Analysis of thermal stress evolution in the steam drum during start-up of a heat recovery steam generator

A program to predict the transient characteristics of the heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) is constructed and the start-up behavior of the high-pressure part of an HRSG is analyzed with a special focus on the estimation of the thermal stress in the steam drum. Three HRSG start-up procedures (steady gas turbine without gas bypass, steady gas turbine with gas bypass, start-up gas turbine) are simulated. The gas bypass is conducted during the initial stage of the start-up. Estimation of the maximum thermal stress makes it possible to optimize the gas bypass mode. It is shown that bypassing part of the gas flow lowers the peak stress much in case of the steady gas turbine exhaust condition. Examples of the scheduling of the gas flow increase using the step and ramp modes are demonstrated. In case of the simultaneous start-up, the peak stress is considerably low due to the gradual increase of gas temperature and mass flow and bypassing just a small portion of gas flow is enough to keep it under the allowable limit.