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Estimating the Parameters of Dynamic Model

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DOI: 10.1109/TPWRS.2010.2061879 Source: IEEE Xplore

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 26, NO. 2, MAY 2011
Estimating the Parameters of Dynamic Model
of Drum Type Boilers Using Heat Balance Data
as an Educational Procedure
Ramezan Ali Naghizadeh, Student Member, IEEE, Behrooz Vahidi, Senior Member, IEEE, and
Mohammad Reza Bank Tavakoli
AbstractThe procedure for deriving the parameters of drum
type boilers dynamic model for long-term transient stability
studies by use of heat balance data is presented in this paper.
The main purpose of the work is to exhibit a regular procedure
using available heat balance data of the steam plant boiler and
thermodynamic properties of saturated steam and water, to be
suitable for educational purposes. The parameters are shown to
be in reasonable range. The model response to step changes with
and without control loop is simulated and discussed as well. Fur-
thermore, a practical scenario of the studied steam power plant is
presented and the measured data are compared with simulation
results.
Index TermsDrum boiler, dynamic modeling, long-term sta-
bility.
I. INTRODUCTION
P OWER system stability studies are classified into different
categories depending on the physical nature of included
phenomena, severity of disturbances, and the time span that
must be taken into consideration. An accurate and suitable math-
ematical representation of power system components is very
significant for dynamic stability studies. In order to simulate the
dynamic behavior of large interconnected power systems over
a long time interval following a disturbance in the system, it is
necessary to model thermal power plant slower dynamics [1].
Prime mover and energy supply systems modeling can be im-
portant affecting the long-term dynamic performance of elec-
trical networks. Standard dynamic models for each prime mover
system component were introduced previously for simulation
programs and other purposes [2][5]. In almost all of the pub-
lished standards and even text books, the procedure of deriving
such standard model parameters has not been described appro-
priately, as in some cases there is no model data provided by the
manufacturer.
From an educational point of view, a power system engi-
neer or student who needs such models for dynamic studies
should understand the nature of the process, physical principles,
and mathematical relations between parameters. Based on this
Manuscript received December 23, 2009; revised May 18, 2010; accepted
July 19, 2010. Date of publication September 02, 2010; date of current version
April 22, 2011. Paper no. TPWRS-00997-2009.
The authors are with the Department of Electrical Engineering,
Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran 15916-34311, Iran (e-mail:
naghizadeh@aut.ac.ir; vahidi@aut.ac.ir; banktavakoli@aut.ac.ir).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPWRS.2010.2061879
0885-8950/$26.00 2010 IEEE
775
knowledge about the procedure, parameter identification can be
explained in a comprehensible way.
Boiler pressure effects and its control actions in steam power
plants are relatively slow which result from the thermodynamic
changes that must be considered for predicting the behavior of
bulk power systems in long-term stability studies with the time
frame of interest ranging from tens of seconds to several min-
utes. In order to perform such studies, appropriate models as
well as precise parameters are required.
The aim of this paper is to illustrate the procedure of deriving
the IEEE drum type boiler models parameters for a real steam
power generation plant using available data of the steam gen-
eration process of a specific unit and thermodynamic tables of
saturated steam and water properties as a guideline for power
system engineering education. This paper is in succession with
two previous works by the authors in which procedures for de-
riving the parameters of steam turbine and heavy duty gas tur-
bine are presented [6], [7].
The rest of the paper is organized as follows: In Section II,
an overall description of the steam power unit cycle is pre-
sented. Drum type boiler model for long-term dynamic analysis
is briefly described in Section III. In Section IV, the boilers
model parameters calculation using real steam power plant data
is presented. Section V shows the simulation and step response
of the derived model with verification of the extracted model,
and Section VI concludes the paper.
II. FOSSIL FUEL STEAM POWER PLANT PROCESS
Fig. 1 shows a simplified schematic diagram of the fossil fuel
steam power plant process. In such power plants, fossil fuels are
used as primary energy source to produce superheated steam in
the boiler. Various sections of turbine convert the steam energy
to mechanical energy which finally produces electrical power
by means of the synchronous generators. In reality the system
is much more complicated than what is shown in the figure.
Drum type boilers are widely employed for steam generation
in thermal power plants. As suggested by its name, this type of
boiler employs a large drum as a reservoir for fluid that is at an
evaporation temperature. This type of boiler system generally
includes a drum, water walls (risers), a down comer, an econo-
mizer, and a superheater. The drum is located on the top of the
water wall tubes and is used to separate steam flow from the
saturated water so that it can proceed to the superheater as a sat-
urated heatable vapour [1]. It also serves as a storage space for
boiler water, which is distributed from the steam drum to the
776 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 26, NO. 2, MAY 2011

