International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 128 (2019) 739–747

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhmt

Research on the three-dimensional wall temperature distribution and

low-temperature corrosion of quad-sectional air preheater in larger
power plant boilers
Qiannan Zhang a, Fengzhong Sun a,⇑, Changxian Chen b
a
School of Energy and Power Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, China
b
Fujian Ningde Nuclear Power Co., Ltd, Fujian 352000, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: To overall control the wall temperature of rotary quad-sectional air preheater and ensure the safety of
Received 19 February 2018 boiler units, it is important to research its three-dimensional temperature field. Computational fluid
Received in revised form 12 July 2018 dynamics method (CFD) is used to simulate the heat transfer performance of a 300 MW circulating flu-
Accepted 2 September 2018
idized bed (CFB) boiler. The temperature of rotor heating surface is defined as user-defined scalar
(UDS) to solve scalar equation. Numerical results which are validated by experimental data present
the essential parameters such as three-dimensional temperature, heat flux and heat transfer distribution
Keywords:
of both working fluid and heating surface. The temperature difference between working fluid and heating
Quad-sectional
Air preheater
surface, heat transfer quantity per unit volume are also obtained. Numerical results show that the differ-
Low-temperature corrosion ent materials and types of heating surface will cause the differences in heat transfer performance
Numerical calculation between cold end and hot end. The temperature of working fluid are different between cold end and
hot end, resulting in volume flow changing to make the scouring velocity different. That is the structural
reason for the distinctions in heat transfer performance. It is concluded that low-temperature corrosion
mainly occurs in the heating surface at the inlet of hot end in flue gas channel, where the metal temper-
ature need to be kept above acid dew point so as to retard the low-temperature corrosion.
Ó 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Contents

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 740
2. Physical description and mathematical modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 741
2.1. Physical description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 741
2.2. Mathematical modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 741
2.2.1. Assumptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 741
2.2.2. Governing equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 741
3. Numerical analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 742
3.1. Physical parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 742
3.2. Boundary conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 742
3.3. Numerical schemes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 742
4. Model validation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 742
4.1. Modeling and grid generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 742
4.2. Evaluation of grid independence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 743
4.3. Thermal calculation results. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 743
5. The radial temperature and three-dimensional temperature field of quad-sectional air preheater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 743
5.1. The radial temperature distribution of quad-sectional air preheater. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 743
5.2. The three-dimensional temperature distribution of quad-sectional air preheater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 743
6. Conclusions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 746

⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: sfzh@sdu.edu.cn (F. Sun).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2018.09.006
0017-9310/Ó 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
740 Q. Zhang et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 128 (2019) 739–747
Nomenclature
cp heat capacity of metal heating surface (kJ/(kg∙K))
C resistance coefficient
CB coefficient of heat-exchanger elements
CL correction factor at the inlet
CT coefficient considered the temperature difference be-
tween working medium and heating surface
d equivalent diameter of heat-exchanger elements (m)
k convective heat transfer coefficient between working
fluid and heating surface (W/(m2∙K))
L dimensionless height
n rotation speed of rotor (r/min)
Nu Nusselt number
Pr Prandtl number of working medium
Re Reynolds number of working medium
Su source item of user-defined scalar u
S£ inherent source item generated by the interaction be-
tween working fluid and rotor heating surface
S0£ inherent source item of motion governing equation
T temperature difference between working fluid and
heating surface (K)
u velocity component of x axe in the Cartesian coordinate
system (m/s)
Conflict of interest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 747
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 747
1. Introduction
Air preheater is an important component of circulating fluidized
bed (CFB) boiler equipment. According to operation characteristics
of CFB, the pressure of primary air can be up to 25–30 kPa [1].
Therefore, primary air channel is placed between left-secondary
and right-secondary air channel to effectively reduce the air leak-
age caused by the differential pressure between adjacent air chan-
nels, that is quad-sectional air preheater.
The thermal calculation method for traditional bi-sectional air
preheater is not applicable to quad-sectional air preheater any
longer [2]. The quad-sectional air preheater operates in the region
where the flue gas temperature is low, that will cause the low-
temperature corrosion to exist in heat exchange plate [3,4]. Zhang
[5] established heat balance equation for bi-sectional air preheater
by using the finite-difference method for iterative solution, but the
accuracy of temperature field was still to be verified by actual pro-
ject. For tri-sectional air preheater, Yan [6] and Liu [7] used the
finite-volume method to make the heat transfer process more
stable, and established energy conversation equation by regional
discretization. However, the iterative process needed strict space
step and leaded to divergent calculation easily [8]. Chi [9] installed
thermocouple in the cold end of air preheater to measure the tem-
perature variation of metal. But the installation measurement
points were complex to cause the results influenced by its structure
and operation easily. The solution process of three-dimensional
temperature field obtained by analytical method was complicated
[10], hence the numerical method was usually adopted to comple-
ment experiment and theory. In the numerical calculation, Skiepko
[11] took account into the heat conduction of heating surface, flue
gas and air when deduced analytical solution of heat transfer equa-
tion for bi-sectional air preheater [12]. It indicated the analytical
v velocity component of y axe in the Cartesian coordinate
system (m/s)
vi velocity component of working medium in rotor heating
surface (m/s)
x coordinate value of x axe (m)
y coordinate value of y axe (m)
Greek letters
q density of flue gas or air (kg/m3)
qA area density of heat-exchanger element (m2/m3)
u user-defined scalar
/ undetermined scalar
U dimensionless angle of rotation
x angular velocity of rotor (rad/s)
r porosity of cross section which depends on the heat-
exchanger element of rotor heating surface at the hot
and cold end
k heat conduction coefficient of working medium (W/
(m∙K))
C/ generalized diffusion coefficient of undetermined scalar
/
Dpi pressure drop (Pa)
solution which was considered heat conduction along axial direc-
tion had higher precision [13]. The influence of other parameters
on the temperature distribution of heating surface, flue gas and
air were researched, and experiment was compared with numerical
values to testify the accuracy of numerical calculation [14]. In the
meanwhile, the specific expression of heat transfer equation was
gave by Ref. [14]. Wang [15–17] proposed analytical-numerical cal-
culation model for tri-sectional air preheater, and carried out the
numerical iteration to obtain the temperature field of heating sur-
face and fluid. By assuming that the distribution of heating surface
and fluid were linear along rotation and axial direction, Leng [18]
solved the heat transfer differential equation by Laplace transfor-
mation to get the temperature distribution in air preheater. Gan
[19–21] used Pelcet number to evaluate the importance of convec-
tion for heat transfer. For quad-sectional air preheater, only Jin [1]
proposed the calculation method based on finite-difference
method, but its modeling and iterative process were complicated
to make the results debatable.
The low-temperature corrosion usually occurs in the area with
lowest temperature of air preheater. The influencing factors of low-
temperature corrosion are the amount of condensation, the con-
centration of sulfuric acid and the wall temperature of heating sur-
face. Based on the above factors, the low-temperature corrosion
can be prevented. The heating surface of quad-sectional air pre-
heater is designed along the axial direction, including hot, middle
and cold end. The cold end is most vulnerable to low-
temperature corrosion, hence the corrosion-resistant materials
are used in the cold end. Only the heating surface of cold end need
to be replaced when materials changed, which can simplify the
maintenance of heating surface and reduce cost effectively. In
order to overall control the wall temperature of air preheater to
prevent low-temperature corrosion in some position, it is impor-
 Q. Zhang et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 128 (2019) 739–747
tant to research the three-dimensional temperature distribution of
air preheater.
Based on FLUENT software, a three-dimensional model of quad-
sectional air preheater is established and its stable operation con-
ditions are simulated. Then, the temperature of rotor surface is
defined as user-defined scalar (UDS), and UDS scalar equation is
built. Finally, the three-dimensional temperature field and heat
transfer capacity for working fluid and heating surface are pre-
sented. The heat transfer performance in the hot and cold end,
and the dangerous zone where low-temperature corrosion easily
occurs are investigated.
2. Physical description and mathematical modeling
2.1. Physical description
As shown in Fig. 1, the air preheater transfer heat from the hot
flue gas to the cold air by using a rotating matrix of compact plates.
The heating surface rotates at a certain speed to pass the flue gas,
left-secondary, primary and right-secondary air channels. The flue
gas scours flue gas channel down to bottom while primary and sec-
ondary air scour their air channels in the opposite direction. Hot
flue gas is cooled when scours the heating surface of flue gas chan-
nel; then the heating surface rotates through every air channel to
release heat while the air is heated; finally, the heating surface
returns flue gas channel to realize a cyclical process of ‘‘absorb
heat-release heat”.
In order to ease low-temperature corrosion and change heating
surface easily, the heating surface is divided into cold and hot end
(part of heating surface contains middle end). Generally, the heat
transfer in the hot end is better, while the metal corrosion resis-
tance in the cold end is higher.
2.2. Mathematical modeling
The model of the quad-sectional air preheater has been devel-
oped using FLUENT application.
2.2.1. Assumptions
The assumptions for governing equations are as follows:
(1) The zone between each channel is sealing area to reduce air
leakage, so there is no convective heat transfer between the
fluid in different channels. Only the heat conduction which
Fig. 1. Operation principles of rotary quad-sectional air preheater.
741
is produced by the axial temperature difference in metal
heating surface exists. The proportion of sealing area is
small, and the metal heating surface passes through the seal-
ing area for a short time, so the heat conduction of metal
heating surface is neglected. Hence the temperature distri-
bution of metal heating surface is considered to be
unchanged.
(2) Air leakage mainly occurs at the inlet and outlet of air pre-
heater, which has little effect on heat transfer process, thus
the air leakage is neglected.
(3) The heat transfer between fluid and heating surface is
mainly along axial direction, therefore the metal heat con-
duction along radial and axial directions of heating surface
is negligible.
2.2.2. Governing equations
In the quad-sectional air preheater, flue gas flows down to the
bottom and air flows up to the top to complete the countercurrent.
Therefore, the flow process can be described by the three-
dimensional constant Navier-Stokes governing equation [22] as
following:
div ðqu/  C/  grad/Þ ¼ S/ þ S0/ ð1Þ
where q is the density of flue gas or air; u is the velocity vector; / is
the undetermined scalar, such as velocity component ui, tempera-
ture t, turbulent kinetic energy k and turbulent dissipation rate e;
C/ is the generalized diffusion coefficient of undetermined scalar;
S0£ is the inherent source item of motion governing equation; S£
is the inherent source item generated by the interaction between
working fluid and rotor heating surface.
The resistance of rotor heating surface when the working med-
ium moves can be expressed in pressure drop:
Dpi ¼ C v i ð2Þ
where Dpi is the pressure drop; vi is the velocity component of
working medium in rotor heating surface; subscript i represents
two components which are perpendicular to the axial direction of
rotor; C is the resistance coefficient. Affected by the rotor heating
surface and the barrier between radial and transverse baffle, the
working fluid almost moves along the axial direction of rotor, so C
can be taken as infinity. As the source of momentum, C is a constant
which can be up to 5 orders of magnitude.
The heating surface rotates counterclockwise with the rotor,
and its motion governing equations are as follows:
742 Q. Zhang et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 128 (2019) 739–747

