SYNOPSIS OF PROJECT TITLE

COMPUTATIONAL FLUID
DYNAMICS
ANALYSIS OF
ELECTROSTATIC
PRECIPITATOR
OF
210MW THERMAL POWER
PLANT
GUIDED BY
Mr. (Prof) M.Dabhadkar
ASST. DIRECTOR, NPTI(WR), NAGPUR
SUBMITTED BY
SHREEYASH MALODE
SANDEEP SINGH

TARKESH GIRI
AMIT DONGARE
PRANIT PALIWAL

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

We deem it a pleasure to acknowledge our sense of

gratitude to our project guide Prof. M. Dabhadkar under
whom we have carried out the project work. His incisive
and objective guidance and timely advice encouraged us
with constant flow of energy to continue the work. We shall
remain grateful to Mr. Prof. S.I.Mahant, Director, National
Power Training Institute, Nagpur for providing us a strong
academic atmosphere by enforcing strict discipline to do
the project work with utmost concentration and dedication.
We shall remain grateful to CCTECH CO.LTD, PUNE for
providing us free online courses on CFD on their website
learncax.com. Finally, we must say that no height is ever
achieved without some sacrifices made at some end and it
is here where we owe our special debt to our parents and
our friends for showing their generous love and care
throughout the entire period of time.

PROJECTEE

TITLE OF PROJECT
COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS ANALYSIS OF
ELECTROSTATIC PRECIPITATOR OF 210MW THERMAL
POWER PLANT

CONTENT
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HEADING

PAGE NO.

INTRODUCTION
SCOPE
LITERATURE SURVEY
REASON FOR IDENTIFICATION
OF PROJECT
OBJECTIVES
METHODOLOGIES
EXPECTED RESULT AND
CONCLUSION
TECHNICAL DETAILS
REFERENCES

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1.INTRODUCTION
1.1 INTRODUCTION TO ELECTROSTATIC PRECIPITATOR
ESP is an important auxillary in thermal power plant as
environmental impact of ash particle carried with fly ash.
ESP is used to separate fly ash particle carried with flue
gases from flue gases. ESP are the most reliable and
effective to capture fine particles for reducing exhaust
emission.
For separating the dust particles from the flue gas, an
electrical force is generally used by the ESP. A rectangular
collection chamber which is known as inlet evase and an
outlet convergent duct known as outlet evase are the key
component of an ESP . A number of discharge electrode
and collecting electrode are placed inside the collection
chamber. A set of discharge electrode is suspended
vertically and the gas flow through this channel. By using
an electric field, particle separation is achieved.
PARAMETERS

PRESSURE= 408mm OF WATER.

INLET FLUE GAS TEMPERATURE =120 DEGREE CELSIUS.
INLET VELOCITY OF FLUE GAS= 7 m/sec.
GEOMETRICAL PARAMETERS OF ESP
o HEIGHT OF COLLECTING PLATE = 12mts
o LENGTH OF COLLECTING PLATES= 4mts.
o DIST. BETWEEN COLLECTING PLATE=300 mm.
o NUMBER OF PLATES IN A FIELD=52
o NUMBER OF FIELDS=5

o DIAMETER OF HOLE IN GAS DISTRIBUTION

SCREEN=60 mm.
1.2 COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is a computer-based
tool for simulating the behavior of systems involving fluid
flow, heat transfer, and other related physical processes. It
works by solving the equations of fluid flow (in a special
form) over a region of interest, with specified (known)
conditions on the boundary of that region.

The fundamental basis of almost all CFD problems are the

NavierStokes equations, which define many single-phase
(gas or liquid, but not both) fluid flows. These equations
can be simplified by removing terms describing viscous
actions to yield the Euler equations. Further simplification,
by removing terms describing vorticity yields the full
potential equations. Finally, for small perturbations in
subsonic and supersonic flows (not transonic or
hypersonic) these equations can be linearized to yield the
linearized potential equations.

