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Article history: Steam accumulators are applied as buffers between steam generators and consumers in cases of different
Received 15 May 2011 steam production and consumption rates. The steam accumulator is lled with water and steam and it
Accepted 4 January 2012 operates with a sliding pressure. Dynamics of the steam accumulator charging and discharging depends
Available online 10 January 2012
on the accumulator volume, initial and boundary process parameters and condensation and evaporation
rates. The non-equilibrium numerical model of steam accumulator is developed with the aim of pre-
Keywords:
dicting a steam accumulator capacity and as a support to the design of a control system. The model is
Steam accumulator
based on the mass and energy balance equations for each phase and closure laws of phase transitions. The
Pressure transients
Numerical model
applied methodology is new regarding the commonly used equilibrium approach. The steam accumulator
pressure transients are predicted for the case of periodic variable steam supply to a coal drying plant. The
inuence of the inlet steam enthalpy on the water mass and level change is investigated. The importance
of the non-equilibrium evaporation and condensation modelling for the reliable prediction of steam
accumulator transients is demonstrated by examples of charging and discharging tests.
2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1359-4311/$ e see front matter 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2012.01.007
74 V.D. Stevanovic et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 37 (2012) 73e79
Meanwhile, it captures liquid phase from the two-phase refrig- a higher pressure during accumulator charging than predicted
erant, thus preventing damage to the compressor. Hence, with the equilibrium model.
its dynamical behaviour and refrigerant liquid mass storage are
important for the overall cooling system performance. An inuence In order to overcome the drawbacks of the equilibrium steam
of accumulator transients on ow instabilities of the two-phase accumulator model, the non-equilibrium model of steam accu-
refrigerant in a horizontal straight tube evaporator is reported in mulator operation was developed [13] with the correlations for the
Ref. [12]. evaporation and condensation mass rates derived from the
Steam pressure transients and a water level position in the HerzeKnudsen equation [14]. In these correlations the value of
accumulator depend on initial and boundary conditions, such as phase transition surfaces in the steam accumulator and the local
the initial water mass, the steam inow and outow rates, the inlet water and steam interface thermodynamic conditions are quanti-
steam temperature and pressure (i.e. the steam enthalpy), as well ed with a single empirical constant.
as on the evaporation and condensation rates. A standard task in The motivation for here presented research is a development of
the steam accumulator design is to calculate its internal volume a new thermodynamic model of the steam accumulator, based on
that can provide the required mass of steam accumulation or the thermal non-equilibrium between the liquid and vapour phase,
production under the accumulator pressure change between which provides more accurate predictions of the steam accumu-
specied minimum and maximum values. Also, the task could be to lator pressure, temperature and water level during accumulator
calculate the steam accumulator capacity for specied volume and charging and discharging transients than the equilibrium model
maximum and minimum pressure values. A more challenging task (still applied in the most recent research papers [3,7]). Also, the
is to predict the transient pressure changes under dynamic oper- intention is to develop a model that is easily programmed for
ating conditions due to accumulator variable inlet and outlet steam computer simulations and that can cope with complex transients of
ow rates and enthalpies. Despite the mature usage of steam steam accumulator. The non-equilibrium model of steam accu-
accumulators, methods that have been used for their thermal mulator is based on the mass and energy balances for each phase
design and for control of their operation are still approximate. The (liquid water and steam). The evaporation and condensation rates
drawbacks in the current state-of-the-art of steam accumulator are calculated with empirical correlations, which take into account
modelling (related to the available published models in recent that the phase transition rates depend on the water mass inventory
years) are outlined as follows: within the steam accumulator vessel. Also, the heat transfer rate
from the steam towards the liquid water is calculated when steam
In predictions of the steam accumulator volume or the accu- is at a higher temperature than water. The model balance equations
mulation and discharge capacity, the energy of phase transition form a set of ordinary differential equations of the rst order with
removed from or added to the liquid phase is determined by pressure, masses and enthalpies of liquid and steam as dependent
using a mean value of the latent heat, which is predicted as the variables and time as independent variable. This set of equations is
arithmetic mean of the latent heats at the initial and nal solved numerically with the RungeeKutta method [15] for specied
operating pressures of the accumulator [7]. This assumption initial conditions. The model is validated by comparing numerical
leads to approximate results; for instance, the latent heat of results with measured data from a steam accumulator charging
water varies for approximately 13% between the pressurise of transient. The developed model is used for an investigation of the
2 MPa and 5 MPa (a typical pressure span for the steam accu- inuence of inlet steam superheating on the steam accumulator
mulator operation). pressure transients. It is shown that the inow of superheated
In some models approximate equations of state for the steam steam leads to the pressure increase after charging and discharging
phase were applied. In Ref. [3] the ideal gas law is applied intervals, which must be corrected by the periodic feed water