u ¼ x  y ð3Þ them. The temperature of rotor heating surface (UDS, u) is set to

v ¼xx
np
x¼
30
where u, v are the velocity components of x or y axes in the Carte-
sian coordinate system, respectively; x, y are the coordinate values;
x is the angular velocity of rotor; n is the rotation speed of rotor.
Based on the motion equation of heating surface, the tempera-
ture of heating surface is defined as (UDS) u, therefore the govern-
ing equation is:
@ðquuÞ @ðqv uÞ
þ ¼ Su
@x @y
Among them, the relationship between source item Su and the
source item of energy conservation equation S£ can be written as:
Su
S/ ¼ 
ð1  rÞ  cp
where cp is the heat capacity of metal heating surface; r is the
porosity of cross section, which depends on the heat-exchanger ele-
ment of rotor heating surface in the hot and cold end.
The specific equation of working fluid source item is:
S/ ¼ k  qA  ðT  uÞ
where qA is the area density of heat-exchanger element; k is the
convective heat transfer coefficient between working fluid and
heating surface; T is the temperature difference between working
fluid and heating surface.
The equivalent diameter of heat-exchanger elements is taken as
a qualitative size. The convective heat transfer coefficient between
flue gas and air side can be calculated by Eq. (9).
kd
Nu ¼ ¼ C B C L C T  Re0:8  Pr 0:4
k
where Nu is the Nusselt number; d is the equivalent diameter of
heat-exchanger elements; k is the heat conduction coefficient of
working medium; Re, Pr are the Reynolds or Prandtl number of
working medium; CB is the coefficient of heat-exchanger elements;
CL is the correction factor at the inlet; CT is the coefficient consid-
ered the temperature difference between working medium and
heating surface.
make it transmit every channel numerically. The Fluent software
ð4Þ is used to compile user-defined functions (UDF) to achieve setting
for the boundary condition of heating surface temperature. Assign-
ing the value of u at the inlet of flue gas channel to make it equal to
ð5Þ
the value of u at the rotary outlet of right-secondary channel.
3.3. Numerical schemes
The finite volume method is employed to discretize governing
equations, while the second-order upwind scheme is applied to
improve the accuracy of convection term. However, the first-
order upwind scheme is adopted in the initial stage of iteration
ð6Þ to enhance its stability, while the central difference scheme is used
to solve diffusion term.
The SIMPLEC algorithm is utilized to couple the pressure and
velocity fields, while the corresponding sub-relaxation factors are
set.
ð7Þ The calculated convergence criterion is that the residual of
energy term is less than 106 and the residuals of other unknown
scalars are less than 104. The results require the variation of flue
gas temperature at the outlet is less than 0.1 K in the continuous
iteration for 50 times.
ð8Þ 4. Model validation
In order to validate the model, Table 1 gives the dimensional
and operational parameters of the quad-sectional air preheater in
300 MW circulating fluidized bed (CFB) boiler.
4.1. Modeling and grid generation
Based on the velocity inlet condition of fluid which is obtained
ð9Þ from Ref. [16], the inlet channel model between flue gas and air is
established to fit the velocity function at different radius. This
paper assumes that the coefficients of medium and drag are the
same when the fluid passes through any flue gas and air channel.
The temperature and velocity of flue gas and air at the inlet plane
are equivalent.
Table 1
The operating parameters of quad-sectional air preheater in 300 MW CFB.

