Patent Publication Number: US-4651533-A

Title: Protection-driving method of a feedwater heater and the device thereof

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to a steam turbine plant and, more particularly, to a control method and apparatus for operating a feedwater heater of a steam turbine plant which enables an increase in a useful service life of the feedwater heater of the steam turbine plant. Steam turbine power plants are widely used for medium loads which require frequent starts and shutdowns such as a daily start and shutdown operation. With this type of operation of power plants, a wall member of a water chamber in a feedwater heater, especially in a high-pressure feedwater heater, is subjected to an abrupt increase or decrease in temperature caused by a sharp of steep and large load change required during starting or shutdown operations of the steam turbine plant. Consequently, a considerable thermal stress occurs at least partially in the wall member of the water chamber in the feedwater heater, and a repetition of the subjecting of the wall member to the large thermal stresses substantially reduces the life span of the metal of the wall forming the water chamber in the feedwater heater, thereby resulting in a premature damaging of the feedwater heater. 
     If the wall of the water chamber is made thicker in proportion to the higher pressure necessary for applying a super-critical pressure in a steam turbine power plant, larger thermal stresses are caused during a starting or stopping operation of the steam turbine power plant, with the thermal stresses being extreme and resulting in a damaging of the high pressure feedwater heater. 
     In, for example, Japanese Patent Laid Open Application No. 1905007/1984, a steam turbine power plant is proposed having a steam generator and a warming or heating pipe means for connecting a high pressure feedwater heater and a steam generator for warming the high pressure feedwater heater prior to a starting and stopping or shutdown of the steam turbine plant, so as to reduce the thermal stress on the high pressure feedwater heater thereby increasing the service life of the feedwater heater. 
     A disadvantage of the above proposed construction resides in the fact that it is necessary to provide a steam generator and a warming or heating pipe means for generating the high temperature steam and for introducing the steam in order to heat or warm the high pressure feedwater heater whenever the plant is started and stopped. Consequently, the construction of the above proposed steam turbine plant is considerably large and extremely complicated. 
     The aim underlying the present invention essentially resides in providing a steam turbine power plant with a feedwater heater, which power plant includes means for enabling a temperature control of the feedwater heater without an additional steam generator and/or warming pipe means and which seeks to increase the service life of the feedwater heater. 
     In accordance with advantageous features of the present invention, thermal stress in the feedwater heater is reduced at an adequate range during operation of the starting and stopping or shutdown of the steam turbine plant in order to prevent damage or consumption of the feedwater heater thereby increasing the service life thereof. 
     Additionally, in accordance with the present invention, the reliability of the feedwater heater of the steam turbine plant may be significantly increased. 
     In accordance with the present invention, a steam turbine plant is provided which includes a boiler, a steam turbine, having at least one steam extracting pipe means, and a feedwater heater means connected with the steam extracting pipe means and disposed in the feedwater system of the steam turbine plant. Means are provided for regulating an extracting steam flow rate, with the regulating or control means being adapted to control the steam flowing into the feedwater heater at a suitable steam condition when the steam turbine plant is operating for a starting and shutdown operation. 