1.3 MATHEMATICS OF CFD

The set of equations that describe the
processes of momentum, heat and mass transfer are
known as the Navier-Stokes equations. These partial
differential equations were derived in the early nineteenth
century and have no known general analytical solution but
can be discretized and solved numerically.
Equations describing other processes,
such as combustion, can also be solved in conjunction with
the Navier-Stokes equations. Often, an approximating
model is used to derive these additional equations,
turbulence models being a particularly important example.
NavierStokes equations describe the
motion of viscous fluid substances. These balance
equations arise from applying Newton's second law tofluid
motion, together with the assumption that the stress in the
fluid is the sum of a diffusing viscous term (proportional to
the gradient of velocity) and a pressure termhence
describing viscous flow

1.4 HOW DOES CFD WORKS

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is the simulation of
fluids engineering systems using modeling (mathematical
physical problem formulation) and numerical methods
(discretization methods, solvers, numerical parameters,
and grid generations, etc.).
Firstly, we have a fluid problem. To solve this problem, we
should know the physical properties of fluid by using Fluid
Mechanics. Then we can use mathematical equations to
describe these physical properties. This is Navier-Stokes
Equation and it is the governing equation of CFD. As the
Navier-Stokes Equation is analytical, human can
understand it and solve them on a piece of paper. But if we
want to solve this equation by computer, we have to
translate it to the discretized form. The translators are
numerical discretization methods, such as Finite Difference,
Finite Element, Finite Volume methods. Consequently, we
also need to divide our whole problem domain into many

small parts because our discretization is based on them.

Then, we can write programs to solve them. The typical
languages are Fortran and C. Normally the programs are
run on workstations or supercomputers. At the end, we can
get our simulation results. We can compare and analyze
the simulation results with experiments and the real
problem. If the results are not sufficient to solve the
problem, we have to repeat the process until find satisfied
solution. This is the process of CFD.

2. SCOPE
TO STUDY VARIOUS PHYSICAL PARAMETERS OF ESP .
TO IDENTIFY MATHEMATICAL MODEL/EQUATIONS WHICH
RESEMBLES WITH ACTUAL PHYSICAL CONDITIONS OF FLUE
GAS AND ITS FLOW IN ELECTROSTATICS PRECIPITATOR.
TO GENERATE GEOMETRIC MODEL OF ELECTROSTATIC
PRECIPITATOR WITH EXACT DIMENSION THAT OF 210MW
THERMAL POWER PLANT ESP.
TO SIMULATE FLOW OF FLUE GAS IN ELECTROSTATIC
PRECIPITATOR WITH PARAMETERS CLOSE TO REAL LIFE
CONDITION.
TO PERFORM ANALYSIS ON o FLUE GAS
PARTICLE TRACKING PATH OF FLUE GAS.
VELOCITY OF FLUE GAS AT VARIOUS REGION OF
INTEREST.

 PRESSURE FLUE GAS EXERTING ON ESP WALL AND

OTHER CONTACT SURFACE.
PRESSURE AND VELOCITY LOSS OF FLUE GAS DUE
GAS DISTRIBUTION SCREEN.
o ELECTROSTATICS PRECIPITATOR
PRESSURE ON CONTACT SURFACE
TEMPERATURE DISTRIBUTION ON ESP CONTACT
SURFACE.
TO MODIFY DESIGN OF ELECTROSTATIC PRECIPITATOR BASED
ON FLAWS INDENTIFIED IN CFD ANALYSIS.
TO IDENTIFY AND REPORT LIMITATIONS OF CFD MODELLING
AND SIMULATION

