This invention relates to nozzles for feeding combustion media, for example pulverized coal and air, into a furnace. The invention has particular application in pulverized coal feeding nozzles and secondary air nozzles in the tangentially fired burners of steam generating boilers. The invention is also applicable to various other kinds of combustion media nozzles.
Many coal-fired power plant boilers are designed for tangential firing, i.e., a configuration in which streams of pulverized coal and air are directed into a rectangular furnace compartment from columns of nozzles located in such a way as to generate a slowly rotating cyclonic fireball, which produces heat which in turn boils water in arrays of water tubes lining the walls of the compartment. Tangential firing is described in various patents including U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,252,069, 4,634,054, and 5,483,906.
Tangentially fired boilers fueled by pulverized coal typically have pivotable coal nozzle tips protruding into the furnace. Biomass fuel nozzles are similar to these coal nozzles. The coal nozzle tips have a double shell configuration, comprising an outer shell and an inner shell. The inner shell is coaxially disposed within the outer shell to provide an annular space between the inner and outer shells. The inner shell is connected to a fuel feeding conduit or pipe for feeding pulverized coal, entrained in air flowing through the inner shell, into the furnace. The annular space between the inner and outer shells is connected to a secondary air conduit for feeding secondary air into the furnace. The secondary air not only serves as supplemental combustion air, but also cools the inner and outer shells. The fuel feeding pipe is typically disposed coaxially within in the secondary air conduit.
A furnace will typically have not only several coal nozzle tips at each corner, but also several air nozzle tips, arranged in a column along with the coal nozzle tips, to introduce additional secondary air into the furnace.
The nozzle tips, which are typically made from stainless steel plate having a thickness from ¼ to ¾ inch, are located in an opening in a nozzle supporting wall, typically in the outlet of the secondary air box. The external cross section of a nozzle tip is typically rectangular, and corresponds to the internal cross section of the outlet end of the air conduit. Narrow gaps between the peripheral walls of the nozzle tip and the walls of the air conduit allow leakage of secondary air into the furnace. When the nozzle tips discharge air, or fuel and air, horizontally into the furnace, the air leaking through these gaps flows along the external walls of the nozzle tips and normally prevents the nozzle tip from being heated excessively by radiation from the fire ball within the furnace.
In a typical tangentially fired burner, the nozzle tips are pivotable upward and downward so that the position of the fire ball can be controlled. When a nozzle tip is tilted to provide an upward or downward flow of air, or fuel and air, into the furnace, one of its walls will be bent away from the air flow leaking through the gap between that wall and an adjacent wall of the air conduit, and the protection afforded that wall by leaking air will be greatly diminished.
Unprotected exposure to radiation when the nozzle tips are tilted upward or downward, induces thermal gradients in the thick stainless steel. The thermal gradients cause distortion of the nozzle tips, and can even cause eventual closure of their air and fuel passages. Unprotected exposure to radiation also results in excessively high temperatures, oxidation, and thinning of the stainless steel plate. Thermal distortion and high temperature oxidation of the nozzle tips cause heavy damage to the nozzle tips and deterioration of combustion performance, requiring frequent and expensive replacement. Similar problems are encountered in the case of nozzle tips mounted for yaw adjustment or for both pitch and yaw adjustment.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,260,491, I describe a tiltable nozzle tip that addresses the problem of excessive heating by directing air over the front part of the outer shell of the nozzle tip from a channel formed between a rear part of the outer shell and an external shroud provided on the nozzle tip. The air flows from the channel along the front part of the outer shell even when the nozzle tip is tilted, and thereby protects the nozzle tip from distortion and failure due to excessive heat.
Although the air-directing channels described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,260,491 are effective to reduce thermal distortion and high temperature oxidation of a nozzle tip, even a nozzle tip equipped with such air-directing channels is subject to eventual failure due to thermal distortion and oxidation when exposed to radiation and hot gases in a furnace over an extended time.
A problem inherent in conventional fuel and air nozzle tips, as well as in nozzle tips equipped with air-directing channels, is that the outside surfaces of the nozzle tips are exposed to high temperatures due to flame radiation, conduction of heat from hot gases, or a combination of radiation and conduction, while the fuel, air, or a combination of fuel and air passing through the inside of the nozzle is relatively cool, and tends to cool the inside surfaces of the nozzle. The difference between the temperature of the outside surfaces and the temperature of the inside surfaces results in a high temperature gradient across the plates or castings that make up the nozzle. When one side of a plate or casting is cooled while the other side becomes very hot due to furnace radiation, hot gas, or both, the plate or casting distorts, and the structural integrity of the nozzle is compromised. The nozzle becomes less effective for its intended purpose, and its service life is shortened.
This invention provides an improved fuel nozzle or air nozzle that is better able than existing designs to prevent thermal distortion due to exposure to radiation and hot gases in a furnace. The invention can also be applied to existing designs to extend their service life.
Briefly, closely-spaced cooling holes are provided in the walls of the nozzle tip wherever exposure to radiation is expected, preferably in offset or parallel patterns. Air, generally at a low pressure, e.g., less than about 30 in. wg., flows through the holes, reducing the thermal gradient across the wall of the nozzle tip by conduction. The air flow also keeps flames away from the surfaces of the nozzle tip and thereby aids in inhibiting radiation impingement.
As the nozzle tip is tilted or yawed, the secondary air flowing into the nozzle tip flows in greater volume through the cooling holes in the nozzle tip wall that has greater exposure to radiation as a result of tilting or yawing of the nozzle tip.
Although the invention resides essentially in improvement in nozzles, it can be better defined in the context of a furnace incorporating one or more of the nozzles. The furnace comprises an enclosure in which combustion takes place, and a nozzle for feeding a combustion-maintaining medium, including air, into the furnace.