although this is a very crude approximation for the saturated or charging. The presented model is a tool for the design of steam
close to the saturated steam state. In Ref. [7] the Antoine accumulator vessel volume and the control system that should
correlation for the relation between the saturated pressure and govern the accumulator charging and discharging transients. It
temperature was applied, as well as the Watson correlation for enables the prediction of steam accumulator pressure and water
the latent heat of evaporation. transients during operation. The presented model is also an
The recent published models [3,7,8], as well as the previous ones improvement regarding the previously published models since it
[2,6] are based on the thermal equilibrium between the liquid takes into account the non-equilibrium water and steam conditions
and steam phase, although a substantial deviation from thermal in the steam accumulator and the dependence of the condensation
equilibrium could exist in the accumulator during rapid and evaporation rates on them. Also, the necessary relations among
charging or discharging. The equilibrium model assumes that water and steam thermo-physical parameters (such as liquid water
the liquid and vapour phase in contact have the same pressure and steam densities dependence on the pressure and temperature)
and temperature of saturation. It also implies that any thermo- are calculated with corresponding polynomials derived from the
dynamic change of the liquid and vapour state will be performed steam tables [16], while in some previous papers approximate
with innite rates of evaporation or condensation. On the equations of state were applied [3,7]. Compared to the results from
contrary, the models based on the thermal non-equilibrium [13] here presented model takes into account the evaporation and
calculate separately the liquid and vapour thermodynamic condensation rates dependence on the water volume in the steam
parameters, which might have different temperatures although accumulator and introduces the heat transfer between steam and
the two phases are in contact, and the evaporation and liquid. The paper also presents the non-equilibrium effects of
condensation rates are nite. Application of the non-equilibrium condensation and evaporation processes in steam accumulator
model leads to practical implications that are important for the transients. The importance of these effects is demonstrated by
design of the steam accumulator, as well as for the design of numerical simulations of steam accumulator charging and dis-
a control system that should govern the accumulator transient charging tests, with a clear conclusion that these non-equilibrium
operation. As it will be demonstrated in Section 3.4 of this paper, effects cannot be obtained with the equilibrium steam accumu-
the non-equilibrium evaporation leads to a lower pressure in the lator models that represent the current state-of-the-art in the
accumulator during discharging than predicted with the equi- steam accumulator modelling (this is common for all recent and
librium model, while the non-equilibrium condensation leads to previously reported researches [2,3,6,7,8]).
V.D. Stevanovic et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 37 (2012) 73e79 75
49.5
49
48.5
Pressure (bar)
48
47.5
47
46.5
46
0 60 120 180 240 300 360 420 480 540 600 660
Time (s)
Fig. 3. Measured pressure of the inlet steam during the test of steam accumulator
Fig. 1. Steam accumulator layout. charging.
76 V.D. Stevanovic et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 37 (2012) 73e79
290 10
Outlet
9
285
6
275 5
4
270 3
2
265
1 Inlet
260 0
0 1000 2000 3000
255 Time (s)
0 60 120 180 240 300 360 420 480 540 600 660
Time (s) Fig. 6. Inlet and outlet steam mass ow rates at the steam accumulator that serves as
a buffer between a steam boiler and a coal drying plant.
Fig. 4. Measured temperature of the inlet steam during the test of steam accumulator
charging. a negligible inuence on the dynamics of pressure change, but it
inuences the steam temperature. Here adopted value of (ha)21
accumulator internal volume is 64 m3. In all performed simulations leads to a difference between the steam temperature and the
it is assumed that in the initial state the water and steam are in saturation temperature not higher than a few Celsius degrees
thermal equilibrium determined by the initial pressure. The initial during the course of the simulated transient.
liquid water level, which determines the initial water and steam
mass in the accumulator, is specied for each test. 3.2. Steam accumulator variable discharging and constant charging
with saturated steam
3.1. Model validation
A constant steam charging into the steam accumulator, provided
The developed model is validated for a test of steam accumu- by a control valve at the steam inlet, and the variable steam dis-
lator charging. The measured mass ow rate, the pressure and the charging, determined by the steam consumption in the coal drying
temperature of the inlet steam are shown in Figs. 2e4. There are no plant and provided by a control valve at the steam outlet, are shown
other inlet or outlet ows. The liquid water initial volume is 86% of in Fig. 6. It is adopted that the inlet steam is saturated, which is
the total accumulator volume. The calculated pressure increase is provided by a cooling of the superheated steam from a steam boiler
compared with the measured values in Fig. 5. A rapid pressure with a desuperheater. In the initial state the liquid water lls the
increase up to 36 bar is observed at the beginning of the charging half of the accumulator volume and water and steam are in thermal
process till 25 s due to the rise in the steam inlet ow rate as shown equilibrium at 25 bar. These conditions lead to the periodic pres-
in Fig. 2. Latter on, the steady pressure increase is shown in Fig. 5. sure changes as shown in Fig. 7. The corresponding collapsed water
Good agreement of the calculated pressure transient with the level change is shown in Fig. 8. The other steam accumulator
measured data is obtained. The simulation is performed with the parameters, such as the liquid and steam masses, also change
following values of the model empirical parameters: the conden- periodically.