2.SCOPE (CONT.)
APPOARCH FOR DESIGN OPTIMIZATIONS

TO PERFORM CFD ANALYSIS ON EXISTING ESP DESIGN

TO STUDY OBTAINED CFD ANALYSIS RESULT
THOROUGHY.
TO INDENTIFY VARIOUS FLAWS PRESENT IN EXISTING
ESP DESIGN.
TO MODIFY EXISTING DESIGN OF ESP ACCORDINGLY.
FOR DESIGN OPTIMIZATION OF ESP WE CAN MAKE
SOME CHANGE IN DESIGN OF ESP LIKEo ADDING BAFFLES PLATES ADJOINED TO WALL OF
ESP WHICH MIGHT CREATE VORTEX NEAR WALL

WHICH CAN INCREASE RESIDENCE TIME FOR FLUE

GAS. THUS INCREASING OVERALL EFFICIENCY
NEXT STEP WOULD BE TO CREATE MODIFIED
GEOMETRIC DESIGN OF ESP IN COMPUTER
FOLLOW SAME STEPS OF CFD ANALYSIS ON MODIFIED
DESIGN LIKE THE PREVIOUS ONES.
TO OBSERVE CFD ANALYSIS RESULTS ON MODIFIED
DESIGN AND REACH TO A CONCLUSION.

3. LITERATURE SURVEY
EFFECTS OF BAFFLES ON FLOW DISTRIBUTION IN AN ESP
BY A.S.M.SAYEM, M.M.KHAN, M.G.RASUL
PUBLISHED AT 6TH BSME (ICTE 2014)
EXPLANATION: THE AUTHORS IN THIS PAPER STATED THAT
THERE ARE THREE IMPORTANT MATHEMATICAL EQUATION
REQUIRED TO PERFORM CALCULATION VIZ. CONTINUITY EQUATION
, MOMENTUM EQUATION , K-EPSILON TURBULENCE FOR ESP FLUE
GAS ANALYSIS. AIR WAS USED AS FLUID AND ITS ANQUISCENT
PROPERTIES WERE MAINTAINED . INLET VELOCITY WAS
CONSIDERED CONSTANT OF 7M/S. FINITE VOLUME METHOD WERE
USED TO DISCRETISE THE PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS OF
THE MODEL.

COMPARATIVE STUDY OF VARIOUS PARAMETERS OF ESP BY

USING CFD
BY MR.DHARMENDRA DEKATE , MR. K.M.NARKAR
PUBLISHED AT INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENGG RESEARCH AND GENERAL SCIENCE,
JUNE 2015

EXPLANATION: AUTHORS IN THIS RESEARCH PAPER STATE THAT BY

CHANGING THE INLET FLOW RATE , THERE IS CHANGE IN
PRESSURE DROP WITH RESPECT TO CHANGE IN VELOCITY. THUS,
FLOW DISTRIBUTION DOES NOT DEPENDS ON INLET FLOW RATE
AND PRESSURE IS DIRECTLY PROPORTIONAL TO VELOCITY. BY
CHANGING THE INLET FLOW TEMPERATURE , THERE IS HARDLY
ANY CHANGE IN FLOW DISTRIBUTION RATE. PRESSURE DROP IS
REDUCED WITH INCREASE IN TEMPREATURE.

