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Boilers

Boilers
Boiler is an apparatus to produce steam. Thermal energy
released by combustion of fuel is used to make steam at
the desired temperature and pressure.

The steam produced is used for:
(i) Producing mechanical work by expanding it in steam engine or
steam turbine.
(ii) Heating the residential and industrial buildings.
(iii) Performing certain processes in the sugar mills, chemical and
textile industries.

Boiler properties-

a). Safety: The boiler should be safe under the operating
conditions.
b). Accessibility: the various part of boiler should be accessible
for repair & maintenance.
c). Capacity: Should be capable of supplying Steam according to
the requirements.
d). Efficiency: Should be able to absorb a maximum amount of
heat produced due to burning of fuel in the furnace.
e). It should be simple in construction.
f). Its initial cost and maintenance cost is low.
g). It should be capable of quick starting and loading.

CLASSIFICATION OF BOILERS
1. According to flows of water and hot gases
a) Water tube
b) Fire tube
2. Method of firing
a) Internally fired boilers
b) Externally fired boilers
3. Pressure of steam
a) High pressure boilers( above 80 bar)
b) Low pressure boilers (below 80 bar)
4. Method of circulation of water
a) Natural circulation
b) Forced circulation
5. Nature of service to be performed
a) Land boilers
b) Mobile boilers
Fire Tube Boilers

Water tube boilers

Comparison between Fire-tube & water-tube boilers
S
no.
Particulars Fire tube boilers Water tube boilers
1. Mode of firing Internally fired Externally fired
2.
Rate of steam
production
lower Higher
3. construction Difficult Simple
4. transportation Difficult Simple
5. Treatment of water Not so necessary More necessary
6. Operating pressure Limited to 16 bar
Under high pressure as
100 bar
7. Floor area More floor area Less floor area
8. Shell diameter Large for same power Small same power
9. explosion Less More
10. Risk of bursting lesser More risk
MERITS OF WATER TUBE BOILERS OVER FIRE TUBE
BOILERS

1. Generation of steam is much quicker due to small ratio of water content to
steam content. This also helps in reaching the steaming temperature in short
time.

2. Its evaporative capacity is considerably larger and the steam pressure range is
also high-200 bar.

3. Heating surfaces are more effective as the hot gases travel at right angles to
the direction of water flow.

4. The combustion efficiency is higher because complete combustion of fuel is
possible as the combustion space is much larger.


5. The thermal stresses in the boiler parts are less as different parts of the boiler
remain at uniform temperature due to quick circulation of water.

6. The boiler can be easily transported and erected as its different parts can be
separated.

7. Damage due to the bursting of water tube is less serious. Therefore, water tube
boilers are sometimes called safety boilers.

8. All parts of the water tube boilers are easily accessible for cleaning, inspecting
and repairing.

9. The water tube boiler's furnace area can be easily altered to meet the fuel
requirements.



Demerits :

1. It is less suitable for impure and sedimentary water, as a small deposit
of scale may cause the overheating and bursting of tube. Therefore, use of
pure feed water is essential.

2. They require careful attention. The maintenance costs are higher.

3. Failure in feed water supply even for short period is liable to make the
boiler over-heated.
1. Fire tubes boilers
a) Simple vertical boiler
b) Cochran boilers
c) Lancashire boiler
d) Locomotive boilers

2. Water tube boilers
a) Babcock and Wilcox boiler
b) Stirling Bent-tube boilers
a) SIMPLE VERTICAL BOILER
It consist of a cylindrical shell, the
greater portion of which is full of
water & remaining is the steam
space.

At the bottom of the fire box is grate
on which fuel is burnt and the ash
from it falls in the ash pit.

A simple vertical boiler is self-
contained & can be easily
transported.
Heating area- 7-10 times grate area
Steam generation capacity- 1000 kg/hr
Max steam pr.- 10 bar
Efficiency- 50%
b) Cochran Boiler
The outstanding features of this boiler are :

Fire tube of vertical type boiler
Heating area- 10-25 times grate area
It is very compact and requires minimum floor area
Any type of fuel can be used with this boiler like wood, oil
fuel etc.
Well suited for small capacity requirements
Steam pressure -20 bar
Steam generation capacity 20 kg/hr to 3000 kg/hr
It gives about 70% thermal efficiency with coal firing and
about 75% with oil firing

Main parts.....

1. Pressure Gauge: This indicates the pressure of the steam in the
boiler.

2. Water Level Indicator: This indicates the water level in the boiler .

3. Safety Valve: The function of the safety valve is to prevent the
increase of steam pressure in the boiler above its design pressure.

4. Fusible Plug: If the water level in the boiler falls below a
predetermined level, the boiler shell and tubes will be overheated.


5. Blow-off Cock. The water supplied to the boiler always contains
impurities like mud, sand and, salt Due to heating, these are
deposited at the bottom of the boiler, they have to be removed
using blow off cock.

6. Steam Stop Valve. It regulates the flow of steam supply outside.
The steam from the boiler first enters into an ant-priming pipe
where most of the water particles associated with steam are
removed.

