Numerical simulation the effects of flow diverter configuration on flue gas flow characteristics in HRSG

Heat Recovery Steam Generator (HRSG) is one of the vital units in various industries in order to improve energy efficiency. Uniform distribution of gas turbine exhaust gas that enters the HRSG becomes one of the important parameters of the HRSG design to minimize corrosion and hot spots that cause the tube to burst. The characterization of the effect offlow diverter was carried out to observe the velocity distribution as a parameter of flow uniformity, the distribution of pressure and temperature of the gas flow that passes through each heat exchanger module as a parameter of HRSG performance. CFD simulation was conducted on the HRSG model which included the inlet duct, the heat exchanger module section which is assumed to be the porous media, and the stack as the flue gas output. Flow diverter configuration consisted of the number of plates 1, 3 and 5 with angles of 30°, 45°, and 60°, respectively. The numerical simulation was establishedand validated with experimental study. The dimensionless numbers, swirl number and Euler number, were considered as the dynamic similarities between the experimental model and the numerical simulation. Flow uniformity from the configuration of 3 plates with angle of 45° was 86.3, which was 3.522 higher than HRSG without a flow diverter. Other configurations caused flow uniformity decreased. Installation of flow diverter had no significant effect on HRSG performance. © 2024 Author(s).