BOILER FEED PUMPS

A Case Study
DONE BY EASHAN BHAT,
DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING,
VISVESVARAYA NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF
TECHNOLOGY,
NAGPUR.
Under the Guidance of Dr. Sachin A. Mandavgane.
 INTRODUCTION
• Boiler feed pumps are designed as multistage radial flow pumps.
• They serve to feed a steam generator such as a boiler or a nuclear reactor
with a quantity of feed water corresponding to the quantity of steam
emitted.
• The design of boiler feed pumps regarding power input, material, type of
pump and drive is largely governed by the developments which have taken
place in power station technology.
 HISTORY OF BOILER FEED PUMPS
• Until 1950, the average pressure in the outlet cross-section of the pump
(discharge pressure of the feed pump) was in the 200 bar region.

• By 1955 the average discharge pressure had risen to 400 bar.

• The mass flow rates were up to 350 tons/hr in 1950 which rose up to 3200
tons/hr till 2011 (up to 4000 tons/hr in some exceptional cases).
 MODERN BOILER FEED PUMPS
• These Pumps generally have a power rating of 30-50 MW.
• They have rotational speeds of 4500 to 6000 RPM.
• They can generate pressure up to 400 bar.

• Feed pumps for 1600 MW nuclear power stations are single stage and are
constructed for mass flow rates of up to 4000 tons/h and feed pump
discharge pressures of 70 to 100 bar.
• Feed pumps for 800 to 1100 MW conventional power stages are of four to six
stages with each stage generating up to 80 bar pressure and a total mass
flow rate of 3200 tons/hr.
 OPERATING CONDITIONS OF
BOILER FEED PUMPS
• Operating temperatures range from 160 to 210oC for Barrel pull-out pumps
and 120 to 160oC for Ring Section Pumps.
• High Capacity Barrel pull-out pumps can generate maximum pressures up to
400 bar. Ring Section Pumps are designed to handle pressures up to a
maximum of 300 bar.
At such high pressures even if the temperature reaches 300oC due to some
failure the water will not turn to steam in the pump.
DATA FOR WATER
BOILER FEED PUMP CURVE
CLOSED LOOP PROCESS IN POWER
PLANT WITH BOILER FEED PUMP
 SOME GENERAL CALCULATIONS
The minimum density ‘ρ’ of water that can occur in the pump is about 850
kg/m3.
If the pressure ‘P’ generated by the pump is about 400 bar = 40 MPa.

Then the head ‘h’ can be calculated by P = ρ g h,

Which gives h ≈ 4800 m.

This is the maximum possible head that can be generated by the pump as
higher density occurs at lower temperatures and pressures.
INTRODUCTION TO
MULTISTAGE PUMPS