CFD MODELING OF ESP

BY BRIAN J. DUMONT, ROBERT G MUDRY
PUBLISHED AT ELECTRIC POWER 2003 CONFERENCE
EXPLANATION: FOR A SYSTEM SUCH AS ESP, DYNAMIC
SIMILARITY IS ENSURED IF THE FLUID REYNOLDS NUMBER IS
MATCHED BETWEEN THE MODEL AND THE ACTUAL ESP. REYNOLDS
NUMBER IS THE RATIO OF INTERIAL FORCES TO VISCOUS FORCES.
RARELY DOES AN ESP MODEL MATCH REYNOLDS NUMBER
PRECISELY.ASSUMING FIXED FLUID PROPERTIES OVER EACH CELL,
THE COMPUTER CREATES A SET OF LINEAR EQUATIONS THAT
EXPRESS THE REQUIREMENT OF CONSERVATION OVER EACH CELL.
THIS SET OF EQUATIONS IS THEN SOLVED AND THE FLUID
PROPERTIES-VELOCITY, PRESSURE, TEMPERATURE, AND CHEMICAL
SPECIES CONCENTRATION- ARE UPDATED.
FLOW SIMULATION IN AN ESP OF THERMAL POWER PLANT
BY SHAH M.E.HAQUE , M.G.RASUL , A.V.DEEV
PUBLISHED AT APPLIED THERMAL ENGINEERING , JULY 2009
EXPLANATION: THE AIR INSIDE THE ESP WAS TREATED AS
INCOMPRESSIBLE NEWTONIAN FLUID DUE TO THE SMALL
PRESSURE DROP(<100 Pa ) ACROSS THE ESP.THE FLOW WAS
ASSUMED TO BE STEADY AND CAN BE DESCRIBED BY THE
CONSERVATION OF MASS EQUATION AND MOMENTUM EQUATION.
FOR THE TURBULENT FLOW INSIDE THE ESP, THE KEY TO SUCCESS
OF CFD LIES WITH THE ACCURATE DESCRIPTION OF THE
TURBULENT BEHAVIOUR OF THE FLOW. TO MODEL THE
TURBULENT FLOW IN AN ESP, THERE ARE A NUMBER OF
TURBULENCE MODELS AVAILABLE IN FLUENT. THE REALIZABLE KEPSILON MODEL IS A RELATIVELY RECENT DEVELOPMENT AND
CONTAINDS A NEW FORMULATION FOR THE TURBULENT

VISCOSITY AND A NEW TRANSPORT EQUATION FOR THE

DISSIPATION RATE.

4.REASON FOR IDENTIFICATION OF

SELECTED PROJECT
WHY ESP?
o ESP is one of the most important component of thermal
power plant
o ESP controls pollution which is modern days biggest
concern
o Removing dirt from flue gases in steam plants
o Removing oil mists in machine shops
o Removing acid mists in chemical process plants
o Cleaning blast furnace gases
o Removing bacteria and fungi in medical settings and
pharmaceutical production facilities
o Purifying air in ventilation and air conditioning systems
o Material recovery from gas flow (including oxides of
copper, lead and tin)
o

Separating rutile from zirconium sand in dry mills and

rutile recovery plants

WHY CFD ANALYSIS IS IMPORTANT?

o Computation is need of todays era.
o CFD analysis is cheap, easy and requires less time as
compared to experiment and analytical calculation.

o No need to manufacture small scaled prototype

o CFD analysis doesnt requires special equipment to
simulates various fluid flow
o Trial and Error method isnt required for CFD analysis.
o

More accurate result with minimum painstaking

calculations.

Cost
Time
Scale
Information
Repeatable
Safety

Simulation
(CFD)
Cheap
Short
Any
All
Yes
Yes

Experiment
Expensive
Long
Small/Middle
Measured Point
Some
Some Dangerous

5.OBJECTIVES
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.

VII.

TO ANALYSE PHYSICAL MODEL AND IDENTIFY IMPORTANT

PARAMETERS.
TO GENERATE GEOMETRY MODEL WHICH RESEMBLES
WITH ACTUAL MODEL
TO DEFINE BOUNDARY CONDITIONS OF FLUE GAS
TO PERFORM SIMULATION OF FLUE GAS IN ESP
TO CHECK OUTPUT RESULT AND GRAPH
TO INDENTIFY LIMITATIONS OF ANALYSIS AND MINIMIZE
THEM
TO OPTIMIZE EXISTING DESIGN OF ESP TO OVERCOME
ANY LIMITATIONS IF PRESENT

GEOMETRY

BOUNDARY CONDITIONS

PROCESSING

RESULT

6.METHODOLOGIES

GEOMETRY
USING ANSYS DESIGN MODELER

MESHING
USING ANSYS MESH GENERATOR

SETUP(PREPROCESSING)
USING ANSYS PRE-POST

SOLUTIONS
USING ANSYS CFX
USING ANSYS FLUENT

RESULT

The first step is to identify the region of interest:

