, mmt is the total mass of vapor phase. x is the steam quality, and the constants C1, C2, C3,
the system, and tm is the metal temperature. ␳w, ␳s and hw, hs are C4, and C5 are given in Table 2.
the density and specific enthalpy of water and steam; h fg is the
specific enthalpy of evaporation h fg = hs − h f . 2.3 Steam Pressure Control and Optimization Scheme.
The boiler control system uses a three-term control strategy. The
2.2 Thermal Model. The following equations are used to cal- demanded heating power Q共t兲 is determined based on the devia-
culate the inside and outside wall temperatures of the riser tube: tion of the drum pressure Pd共t兲 from the pressure set point. The
control law is given by
To − Ti To − Ts
q␲Do = and q␲Do = 共8兲 E p共t兲 = Psp − Pd共t兲 共17兲
Rpipe Rconv

where q is the heat flux at the outside surface of the tubes, Do is
the pipe outer diameter, Ti and To are the wall temperatures at the
inner and outer walls of the tube, Ts is the water saturation tem-
perature, and Rconv and Rpipe are the resistances of the inner water
film and the pipe wall per unit length. They are calculated from
the following relations:
ln共Do/Di兲 1 To maximize the swing rate, within the operation constraints,
Rpipe = and Rconv = 共9兲
2␲Kpipe ␲ D ih
with Kpipe as the thermal conductivity of the pipe material and h is
the heat transfer coefficient of the water film inside the tube. Kpipe
is kept constant throughout the time domain of the solution. It
should be noted that Eq. 共8兲 is solved under steady state condi-
tions. This assumption is justified by the high capacity of water in
the system.
For calculating the heat transfer coefficient including convec-
tion evaporation and nucleate boiling terms and is expressed as
关13兴
h = hL关c1COc2共25 Frl兲c5 + c3BOc4Fk兴 共10兲
where hL is the single phase heat transfer coefficient and is calcu-
lated from the Dittus–Boelter equation 关14兴
Nu = 0.023共Re兲0.8共Pr兲0.4 共11兲
冕
t
dE p共t兲
Q共t兲 = Qi + kqp · E p共t兲 + kqi · E p共t兲dt + kqd · 共18兲
0
dt
where Psp is the drum pressure set point; Pd共t兲 is the measured
drum pressure; Qi is the initial heat flow; and kqp, kqi, and kqd are
the proportional, integral, and derivative control parameters,
respectively.
the problem is formulated as a constrained optimization problem,
where an objective function is minimized with respect to the con-
trol parameters and the steam demand. The objective function is
the weighted sum of several performance objectives. The swing
rate is taken to be the percent change in steam load over a period
of 1 min. The performance objectives include the following:
• The maximum percent overshoot/undershoot of the heating
power.
• The maximum percent overshoot/undershoot of the drum
pressure.
• The weighted sum of the square of the difference between
the drum pressure and the drum pressure set point. The
weighting values are exponentially increasing with time to
penalize drum pressure oscillations.
• Weighted reward value for large swing rate 共large steam
load兲.

where Re is the Reynolds number of the flow inside the tube and The performance is calculated over a period starting from the
Pr is the Prandtl number for water. Pr is kept constant throughout new steam load value. Several operational constraints were also
the time domain of the solution. imposed, including upper and lower limits of the firing rate, drum

Journal of Pressure Vessel Technology DECEMBER 2010, Vol. 132 / 061301-3

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 level and drum pressure, and maximum rate of feed water. The 75
optimization problem is then solved using a genetic algorithm
70
共GA兲. A genetic algorithm is a method for solving both con-

Steam flow rate (kg/s)