Fig. 1. Simplified schematic of the fossil fuel steam power plant process.

down comer tubes. During normal operation, the steam drum is

kept about half full of water.
The water walls absorb radiant heat in the furnace. The hot
flue gases leaving the furnace transfer heat by radiation and
convection to the superheater, reheater, and economizer succes-
sively. The feed water is preheated in the economizer to produce
hot feed water for boiler.
This is a relatively complicated thermodynamic process
which operates at subcritical pressures as long as there is some
finite density difference between the saturated steam and water
phases. In high pressure subcritical boilers, constant volume cir-
culating pumps are utilized to maintain an essentially constant
rate of circulation through the down comers and water walls.
The turbine valve and/or fuel system is controlled to maintain
the throttle steam pressure, while the steam temperature in the
superheater is controlled by spraying water. Fig. 2. Physical system of boiler pressure effects. (a) Schematic view. (b) Elec-
tric analogue model.

III. DRUM BOILER MODEL

The equivalent physical system and its electrical analogue are
An adequate mathematical model of the steam generation
shown in Fig. 2.
process is necessary for long-term dynamic studies. Some valu-
This boiler model is derived based on first principles of mass,
able works have added to our knowledge of boiler behavior as
volume and energy balance with some simplifying assumptions
an element in a dynamic system [3][5]. The suggested model
for pressure/flow dynamics [5]. The boiler model suggested by
for drum type boiler and its control schemes is described in the
IEEE working group reports for power system dynamic studies
following sections.
is shown in Fig. 3.
The energy input to the boiler, which is primarily the heat re-
A. Model Description
leased in the furnace, generates steam in the water walls .
Actually, the steam generation process in the boiler system is The steam pressure of the drum is proportional to the in-
a huge distributed one and this is approximated in the modeling tegral of the net inflow to the storage volume ,
procedure by two lumped storage volumes for the drum and and the throttle pressure of the steam inlet of the turbine is
superheater which are connected trough an orifice representing proportional to the integral of the net inflow passing
the friction pressure drop through the superheater and piping. through the storage volume of superheater . Flow into the
NAGHIZADEH et al.: ESTIMATING THE PARAMETERS OF DYNAMIC MODEL
Fig. 3. Mathematical model of boiler pressure effects [3].
storage volume and out of the storage volume is
obtained as proportional to the square root of pressure differ-
ence between the two storage volumes.
Steam generation flow is determined by the heat release
in the furnace with a time lag due to the heat capacitance of the
water wall metal . Finally, the fuel system dynamics can
be represented by a time constant and a dead time . A. Required Equations
It can be seen from Fig. 3 that there are two major nonlin-
earities in the plant: one from the governor valve position to the
flow rate through the valve and its control system and another
from the steam flow in superheater because of the square root
relationship between pressure drop and steam flow. Compara-
tively, the latter is insignificant compared to the former [3].
The recommended model is a simplified model since it is lim-
ited to pressure/flow effects. However, field tests have shown
that this model is precise enough for the purpose of long-term
power system stability studies [8].
B. Boiler Turbine Controls
Traditionally, conventional turbine control operates in a
boiler follows turbine mode where changes in steam generation
are initiated by turbine control valves and the boiler controls
respond with appropriate action upon sensing steam pressure
and flow. Another mode of control is the turbine follows boiler
mode where turbine valves are controlled to regulate the boiler
pressure. As a compromise, integrated boiler and turbine
control may be used to achieve both a quick turbine response
and limiting of the changes in the boiler variables. More details
about these control schemes and other control alternatives of
the prime-mover systems can be found in the literature [1], [4].
As the purpose of this work is to study the boiler dynamic
behavior itself, only the boiler follows turbine control mode is
considered. In this control mode, a proportional-integral con-
troller is usually employed to regulate the throttle pressure via
fuel signal.
The model parameters of a specific unit can be derived by
conducting field tests. However, the parameters of the drum type
boiler model can also be derived by the procedure discussed in
the next section.
777
Fig. 4. General steam generation process in drum and water walls.
IV. DERIVATION OF THE MODEL PARAMETERS
In this section, the required equations for derivation of param-
eters of the standard model shown in Fig. 3 are presented and
then the model parameters of a real steam power plant boiler are
extracted.
The storage constant of drum and superheater can be defined
as the change in mass of stored steam per change in pressure.
So, the storage constant of superheater can be approximated by
(1)
where , , and are the mass, volume and density of
the stored steam in kg, , and , respectively. In many
cases, there is more than one superheater in series with each
other which are located after the drum output. In this case, the
contribution of all superheaters can be approximated by [5]
(2)
where denotes the number of superheater section. In order to
calculate , the volume and pressure of each superheater
section and connecting steam leads are required. It is worth
mentioning that pressure and flow units in boiler model are in
per unit and the storage and time constants are in seconds (see
Fig. 3). Therefore, (2) must be modified by normalizing
around the operating point as follows:
(3)
where and are quiescent values of related superheater
section pressure and steam flow, respectively.
Drum and water walls contain saturated water which makes
it more complicated to express the storage constant . The
778 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 26, NO. 2, MAY 2011

