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1. Introduction
Multi-phase flow is the co-flow of two or more phases and is crucial in many aspects of
our lives. Some examples of this are:
• Our blood is a mixture of red blood cells that carry the oxygen and white blood
cells that protect us against various attacks by viruses etc. in a liquid.
• Our digestive system is based on efficient mixing of solid food, liquid drink and
the fluids our body supplies to extract the nutrients we need.
On a larger scale, the landscape we live in is formed by glacial erosion that is a multi-
phase flow phenomena involving ice, rock and water. The coastlines and sea beds are
shaped by erosion when flowing water interacts with sand, mud or rock. The water
courses are supplied by water falling as rain through the atmosphere.
Some industrial applications utilising multi-phase flow phenomena include:
• The exploitation of aerosols in inhalers is making the lives of millions of asthma
sufferers easier.
• Filtration and sedimentation in sewage treatment plants have reduced the impact
of water based pollution on the environment.
• Scrubbers and precipitators have reduced the gas-borne pollution from power
stations.
• Vacuum cleaners have made it easier to keep our homes clean, and
• The internal combustion engine where a spray of fuel is mixed with air and
burned to produce a mixture of fine soot particles and gaseous combustion
products.
These are only a few examples of our everyday lives that are dependent on multi-phase
flow phenomena. This Combustion File discusses some of the multi-phase flow aspects
that are important in industrial combustion applications, with special emphasis on coal
fired power station boilers and the current issue of co-firing bio fuel and coal.
2. Multi-phase flow phenomena in power plants
There are many multi-phase flow environments in a coal-fired power station, such as:
• Discharging of solid fuel from transport, storage, milling, classification,
pneumatic transport to burners and combustion in a pf-flame.
• Transport and deposition of ash/slag particles through the combustion chamber
and convection section of the boiler.
• Particle separation in precipitators, and
• Emission of the remaining particles to the environment and their precipitation to
the ground or transport in the atmosphere.
There are also other multi-phase flow situations in the water and steam side of a boiler
with a water/steam mixture being fed to the steam drum where the two phases are
separated more or less efficiently. Small water droplets can also condense out from the
steam on the way to or in the steam turbines.
Keywords
Multi-phase flow; particulate flow; pulverized fuel; pneumatic transport; flow
measurement; two phase; coal; solid fuel; power generation
Sources
Authors
Acknowledgements
None
File Placing
[Basic Scientific Principles];[Aerodynamics];[Two-phase flow]
Access Domain
[Open Domain]
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(http://www.handbook.ifrf.net).
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