BOILER DETAILS (PART 2) Serial 2835B Edition 1 STAYING TYPES OF STAYS AND BRACES PURPOSK AND CLASSIFICATION 1. Introduction—The terms stay and brace are applied to boiler details designed to support plates uot strong cnough in themselves to resist safely the steam pressure that the boiler is intended to carry. A stay or brace may be in tension or in compression, depending on the method of installation. Cylin- drical shells, hemispherical heads, and spherical shapes subjected to internal pressure are self-supporting, as the pressure tends to maintain the curved forms; therefore, boiler plates of such forms and of sufficient thickness need no staying. Curved sections that cannot be made thick enough to sustain the steam pressure must be stayed. Internal or external pressure acting on a flat plate tends to distort the metal to a spherical form; hence, a flat plate is not self-supporting, as it cannot be made sufficiently thick to prevent undue deformation. It is advantageous to use light boiler plate and stay it to withstand safely the given pressure. 2. Classification of Stays—Stays used for bracing steam boilers may be divided into three general classes ; namely, direct stays, diagonal stays, and girder stays. A direct stay is one in which the load due to the steam pres- sure is applied directly in line with the axis of the stay. In SOPYMOMTED OF INTERNATIONAL TEXTBOOK COMPANY, ALL RIGHTG RESERURD2 BOILER DETAILS, PART 2 case the stay braces a flat surface, it will make an angle of 90 degrees with that surface; and if it is applied to a curved sur- face, it will be normal to it at the point of application. By normal is meant that the stay is at right angles to a straight line tangent to the surface at the point of application. A diagonal stay is a stay that is not placed at right angles to the surface it supports. A girder stay is a stay in the form of a girder, and is subjected to bending stresses produced by the load. TYPHS OF DIRECT STAYS 3%. Solid Screw Staybolt.—A commen form of solid screw staybolt, which is used for bracing in the smail water spaces of locomotive-type and vertieal boilers, is shown in Fig. 1, The staybolt, which is threaded for its entire length, is screwed into place, after which the ends are riveted over. The thread employed for screw Yy YY, stays is the United an poorer | i i q threads per inch, : 4. Screw Staybolt With Telltale Hole, An improved form of screw staybolt used extensively for stay- ing flat plates and internal fireboxes of vertical fre-tube boilers is shown in Fig. 2 (a). Only the ends are threaded, leaving the body of the stay smooth, as a smooth surface is not attacked so readily as a threaded surface by the corrosive elements of the feedwater. A hole a, called a telltale hole, is drilled into one or both ends of the staybolt, this hole having a diameter of from 3%; inch to ¢ inch and a depth of from 1 inch to 14 inches. When such a staybolt breaks, which, in locomotive-type boilers, occurs near the outside sheet, water or steam escaping through the crack and the hole a, as shown in (6), gives warning’ of the break. Many engineers prefer to have the telltale hole extended through the entire length of the staybolt, as shown in Fig. 3. A staybolt with a hole extending from end to end is called a Allow staybolt.BOILER DETAILS, PART 2 3 5. Screw Staybolts With Nuts—In the Scotch type of marine boilers, the sides and back of the combustion chambers Fre. 2 are generally braced with screw staybolts, fitted with nuts, as shown in Tig. 4, The staybolt a is screwed into the plates b and has, on the out- side of the plates, nuts forming heads. One of the nuts is shown enlarged at the left of the illustra- tion. It has a recess ¢ in its face, which, before the nut is applied to the stay, is filled with stiff red-lead putty mixed with iron filings; this mix- Fic. 3 Fie, 4 ture aids in making a tight joint. If nuts are applied to stay- bolts used in stationary and locomotive work, they are put 229B5