Multistage pumps are defined

as pumps in which the fluid
flows through several
impellers fitted in series.
 NEED OF MULTISTAGE PUMP
• The head of a single-stage centrifugal pump is largely governed by the type
of impeller and the circumferential speed.
• If the rotational speed cannot be increased due to other operating
conditions and a larger impeller diameter would lead to very low specific
speeds resulting in uneconomical efficiencies, fitting several stages in series (
can be an economic option of increasing the head.
• If the number of stages is altered at unchanged dimensions and speeds,
the flow rate of such a multistage pump remains constant while the power
input and head increase proportionally to the number of stages.
 DRIVE OF BOILER FEED PUMP
• In the case of conventional power stations above 500 MW full load feed
pumps are increasingly driven by steam turbines. In most cases condensing
turbines running at 5000 to 6000 rpm are used.
• Electric motors usually drive part load feed pumps, both in fossil-fueled and
in nuclear power stations.
• Speed control of electrically driven feed pumps is effected by fluid
coupling (e. g. variable speed turbo couplings).
CONNECTION
CONFIGURATION
Four options of installing
boiler feed pump drives are
commonly used at present.
 BOOSTER PUMPS
• The single or double suction booster
pump serves to generate the
necessary NPSHR of the system for
the high-speed boiler feed pump
connected downstream.
• The low-speed booster pump is
usually driven by the free shaft end
of the turbine via a step-down gear
or directly by the free end of the
electric motor.
 TYPES OF BOILER FEED PUMP FOR
CONVENTIONAL POWER PLANTS
Barrel pull-out pump Ring-section pump
• Barrel pull-out pumps are • Ring-section pumps have several
centrifugal pumps enclosed by stage casings of the same type in
a casing which resembles a barrel. tandem arrangement.
 BARREL PULL-OUT PUMP DESIGN
• The barrel is fitted with a suction nozzle and a discharge nozzle.
• A discharge cover and inlet ring are bolted to the respective barrel faces.
The drive shaft passes through the cover on the discharge side and the inlet
ring on the suction side. Both passages are sealed by a shaft seal.
 RING SECTION PUMPS
• The Pump Casing is fitted with a suction nozzle and a discharge nozzle.
• A discharge cover and inlet ring are bolted at the two ends of pump casing.
The drive shaft passes through the cover on the discharge side and the inlet
ring on the suction side. Both passages are sealed by a shaft seal.
 COMPARISON OF BARREL PULL-OUT
PUMPS AND RING SECTION PUMPS
• They only differ in the construction of their pressure-retaining enclosure,
which influences the manufacturing costs and ease of installation.

• There are no differences with regard to operating reliability and robustness

also in abnormal operating conditions. The dimensions of the rotating parts
and flow passages can be designed identically.

• Barrel pull-out Pumps operate at higher pressures as compared to Ring

section pumps.
 COMPARISON (CONTINUED)
• The number of stages in barrel pull-out pumps cannot be changed but in
can be changed in case of ring section pumps as per the requirement.

• As Barrel pull-out Pumps are designed to operate as very high pressures they
require high end construction materials and hence there cost is high.

• Barrel pull-out pumps have some advantages over ring-section pumps when
it comes to repairing a pump installed in the system. If a rotor has to be
replaced, the barrel can remain installed in the piping.
 CASING OF BOILER FEED PUMPS
• For boiler feed pumps two factors have to be considered regarding the wall
thickness of the casing; the pressure loads and the different temperature
conditions it needs to withstand.
• These two criteria are satisfied by adopting a high-strength ferritic casing
material which enables the wall thickness to be kept thin enough to avoid
any overloads as a result of temperature fluctuations, yet of adequate
thickness to guarantee the requisite safety against internal pressure.
 BARREL PULL-OUT PUMP CASING
• The casings of barrel pull-out pumps are usually made of unalloyed or low-
alloyed ductile forged steel. Deposit welding is used on all surfaces in
contact with the feed water to coat them with corrosion and erosion
resistant material.
• In order to weld the pump into the piping, an adapter must be provided if
the materials of the nozzles to be connected are from different material
groups.
• The discharge-side (discharge pressure containing) barrel cover is fastened
by means of large non-torqued studs. Sealing is provided by a profile joint
which is pressurized purely by the prevailing pressure (of up to several 100
bar) without any external forces acting on it.
 RING-SECTION PUMP CASINGS
• The casings of ring-section pumps are preferably made of forged chrome or
carbon steel plated with austenitic (iron solid solution) material.
• The sealing element between the individual stage casings seals off by metal-
to-metal contact, the individual casings being clamped together axially by
tie bolts between the suction and discharge casings.
• Thermal shocks causing various thermal expansions mainly lead to additional
loads on the tie bolts and sealing surfaces of the stage casings.
 TAPPING FOR BOILER FEED PUMPS
• In the case of ring-section pumps, a partial flow at an intermediate pressure
can easily be tapped through a tapping nozzle in one of the stage casing.
• In the case of barrel pull-out pumps, the inside of the barrel is divided into
three pressure zones so that a partial flow at the required intermediate
pressure can be led off directly to the outside.

The sealing function is taken care of by a profile joint between the discharge
and the tapping pressure, and by a metal-to-metal joint between the tapping
and the inlet pressure.
THANK YOU