steam generation process in water walls and drum is shown in TABLE I

Fig. 4. The symbols in this figure represent the saturated water DATA OF A 160-MW STEAM UNIT
and steam properties as follows:
mass of saturated water in water walls and drum
(kg);
mass of saturated steam in water walls and drum
(kg);
specific volume of saturated water ;
specific volume of saturated steam ;
enthalpy of saturated water (kJ/kg);
TABLE II
enthalpy of saturated steam (kJ/kg). SUPERHEATER DATA

The change in the mass of stored steam per change in pressure

in the system shown in Fig. 4 can be obtained by application of
small perturbation forms of mass, volume, and energy balance
equations as follows [5]:

of these parameters is narrow for large fossil fuelled steam units

(4)
and it would be quite exhausting to derivate them using typical
available plant data [3]. Therefore, typical values of these pa-
(5)
rameters are to be used which are based on field tests of different
plants [4].

B. Case Study
(6)
Operating data are always available in an existing steam
By solving these equations for and assuming power plant such as heat balance map (HBM) and dimensional
the storage constant of drum and water walls can be data of different components. An example of HBM can be
expressed by (7) at the bottom of the page, where the subscript found in [6]. Here, the case study is a gas fired steam unit with
denotes the variables quiescent values. Similar to storage 160-MW generation capacity and a natural circulation drum
constant of superheater, should be normalized in vicinity of type boiler (no circulating pump). The required data for esti-
the operating point. Then we have mating the parameters of boiler model are extracted from HBM
at nominal load. Usually, the volumes of the unit components
are available for steam unit. The required data for estimating
(8) the boiler model parameters are presented in Tables I and II.
As illustrated in Table II, the case study steam unit has three
where is drum pressure and is the steady state value superheater sections in which the saturated steam is converted
of steam mass flow rate in drum output. According to Fig. 3, into dry steam for high pressure turbine. As mentioned before,
the superheater coefficient can be determined by the following in order to calculate the total contribution of superheaters in
equation: storage constant, we need the volume and pressure of each sec-
tion and density function of the steam. The superheater of the
case study unit consists of six pipe sets which are mounted on
(9) the heating wall of the furnace. If the volumes of the superheater
sections are not available, they can be obtained by diameter,
As it will be seen in the next section, the overall boiler dy- length and number of the pipe sets.
namics is slow. On the other hand, the fuel dynamics are faster Using thermodynamic tables of steam [9] and a curve fitting
than steam generation dynamics. Furthermore, the typical range program, the density of saturated steam for the operational range

