Denubo, Michael Anthony B. Group No. 2 / Seat No.

08
ME144L A1 October 14, 2014
Engr. Sublime O. Carvajal

Learning Task #1
Boiler
I. Overview
A boiler is a closed vessel in which water or other fluid is heated. The heated or
vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including
boiler-based power generation, cooking, and sanitation.
The pressure vessel in a boiler is usually made of steel (or alloy steel), or historically
of wrought iron. Stainless steel is virtually prohibited (by the ASME Boiler Code) for use in
wetted parts of modern boilers, but is used often in superheater sections that will not be exposed
to liquid boiler water. However electrically-heated stainless steel shell boilers are allowed under
the European "Pressure Equipment Directive" for production of steam for sterilizers and
disinfectors.
In live steam models, copper or brass is often used because it is more easily fabricated
in smaller size boilers. Historically, copper was often used for fireboxes (particularly for steam
Figure 1. Boiler
locomotives), because of its better formability and higher thermal conductivity; however, in
more recent times, the high price of copper often makes this an uneconomic choice and cheaper
substitutes (such as steel) are used instead.
For much of the Victorian "age of steam", the only material used for boilermaking was
the highest grade of wrought iron, with assembly by rivetting. This iron was often obtained from
specialist ironworks, such as at Cleator Moor (UK), noted for the high quality of their rolled
plate and its suitability for high-reliability use in critical applications, such as high-pressure
boilers. In the 20th century, design practice instead moved towards the use of steel, which is
stronger and cheaper, with welded construction, which is quicker and requires less labour.
Cast iron may be used for the heating vessel of domestic water heaters. Although such
heaters are usually termed "boilers" in some countries, their purpose is usually to produce hot
water, not steam, and so they run at low pressure and try to avoid actual boiling. The brittleness
of cast iron makes it impractical for high pressure steam boilers.

II. Types of Boiler

A. Fire Tube Boiler is one of the most basic
types of boiler and the design is also very
old. It was popular in 18thcentury. It was
mainly used for steam locomotive engines.
Operation of fire tube boiler is as simple as
its construction. In fire tube boiler, the fuel
is burnt inside a furnace. The hot gases
produced in the furnace then passes
through the fire tubes. The fire tubes are
immersed in water inside the main vessel
of the boiler. As the hot gases are passed
through these tubes, the heat energy of the
gasses is transferred to the water surrounds
them. As a result steam is generated in the
water and naturally comes up and is stored
upon the water in the same vessel of fire
tube boiler. This steam is then taken out
from the steam outlet for utilizing for required purpose. The water is fed into the boiler
through the feed water inlet. As the steam and water is stored is the same vessel, it is
quite difficult to produce very high pressure steam from. General maximum capacity of
this type of boiler is 17.5 kg/cm2 and with a capacity of 9 Metric Ton of steam per hour.
In a fire tube boiler, the main boiler vessel is under pressure, so if this vessel is burst
there will be a possibility of major accident due to this explosion.
Figure 2. Diagram of a Fire Tube Boiler
A.1. Types of Fire Tube Boiler

According to the location of furnace there are two types of fire tube boiler and
these are external furnace and internal furnace type.

There are mainly three types of external furnace fire tube boiler:
(1) Horizontal return tubular fire tube boiler
(2) Short fire box fire tube boiler
(3) Compact fire tube boiler

There are also two types of internal furnace fire tube boiler:
(1) Horizontal tubular and
(2) Vertical tubular fire tube boiler.
Horizontal return fire tube boiler is most suitable for low capacity thermal power
plant. The main constructional features of this boiler are one big size steam drum which
lies horizontally upon supporting structures. There are numbers of fire tubes come from
furnace and also aligned horizontally inside the drum. When the drum is filled with water
these tubes are submerged in water.

The fuels (normally coal) burnt in the furnace and combustible gasses move into
the fire tubes, travel through these tubes from rear to front of the boiler drum and finally
the gases come into the smoke box. The hot gasses in the tubes under water transfer heat
to the water via the tube walls. Due to this heat energy steam bubbles are created and
come up upon the water surface. As the amount of steam is increased in that closed drum,
Figure 3. Horizontal Return Tubular (HRT) fire-tube boiler
steam pressure inside the drum increases which increase significantly the boiling
temperature of the water and hence rate of production of steam is reduced. In this way a
fire tube boiler controls its own pressure. In other words this is a self pressure controlled
boiler.
Advantage of fire tube boilers are:
(1) Compact in construction
(2) Fluctuation of steam demand can be met easily and
(3) Cheaper than water tube boiler.

