[clarity888]

Hello,

I apologize for asking such a broad question in advance. I'm not looking for an 'answer' per say, just some guidance to get me going.

I've been tasked with modeling a power plant boiler undergoing cycling operation to understand the impact of different operating points, e.g., 100% power, 50% power etc on chemistry and subsequently corrosion. I have some tools to model the chemistry component of the boiler. But to use those tools I would like to understand temperature profiles, flow velocities, pressure, 2-phase regions etc in the boiler at the different operating points. I would then subject this to the chemistry calculations and come up with operating 'risk zones.'

I'm thinking I need to learn how to use CFD to be able to model this. My major questions are:

1. Is there a commercially available tool with a built in generic boiler model I can use?
2. How much time would it take for a beginner with an engineering background to model a power plant boiler?
3. Am I better off using open source softwares such as OpenFOAM etc or should I work out a way to get COMSOL?
4. Last question, I have MATLAB, but from some research i did there are no real CFD tools that MATLAB provides that I can use.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and any feedback you may have.

Clarity888

[CGarcia]

Hello,

I started my engineering career off by working at an industrial boiler company and have seen a variety of ways for modeling a boiler system. While boiler technology is old, the engineering behind it can be involved but it’s doable.

1. My previous employer uses a commercial tool called PPSD (Power Plant Simulator & Designer) that allows you to model a boiler system. PPSD allows a user to build a graphical schematic representation for a power plant in a GUI by selecting from a library of predefined power plant elements to simulate operation.

2. I don’t have an estimate on how much time it would take to model a power plant but engineers at my previous job seemed to pick up the PPSD program quickly. Note that some of these engineers have dedicated their entire career to designing boilers and the learning curve for them may not be as steep as compared to someone who is picking this up as a beginner.

3. You might be able to use openFOAM for this problem, but I am not sure if that is the best program to use. Again, I would recommend looking into the PPSD program.

4. You could possibly use MATLAB for this problem, but I think there are better CFD solvers out there. Personally, I am not a fan of MATLAB. Just an honest opinion

I am not sure if these answers/feedback will help you, but it may give you a new direction on solving your task.

Best of luck!

Chris Garcia
CFD Engineer
EnginSoftUSA