strained and unconstrained optimization problems that is based on 65
natural selection, i.e., the process that drives biological evolution.
The genetic algorithm repeatedly modifies a population of indi- 60
vidual solutions. At each step, the genetic algorithm selects indi-
viduals at random from the current population to be parents and 55
uses them to produce the children for the next generation. Over
50
successive generations, the population evolves toward an optimal
solution 关15兴. 45
2.4 Combined Stress Problem. The finite element method
40
has been employed for solving the heat conduction equation to
0 3000 6000 9000 12000 15000
determine the temperature distribution in the riser pipe wall. Re-
sulting temperature profiles are integrated numerically for finding Time (s)
the effective thermal stresses in the wall. Grid size independency
tests have been conducted for finding the optimum number of Fig. 2 Steam flow rate reading of the current boiler
elements and for obtaining results with maximum accuracy. The
riser pipe wall was divided into SOLID98 ANSYS elements. The
SOLID98 ANSYS element is a ten-node tetrahedral coupled-field histories are determined at different time points from the values of
solid version of the eight-node SOLID5 ANSYS element 关16兴. The heat transfer coefficients at the inner surface of the tube using Eqs.
element has a quadratic displacement behavior and is well suited 共8兲 and 共9兲. Both the tube pressure and the inner and outer wall
to model either regular or irregular meshes. Each of the ten nodes temperatures were employed in the FEM simulation.
has six degrees of freedom at each node. The effective stresses in
the cylinder wall are calculated from the solved obtained tempera- 3 Solution Procedure
ture and pressure distributions, according to the von Mises theory The present model solves the differential equations of pressure,
关17,18兴 quality, and total water volume. Equation 共1兲 was solved simulta-
␴effective = 关␴␪2 + ␴l2 + ␴r2 − 共␴␪␴l + ␴␪␴l + ␴l␴r兲兴1/2 共19兲 neously using an explicit method with a time step of 1.0 s for a
total time of 1500 s. The coefficients in these equations were
where obtained from Eqs. 共2兲–共7兲. In order to integrate the differential
␴␪ = ␴␪−T + ␴␪−P 共20兲 equations of the system, a MATLAB subroutine was developed. The
computed pressure and temperature values were then used to nu-
␴r = ␴r−T + ␴r−P 共21兲 merically calculate the effective von Mises stresses 共Eq. 共19兲兲 at
each time step.
␴l = ␴l−T + ␴l−P 共22兲
4 Results and Analysis
where ␴␪, ␴r, and ␴l are the tangential, radial, and longitudinal
stresses, respectively, and where ␴␪−T, ␴r−T, and ␴l−T are the ther- 4.1 Validation. Measurements of boiler operating conditions
mal tangential, radial, and longitudinal stresses, respectively, and were conducted for a typical Saudi Aramco boiler having the
given as steady state conditions of drum pressure of 4480 kPa and steam

冋 冕 冕 册
ro r flow rate of 44.7 kg/s. The boiler having the maximum continuous
E␣ r2 + ri2 rating 共MCR兲 operating conditions 共as shown in Table 1兲 is con-
␴␪ = T ⫻ rdr + T ⫻ rdr − T ⫻ r2
共1 − ␯兲r r2o − ri2
2
ri ri
nected to a gas turbine steam cogeneration unit through a pressure
header. Due to an upset in the gas turbine unit 共tripped gas tur-
共23兲 bine兲, the header pressure dropped. This is followed by an in-

冋 冕 冕 册
crease in the steam flow rate from other boilers including the
ro r
E␣ r2 − ri2 boiler under concern, which resulted in a pressure drop in the
␴r = T ⫻ rdr + T ⫻ rdr 共24兲 steam drum of this boiler. As the drum pressure drops, the control
共1 − ␯兲r r2o − ri2
2
ri ri system responds to recover the pressure drop toward the set point

冋冉 冕 冊 册 ro
value by increasing the fuel flow rate. The variations in the steam
E␣ 2 flow rate are given in Fig. 2. As shown by the figure, the steam
␴z = T ⫻ rdr − T 共25兲
共1 − ␯兲 r2o − ri2 ri
flow rate increases at around 12,000 s by around 60% in almost
700 s 共i.e., 5.1% per minute of the operating value or around 3.4%
where E is the modulus of elasticity, ␯ is Poisson’s ratio, and ␣ is of the MCR value. The results of the field data were used for
the thermal expansion coefficient of the riser tube material. The validating the present nonlinear dynamic system under the condi-
tangential, longitudinal, and radial stresses caused by pressure tions of a closed loop system. Thus, the steam flow rate of the
stresses, ␴␪−P, ␴r−P, and ␴l−P, are given as field results 共Fig. 2兲 was supplied as input data for the nonlinear

冋 册
dynamic model and the response of the drum pressure was calcu-
ri2 ⴱ P r2o lated. The results are shown in Figs. 3 and 4. Figure 3 provides the
␴r−P = 1− 共26兲
共r2o − ri2兲 r2 calculated and measured drum pressure, while Fig. 4 provides a

冋 册
close up view. The results show that the procedure provides good
ri2 ⴱ P r2o agreement, and the variations in the pressure are well captured by
␴␪−P = 1+ 共27兲 the present model, particularly in the region from 0 to around
共r2o − ri2兲 r2
17,000 s. The rest of the time period indicates some discrepancies.
These discrepancies are attributed to the rise of the pressure set-
␴l−P = 0 共28兲
point in the experimental side. Although this rise was taken into
The transient thermal stresses part of the total stresses of the riser account in the present calculations, but the exact new value of the
tube are calculated based on the identified inner and outer wall pressure setpoint was not known. As well, it should be noted that
temperatures of the tube using Eqs. 共23兲–共25兲. The temperature the small oscillations appearing in the steady state region up-

