Startup and Shutdown Steam Generator Separator Piping Forces for a Coal-Fired Supercritical Power Plant

Coal-fired supercritical power plants have steam generator liquid/vapor separator systems used during transition to/from “drum” mode and “once-through” mode, which undergo flow transients, involving control systems and valve openings, during startup and shutdown. These transients result in fluid acceleration which can produce significant reaction loads on piping systems (20 kips or higher). The evaluation of these loads is used to design piping supports and to assess possible control system and valving modifications. The computation of these transient loadings is challenging because the conditions in steam generator separator systems range from supercritical to subcritical, two phase, cold water or steam conditions occurring over a wide range of pressures and valve operating characteristics. A transient analysis of a typical separator-condensate line is performed using computer codes RELAP5/MOD3.2 and R5FORCE for the hydrodynamic forcetime history. A range of hydraulic loads associated with a range of operating conditions is provided in this paper using different boundary conditions for separator tank pressure, initial temperature of water in pipe lines, and control valve opening/closing times. These sensitivity runs show the benefit of plant control system changes to prevent the control valves opening above 1400 psia, increasing the control valve opening time to over one second, and the effects of keeping the separator-condensate line hot.