     By virtue of the features of the present invention, it is possible to increase the service or consumption life of the feedwater heater, and also improve the reliability of the steam turbine plant. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a reheat steam turbine power plant having a feedwater heater with a steam extracting pipe constructed in accordance with the present invention; 
     FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a control arrangement for the feedwater heater of the steam turbine power plant of FIG. 1; 
     FIG. 3 is a graphical illustration of a relationship between a consumption or service life of a feedwater heater per cycle and a temperature variation of a feedwater of the steam turbine power plant of FIG. 1; 
     FIG. 4A is a block diagram depicting an operation for opening extracting valves in the steam extracting pipe during a starting operation of the power plant of FIG. 1; 
     FIG. 4B is a block diagram depicting an operation for closing the extracting valves in the steam extracting pipe during a stopping or shutdown operation of the power plant of FIG. 1; 
     FIG. 5A is a graphical illustration of a relationship between a degree of opening of the steam extracting valves and the operation time during a starting operation of the turbine power plant of FIG. 1; 
     FIG. 5B is a graphical illustration of a relationship between a degree of opening of the steam extracting valves and the operation time during a stopping or shutdown operation of the turbine power plant of FIG. 1; 
     FIG. 6 is a graphical illustration of a relationship between a load of the turbine plant and a temperature of the feedwater during stopping or shutdown and restarting operations of the turbine power plant of FIG. 1 after the power plant has been shutdown overnight; 
     FIG. 7 is a graphical illustration of a relationship of a variation between the feedwater temperature at the inlets and outlets of the respective high pressure feedwater heaters during a starting operation of the power plant of FIG. 1; 
     FIG. 8 is a schematic view of another embodiment of a reheat steam turbine power plant having a feedwater heater with a steam extracting pipe constructed in accordance with the present invention; and 
     FIG. 9 is a schematic view of another embodiment of a reheat steam turbine power plant having a feedwater heater with a steam extracting pipe constructed in accordance with the present invention. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Referring now to the drawings wherein like reference numerals are used throughout the various views to designate like parts and, more particularly, to FIG. 1, according to this figure, a reheat steam power plant includes a boiler 30, provided with a superheater 31 and a reheater 32 therein. A main steam pipe 131, having a control valve therein, connects the outlet of the superheater 31 with an inlet of the high pressure turbine 33. Main steam, generated in the superheater 31, flows in the high pressure turbine 33 through the main steam pipe 131 for driving a load 36. A cold reheat pipe 133, having a check valve 143 therein, connects the outlet of the high pressure turbine 31 with an inlet of the first reheater 32. A hot reheat pipe 132, having a reheat control valve 142 therein, connects the outlet of the reheater 32 with the inlet of the intermediate pressure turbine 34. Reheat steam, generated in the reheater 32, flows into the intermediate pressure turbine 34 through the hot reheat pipe 132 for driving the load 36. The steam passing from the intermediate pressure turbine 34 flows into the low pressure turbine 35 through a pipe 144 for driving the load 36. The steam passing from the low pressure turbine 35 is exhausted or supplied into a condenser 34 and then the steam is condensed into a liquid condensate. The liquid condensate, stored in the condenser 37, is fed to a deaerator 1 by a condensing pump 38 through a low pressure condensate pipe 2 having a low pressure feedwater heater. 
     The liquid condensate, deaerated in the deaerator 1, is fed to the boiler 30 by a pumping action of a feedwater pump 6 and a high pressure condensate pipe 7 is provided with a third high pressure feedwater heater 8, a second high pressure feed water heater 9, and a first high pressure feedwater heater 10. A first high pressure steam extraction pipe 13 is connected at a half or mid section of the high pressure steam turbine 33 of the first high pressure feedwater heater 10, and a first extraction control valve 16, provided in the high pressure steam extraction pipe 13, controls a rate of flow of the extraction steam from the high pressure steam turbine 33 for heating or cooling the first high pressure feedwater heater 10. 
     In a similar manner, a second high pressure steam extraction pipe 12, having a second extraction control valve 15, connects the cold reheat pipe 132 with the second high pressure feedwater heater 9. An intermediate pressure steam extraction pipe 11, having a third extraction control valve 14, is connected at a half or mid portion of the intermediate pressure steam turbine 34 and the high pressure feedwater 8. A low pressure steam extraction pipe 4, having a control valve 44, is connected at the half or mid portion of the intermediate pressure steam turbine 34 and the deaerator 1 for deaerating the condensed water. An auxiliary steam pipe 3 is connected to the deaerator 1 for supplying an auxiliary steam into the deaerator 1. Temperature dectors 18, 19 are provided in the high pressure feedwater pipe 7 and are located in an area of the inlet of the water chamber side and outlet water chamber side of the third high pressure feedwater heater 8 for respectively detecting an inlet feedwater temperature T 2  and an outlet feedwater temperature T 3 , respectively. 
