Supercritical boiler material selection using fuzzy analytic network process

Article history: Received October 15, 2011 Accepted 10 March 2012 Available online 12 March 2012 The recent development of world is being adversely affected by the scarcity of power and energy. To survive in the next generation, it is thus necessary to explore the non-conventional energy sources and efficiently consume the available sources. For efficient exploitation of the existing energy sources, a great scope lies in the use of Rankin cycle-based thermal power plants. Today, the gross efficiency of Rankin cycle-based thermal power plants is less than 28% which has been increased up to 40% with reheating and regenerative cycles. But, it can be further improved up to 47% by using supercritical power plant technology. Supercritical power plants use supercritical boilers which are able to withstand a very high temperature (650-720 ̊C) and pressure (22.1 MPa) while producing superheated steam. The thermal efficiency of a supercritical boiler greatly depends on the material of its different components. The supercritical boiler material should possess high creep rupture strength, high thermal conductivity, low thermal expansion, high specific heat and very high temperature withstandability. This paper considers a list of seven supercritical boiler materials whose performance is evaluated based on seven pivotal criteria. Given the intricacy and difficulty of this supercritical boiler material selection problem having interactions and interdependencies between different criteria, this paper applies fuzzy analytic network process to select the most appropriate material for a supercritical boiler. Rene 41 is the best supercritical boiler material, whereas, Haynes 230 is the worst preferred choice. © 2012 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved.