Use computational fluid dynamic analysis to revamp fired heaters

摘要

A refinery process fired heater system consists of multiple sub-units, of which the fired heater is the most critical, as it impacts the overall efficiency of the system. Other units include the air preheater, the burner plenum, the induced-draft (ID) fan and the process fluid piping system. As all of these units are interconnected, each one must operate optimally to ensure an efficient working unit. Computational fluid dynamic (CFD) modeling is a viable simulation tool that can be applied to improve the efficiency of these sub-units. CFD has been applied to address issues like high tube metal temperature (TMT) and the reduction in TMT using patented inclined firing technology.