Parameter Value
3. Numerical analysis
Rotor diameter/mm 14 800
Central cylinder diameter/mm 3100
3.1. Physical parameters
Rotor speed/(r∙min1) 0.75
Heat exchanging elements in the hot end 2.78DU, the thickness is
The volume flow of working fluid in air preheater changes with 0.5 mm, Q235
temperature, which can affect the heat transfer process between Heat exchanging elements in the cold end 2.78DU, the thickness is
working fluid and heating surface eventually. As a result, based 0.8 mm, is equal to corten
The height of heat transfer in the hot end/mm 1200
on the thermophysical properties of standard flue gas and air, the The height of heat transfer in the cold end/mm 400
density and conductive functions of flue gas and air are fitted by Total heating area in the hot end/m2 64,338
UDF. The function which take temperature as independent variable Total heating area in the cold end/m2 21,446
is ultimately obtained. Air leakage coefficient 0.06
Flue gas temperature at the inlet/°C 311
Primary air temperature at the inlet/°C 44.8
3.2. Boundary conditions Left-secondary air temperature at the inlet/°C 34.8
Right-secondary air temperature at the inlet/°C 34.8
Boundary conditions are considered similar to that of real con- Flue gas volume at the inlet/(kg∙s1) 384
Primary air volume at the inlet/(kg∙s1) 110
ditions. The mass flow condition is applied at the inlet of working
Left-secondary air volume at the inlet/(kg∙s1) 83
fluid, while the pressure outlet condition is used for the outlet of Right-secondary air volume at the inlet/(kg∙s1) 83
working fluid. Furthermore, the no-slip boundary condition is The angle of flue gas/(°) 165
taken into consideration at the outer wall of rotor, the wall of cen- The angle of primary air/(°) 55
tral cylinder and the axial face on junction of sealed channel, and The angle of left-secondary air/(°) 40
The angle of right-secondary air/(°) 40
then the standard wall function method is adopted to deal with
 Q. Zhang et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 128 (2019) 739–747
Therefore, the computational domain of model is simplified as
shown in Fig. 2. The whole computational domain is divided into
four sector regions, as can be seen in Fig. 3.
The operation conditions and calculation methods can be set as
last chapter.
4.2. Evaluation of grid independence
Under the same design conditions in the same air preheater
(flue gas and air temperature at the inlet as can be seen in Table 1),
the five structured hexahedral grids with quantity of 108,800,
195,840, 259,200, 324,000, 432,000 are used. The results of calcu-
lation with different grid systems are listed in Table 2. From the
results of calculation, there is little difference of flue gas tempera-
ture at the outlet in different grid systems when the number of
grids increases to 259,200, as shown in Fig. 4. It is found that grid
number including 324,000 wedge cells is appropriate for the sim-
ulation and the results are independent of grid number.
4.3. Thermal calculation results
For evaluating the accuracy of the modeling approach, Table 3
shows the simulation results for the average flue gas temperature
at the outlet in boiler maximum continuous evaporation (BMCR)
design condition and compares them with actual operation values.
As can be seen from Table 3, the deviation of average flue gas
temperature at the outlet between calculation value and operation
value is 6.9 K, while the relative deviation is 4.81%. The devia-
tions of primary air and average secondary air temperature at
the outlet between calculation values and operation values are
2.0 K and 2.2 K, respectively, while the relative deviations are
0.71% and 0.78%, respectively. The main reason for deviations is
whether actual air volume of air leakage is considered when calcu-
lating the volume of flue gas, primary air and secondary air at the
inlet, which enhances the heat transfer efficiency of air preheater.
As seen, the results are in good agreement and the maximum rel-
ative deviation is 4.81%. All of the results indicate that the three-
dimensional numerical model can accurately calculate the temper-
ature field of internal working fluid and heating surface.
5. The radial temperature and three-dimensional temperature
field of quad-sectional air preheater
Since the quad-sectional air preheater is a rotary air preheater,
cylindrical coordinate is utilized to locate any point in the air pre-
Fig. 2. The computational domain of air preheater model.
743
heater. The bottom center of shaft is defined as origin, and radial
distance, circumferential angle, the height of air preheater are
defined as X-axis, Y-axis, Z-axis, respectively.
5.1. The radial temperature distribution of quad-sectional air
preheater
Fig. 5(a) and (b) shows the air and flue gas temperature distri-
bution at the outlet of quad-sectional air preheater, respectively.
Fig. 6 presents the temperature distribution of heating surface.
As seen, the temperature distribution of heating surface is exposed
to a cycle of ‘‘cooling-heating” along the rotor rotation direction.
Figs. 5 and 6 illustrates that under the same circumferential angle
and height, the temperature of fluid and heating surface are on the
whole the same at different radial distances, while the temperature
distribution is basically similar. The temperature distribution of
fluid and heating surface are different in the center and periphery
of rotor, that might be related to adiabatic boundary condition and
numerical diffusion.
5.2. The three-dimensional temperature distribution of quad-sectional
air preheater
In this paper, the radial radius r = 4 m is the representative to
obtain the three-dimensional temperature field in the air pre-
heater. As shown in Fig. 7, dimensionless height and rotation angle
are coordinates, wherein: dimensionless height L = 0–0.2 is for cold
end, L = 0.2–1 is for hot end; dimensionless rotation angle U = 0–
0.55, 0.55–0.68, 0.68–0.87 and 0.87–1 is for flue gas channel,
left-secondary air channel, primary air channel and right-
secondary air channel, respectively.
In Fig. 7, the three-dimensional temperature distribution of air
and flue gas in the air preheater is presented. It can be seen that
the flue gas and air temperature are directly proportional to the
dimensionless height L. By decreasing the dimensionless height,
the flue gas and air temperature is gradually reduced. As seen, pri-
mary air temperature at the inlet is slightly higher than secondary
air temperature, while the air temperature at the outlet changes
smoothly along rotation direction. Fig. 8 presents that the flue
gas and air temperature are approximately linear with rotation
direction. By increasing the rotation angle, the flue gas tempera-
ture at the outlet is increased while the air temperature at the out-
let is decreased.
Compared Fig. 9 with Fig. 7, it can be concluded that the varia-
tion of flue gas and air temperature also reflect in the heat flux of
744 Q. Zhang et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 128 (2019) 739–747

