FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an automation system to configure a fuel piping
network for transferring pulverized coal in thermal power plants.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Thermal power plants convert the chemical energy available in the fuels to
electrical energy, wherein boilers or steam generators produce high pressure
steam by burning fuel in the furnace. The steam is allowed to expand in turbines
which when coupled to a generator produces electrical energy. Among solid
fuels, coal is the prime fuel in utility units due to its availability and economics of
operation. The coal or solid fuel is generally pulverized to the form of dust to
increase the efficiency of combustion in boiler furnace. The pulverization is
performed by equipment called mills or pulverizers. The pulverized fuel is then
pneumatically transported from mills to furnace through pulverized fuel piping
system by using primary air.
Pulverized fuel is carried from mill to burner in Pulverized fuel piping system.
Primary air from primary air fan drives the pulverized fuel from mill through the
Pulverized fuel pipes up to burner.
In a typical corner fired boiler, there may be four or eight pipes per mill and the
number of mills may vary from five to ten based on MW rating of the utility unit,

fuel properties and type of the mill. The total number of Pulverized fuel pipes
may be forty for a typical 500MW utility unit with ten bowl mills. Each fuel pipe
rises vertically above the mill and travels horizontally clearing all interferences
and then finally rises vertically near the burner zone. The fuel pipes are routed in
few horizontal tiers to clear the interferences from the existing structural
members, ducts and other piping present in the boiler area. The fuel pipes are
connected with the burner or fuel nozzle, which is fitted to a top- supported
boiler. The top-supported boiler expands downwards during operation. The fuel
pipes are statically supported in the structural members before connecting to the
fuel nozzle which moves downwards during operation. Hence the differential
expansion has to be accommodated through a floating coupling device arranged
near the burner zone.
In a typical corner fired boiler, fuel is fired from four corners of the furnace to
form an imaginary fire circle at the centre. The fuel pipes are routed in such a
way that one pipe (out of four) from the mill reaches each corner of the furnace.
Each pipe from a mill is connected to the same burner elevation in all corners. A
typical burner arrangement in each corner will have a representation of fuel
pipes from all the mills.
Figure-1 (Typical one mill arrangement) shows a general arrangement of piping
components from a mill to the burner. After preparation of layout drawing of a

Pulverized fuel piping system, each pipe length and bend dimensions are
determined from the drawing. After collection of data from the fuel piping layout
drawing, manufacturing drawings are finalised. Presently, this process is done
manually leading to huge time and cost. Further, the technical data determined
lack absolute accuracy.
US patent 5625798 discloses "Method and system for extracting attribute
information corresponding to components included in process and
instrumentation diagram." According to the invention, standard CAD blocks,
which include attributes attached to the blocks, and directly correspond to
possible components to be used in the CAD drawing, are discussed. Information
relating to each component added in the CAD drawing is entered into an
attribute block of a database file corresponding to the type of component added
in the CAD drawing. When the drawing is completed, database output files are
generated and the attribute data may be provided to a user via an output device
such as a printer printing a hard copy or a display device displaying the
information.
US patent 6895373 entitled "Utility station automated design and method deals
with a system and method" provide a computer-based automated tool that
includes a database of user-selective pre-drawn symbols that are associated with
a pre-defined and stored station template. Each of the respective symbols have

associated therewith attributes that are computer recognizable as being
attributes associated with the respective symbols, and may be combined into a
list, when the symbols are selected for use with the station. The tool then
presents a graphical rendering of the symbols arranged on the station, after the
respective symbols have been identified.
US patent 5740341 discloses Design and production supporting system for
component arrangement and pipe routing deals with three-dimensional (3D)
component mapping means based on two-dimensional logical connection
information of plant components and 3-D arrangement space information. To the
3-D component mapping means, an interactive mapping means and an
automatic mapping means are provided. The interactive mapping means has a
means for displaying the components arranged on the assigned plane of the
arrangement space in the 3-D space keeping connection relationship among the
components and a means for interactively moving these components in the
arrangement space with keeping connection relationship among the components
by using the dragging method. The automatic mapping means has a means for
distinguishing the arranged spaces from the non-arranged spaces and arranging
the components on the non-arranged spaces, and a means for searching the
shortest route of pipes, etc., for the arranged components.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore, an object of the present invention to propose an automated
system to configure a pulverized fuel piping network for corner fired boilers,
which can trim down the engineering cycle time.
Another object of the present invention is to propose an automated system to
configure a pulverized fuel piping network for corner fired boilers, which is
enabled to generate technical data relevant to fuel pipes in 3D from a 2D line
(CAD) diagram so as to accurately configure a Pulverized fuel piping network.
A still another object of the present invention is to an automated system to
configure a pulverized fuel piping network for corner fired boilers, which allows
boiler furnace expansion through floating to couplings accommodate the floating
section of desired length in the fuel piping network and accordingly produces
data.
Yet another object of invention is to propose an automated system to configure a
pulverized fuel piping network for corner fired boilers, which produces the edge
preparation data of the pipes and bends based on technical parameters of the
preceding and succeeding components d from the fuel piping network.
A still another object of invention is to generate manufacturing data for pipes,

bends, fuel inlet elbows and flow equalizers from the 2D line (CAD) diagram of
the Pulverized fuel piping network.
Another object of invention is to an automated system to configure a pulverized
fuel piping network for corner fired boilers, which produces routing and
arrangement data for vertical rising in burner zone with input only from co-
ordinates of raising points from (CAD) 2D line diagram of fuel piping layout and
burner elevations.
Yet another object of invention is to an automated system to configure a
pulverized fuel piping network for corner fired boilers, which is enabled to locate
the piping components like couplings, flow equalizers, pipe collars, fuel inlet
elbows, gates to produce data in sequence of placements in the layout.
A further object of the present invention is to propose an automated system to
configure a pulverized fuel piping network for corner fired boilers, which
generates an identification number for components to locate during erection of
Pulverized fuel piping network.
A still further object of the invention is to propose an automated system to
configure a pulverized fuel piping network for corner fired boilers, which
determines the total pipe requirement for a given layout of pulverized fuel

