Optimal Soot Blowing Strategies in Boiler Systems with Variable Steam Flow

Abstract

The optimal soot blowing strategies of boiler systems with variable steam flow is investigated based on Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) equation in this paper. A continuous time Markov process with soot deposition mode and soot blowing mode is constructed as the mathematical model of boiler systems. In order to obtain the optimal soot blowing strategies, we propose a cost function based on the constructed boiler model, and derive the corresponding value function, which is the solution of HJB equation. In particular, the elementary properties of value function are described and proved strictly. Considering the difficulty of solving the HJB equation analytically, Kushner's method is applied to get the numerical solution of HJB equation, and the experiment results are analyzed.