(7)
NAGHIZADEH et al.: ESTIMATING THE PARAMETERS OF DYNAMIC MODEL
of the unit in superheaters (9000 kPa to 10 000 kPa) can be ex-
pressed by a function of pressure as follows ( in kPa):
(10)
Then, according to (3) and Tables I and II the storage constant
of the superheaters can be expressed by the following equation:
According to (7) and (8), there are more parameters required
for calculation of compared to . The values of and
are given in Table I. Similar to the density of steam (10), the
enthalpy and specific volume of saturated steam and water can
be approximated by functions of drum pressure using thermody-
namic tables [9]. Thus, , , , and are approximated by
quadratic functions of pressure. For the operating range of 9000
kPa to 10 000 kPa approximate expressions are ( in kPa):
(11)
These functions and their derivatives can be used in (7) to
derivate . Furthermore, the total mass of saturated steam and
water are necessary. Depending on the boiler design, the steady
state volume of saturated steam and water can be estimated.
Total mass of saturated steam and saturated water can be easily
calculated by their total volume and the specific volume in op-
erating pressure of drum using (11). As mentioned before, the
steam drum is kept about half full of water during normal oper-
ating conditions. Therefore, the approximate values of and
are
Finally, all required data for estimating the storage constant
of drum are ready, therefore using (8) we extract
Parameter can be obtained from pressure drop between
drum and turbine. According to Table I, at full load
the drum and throttle pressures are 98 500 kPa and 90 000 kPa
respectively. According to (9) we extract:
779
TABLE III
DRUM TYPE BOILER MODEL PARAMETERS (SEE FIG. 3)
Fig. 5. Ten percent change in turbine valve, 100% load point without pressure
control.
The extracted and assumed parameters of drum type boiler
dynamic model are listed in Table III. The fuel time delay
is assumed to be 0 for gas or oil fired units [5]. A brief discussion
of boiler/turbine dynamic interaction is discussed in the next
section.
V. SIMULATION AND VERIFICATION
Table III represent the summary of assumed and derived pa-
rameters for the boiler model. The response of the boiler model
to 10% change in steam valve position with and without pres-
sure control loop for two operating points is presented in the
following subsections.
A. Response Without Pressure Control
Figs. 5 and 6 show the response of steam flow, drum pres-
sure, and throttle pressure to a change in turbine control valve
flow area with no change in energy input to the boiler for 100%
and 50% load points, respectively. In this situation, the change
in steam flow will be transient as energy is drawn from boiler
and superheater storage. It can be seen that the change in steam
flow results from change in steam flow area and boiler pressure
deviations.
The dynamic of steam generation process is slower than
dynamics of other components of the power plant. Hence, its
behavior should be considered in long-term transient stability
studies where the time frame of phenomena is in the range of
tens of seconds to several minutes.
780
Fig. 6. Ten percent change in turbine valve, 50% load point without pressure
control.
Fig. 7. Ten percent change in turbine valve, 100% load point with pressure
control.
According to the derived equations for storage constant of
superheater and drum, the volume of system components, op-
erating pressure and steam mass flow have great influence on
these parameter values.
B. Response With Pressure Control
In conventional boiler control systems, changes in turbine
valve are considered as disturbance to the system and the energy
input to the process is adopted to provide the demand for steam
based on throttle pressure error [3]. A two mode control (pro-
portional-integral) operating on throttle pressure error is prop-
erly tuned for the process lags to ensure the response to lie in
turbine valve flow area.
Figs. 7 and 8 show the pressure and steam flow deviations of
the studied boiler for 100% and 50% load points, respectively.
In this situation, throttle pressure and consequently steam flow
are maintained in desired operating values.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 26, NO. 2, MAY 2011
Fig. 8. Ten percent change in turbine valve, 50% load point with pressure con-
trol.
Fig. 9. Fuel input changes for 10% change in turbine valve.
Fig. 9 shows fuel input signal change for two operating
points simultaneously. We observe that in the case of 100% op-
erating point, more fuel is required compared to 50% operating
point in transient state.
C. Verification of the Extracted Model
The load of the power system changes independently and
the system and power plant(s) operators should provide it with
an appropriate planning. Altering the output power of a power
plant causes dynamic changes in thermodynamic parameters of
the steam generation process. One of these practical situations
is studied here. In modern power plants, the operating condi-
tions including some important thermodynamic parameters of
the power generation process are recorded and saved for future
requirements. In order to verify the presented procedure of drum
type boiler model parameters extraction, practical recorded data
of the studied power plant are investigated to find a dynamic be-
havior to confirm the simulation results in the same conditions.
The output active power of the studied steam power plant in
selected situation is depicted in Fig. 10. In this situation, the
output active power decreases and then increases in a 30-min
NAGHIZADEH et al.: ESTIMATING THE PARAMETERS OF DYNAMIC MODEL 781

Fig. 10. Measured active power of the steam power plant (P = 160 MW). Fig. 12. Drum pressure; measurement and simulation results.

Fig. 11. Steam valve position; measurement and simulation results.