The nozzle comprises a nozzle tip, at least partly protruding into the enclosure, and a feeding conduit arranged to direct a combustion-maintaining medium through the nozzle tip into the furnace. The nozzle tip includes a passage for the flow of combustion-maintaining medium through the nozzle tip into the furnace, the passage being bounded in part by at least one wall having an outer surface directly exposed to heat generated by combustion in the furnace, and an opposite, inner, surface directly exposed to, and cooled by, the combustion-maintaining medium in the passage. This wall of the nozzle tip is foraminous. That is, it has an array of openings each providing for the flow of air from the passage to the outer surface of the wall, whereby the temperature difference between the inner and outer surfaces is moderated.
The array of openings becomes particularly advantageous when the nozzle tip is a tiltable and/or yawable nozzle tip, arranged so that the quantity of radiant heat, from combustion in the furnace, to which the foraminous wall of the nozzle tip is exposed varies as the nozzle tip is tilted. In the case of a tiltable nozzle tip, if the radiant heat to which the foraminous wall of the nozzle tip is exposed increases as the nozzle tip is tilted, the flow of air through the openings in the foraminous wall also increases, thereby more effectively moderating the temperature difference between the inner and outer surfaces of that wall.
In a version of the tiltable nozzle tip mounted for both pitch and yaw adjustment and having four walls, each of the walls can be provided with an array of openings providing for the flow of combustion-maintaining medium from its inner surface to its outer surface. In such an embodiment, regardless of the direction to which the nozzle tip is adjusted, an increased cooling effect is realized at the wall having the greatest exposure to radiant heat.
Further objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description when read in conjunction with the drawings.
a-6d are oblique perspective views showing four variations of a third embodiment of a tilting nozzle tip according to the invention;
a and 9b are oblique perspective views showing two variations of a oil swirler/diffuser incorporating features of the invention.
In the conventional nozzle of
The nozzle is mounted on trunnions, one of which is shown at 18, and tiltable on a horizontal axis. That is, its pitch can be adjusted. In
Distortion of the outer wall of a conventional nozzle tip 14 is seen at 24 in
Distortion of nozzle tips is exacerbated not only by vertical tilting as illustrated in
The nozzle tip in
The outer shell is typically, but not necessarily, tapered, and is composed of two vertical side walls 40 and 42, and upper and lower walls 44 and 46, respectively. The nozzle is tapered both in plan view and in elevational view, and the rear portions of the upper and lower walls are convex so that the gap between the nozzle tip and the nozzle (not shown) in which it fits remains substantially the same regardless of the angle of tilt.
An array 48 of openings is provided in the upper wall 44 of the nozzle tip and a similar array 50 of openings is provided in the lower wall 46. The arrays are located adjacent the front opening of the outer shell and extend rearward to an intermediate location between the front and rear openings of the outer shell. As shown in
The holes in the arrays allow flow of secondary air from the space between the inner and outer shells, through the outer shell, to the outer surface of the outer shell. Air, typically at a low pressure, around 30 in. wg, passes through the holes from the interior of the nozzle tip to the exterior, reducing the temperature difference between the inner and outer surfaces and thereby significantly reducing thermal distortion and resulting damage of the kind depicted in
The holes in the arrays can be of various sizes and shapes and arranged in various patterns. For example, the holes can be round or in the form of ellipses or elongated slots. They can be cylindrical, or tapered in either direction, and can be either perpendicular to the surfaces of the nozzle tip walls or angled. The holes can be in rows and columns, with or without an offset relationship between adjacent rows or columns. The array can also include holes of differing sizes and shapes.
Preferably, the holes, if round, have a minimum cross-sectional area of about 2 mm2 (0.003 in2), and a maximum cross-sectional area of about 126 mm2 (0.2 in2). In the case of an array of round, cylindrical holes, the minimum diameter should be the range from about 1/16 inch (1.6 mm) to ½ inch (12.7 mm).
The concentration of the holes can vary, but is preferably in a range such that, in a selected area of the outer surface of a nozzle tip that contains at least two contiguous rows of holes, each row having at least three holes, the ratio of the minimum hole cross section to the total area of the square is in the range from 2% to 35%. The angles of the holes relative to the plate surfaces, that is, the angle measured from the central axis of a hole to the adjacent plate surface can vary from 90° to 30°.
The nozzle tip in
In the nozzle tip of
The nozzle tip 68, shown in
In the variations shown in
Whereas yaw adjustment is most commonly utilized in the case of an air nozzle, it is also possible to provide for yaw adjustment, or both pitch and yaw adjustment, of a coal nozzle. In that case, the side walls of the coal nozzle, as well as the top and bottom walls, can be provided with arrays of air holes similar to this in
The nozzle tip 80, shown in
At low air flows, the front panel helps to maintain a velocity through the holes in the top, bottom and side walls sufficient to prevent an excessive temperature difference between the inside and outside surfaces of these walls, and thereby inhibit thermal distortion. Air flow through the holes 88, of course, inhibits thermal distortion of the front wall 86.
In
The air holes of the invention can be utilized beneficially in internal vertical and horizontal stiffeners in a nozzle tip, including the stiffeners used to support the outer shell in a coal nozzle tip. In addition, air holes can be utilized in other fuel firing components, such as the oil swirler/diffuser 104 shown in
In the swirler/diffuser of
The swirler/diffuser 110 in
Air holes corresponding to those described above can also be used in other fixed nozzles including fixed tangential nozzle tips and other burner components that are exposed to, and subject to damage by, radiation.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
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2485058 | McKee | Oct 1949 | A |
3918834 | Sigal et al. | Nov 1975 | A |
6916172 | Steiner | Jul 2005 | B2 |
20060246387 | Smirnov | Nov 2006 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20110048293 A1 | Mar 2011 | US |