Numerical Study on Flow Field Optimization and Wear Mitigation Strategies for 600 MW Pulverized Coal Boilers

To compensate for the instability of renewable energy sources during China’s energy transition, large thermal power plants must provide critical operational flexibility, primarily through deep peaking. To investigate the combustion performance and wear and tear of a 600 MW pulverized coal boiler under deep peaking, the gas–solid flow characteristics and distributions of flue gas temperature, wall heat flux, and wall wear rate in a 600 MW tangentially fired pulverized coal boiler under variable loads (353 MW, 431 MW, 519 MW, and 600 MW) are investigated in this study employing computational fluid dynamics numerical simulation method. Results demonstrate that increasing the boiler load significantly amplifies gas velocity, wall heat flux, and wall wear rate. The maximum gas velocity in the furnace rises from 20.9 m·s−1 (353 MW) to 37.6 m·s−1 (600 MW), with tangential airflow forming a low-velocity central zone and high-velocity peripheral regions. Meanwhile, the tangential circle diameter expands by ~15% as the load increases. The flue gas temperature distribution exhibits a “low-high-low” profile along the furnace height. As the load increases from 353 MW to 600 MW, the primary combustion zone’s peak temperature rises from 1750 K to 1980 K, accompanied by a ~30% expansion in the coverage area of the high-temperature zone. Wall heat flux correlates strongly with temperature distribution, peaking at 2.29 × 105 W·m−2 (353 MW) and 2.75 × 105 W·m−2 (600 MW) in the primary combustion zone. Wear analysis highlights severe erosion in the economizer due to elevated flue gas velocities, with wall wear rates escalating from 3.29 × 10−7 kg·m−2·s−1 (353 MW) to 1.23 × 10−5 kg·m−2·s−1 (600 MW), representing a 40-fold increase under full-load conditions. Mitigation strategies, including ash removal optimization, anti-wear covers, and thermal spray coatings, are proposed to enhance operational safety. This work provides critical insights into flow field optimization and wear management for large-scale coal-fired boilers under flexible load operation.