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 5000 65
4900
Calculated Pressure
4800 60

Steam flow rate (kg/s)

Experimental data
step rise = 5%
4700
step rise = 10%
Pressure, kPa

55
4600 step rise = 20%
4500 step rise = 40%
4400 50

4300
45
4200
4100
40
4000
0 300 600 900 1200 1500
0 5000 10000 15000 20000
Time, s Time (s)

Fig. 3 Calculated and experimental results of response of Fig. 5 Input schemes of steam flow rate
drum pressure to variations in steam flow rate

the outer wall temperature oscillates within 4.8 K before stabiliz-

stream of 12,600 s and in the vicinity of 20,000 s are related to
system noise in the experiments and therefore are not presented by
the present computational procedure.
4.2 Calculated Operating Conditions and Thermal
Stresses. Thermal stresses of the riser tubes were calculated at
different values of swing rates in the steam flow rate exiting the
boiler. The steam flow rate was increased to 40% using different
schemes of 5%, 10%, 20%, and 40% per minute. These corre-
spond to 3.4%, 6.7%, 13.4%, and 26.8% of the MCR value per
minute. Thus, 8 ⫻ 5%, 4 ⫻ 10%, 2 ⫻ 20%, and 1 ⫻ 40% step rises
were applied. The variations in the steam flow rate corresponding
to these step rises are shown in Fig. 5. The calculations include
drum pressure, inner and outer wall temperature, and effective
thermal stresses of the riser walls. Equation 共1兲 was used for the
calculation of drum pressure, steam quality, and riser wall tem-
perature. Equation 共1兲 was also used to calculate drum pressure
and steam quality. Equation 共8兲 was used to calculate the riser
wall temperature, and Eqs. 共23兲–共25兲 were used to calculate the
effective thermal stresses. The response of the drum pressure to
the variations in the steam flow rate is shown in Fig. 6. The
increase in the steam flow rate results in a pressure drop in the
steam drum. As the pressure drops in the steam drum of the boiler,
the control system responds to recover the pressure drop toward
the set point pressure by increasing the fuel flow rate. The pres-
sure oscillates around the steady state value and stabilizes at
around 500 s. The figure shows that the overshooting in the drum
pressure increases as the step rise in the steam flow rate increases
and ranges between ⫺130 kPa and 80 kPa around the steady state
value.
Figure 7 presents the inner and outer wall temperatures of the
riser wall. The inner wall temperature oscillates within 3.2 K and
5000
4900
Calculated Pressure
4800
Experimental data
4700
ing at the steady state value but also reflect the variations in the
steam quality as it affects the heat transfer coefficient. The in-
crease in temperature on the inner wall occurs at a rate of about
110 K/h, and on the outer wall, at an approximate rate of 170 K/h.
The rate of change on the outer wall is comparable to that of a
typical start-up operation, which was estimated at 167 K/h for the
drum inlet 关19兴. The present temperature change occurred at the
steady state temperature of 545 K, while the typical start-up oc-
curred at 360 K. Furthermore, the temperature rise in this case is
very low to cause any kind of thermal shock. The next question to
be considered is how the different swing rates affect the stress
distribution in the riser tube and the service life of this component.
Figure 8 presents the effective stresses at the inner and outer
surfaces of the riser wall tube. These stresses are the combined
effects of the variations in the pressure and temperature across the
walls. The highest values of maximum stress 共53.5 MPa兲 and
stress range 共6 MPa兲 occur at the inner wall and are due to 40%
step rise. The stresses due to pressure are dominant in this transi-
tion zone 共about 80%兲. Even though the amplitude of the stress
cycle is low, the cycling of thermal and mechanical stresses even
with low amplitudes is always feared because they may cause
premature fatigue failure. The effect of the present stress reversals
on the fatigue life of the riser tube is examined in the following:
The stress amplitude is estimated at 3 MPa from the following:
␴a = 冏 ␴max − ␴min
2
=冏53.5 − 47.5
2
The mean stress ␴m is taken here as the steady state stress of 51.5
MPa. To include the mean stress effect for asymmetric cycles,
4600
4550
4500
P (kPa)

step rise = 5%
Pressure, kPa

4600 4450
4500 step rise = 10%
4400 4400 step rise = 20%
step rise = 40%
4300
4350
4200
4100
4300
4000
0 300 600 900 1200 1500
11000 11500 12000 12500 13000 13500 14000
Time, s Time (s)