     Temperature detectors of sensors 20, 21 are provided in the high pressure feedwater pipe 7 and are disposed within an area of the outlet water chamber sides of the second high pressure feedwater heater 9 and the first feedwater heater 10, respectively, for detecting outlet feedwater temperature T 4  and T 5 . The temperature detectors or sensors 19, 20 respectively work as detectors or sensors for the feedwater temperature at the inlets of the second high pressure feedwater heater 9 and the first high pressure feedwater heater 10. Temperature and pressure detectors 62, 61 are respectively disposed in the high pressure steam extraction pipe 13 and the intermediate pressure steam extraction pipe 11 for detecting the steam conditions extracted from the high pressure steam turbine 33 and the intermediate pressure steam turbine 34. The extraction control valves 14, 15 and 16, disposed in the extraction pipes 11, 12 and 13, are operated as shown most clearly in FIG. 2 by a controller 22, when the steam turbine plant is in a starting operation mode and a stopping or shutdown operation mode. 
     As shown in FIG. 2, the controller 22 includes a remaining working or service life calculator 22a for computing a remaining working or service life of each feedwater heater per cycle from start to stop operational modes of the steam turbine plant. An allowable thermal stress setting calculator 22b computes an allowable thermal stress value in dependence upon the specific working or service life consumption based upon an output of the remaining working life calculator 22a and an allowable thermal stress setting unit 52 in a water chamber section of the feedwater heater, and a feedwater temperature variation ratio setting calculator 22c sets the temperature variation ratio for maintaining the working life consumption at a level less than a restrainable value in accordance with a plant operation signal from a plant operation indicating unit 51. 
     Moreover, the controller 22 provides a feedwater temperature variation ratio calculator 22d for calculating an actual rate of the feedwater temperature variation between an outlet feedwater temperature and an inlet feedwater temperature of each high pressure feedwater heater based on the detecting signals from the feedwater temperature detectors 18, 19, 20 and 21. A feedwater temperature ratio deviation calculator 22e calculates a deviation between the setting value of the feedwater temperature variation rate computed in the calculator 22c and the actual value of the feedwater temperature variation rate computed in the calculator 22d. A heating steam calculator 22f calculates an amount of heating steam or a flow rate of heating steam introduced into the high pressure feedwater heater in dependence upon the deviation value of the feedwater temperature variation and a temperature and pressure value detected or sensed from a temperature and pressure detector 61, 62, 63 provided in each of the steam extraction pipes 11, 12, and 13. A valve opening calculator 22g calculates an opening degree of each of the extraction control valves 14, 15 and 16 in response to the output of the calculator 22f. That is, the controller 22 receives the input signals from the temperature detectors 18, 19, 20, and 21 detecting the feedwater temperature at the inlet and outlet of the respective high pressure feedwater heaters 8, 9 and 10, and the input signal of a plant starting or stopping from a plant operation indicating unit 51 as well as another input signal of an allowable thermal stress setting value in the water chamber sections of respective high pressure feedwater heaters from the allowable thermal stress setting unit 52. Based on the above noted input signals, a feedwater temperature variation value for enabling a limiting of the thermal stress generated in the feedwater heater when the plant is starting or stopping is immediately calculated, and an amount of extracted steam, having a predetermined temperature and pressure which is lead or supplied as heated steam through the extracting pipe, is calculated to correspond to the real feedwater temperature of the calculated feedwater temperature variation value. Then, output signal for controlling an opening degree of the extracting control valves 14, 15, and 16 are calculated to correspond to the calculated values of the extracting steam. 
     A feedwater heater control system of a reheat steam turbine power plant described above operates in the following manner. 
     After an ignition of the boiler 30, the amount of feedwater corresponding to the minimum discharge of the boiler 30 is supplied, by the feedwater pump 6, from the deaerator 1 to the superheater 31 in the boiler 30 to the feedwater pipe 7. At this time, an interior of the deaerator 1 is at a vacuum or in a low pressure state of about 0.3 atm. The temperature of the stored water is about 60° C. to 107° C. This means that the condensed water, supplied from the condenser 37, to the deaerator 1 through the condensing pipe 2 is heated to about 107° C. by the heated steam supplied through the auxiliary steam pipe 3. The feedwater pumped or boosted by the feedwater pump 6, is supplied to the boiler 30 sequentially through the third high-pressure feedwater heater 8, the second high-pressure feedwater heater 9, and the first high-pressure feedwater heater 10 disposed in the high pressure feedwater pipe 7. However, since the turbines 34, 35 and 36 do not start at the boiler-starting stage when the turbine plant starts, there is no heated steam of the first to third high pressure feedwater heaters 8-10 and, thus, the extracting control valves 14-16, provided at the respective extraction pipes 11-13, are all closed. 
     In accordance with the operating process shown in FIG. 4A, after a starting of the turbine, the third extracting control valve 14 is opened to a predetermined degree after the turbine load attains a ratio of about 5% and the third this pressure feedwater 8 is put into service. Next, the second extracting valve 15 is opened to a predetermined degree and the second high pressure feedwater heater is put into service, and lastly, the first extracting valve 16 is opened to a predetermined degree and the first high pressure feedwater heater 10 is put into service. As apparent from a review of the above described operating process of the present invention, the heaters are sequentially put into service from the low-pressure to the high-pressure. 
     Moreover, as shown in FIG. 5A, during the opening operation of the second extracting valve 15, the degree of opening of the third extracting valve 16 is held or maintained for a predetermined time and, during the opening operation of the first extracting valve 14, the degree of opening of the third and the second extracting valves 15, 16 are held or maintained for a predetermined time. Upon a stopping or shutdown of the plant, as shown in FIGS. 4B and 5B, the process is reversed. After lowering the load to 20%, the first extracting valve 16 is closed to a certain or predetermined degree and the first high pressure feedwater heater 10 is stopped. Subsequently, the second extracting valve 15 is closed to a certain or predetermined degree and the second high pressure feedwater heater 9 is stopped or shutdown. Lastly, the third extracting valve 14 is closed to a certain or predetermined degree and the third high pressure feedwater heater 8 is stopped. As shown in FIGS. 4B and 5B, by this process, the heaters are sequentially stopped or shut down from the high pressure sides. 
     The control system of the high pressure feedwater heater operates in the following manner. 
     In order to simplify the description of operation, FIG. 2 merely shows the control system of the third high pressure feedwater heater 8. More particularly, in FIG. 2, the controller 22 includes a remaining working or service like calculator 22a for computing the remaining working life of the apparatus per cycle from the start to the stop of the water chamber section of the high pressure feedwater heater 8 in dependence upon a relationship between the feedwater temperature variation ratio and feedwater temperature variation range as shown in FIG. 3 and for memorizing its data and an allowable thermal stress setting calculator 22b for computing an allowable thermal stress value by virtue of a device for calculating the remaining working life on the basis of signals from the calculator 22a and the allowable thermal stress setting unit 52 in the water chamber section of the feedwater heater 8. Furthermore, the controller 22 includes an arrangement which can further provide a feedwater temperature variation ratio setting calculator 22c for setting the rate at which the working or service like is used to as low a value as is practicable, that is, a value less than or lower than a restrainable feedwater temperature variation ratio of, for example, 300°/Hour on the basis of the allowable thermal stress value from the setting calculator 22b and at once for performing the operation in accordance with the plant starting or plant stopping signal from the plant operation indicating unit 51. The feedwater temperature variation ratio calculator 22d computes an actual ratio of feedwater temperature variation on the basis of the detection signals from the temperature detectors 18, 19, respectively detecting an inlet feedwater temperature T 2  and an outlet feedwater temperature T 3  of the third feedwater heater 8 disposed in the high pressure feedwater pipe 7. A feedwater temperature ratio deviation calculator 22e computes a deviation between the setting value of the feedwater temperature variation ratio calculated in the setting calculator 22c and the actual value of the feedwater temperature variation ratio calculated in the calculator 22d. A heating steam calculator 22f of the controller 22 computes the flow rate of the heated steam or an amount of heated steam corresponding to the deviation value of the feedwater temperature variation ratio output from the calculator 22e in dependence upon the input signal from a temperature and pressure detector 61 provided in the extraction pipe 11. A valve-opening calculator 22g computes a control signal for controlling an opening degree of the extraction valve 14 in response to the output of the calculator 22f. If the respective high pressure feedwater heaters 8-10 are driven when starting or stopping the steam turbine plant, the controller 22 holds the feedwater temperature variation ratio to a predetermined value so as to limit thermal stress in the water chamber of said feedwater heater at a value under an allowable thermal stress value and improves the reliability of the feedwater heater. 
