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In the present paper, computational fluid dynamic modelings were established to research a newly presented re-heat steam temperature deviation solution on the basis of FLUENT 6.3.26 considering a 700 MWe tangentially fired pulverised-coal boiler, which confronted with severe flue gas and re-heat steam temperature deviation. The model was solidly validated by grid independence test and comparison with the experimental data obtained from a series of on-site measurements. Upon reliable validation, the model was further used to investigate the forming mechanism of re-heat steam temperature deviation as well as the influence of burner tilt angle on it. The conclusions mainly include (1) Residual swirling flow in the upper furnace caused the flue gas velocity and temperature deviations in crossover pass. For a typical anticlockwise tangential firing system, the flue gas velocity and temperature were lower in left part of crossover pass. The deviation of flue gas further generated the convective heat transfer imbalance of final re-heater, therefore, the temperature deviation of re-heat steam was severe. (2) Tilting the burner upward can effectively reduce the intensity of residual flow as well as the flue gas deviation degree. The + 11° tilt angle of burner was relatively optimum considering the flue gas deviation and final re-heater overheating potential. Specifically, the intensity of residual swirl flow dropped 44% with burner tilting upward for + 11°. Practical operation of boiler demonstrated that the reheat steam temperature deviation was reduced from 22 °C to 10 °C in this case. (3) When the tilt angle of additional air (AA) was bias set, the flow field of upper furnace was changed. Consequently, the residual swirl flow intensity and the flue gas deviation were reduced considerably. On-site measurements indicated that the combination of tilting burner upward for + 11° and setting the bias of AA tilt angle for 10° can further reduce the re-heat steam temperature deviation to 4 °C.

Sodium, calcium, sulfur and chlorine in the flue gas of coal-fired boilers are the main cause of ash deposition/fouling in heat exchangers. However, there are still many debates on the mechanism of ash deposition/fouling due to the lack of direct micro evidence. This paper aims to clarify the initial deposition/fouling characteristics of a high-alkali coal by computer-controlled scanning electron microscopy (CC-SEM). The results demonstrate that temperature has an influence on the deposition/fouling compounds. The crystalline compounds in the samples at 900 °C were mainly CaSO4 and Ca2Al2SiO7, while the compounds in the samples at 500 °C were mainly NaCl. Sulfur had a significant adsorption effect on sodium and calcium at 900 °C, while chlorine had a significant adsorption effect on sodium at 500 °C. A 3-layer microstructure of deposition/fouling was found after the samples were stripped by molecular force. Additionally, deposition/fouling could be divided into three stages: the formation of sodium salt precursors, the growth of loose structural aluminosilicates and the adhesion of particulates on the surface. Sulfates, especially Na2SO4 and CaSO4 formed a precursor for the initial deposition/fouling of high-alkali coal.