Disadvantage of fire tube boiler are:
(1) Due to large water the required steam pressure rising time quite high.
(2) Output steam pressure cannot be very high since the water and steam are kept
in same vessel.
(3) The steam received from fire tube boiler is not very dry and
(4) In a fire tube boiler, the steam drum is always under pressure, so there may be
a chance of huge explosion which resulting to severe accident.

B. Water Tube Boiler

In water tube boiler, boiler feed water
flows through the tubes and enters the boiler
drum. The circulated water is heated by the
combustion gases and converted into steam at
the vapour space in the drum. These boilers
are selected when the steam demand as well as
steam pressure requirements are high as in the
case of process cum power boiler / power
boilers.

Most modern water boiler tube designs
are within the capacity range 4,500 120,000
kg/hour of steam, at very high pressures. Many
water tube boilers nowadays are of
packaged construction if oil and /or gas are
to be used as fuel. Solid fuel fired water tube
designs are available but packaged designs are
less common.

The features of water tube boilers are:
Forced, induced and balanced draft provisions
help to improve combustion efficiency. Less
tolerance for water quality calls for water treatment plant. Higher thermal efficiency
shifts are possible.
Figure 4. Diagram of a Water Tube
Boiler
C. Other Types of Boiler

Packaged Boiler
Fluidized Bed Combustion (FBC) Boiler
Atmospheric Fluidized Bed Combustion (AFBC) Boiler
Pressurized Fluidized Bed Combustion (PFBC) Boiler
Atmospheric Circulating Fluidized Bed Combustion Boilers (CFBC)
Stoker Fired Boilers
Spreader Stokers
Chain-grate or Traveling-grate Stoker
Pulverized Fuel Boiler
Waste Heat Boiler
Thermic Fluid Heater






Figure 6. Diagram of a CFBC Boiler
Figure 5. Diagram of a Stoker Fired Boiler

III. Fuels
The source of heat for a boiler is combustion of any of several fuels, such
as wood, coal, oil, or natural gas. Electric steam boilers use resistance- or immersion-
type heating elements. Nuclear fission is also used as a heat source for generating steam, either
directly (BWR) or, in most cases, in specialized heat exchangers called "steam generators"
(PWR). Heat recovery steam generators (HRSGs) use the heat rejected from other processes such
as gas turbine.

IV. Safety

To define and secure boilers safely, some professional specialized organizations such as
the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) develop standards and regulation codes.
For instance, the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code is a standard providing a wide range of
rules and directives to ensure compliance of the boilers and other pressure vessels with safety,
security and design standards.

Historically, boilers were a source of many serious injuries and property destruction
due to poorly understood engineering principles. Thin and brittle metal shells can rupture, while
poorly welded or riveted seams could open up, leading to a violent eruption of the pressurized
Figure 7. Diagram of Waste Heat Boiler
steam. When water is converted to steam it expands to over 1,000 times its original volume and
travels down steam pipes at over 100 kilometres per hour. Because of this, steam is a great way
of moving energy and heat around a site from a central boiler house to where it is needed, but
without the right boiler feed water treatment, a steam-raising plant will suffer from scale
formation and corrosion. At best, this increases energy costs and can lead to poor quality steam,
reduced efficiency, shorter plant life and unreliable operation. At worst, it can lead to
catastrophic failure and loss of life. Collapsed or dislodged boiler tubes can also spray scalding-
hot steam and smoke out of the air intake and firing chute, injuring the firemen who load the coal
into the fire chamber. Extremely large boilers providing hundreds of horsepower to operate
factories can potentially demolish entire buildings. The Locomotive, by Hartford Steam Boiler
Inspection and Insurance Company, Published by Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and
Insurance Co., 1911, Item notes: n.s.:v.28 (191011), Original from Harvard University,
Digitized December 11, 2007 by Google Books, Link to digitized document: an article on a
massive Pabst Brewing Company boiler explosion in 1909 that destroyed a building, and blew
parts onto the roof of nearby buildings. This documents also contains a list of day-by-day boiler
accidents and accident summaries by year, and discussions of boiler damage claims.

A boiler that has a loss of feed water and is permitted to boil dry can be extremely
dangerous. If feed water is then sent into the empty boiler, the small cascade of incoming water
instantly boils on contact with the superheated metal shell and leads to a violent explosion that
cannot be controlled even by safety steam valves. Draining of the boiler can also happen if a leak
occurs in the steam supply lines that is larger than the make-up water supply could replace.
The Hartford Loop was invented in 1919 by the Hartford Steam Boiler and Insurance Company
as a method to help prevent this condition from occurring, and thereby reduce their insurance
claims.