Fig. 4 Calculated and experimental results „close view… of re- Fig. 6 Pressure profiles at the inner wall of the riser tube in
sponse of drum pressure to variations in steam flow rate response to variations in steam flow rate

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 538 54

53
537

Effective stress (MPa)

52
536
51
T (K)

step rise = 5%
535 50 step rise = 5%
step rise = 10%
step rise = 10%
step rise = 20% 49 step rise = 20%
534 step rise = 40%
step rise = 40%
48

533 47
0 300 600 900 1200 1500 0 300 600 900 1200 1500
Time (s) Time (s)

a- Inner wall a- Inner wall

547 30

546
29.5

Effective stress (MPa)

545
29
T (K)

544 step rise= 5% step rise = 5%

step rise = 10% 28.5 step rise = 10%
543 step rise = 20% step rise = 20%
step rise = 40% step rise = 40%
542 28

541 27.5
0 300 600 900 1200 1500 0 300 600 900 1200 1500
Time (s) Time (s)

b- Outer wall b- Outer wall

Fig. 7 Temporal temperature profiles at inner and outer walls Fig. 8 Temporal combined pressure and thermal stress pro-
in response to variations in steam flow rate files at the inner and outer walls in response to variations in
steam flow rate

Goodman’s approach 关19兴 is used to estimate the equivalent stress
amplitude ␴aeq
␴a 3 4.3 Control Optimization. The influence of the optimization
␴aeq = = = 3.53 MPa
␴m 51.5
1− 1−
Sut 345
The ultimate strength Sut = 345 MPa of A 178 at room temperature
is used here because carbon steel strength is not affected by tem-
peratures below 645 K 共700° F兲 关19兴.
The estimated stress amplitude is very low and is not expected
to cause any fatigue damage. The endurance limit for steels with
Sut less than 550 MPa 共80 ksi兲 and at temperatures less than 645 K
共700° F兲 is approximately 70 MPa 共10 ksi兲 关20兴. This will result in
a safety factor as high as 20.
As shown above, the stress variation in the riser tube due to
swing rate is not expected to result in tube failure, provided that
the boiler and tube were initially at steady state and that the
start-up and shutdown cycles were taken care of in the design of
the boiler system. Thus, the stress level caused by swing rates as
high as 40% may not be a limiting factor.
Figure 9 presents the wall temperature distribution at 10 s, 60 s,
and 120 s. These results show that the swing rate does not affect
the temperature distribution across the wall of the riser tube at the
initial stages; however, as the time progresses, the wall gains
higher temperatures for the higher swing rates, although the tem-
perature distribution remains similar. Figure 10 presents the cor-
responding wall stress distributions at 10 s, 60 s, and 120 s. These
results show that the value of swing rate does not significantly
affect the stress level, especially in the region before the midwall
thickness.
of the control system on the effective stresses of the riser tube is
shown in Fig. 11. The two control systems are compared. The first
is the current control system. The second is developed in the
present work to provide minimal overshooting in the boiler oper-
ating parameters. The control used is given by Eq. 共18兲 for fuel
flow rate, which is a proportional-integral-derivative 共PID兲-
controller. Sensitivity to kqp, kqi, and kqd was conducted and the
optimized weighted control parameters are found as 300, 0.0179,
and 0, respectively, while the control parameters of the current
boiler are 60, 3, and 0, respectively. These parameters were evalu-
ated based on the field measurements. The results of Fig. 11 show
that the stress fluctuation is minimized with the optimized control
system, making its effect on the life of the tube even less signifi-
cant.
5 Conclusions and Remarks
This research paper presented a study on the effect of swing
rate on effective combined pressure-caused and thermally induced
stresses in riser tubes of drum boilers. The differential equations
describing dynamics of the drum boiler were integrated using a
MATLAB subroutine. Experimental field data were used for validat-
ing the subroutine results and a reasonable level of accuracy was
found. Different schemes for increasing the steam flow swing rate
were employed 共8 ⫻ 5%, 4 ⫻ 10%, 2 ⫻ 20%, and 1 ⫻ 40%兲. The

061301-6 / Vol. 132, DECEMBER 2010 Transactions of the ASME

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 542 55

Effective stress (MPa)

541 50 5%
540
10%
539 5% 45

T (K)
20%
538 10% 40
537 40%
20% 35
536
535 40%
30
534
25
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
Radius, (r-ri)/(r-ro) Radius, (r-ri)/(r-ro)
a- at10 seconds.
a- at 10 seconds
55

