PredictionofpossiblewearsitesontheshellwalloffeedwaterheaterduetodropletimpingementusingCFDmodelsOriginalResearchArticle

Severewallthinningonthefeedwaterheaters(FWHs)shellmaycausealeakonthewall,whichwillresultinpowerplantderatingorshutdown,oreveninpersonalfatalities.Therefore,itiscrucialtopreventtheoccurrenceofleakontheshellwallofFWHs.ThemostusefulmethodtodecreasetheleakagepossibilityistomeasurethewallthicknessofFWHsduringplantoutage.Then,thestaffcantakeactioninadvancetoremedytheseverewallthinningregions.Inthispaper,amethodologyisproposedtoqualitativelypredictthedistributionsofseverewearsitesontheFWHshellwall.ThismethodologyincludestheEulerian/Lagrangiandropletflowmodelandthedropletimpingementerosionmodel.Thiscomputationalfluiddynamics(CFD)modelcansimulatethethree-dimensionaldistributionofsteamflowandthereboundcharacteristicsofdropletswithintheFWHshell.Coupledwiththeseflowcharacteristics,anappropriateindicatorderivedfromthedropletimpingementerosionmodel,isusedtopredicttheseverewearsitesontheFWHshellwall.Thepredictedwearsitesontheshellwallcorrespondwelltotheplantmeasuredones.Basedonthisgoodagreement,themethodologyproposedinthispapercanhelpconstructamonitoringprojectofwallthicknessmeasurementforFWHsofpowerplants,especiallyinschedulingthemeasuringrangesontheshellwall.