     Accordingly, when starting the steam turbine plant, as shown in FIG. 5A, by operation of the controller 22, the third extracting valve 14 slowly opens until a predetermined or certain degree of opening is provided so as to supply the third high pressure feedwater heater 8 with heated steam at a certain turbine load of, for example, a 5% load, and thus the third high pressure feedwater heater 8 is placed in service. Next, the second extracting valve 15 slowly opens to a certain or predetermined degree of opening so as to supply the second high pressure feedwater heater 9 with heated steam; therefore, the second high pressure feedwater heater 9 is placed in service. Lastly, the first extracting valve 16 slowly opens to a certain degree of opening so as to supply the first high pressure feedwater heater 10 with heated steam and thus, the first high pressure feedwater heater 10 is placed into service. At this stage, respective extracting valves 14-16 are all in a minimal opening state; however, by leading or supplying heated steam to the respective feedwater heaters 8-10, the feedwater flowing down through the respective feedwater heaters 8-10 are slightly heated so that the temperature of the feedwater rises. 
     Subsequently, the temperature detectors 18-20, provided at outlets and inlets of the respective feedwater heaters 8-10, detect or sense respective feedwater temperatures T 2  -T 5  when the extracting valves 14-16 are sequentially being opened. The feedwater temperature variation ratio calculator 22d of the controller 22 computes an actual ratio of feedwater temperature rise on the basis of the detected or sensed values and the feedwater temperature ratio deviation calculator 22e, calculated in the setting calculator 22c, compares it with a predetermined setting value in accordance with an allowable thermal stress. 
     Consequently, if the actually measured feedwater temperature variation ratio is less than the setting value, as the opening operation conditions for the extraction valves 14-16, the valve opening operation signal is outputted from the valve opening calculator 22g in the controller 22 to the extracting valves 14-16 so as to operate the valves 14-16 in a direction of increasing the degree of opening thereof. On the otherhand, if the actual feedwater temperature variation ratio in either of the water chambers of the high pressure feedwater heaters is greater than the setting value, this means that the opening condition of the extracting valves 14-16 for supplying the corresponding feedwater with extracted steam has not been established and that the extracting valves 14-16 are held at their present degree of opening. 
     If the above noted controls are continued until the feedwater temperature in each feedwater heater rises to a predetermined value, that is, the heater start is completed, the temperature variation ratio in each water chamber of the feedwater heater is computed and, as a result, thermal stress can be controlled at a lower value than the setting value so that the working or service life can be prolonged. 
     In FIG. 6, representing the relationship between a turbine load and feedwater temperature when restarting a turbine plant, a feedwater pump outlet temperature T 2  represents the inlet temperature for the third high pressure feedwater heater, and the second high pressure feedwater outlet temperature T 4  represents the inlet temperature of the first high pressure feedwater heater. As shown in FIG. 6, since the controller 22 serves to control respective extracting valves 14-16, the feedwater temperature variation ratios in respective high pressure feedwater heaters 8-10 are reduced to within an allowable value of 300° C./Hour, for example, 277° C. when stopping and 166° C. when starting. 