Fig. 3. The sector surface and longitudinal section mesh diagram of air preheater.

Table 2
Comparison of outlet temperature with different grid quantity.

Temperature/°C The number of grids

108 800 195 840 259 200 324 000 432 000
The flue gas temperature at the outlet 124.3 124.6 136.6 136.6 136.7
The air temperature at the outlet Left-secondary air 293.7 293.9 294.8 294.8 294.7
Primary air 282.8 283.1 284.5 284.5 284.4
Right-secondary air 270.2 270.5 272.5 272.5 272.4

In Fig. 10, the three-dimensional temperature distribution of

Fig. 4. The average flue gas temperature at the outlet under different grid numbers.
fluid. By increasing the temperature of flue gas and air, the heat
flux of fluid is gradually decreased. The variation indicates the heat
flux distribution is similar to temperature distribution.
metal heating surface is similar to the temperature distribution
of flue gas and air in Fig. 7. By increasing the dimensionless rota-
tion angle U, the temperature of heating surface is increased at first
and then decreased. The temperature variation indicates that the
heating surface stores heat in flue gas channel, and releases heat
in each air channel. The temperature variation in each transition
zone is not obvious as shown in Fig. 10. In addition, the tempera-
ture change rate of heating surface in the cold end is smaller than
that in the hot end. The main reasons are as follows: the heat trans-
fer plate of hot end is mainly used to enhance heat transfer perfor-
mance, while the cold end mainly adopts corrosion-resistant
materials. For compressible flue gas and air, the temperature in
the hot end is higher than that in the cold end, therefore the vol-
ume flow of fluid in the hot end is larger than that in the cold
end to make the scouring speed of fluid in the hot end larger.
Fig. 11 illustrates the three-dimensional temperature difference
distribution between fluid and metal heating surface. The heat
transfer temperature difference in left-secondary air channel is
the largest along rotation direction, and the temperature difference
in the cold end is generally larger than that in the hot end. How-
ever, Fig. 12 shows the three-dimensional distribution of heat
transfer quantity per unit volume between fluid and heating sur-

