Penetration of a Pulsed Gas Jet through a Package of Heat Exchange Tubes

Abstract

The slagging of heating surfaces by fly ash significantly complicates the long term operation of solid-fuel boilers. Gas pulse technologies offer a potentially convenient, inexpensive, yet efficient way for online slag deposits removal. The creation and application of real boiler cleaning systems using gas pulse technologies is a relatively new direction in the energy sector and requires scientific research on various aspects. In this work, the numerical investigation of the gas-dynamic flow arising when the package of heat-exchange tubes is blown with single air jet created by a pneumopulse cleaning system has been carried out. The forces acting on the heat-exchange tubes located at distances 1.0 m and 2.0 m from the exhaust nozzle with various configurations of tubes in the package have been determined. It is shown that an increase in the pressure of the generated air jet makes it possible to significantly increase the acting forces at large distances from the exhaust nozzle. The results of this study and similar calculations for real geometry will increase the validity of engineering solutions used in the development of pneumopulse cleaning systems for large power boilers.

Keywords

• boiler
• heat exchange tubes
• slagging
• air-impact cleaning