Effective Stress (MPa)

546 5%
5% 50
544 10%
10% 45
542 20%
20% 40
T (K)

40%
540 40% 35
538 30
536 25
534 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1 Radius, (r-ri)/(ro-ri)
Radius, (r-ri)/(r-ro)
b- at 60 seconds
b- at 60 seconds
55

Effective Stress (MPa)

548 50 5%
546 5% 10%
10% 45
544 20%
20% 40 40%
T (K)

542
40% 35
540
538 30
536 25
534 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1 Radius, (r-ri)/(ro-ri)
Radius, (r-ri)/(r-ro) c- at120 seconds
c- at 120 seconds
Fig. 10 Wall stress distributions at 10 s, 60 s, and 120 s
Fig. 9 Wall temperature distributions at 10 s, 60 s, and 120 s

Nomenclature
Ar ⫽ riser pipe inner area 共m2兲
heat transfer coefficient at the inner wall is evaluated using a CP ⫽ specific heat of metal 共kJ/kg C兲
thermal model that includes the effects of convection evaporation D ⫽ diffusion coefficient 共m2 / s兲
and nucleate boiling, and the pipe wall resistance is calculated for
estimating the temporal inner and outer wall temperatures. Both E ⫽ modulus of elasticity, Eqs. 共23兲–共25兲 共kN/ m2兲
the steam pressure and the riser tube inner and outer wall tem- G ⫽ mass flux 共kg/ m2 s兲
peratures were introduced in a finite element model for finding the h ⫽ specific enthalpy 共kJ/kg兲; heat transfer coeffi-
effective combined stresses. The temperature distribution across cient 共kW/ m2 C兲
the wall of the pipe due to the swing rate values is similar at g ⫽ gravitational acceleration 共m / s2兲
different time stages, and the levels between the thermal stresses h fw ⫽ specific enthalpy of feedwater 共kJ/kg兲
at the inner and outer walls increase as the time progresses with hf ⫽ specific enthalpy of saturated liquid water
higher values of swing rate. The combined temperature- and 共kJ/kg兲
pressure-induced stress fluctuations in the riser tube due to swing hg ⫽ specific enthalpy of saturated water vapor
rate were found to be too low to result in a riser tube damage, 共kJ/kg兲
provided that the boiler and tube were initially at steady state and hs ⫽ specific enthalpy of steam leaving the boiler
that the start-up and shutdown cycles were taken care of in the 共kJ/kg兲
design of the boiler system. The proposed control strategy for hw ⫽ specific enthalpy of saturated water 共kJ/kg兲
minimizing the overshoot temperature and stress responses was h fg ⫽ specific condensation enthalpy h fg = hg − h f
found to be successful in reducing both the peak values and the 共kJ/kg兲
rise time. k ⫽ dimensionless friction coefficient in the
downcomer-riser loop
K ⫽ thermal conductivity 共kW/mC兲
Acknowledgment Q ⫽ heat flow rate to the risers 共kW兲
The authors wish to acknowledge the support received from ṁdc ⫽ downcomer mass flow rate 共kg/s兲
King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals and Saudi ṁ fw ⫽ mass flow rate of feedwater supplied to the
Aramco during this study. drum 共kg/s兲

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 54 Vst ⫽ total volume of steam in the system 共m3兲
53 Vt ⫽ total volume of the drum, downcomer, and
risers; Vt = Vst + Vwt 共m3兲
Stress (MPa) 52 Vwd ⫽ volume of water under the liquid level 共m3兲
51
Vwt ⫽ total volume of water in the system 共m3兲
Current Control x ⫽ steam quality
50 Optimized Control Greek Symbols
49 ␣ ⫽ volume fraction of steam in the riser thermal
expansion coefficient
48 ¯␣ ⫽ average volume fraction of steam in the riser
47 ␷ ⫽ Poisson’s ratio
0 300 600 900 1200 1500
␮ ⫽ dynamic viscosity 共kg/ms兲
␳w ⫽ saturated water density 共kg/ m3兲
Time (s)
␳s ⫽ saturated steam density 共kg/ m3兲
a- Inner wall ␳l ⫽ liquid phase density 共kg/ m3兲
␳v ⫽ vapor phase density 共kg/ m3兲
30 ␴l ⫽ longitudinal stress 共kN/ m2兲
␴␪ ⫽ tangential stress 共kN/ m2兲
29.5 ␴r ⫽ radial stress 共kN/ m2兲
29
Stress (MPa)

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