Numerical Investigation on Using of the Guide Vanes in the Air-Cooled Condenser’s Main Steam Manifold

The power plant cooling system is considered as one of the effective components of the efficiency in thermal power plants. In this study, a numerical analysis is carried out on the existing main steam manifold of an aircooled condenser, with unequal distribution of steam flow rate into seven branches. Thepurpose of this study is to decrease the local pressure drop at the Tee-junctions, in order to modify the flow field and equally distributethe steam flow between all branches. Doing so, a configuration of guide vanes is proposed to be installed in each Tee-junction. Resultsshowed that the new design (with guide vanes) can effectively restrain the flow separation at the entrance of the Tee-junction, lowering the steam pressure drop. By careful design of the geometry of the guide vanes, mass flow rates of the steam leaving each branch are almost equal. One can also takeadvantage of reduced turbulent kinetic energy of the flow which is important in terms of lowering fluid-born vibra

Keywords:

Air cooled condenser , Steam manifold , Guide vanes.