piping.
A still further object of invention is to propose an automated system to configure
a pulverized fuel piping network for corner fired boilers, which expedites the
manufacturing process including reduction in cost.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The system captures the data from 2D line diagram of piping layout in a pre-
defined format. This invention uses the line diagram or (CAD) drawing only for
considering the technical data on horizontal routing of fuel pipes. The data
relating to the vertical routings are automatically generally by the system both at
mill end and at burner end for each corner of the tangentially fired boiler
The system is enabled to read technical parameters from the layout (CAD)
drawing of the pulverized fuel piping network. The layout drawing is includes
routing data of each fuel pipe in horizontal travel. For mill end vertical rising, the
system decides the components to be placed based on software logic and layout.
For horizontal routing, the system captures the data on pipes and bends from
the drawing. The data is processed to place couplings, flow equalizers, pipe
collars, fuel inlet elbows and gates based on layout requirements. For vertical
risings at burner end, based on burner elevations and co-ordinates of rising

points, the system automatically routes the pipes to corresponding burner
elevation. The system further performs expansion calculations and
accommodates the floating length of pipes in the given layout. The system also
checks whether the layout is designed to accommodate expansion as per defined
rules and notify the user for changes, if required. The system creates a database
for each pipe with details of all components from mill end to the burner end. On
completion of the component level engineering, the system starts generating
manufacturing details for all types of bends, pipes, fuel inlet elbows and flow
equalizers. The system also generates Material Take off for all pipes based on
length and edge preparation requirements.
This system transforms a fuel piping layout drawing prepared in the form of a 2D
line diagram in CAD in to an engineered fuel piping network, with details of all
piping components in the network, including manufacturing drawings for all
piping components, sequence of arrangement of the components from the mill
end to burner end, automatic routing in vertical risings and material take off for
the pipes. The system can be applied to any type of mills; to any type of fuel
piping layout and to any fuel pipe size.
According to the invention, the system is enabled to automatically read the
required parameters from the 2D line diagram and accordingly adds or places

piping components intelligently as required by the fuel piping system. The
technical parameters read from the drawing are processed in the system to make
a complete piping network with all required components. Also the system has
features to automatically change the parameters of components like bends based
on constraints found at the time of detail engineering.
The system of the present invention, does not require any template based stored
information and designer need not select any component to be arranged. Based
on design logics, the tool automatically identifies the piping components to be
fitted in the appropriate places. The system logically creates the sequence of
piping components and generates drawings of components/selects components
from mill end to burner end according to the given layout drawing of fuel piping
network.
According to the present invention, the design tool for fuel piping system has
inbuilt intelligence to make decisions on placement of components, the sequence
of placement and interface requirements between various components and
hence user need not define the logical connection information, which is unique
for this invention. Further, the prior art does not discuss on accommodation of
expansion of pipes. Whereas, the design tool on fuel piping system of the
present invention has automatic system to accommodate downward expansion
of boilers to which the fuel piping is getting connected. In addition, this design

system for pulverized fuel piping system makes decisions to change parameters
defined by the user. If the parameters defined by user cannot be accommodated
in the given layout due to logical constraints, then system has provision to make
decisions to override the user input and change the parameters of the
components to suit the layout.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS
Figure 1 - Shows a pulverized fuel piping network from the mill to burner of prior
art.
Figure 2 - Shows a flow-diagram depicting the operational sequence of the
automated system of the invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS
Fig.2, shows a flow chart depicting the system enabled to configured a fuel
piping network. The system follows a layered approach, where the pipes
travelling in one horizontal elevation are grouped in a layer and processed. The
vertical piping is automatically routed by the system and then engineered. The
system handles all fuel pipes in a given layout one by one in order of layer or
horizontal travel elevation. After completion of all fuel pipes, the data is
consolidated and accordingly construction sequence, manufacturing drawings
and Material Take off (MTO) of pipes are generated.

The system comprises a computer apparatus incorporated with a memory
device, a read-only memory a software structure enabled to process the
captured data based on the two-dimensional technical documents, and a display
device to display the processed data and further to produce a three-dimensional
drawings with technical parameters to configure a fuel piping network at lower
cost and time with accuracy.

WE CLAIM
1. An automated system for configurating a pulverized fuel piping network in
corner fired steam generator, the system is configured to:
- capture technical data from 2D line diagram /(CAD) drawing of fuel piping
layout, and automatically create data on pipes for routing in 3D view;
- route the pipe in vertical risings in mill end and burner end of a
tangentially fired boiler based on rising point co-ordinates and elevation of
destination;
wherein the data of components of the Pulverised fuel piping network are
generated in sequence from the mill end to burner end in the boiler of
thermal power plants, and
wherein data relating to locating of fuel piping components for example,
couplings, pipe collars and flow equalizers are produced based on inbuilt
logics.
2. The automation system as claimed in claim 1, comprising means for
redefining the input parameter automatically, if the inputted parameters
are not matching with the data included in the 2D-layout of the pulverized
fuel piping for a particular pipe.
3. The automation system as claimed in claim 2, wherein, the automatic

edge preparation data of the pipes and bends based on preceding and
succeeding components are generated.
4. An automated system for configurating a pulverized fuel piping network in
corner fired steam generator, as substantially herein described and
illustrated with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The present invention relates to an automation system to configure a fuel piping
network for transferring pulverized coal in thermal power plants.