sation relaxation time is sc 85 s (it is assumed that se sc) and the
product of the heat transfer coefcient from steam to liquid water 3.3. Steam accumulator variable discharging and charging with
and the steamewater interface area concentration is superheated steam
(ha)21 5 104 W/(m3 K). The evaporation and condensation
relaxation times have a strong inuence on the pressure change Here analysed operating conditions of the steam accumulator
rate, and here adopted values provide good agreement between are the same as presented in the previous Section 3.2, except that
calculated and measured pressure data. The product (ha)21 has the superheated steam inows into the steam accumulator, instead
50 27
48
26
46
Pressure (bar)
Pressure (bar)
44 25
42
24
40
38 23
36 22
Calculated
34
Measured 21
32
30 20
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000
Time (s) Time (s)
Fig. 5. Measured and calculated pressure in the steam accumulator during the test of Fig. 7. Calculated pressure change in the steam accumulator that serves as a buffer
steam accumulator charging. between a steam boiler and a coal drying plant.
V.D. Stevanovic et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 37 (2012) 73e79 77
1.50 27200
27000
1.45
Mass (kg)
26800
Level (m)
1.40 26600
26400
1.35
26200
1.30 26000
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000
Time (s) Time (s)
Fig. 8. Calculated water level change in the steam accumulator that serves as a buffer Fig. 10. Calculated liquid water mass change in the steam accumulator charged with
between a steam boiler and a coal drying plant. the superheated steam.
of the saturated steam. The constant enthalpy of the inlet steam of the accumulator is 32 m3 (the total inner volume is 64 m3) and
3000 kJ/kg is adopted, which provides a superheating of 72 C for water and steam are in thermodynamic equilibrium in the initial
the initial steam pressure of 25 bar. state. The accumulator is charged from the initial pressure of 25 bar
Compared to the results in the previous section, the mean till the pressure of 50 bar with the constant inlet steam mass ow
pressure during a periodic charging and discharging steadily rate of 10 kg/s. When the pressure reaches 50 bar the inlet steam
increases due to the inow of superheated steam (Fig. 9). This ow is stopped. The pressure change calculated with the non-
pressure increase is caused by the water evaporation due to the equilibrium model presented in this paper is depicted in Fig. 13,
excess energy of superheated steam. The decrease of water mass in together with the results of the equilibrium model that is based on
the steam accumulator is shown in Fig. 10, while the steam mass the thermodynamic equilibrium between steam and water. The
increase is shown in Fig. 11. Although the mass of water in the equilibrium model results are obtained by assuming thousand times
steam accumulator decreases, the volume and the level of water smaller values of evaporation and condensation relaxation times se
slightly increase since the increase of pressure leads to the water and sc in Eqs. (6) and (7) and thousand times greater value of the
temperature increase and the corresponding water density heat transfer coefcient in Eq. (8) (these changes lead to thousand
decrease (Fig. 12). The mean value of the pressure in the steam times greater values of mass and heat interface transfers that
accumulator can be reduced by the introduction of the cold feed approximate liquid and vapour thermodynamic equilibrium
water. Here described phenomenon was previously reported in conditions). Also, the same equilibrium results are obtained with
Ref. [2]: If the accumulator is charged with superheated steam, the equilibrium model presented in Ref. [8]. Fig. 13 shows that the
more than one pound of water is evaporated per pound of steam real pressure increase during the charging, predicted with the non-
condensed. Treated makeup water must be added. Level control equilibrium model, is greater than the equilibrium pressure
should correspond to a given pressure. To avoid decreasing the increase. The pressure increases up to 50 bar and after the stop of
available steam-storage capacity, makeup should not be added steam inow the pressure reaches the lower equilibrium value at
when the accumulator is discharging. This phenomenon was 45.6 bar. The equilibrium model does not predict this pressure
described almost three decades ago, but it has not been quantita- increase for 4.4 bar over the nal equilibrium state. The obtained
tively analysed or numerically simulated previously, although it is results show that in order to charge the accumulator with the
important for the design of steam accumulator control systems. prescribed amount of steam, it is necessary to reach a higher pres-
sure in the accumulator than a pressure predicted with the equi-
3.4. The non-equilibrium effects of steam accumulator operation librium model. This condition has to be taken into account in
a design of a control system for steam accumulator operation.