The geometry of the region of interest is then defined. If the geometry
already exists in CAD, it can be imported directly. The mesh is then created.
After importing the mesh into the pre-processor, other elements of the
simulation including the boundary conditions (inlets, outlets, and so on) and
fluid properties are defined. The flow solver is run to produce a file of results
that contains The variation of velocity, pressure and any other variables
throughout the region of interest.
The results can be visualized and can provide the engineer an
understanding of the behavior of the fluid throughout the region of interest.
This can lead to design modifications that can be tested by changing the
geometry of the CFD model and seeing the effect.
The process of performing a single CFD simulation is split into four
components:
1.

Creating the Geometry/Mesh

2.

Defining the Physics of the Model

3.

Solving the CFD Problem

4.

Visualizing the Results in the Post-processor

Creating the Geometry/Mesh

This interactive process is the first pre-processing stage. The objective is to
produce a mesh for input to the physics pre-processor. Before a mesh can

be produced, a closed geometric solid is required. The geometry and mesh

can be created in the Meshing application or any of the other
geometry/mesh creation tools. The basic steps involve:
1.

Defining the geometry of the region of interest.

2.
Creating regions of fluid flow, solid regions and surface boundary
names.
3.

Setting properties for the mesh.

This pre-processing stage is now highly automated. In CFX, geometry can be

imported from most major CAD packages using native format, and the mesh
of control volumes is generated automatically.
Defining the Physics of the Model
This interactive process is the second pre-processing stage and
create
required by
The mesh
loaded into
physics
processor,
Figure 3 Structured Grids
Figure 4 Unstructured Grids

is used to
input
the Solver.
files are
the
preCFX-Pre.

Solving the CFD Problem

The component that solves the CFD problem is called the Solver. It
produces the required results in a non-interactive/batch process
Visualizing the Results in the Post-processor
The post-processor is the component used to analyze, visualize
and present the results interactively. Post-processing includes
anything from obtaining point values to complex animated
sequences

7.EXPECTED RESULT AND CONCLUSION

BY SUCCESSFUL ANALYSIS, WE WILL GET VARIOUS PHYSICAL
PARAMETERS OF FLUE GAS (LIKE VELOCITY ,PRESSURE , REYNOLDS

NUMBER ,ETC)AT VARIOUS LOCATION WHICH COULD BE USE TO

MODIFY DESIGN OF ESP FOR OPTIMIZATION.

8. TECHNICAL DETAILS
SYSTEM HARDWARE
o INTEL CORE 2 DUO 2GHZ PROCESSOR E7600
SERIES
o 2GB OF RAM
o 250GB OF HARD DISK
SOFTWARE DETAILS
o ANSYS WORKBENCH R15
o FOR GEOMETRY CONSTRUCTION ANSYS DESIGNMODELER
o FOR MESHING
ANSYS MESH GENERATOR
o FOR PRE-PROCESSING AND ANALYSIS
ANSYS CFX
ANSYS FLUENT

9. REFERENCES
The following is a selection of books related to fluids, thermodynamics, CFD
and computing:
An Introduction to Computational Fluid Dynamics, The Finite Volume
Method
H K Versteeg and W Malalasekera; Longman, 1995. An excellent
introduction to the theory of CFD with well-presented derivations of the
equations.
Using Computational Fluid Dynamics
C T Shaw; Prentice Hall, 1992. An introduction to the practical aspects of
using CFD.
Numerical Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow
S V Patankar; Taylor & Francis, 1980. A standard text on the details of
numerical methods.

 Engineering Thermodynamics: Work and Heat Transfer

G F C Rogers and Y R Mayhew; Longman, 1996. An undergraduate
thermodynamics text book.
.