MODELING AND ANALYSIS OF PRESSURE DROP IN FLUE GAS DUCT PATH USING COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS

Nowadays, in contrast to the worldwide energy crisis and the global commitment to mitigate carbon footprints from the source, energy conservation and carbon emission reduction are vital and mandatory for almost all entities hence, so for coal based thermal power stations. Higher auxiliary power consumption than the optimum value is observed in almost all power plant auxiliaries, starting from the boiler feed pump to the induced draft fans during the energy audit. Also, the oldness of the power plant worsens this scenario of high auxiliary power consumption. Hence, any modification in the design of rotary machines, rerouting of ducts and pipelines, and resizing of equipment like fans, pumps, blowers, and flow paths will help and add an advantage to the energy saving program. In this paper, the author is investigating the effect of baffles (guide plates) at bend locations in the flue gas path to streamline the flue gas flow and reduce pressure drop. This paper focuses on the analysis of flue gas duct pressure reduction using baffles and comparing it with a no baffles case. For analysis purposes, one location at a 90 degree bend has been chosen, and the model was constructed with the help of the ANSYS Fluent solver. The design of the 3D model was modeled in the geometry software ANSYS SpaceClaim 2024 R1, and the analysis was done in the CFD ANSYS Fluent 2024 R1 solver.