The importance of non-equilibrium condensation and evapora- In the steam accumulator discharging test, the initial pressure is
tion modelling is demonstrated by examples of steam accumulator 50 bar and the steam discharges with the constant mass ow rate of
charging and discharging. In both cases the initial water volume in
40 550
500
Pressure (bar)
35
Mass (kg)
30 450
25 400
20 350
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000
Time (s) Time (s)
Fig. 9. Calculated pressure change in the steam accumulator charged with the Fig. 11. Calculated steam mass change in the steam accumulator charged with the
superheated steam. superheated steam.
78 V.D. Stevanovic et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 37 (2012) 73e79
1.50 55
50
Equilibrium model
1.45
Pressure (bar)
45
Level (m)
40
1.40
35
1.35 30
Nonequilibrium model
25
1.30
20
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 0 100 200 300 400 500
Time (s) Time (s)
Fig. 12. Calculated water level change in the steam accumulator charged with the Fig. 14. Steam accumulator pressure transient during discharging e predictions with
superheated steam. equilibrium and non-equilibrium model.
10 kg/s till the pressure of 25 bar, when its ow is stopped. The pressure during periodic charging and discharging, which indicates
results obtained with the non-equilibrium and equilibrium models a need for a subcooled feedwater injection with the aim of steam
are shown in Fig. 14. The non-equilibrium model predicts the real condensation and pressure reduction. Also, the non-equilibrium
condition with the pressure drop till 25 bar and subsequent pres- effects of steam accumulator operation are demonstrated with
sure recovery to the value of 27.7 bar. The equilibrium model the examples of steam charging and discharging tests. It is shown
predicts the pressure decrease only to its nal equilibrium value. that the reliable results for the design of steam accumulation
Again, the equilibrium model does not provide the reliable results control system can be obtained only by taking into account the
for the purpose of steam accumulator operation control. The nal non-equilibrium effects of evaporation and condensation, espe-
accumulator pressure is not 25 bar (the value at the instance of cially for accumulators that have to support fast charging and dis-
discharge valve closure), but a 2.7 bar higher value. The conclusion charging rates. The important conclusion is that the use of the
in the case of discharging transient is that in order to discharge the equilibrium steam accumulator model overpredicts pressure
accumulator with the prescribed amount of steam, it is necessary to during accumulator discharging and underpredicts pressure during
reach a lower pressure in the accumulator than a pressure pre- accumulator charging. A design of the control system by the
dicted with the equilibrium model. Again, this transient behaviour predictions with the equilibrium model will lead to the false
has to be taken into account in a design of a control system for results, as demonstrated in Section 3.4. During discharging phase
steam accumulator operation. the lower pressure must be reached than the nal equilibrium state
in order to discharge the prescribed amount of steam. Also, during
the charging phase, a higher pressure level must be reached than
4. Conclusions
the nal equilibrium pressure level in order to charge the accu-
mulator with the prescribed steam amount. The levels of this
The numerical model for the simulation and analyses of the
pressure drops below nal equilibrium value during discharging
steam accumulator operation is developed based on the mass and
and the increases over nal equilibrium during charging phase can
energy balance equations for each phase (liquid water and steam)
be obtained only with the application of the non-equilibrium
and non-equilibrium correlations for condensation and evapora-
model and not with the equilibrium one.
tion rates. The obtained results show changes of pressure, liquid
level and water and steam masses and enthalpies. The model is
validated against measured data. Performed numerical experi- Acknowledgements
ments show dynamic characteristics of the steam accumulator
operation in cases when it is charged with saturated steam, as well This work was supported by the Ministry of Education and
as with the superheated steam. The charging with superheated Science of the Republic of Serbia (Grant No. 174014).
steam leads to the steady increase of the accumulator mean
Appendix A
55
Nonequilibrium The steam and liquid water volumes in the volume balance (5)
50 model
are written as products of corresponding mass and specic
Pressure (bar)
1 water
dh1 1 dp dM1
_ PT1 h00 Q_ 21 M1 v1 h1
_ 1B m
mh (A.2) 2 steam
dt M1 dt dt 21 interfacial transfer from steam to water
0 saturated water
dh2 1 dp dM2 00 saturated steam
mh _ PT2 h00 Q_ 21 M2 v2 h2
_ 2B m (A.3)
dt M2 dt dt
Substitution of (A.2) and (A.3) in (A.1) leads to
vv1 dM1 vv dM2 vv1 vv
h1 v1 h2 2 v2 _ 1B m
mh _ PT1 h00 Q_ 21 2 mh _ PT2 h00 Q_ 21
_ 2B m
dp vh p dt vh p dt vh p vh p
(A.4)
dt vv1 vv vv2 vv
v1 1 M1 v2 2 M2
vp h vh p vp h vh p
Eqs. (1), (2), (A.4), (A.2) and (A.3) provide a set of ve rst-order References
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out outlet