A Numerical Analysis of Flow Characteristics in a Heat Recovery Steam Generator with the Change of Inlet Flow Conditions

The present study has been carried out to analyze the flow characteristics of a heat recovery steam generator with the change of inlet flow conditions by using numerical flow analysis. The inlet of HRSG corresponds the outlet of gas turbine exit and the flow after gas turbine has strong swirl flow and turbulence. The inlet flow condition of HRSG should be included the exit flow characteristics of gas turbine. The present numerical analysis adopted the flow analysis result of gas turbine exit flow as a inlet flow condition of HRSG analysis. The computational flow analysis result of gas turbine exit shows that the maximum axial velocity appears near circular duct wall and the maximum turbulent kinetic energy and dissipation rate exist relatively higher gradient region of axial velocity. The comparison of flow analysis will be executed with change of inlet turbulent flow condition. The first case is using the inlet turbulent properties from the result of computational analysis of gas turbine exit flow, and the second case is using the assumed turbulent intensity with the magnitude proportional to the velocity magnitude and length scale. The computational results of flow characteristics for two cases show great difference especially in the velocity field and turbulent properties. The main conclusion of the present study is that the flow inlet condition of HRSG should be included the turbulent properties for the accurate computational result of flow analysis.