     FIG. 7 provides an example of the condition of the feedwater temperature variation at the inlets and outlets of the respective high pressure feedwater heaters when starting the plant and, more particularly, as apparent from FIG. 7, the feedwater temperature variation ratio is reduced under the allowable value of 300° C./Hour to a maximum of 168° C./Hour at the inlet of the second high pressure feedwater heater and a maximum of 240° C./Hour at the inlet of the first high pressure feedwater heater. 
     By virtue of the above noted features of the present invention, it is possible to achieve a number of advantageous effects. More particularly, by reducing an amount of thermal stress generated in a water chamber of the high pressure feedwater heater when the plant is starting or stopping, it is possible to prevent the feedwater heater from being damaged and improve the reliability thereof thereby significantly reducing the overall maintenance costs. Moreover, the working life of the feedwater heater can be greatly prolonged as shown most clearly in Table 1 hereinbelow which provides an example of a calculation of an extra supercritical pressure steam power plant having a capacity of 1,000 MW. 
     
                       TABLE 1                                                     
______________________________________                                    
Example of the high-pressure heater working life                          
                Working life already used (%)                             
                  control free                                            
                              invention                                   
        times/20 yrs.                                                     
                  system      system                                      
______________________________________                                    
cold and warm                                                             
            980        31         15                                      
start                                                                     
hot start 4,600       159         31                                      
load change                                                               
          27,600       3           3                                      
total                 193         49                                      
______________________________________                                    
 
    
     Additionally, by virtue of the features of the present invention, the feedwater heater warming operation which is a turbine load holding operation and the like is not required in order to reduce the thermal stress generated in the water chamber of the feedwater heater when the plant is starting and stopping and, consequently, the starting time and stopping time of the plant as well as the starting energy is considerably reduced. Moreover, the operation of the plant is simplified thereby improving the overall plant efficiency. 
     Also, by virtue of the present invention, additional equipment for warming the feedwater heater such as a steam generator generating warming steam is not required thereby also considerably simplifying the structure of the steam power plant. 
     As shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, reheat steam turbine power plants having a control system of the feedwater heater are provided which differ in some respects from the embodiment described in FIG. 1; however, the embodiments shown in FIGS. 8 and 9 are fundamentally identical with the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 in principle and use. In FIGS. 8 and 9, the first high pressure feedwater heater, located the furtherest downstream from the feedwater system, has the largest temperature variation range at the inlet of the feedwater heater when the plant is stopped. Consequently, the ratio of feedwater temperature variation is large and thus the difference with respect to the first embodiment is to control only the feedwater temperature variation ratio of the first high pressure feedwater heater 10 since the feedwater temperature variation ratios of the second and third high pressure feedwater heater are less than that of the first high pressure feedwater heater. 
     Accordingly, the above described control system of the feedwater heater of the steam turbine plant is also effective in reducing the working or service life consumption of the feedwater heater so that it is possible to improve the reliability of the steam power plant. 
     Moreover, the last described embodiment is advantageous in that the arrangement of the control device can be more simplified. 
     Furthermore, in the embodiment of FIG. 9, a construction is provided wherein a program based on the computation in advance of the ratio of the feedwater temperature variation in every starting mode or of the actually measured data during a test run is provided in the computing section of the controller device 22&#39;, and the signal based on the program controls the respective extracting valves. Thus, the above described control system of the feedwater heater of the steam turbine plant is also effective in reducing the consumption or reduction of the working life of the feedwater heater so that it is possible to improve the reliability of the steam power plant. 
     Additionally, the above described embodiment enables an arrangement of a controller which can be considerably simplified. 
     As apparent from the above description, the steam turbine power plant of the present invention enables a control of the feedwater temperature for increasing the life span or service life of the feedwater heater with an additional steam generator for warming the feedwater heater thereby improving the reliability of the steam turbine plant and also reducing the maintenance costs thereof. 
     While we have shown and described several embodiments in accordance with the present invention, it is understood that the same is not limited thereto but is susceptible to numerous changes and modifications as known to one having ordinary skill in the art, and we therefore do not wish to be limited to the details shown and described herein, but intend to cover all such modifications as are encompassed by the scope of the appended claims.