Application of a Lumped Multi-Section Model for Analyzing the Thermal Performance of a Small-Scale Biomass Boiler

The stationary lumped-cell model was developed and used to simulate the thermal characteristics of domestic biomass boiler with helically coiled tube heat exchanger (HCHE). The device serves as the heat source for ORC (Organic Rankine Cycle) unit and utilizes the thermal oil as the medium transferring the heat to the unit. Most of studies available in the literature refer to the CFD simulations for water flow in tube coils or in one- or two-turn coil elements. These investigations are basically focused on the determination of Nusselt number. The proposed herein model aims at determining the thermal performance of flue gas-oil HCHE while providing low CPU time. To demonstrate the model possibilities, it was used to predict the flue gas temperatures at the inlet and outlet from the heat exchange zone, based on measurement data regarding the outlet temperature of thermal oil. Six test series were considered. The computation results appeared to be in satisfactory agreement with experimental results (the discrepancies do not exceed 12%). The investigations showed that the used approach may be recommended as an alternative method that allows for fast prediction of thermal parameters for units of complex geometries, in particular the multi-coil heat exchangers.