Table 3
The thermal calculation results of quad-sectional air preheater under BMCR design condition.

The average temperature at the outlet/°C Operation value/°C Calculation value of model/°C Deviation/°C Relative deviation/%
Flue gas 143.5 136.6 6.9 4.81
Primary air 282.5 284.5 2.0 0.71
Left-secondary air 294.8
Right-secondary air 272.5
Average secondary air 281.4 283.6 2.2 0.78
 Q. Zhang et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 128 (2019) 739–747 745

Fig. 5. The fluid temperature distribution at the outlet of quad-sectional air preheater.

Fig. 6. The temperature distribution of heating surface of quad-sectional air preheater.

face. The heat transfer quantity per unit volume in the hot end is
generally larger than that in the cold end, that mainly because
there are many differences between hot and cold heating surface
in heat transfer performance.
In addition, as can be seen in Fig. 12, the minimum value of heat
transfer quantity per unit volume mainly appears at the inlet of
flue gas channel where heating surface leaves flue gas channel.
The maximum value appears at the inlet of air where heating sur-
face enters left-secondary air channel. The main reason for this
phenomenon is that the former zone has a lower temperature dif-
ference than the latter (as can be seen in Fig. 11).
Fig. 10 presents that the zone with lowest temperature is
located at the inlet of right-secondary air channel where mainly
uses corrosion-resistant plates in the cold end. Therefore, whether
low-temperature corrosion appears in the hot end need to be
noticed.
The low-temperature corrosion usually occurs in the heating
surface at the inlet of hot end where heating surface leaves right-
Fig. 7. The three-dimensional temperature distribution of fluid.
secondary air channel and enters flue gas channel. In order to
746 Q. Zhang et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 128 (2019) 739–747

Fig. 8. The fluid temperature at the outlet along rotation direction.

Fig. 9. The three-dimensional heat flux distribution of fluid.

Fig. 10. The three-dimensional temperature distribution of metal heating surface.
effectively reduce or prevent the low-temperature corrosion of air
preheater, the wall temperature of this region should be higher
than acid dew point.
6. Conclusions
Based on Fluent software, a three-dimensional numerical model
of quad-sectional air preheater is established, and the accuracy of
this model is verified by comparing with actual operation condi-
tions. The results obtained by simulation are as follows:
(1) The temperature of fluid and heating surface at different
radial distances within the same circumferential angle and
height are invariable. The temperature distribution of heat-
ing surface is increased at first and then decreased along
rotation direction.
(2) The three-dimensional temperature distribution of fluid and
heating surface is obtained: the flue gas and air temperature
are directly proportional to the dimensionless height L. By
increasing dimensionless angle U, the temperature of metal
heating surface is increased at first and then decreased.
(3) The flue gas and air temperature at the outlet are linear with
rotation direction. By increasing rotation angle, the flue gas
temperature at the outlet is increased while the air temper-
ature is decreased.
(4) The temperature difference in the cold end of left-secondary
air channel is the biggest, while the temperature difference
in the cold end is larger than that in the hot end. However,
the heat transfer per unit volume in the cold end is smaller
than that in the hot end.
 Q. Zhang et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 128 (2019) 739–747
Fig. 11. The three-dimensional temperature difference distribution between fluid
and heating surface.
Fig. 12. The three-dimensional heat transfer quantity per unit volume between
fluid and heating surface.
(5) Because corrosion-resistant materials is adopted in the cold
end, the low-temperature corrosion is mainly occurred in
the hot end of flue gas channel where air leaves right-
secondary air channel. The temperature should be higher
than dew acid point to control low-temperature corrosion
effectively.
Conflict of interest
We declare that we have no financial and personal relationships
with other people or organizations that can inappropriately influ-
ence our work. There is no professional or other personal interest
747
of any nature or kind in any product, service or company that could
be construed as influencing the position presented in.
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