Fig. 13. Fuel; measurement and simulation results.

time duration which makes it an interesting occasion to verify

[3][5]. The step response of the model is demonstrated in two
the simulation results.
operating points with and without pressure control to create a
The same practical conditions are implemented in the stan-
good insight into the boilers dynamic behavior. In addition, a
dard dynamic model (Fig. 3) with previously extracted parame-
practical situation of the studied power plant was investigated
ters (Table III). Valve position is controlled by the governor and
to verify the obtained dynamic model parameters.
fuel is controlled to maintain the throttle pressure in appropriate
The described procedure is a good approach for power en-
range. Valve position, drum pressure, and fuel signals are shown
gineering students who are interested in boiler model in long-
in Figs. 1113, respectively, which were available in recorded
term dynamic studies. This paper provides required background
parameters. As it can be seen, there is a good agreement be-
knowledge for studying the effect of actual data on the model pa-
tween measurement and simulation results that verifies the ex-
rameters and the responses. The simplifying assumptions help
tracted parameters for the standard dynamic model of drum type
the electrical engineer to estimate missing data out of available
boiler.
data. Furthermore, the importance of using thermodynamic ta-
VI. DISCUSSIONS AND CONCLUSIONS bles is emphasized here for modeling of the steam generation
process as a dynamic phenomenon.
This paper presented a simple procedure to extract the model
parameters of a real steam power plant drum boiler based on
heat balance map and thermodynamic tables for power system ACKNOWLEDGMENT
dynamic stability studies. The required equations to estimate The authors would like to thank Mr. S. M. H. Jamalaldini and
the parameters were presented and the simplifying assumptions Mr. S. M. Sayedi of Yazd Combined Cycle Power Plant, Yazd,
were stated for each parameter. It is shown that the derived pa- Iran, for their kind cooperation and providing practical data for
rameters are consistent with previously reported typical values this work.
782
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[2] IEEE Committee Report, Dynamic models for steam and hydro tur-
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[3] IEEE Working Group Report, Dynamic models for fossil fueled steam
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[5] F. P. de Mello, Boiler models for system dynamic performance
studies, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 6674, Feb. 1991.
[6] B. Vahidi, M. R. Bank Tavakoli, and W. Gawlik, Determining param-
eters of turbines model using heat balance data of steam power unit
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no. 3, pp. 13661374, Aug. 2009.
[8] E. Cheres, Small and medium size drum boiler models suitable for
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[9] G. J. Van Wylen, R. E. Sonntag, and C. Borgnakke, Fundamentals of
Classical Thermodynamics, 4th ed. New York: Wiley, 1998.
Ramezan Ali Naghizadeh (S10) was born in
Hamedan, Iran, in 1981. He received the B.S. degree
in electrical engineering from K. N. Toosi University
of Technology, Tehran, Iran, in 2004 and M.S. degree
in electrical engineering from Amirkabir University
of Technology, Tehran, in 2007. Currently, he is
pursuing the Ph.D. degree at the Department of
Electrical Engineering of Amirkabir University of
Technology.
His main fields of interest are component modeling
and transients of power systems. He also has been
with the IGMC Company, working on extensive analysis of the Iranian power
system. He is currently with the Iran Grid Secure Operation Research Center.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 26, NO. 2, MAY 2011
Behrooz Vahidi (M00SM04) was born in
Abadan, Iran, in 1953. He received the B.S. degree
in electrical engineering from Sharif University of
Technology, Tehran, Iran, in 1980, the M.S. degree
in electrical engineering from Amirkabir University
of Technology, Tehran, in 1989, and the Ph.D.
degree in electrical engineering from the University
of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology,
Manchester, U.K., in 1997.
From 1980 to 1986, he worked in the field of high
voltage in industry as a Chief Engineer. From 1989
to the present, he has been with the Department of Electrical Engineering of
Amirkabir University of Technology, where he is now a Professor. His main
fields of research are high voltage, electrical insulation, power system tran-
sient, lightning protection, and pulse power technology. He has authored and
coauthored 200 papers and five books on high-voltage engineering and power
system.
Mohammad Reza Bank Tavakoli was born in
Kerman, Iran, in 1981. He received the B.S. in elec-
trical engineering from Tehran University, Tehran,
Iran, in 2003 and the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in
electrical engineering from Amirkabir University of
Technology, Tehran, in 2005 and 2010, respectively.
His main fields of research are power system
dynamics and power system component modeling
and simulation. He is also with the IGMC Company,
working on extensive analysis of the Iranian power
system.