7. Feed Check Valve. The high pressure feed water is supplied to the
boiler through this valve. This valve opens towards the boiler only
and feeds the water to the boiler.
c) Lancashire Boiler
It is stationary fire tube, internally fired, horizontal,
natural circulation boiler. This is a widely used boiler
because of its good steaming quality and its ability to burn
coal of inferior quality. These boilers have a cylindrical
shell 2 m to 3 m in diameters and its length varies from 6
m to 10 m. It has two large internal flue tubes having
diameter between 80 cm to 100 cm in which the grate is
situated.
Working pressure 0.7 MPa to 2 MPa
Efficiency 65-70%


Lancashire
Boiler

Advantages
The feed pipe projecting into the boiler is perforated to ensure
uniform water distribution.
Its heating surface area per unit volume at the boiler is considerably
large.
Its maintenance is easy.
It is suitable where a large reserve of hot water is needed. This
boiler due to the large reserve capacity can easily meet load
fluctuations.
Super-heater and economizer can be easily incorporated into the
system, therefore; overall efficiency of the boiler can be
considerably increased (80-85%).
d) LOCOMOTIVE BOILER
Locomotive boiler is a horizontal fire tube type mobile
boiler. The main requirement of this boiler is that it should
produce steam at a very high rate. Therefore, this boiler
requires a large amount of heating surface and large grate area
to burn coal at a rapid rate. In order to provide the large
heating surface area, a large number of fire tubes are setup and
heat transfer rate is increased by creating strong draught by
means of steam jet.


Advantages

1. Large rate of steam generation per square metre of heating
surface. To some extent this is due to the vibration caused by the
motion.
2. It is free from brickwork, special foundation and chimney. This
reduces the cost of installation.
3. It is very compact.

The pressure of the steam is limited to about 20 bar.

Water tube boilers
a) BABCOCK WILCOX BOILER

Features
1. The evaporative capacity of this boilers is high compared with other
boilers (20,000 to 40,000kg/hr). The operating pressure lies between
11.5 to 17.5 bar.
2. The draught loss is minimum compared with other boilers.
3. The defective tubes can be replaced easily.
4. The entire boiler rests over an iron structure, independent of brick
work, so that the boiler may expand or contract freely. The brick walls
which form the surroundings of the boiler are only to enclose the
furnace and the hot gases.
Stirling Bent-Tube Boiler-
It consists more than 2 steam
Water drum.
This gives greater steam and
Water storage capacity.
Drum interlinked with a bank of bent tube-
-To allow free expansion and contraction of tubes
-Tube replacement becomes easier
-Flexibility in design
Pr - 60 bar
Temperature 450C
Capacity 50,000 kg/hr
BOILER MOUNINGS
Water level indicator
Safety valves
Fusible plug
Pressure gauge
Stop valve
Feed check valve
Blow off cock
Man hole and mud box
BOILER ACCESSORIES
Super heater
Economizer
Air preheater
Feed pump

Water Level Indicator

This indicates the water level in the boiler.

It is fitted in front of the boiler from where it
easily visible to the operator.

Top of the mounting is connected to steam
Space and bottom to water space.

Two control clock is provided for regulating
Steam and water.

In case of breakage of glass tube two balls
are provided, to prevent accident.








Fusible Plug
It is a safety device used for
preventing the level of water from
going down below a critical point and
Thus avoid overheating.

Mounted at crown plate of
combustion chamber.

Made of fusible metal at interface
of copper plug and gun metal body.

Melting point is low of fusible metal so Copper plug melt
down and goes into the furnace, thus quenches the fire.



Safety valve
Its function is to prevent the steam pressure from exceeding a
limiting maximum pressure.

It operate automatically by releasing excess steam and bring
pressure down with in safe limit.

These are-
Dead weight safety valve
Spring loaded safety valve
Lever safety valve


Dead weight safety valve

Stop valve
It regulate the flow of steam from
Boiler.

It mounted on highest part of the
boiler shell.

It operated by rotating the hand
wheel which Causes lifting or lowering
of spindle, thus causing opening and
closing of valve.

Feed check valve
It is non return valve at the end of delivery pipe from feed
water pump
It is mounted on boiler shell slightly below normal water
level
Valve opening and closing is regulated by hand wheel
rotation
It permit unidirectional flow of water from feed pump to
boiler shell


Blow off cock

It is used for periodical cleaning by discharging water and
sediments from bottom of boiler.
It has conical type plug for opening and closing the flow.

Super Heater

Its purpose is to super
heat steam.

It is a type of heat
exchanger in which
steam flows inside
the tubes and hot gases
surround it.


Economizer

It is a heat recovery device
Feed water heated from heat
available with exhaust gases.
It lowers the fuel requirement
Minimize tendency of corrosion
and pitting, reduce thermal stresses
Location depends upon boiler
structure
Scrappers used for cleaning and removal of soot Deposit on tubes.


Air Preheater
It is used for recovering the heat going along with exhaust gases by
the air before being sent to furnace.
Heat recovered by passing exhaust gases through air
It placed after economizer and before chimney
Air pre heating helps in-
Faster rate of combustion
Possibility of burning interior quality of coal/fuel
Increased rate of evaporation from boiler


Feed Pump
It used for sending water into boiler at the pressure at which steam
generation takes place.

Types of feed pump-
Centrifugal pump
Reciprocating pump

Now a days multistage centrifugal type pumps are used, which have
favorable pressure/ volume characteristics.

La-Mont Boiler
Boiler Performance
1) Evaporative capacity can be expressed
in terms of:

a) kg of steam/hr



b) kg of steam/kg of fuel fired

Equivalent Evaporation
But different boilers give out steam at different temperature
and pressure
It refers to the quantity of dry saturated steam generated per
unit time from feed water at 100C to steam 100C at saturated
pressure corresponding to 100C.
It is also called equivalent evaporation from and at 100C.
Evaporative capacity expressed in terms of mass of water
getting converted to steam-

Equivalent Evaporation = m (h-h
w
)/538.9

Boiler Efficiency
Ratio of heat actually utilized in the generator to the heat
supplied by the fuel.

Efficiency= m (h-h
w
)/m
f
CV
Where CV is the calorific value

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