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Lab 02 final

Experiment Findings · June 2018

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.15768.03844

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Introduction to Boilers

A boiler is an enclosed vessel that provides a means for combustion and transfers heat to water
until it becomes hot water or steam. The hot water or steam under pressure is then usable for
transferring the heat to a process. Water is useful and cheap medium for transferring heat to a
process. When water is boiled into steam its volume increases about 1,600 times, producing a
force that is almost as explosive as gunpowder. This causes the boiler to be extremely dangerous
equipment and should be treated carefully. Liquid when heated up to the gaseous state this
process is called evaporation. The heating surface is any part of the boiler; hot gases of
combustion are on one side and water on the other. Any part of the boiler metal that actually
contributes to making steam is heating surface. The amount of heating surface of a boiler is
expressed in square meters. The larger the heating surface a boiler has, the more efficient it
becomes.

The boiler system is consisting of a feed water system, a steam system & a fuel system.

The feed water system provides water to the boiler and regulates it automatically to meet the
steam demand. The water supplied to boiler that is converted to steam is known as feed water.
Condensate or condensed steam returned from the processes & makeup water which is the raw
water which must come from outside the boiler room and plant processes are the sources of feed
water.

The steam system collects and controls the steam produced in the boiler. Steam is directed
through a piping system to the point of use. Steam pressure is regulated using valves and
checked with steam pressure gauges throughout the system.

The fuel system includes all equipment used to provide fuel to generate the necessary heat. The
equipment required in the fuel system depend on the type of fuel used in the system.

Types of Boilers

The different types of boilers, which are manufactured by different manufacturers, find their use
in different applications. More efficient types of boilers have replaced the old and the inefficient
as the time has passed. Boilers can be usually classified as shell tube and water tube boilers.
Shell tube and water tube boilers are also referred to as fire tube or smoke tube boilers.

Shell Tube Boilers

Shell tube boilers are containing long steel tubes through which the hot gasses from a furnace
pass and around which the water to be converted to steam circulates. They typically have a lower
initial cost, are more fuel efficient and easier to operate. Their capacities are up to 25 tons/h and
17.5 kg/𝑐𝑚2 .

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Different types of fire tube boilers:

Cornish boiler:

They are the earliest form of high pressure fire tube boiler. These consist of long horizontal
cylinder with single large flue containing fire. Fuel is added in the grate area where it burns to
produce hot gases. The hot gases transfer the heat to the water. Water takes heat and after some
time it starts boiling to produce steam. Hot gases upon reaching at the end of the fire tube,
divided into two sections and each move into the one of two-side flue which take them once
again at the front section of the boiler where they are move into the bottom flue and bottom flue
take them toward the chimney. Chimney throws these gases out of the boiler into the
atmosphere. Maximum heat transfer is taken place at fire tube and shell section then taken place
at side flue and at last at bottom flue. The boiler was commonly encased beneath by a brick-built
chamber for efficiency.

Lancashire boiler:

The Lancashire boiler is similar to the Cornish but has two large flues containing the fires.
Pressure range of the boiler is about 0.7 MPa to 2 MPa and efficiency is 65 to 70%. Fuel in
these boilers is added into the grate which heats the gases. Hot gases enter the front section of the
boiler and leave the boiler from back and then enter the bottom flue and start moving to front
section of boiler. At front section hot gases leave the bottom flue and enter in side flue and move
again towards the back of the boiler and enter the main outlet. 85% of heat is transferred when
hot gases are in fire tube while 15% is transferred when they are in bottom and side flue.

Locomotive boiler:

A locomotive boiler has three main components:

1. Double-walled firebox;

2. Horizontal, cylindrical "boiler barrel" containing a large number of small flue-tubes; and

3. Smokebox with chimney, for the exhaust gases.

Fuel is burned to produce the hot gases. Fuel is feed through fire hole. Hot gases are diverted to
fire tube with the help of fire brick arch. Steam is collected in the steam drum which is placed at
the top of the shell. The wet steam goes through inlet headers of super heater and after passing
through tubes, it returns to the outlet header of super heater and is taken out for steam engine.
Locomotive type boilers are also used in traction engines, steam rollers, portable engines etc.
These can be classified wet back boilers and dry back boilers on the basis of construction.

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Reversal Chamber:

This is the posterior portion of the combustion chamber through which the flue gases travel from
the first pass (furnace) to the second-pass tubes.

Wet Back Boilers:

In wet back boilers as the name suggests the reversal chamber is completely surrounded by
water. The combustion reversal chamber is surrounded by water and therefore the heat in the flue
gases is optimally utilized. Radiation losses are reduced as none of the parts of the combustion
chamber are open to atmosphere instead they are surrounded by water. That means fewer losses,
and lesser fuel bills. Most efficient modern boilers supplied are wetback type.

Dry Back Boilers:

The reversal chamber in dry back boilers is not completely surrounded by water. The posterior
part is exposed to the atmosphere. This leads to the increased radiation losses, as the radiant heat
is lost to the atmosphere instead of going to the water as in wet back boilers. Earlier generation
boilers used to be dry back. Thus, wet back boilers ensure lesser radiation losses and hence save
fuel. The layout of the tubes involves the number of passes the tube will make to pass the heat
from the boiler furnace before being discharged. These can be two- pass and three pass boilers.
Depending upon the layout of tubes boilers can be two pass or three pass boilers.

Two pass boilers:

In two pass the combustion gases travels two times in the boiler. Combustion gases should be
cooled before entering the reversal chamber. Excess temperature causes overheating and
cracking of the tube. The heat transfer rate is maximum at the first pass, this rate decreases with
the increasing passes.

Three pass boilers:

A three-pass design provides three opportunities for heat transfer. The stack temperature of 3
pass will be lower than that of 2 pass boilers, of the same design and operating pressure.
Efficiency is more than two pass boilers. Each pass in boiler should be designed with cross
sectional area to achieve optimal flue gas velocity, which in turn maximizes heat transfer while
also minimizing performance robbing sooth build up within the tubes.

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 No. of Pass Area of Tube (𝑚2 ) Temperature (℃) Heat transfer
1st 11 1600 65%
2nd 43 400 25%
3rd 46 350 10%

Advantages of Fire Tube Boilers:

1. It is quite compact in construction.

2. Fluctuation of steam demand can be met easily.

3. It is also quite cheap.

Disadvantages of Fire Tube Boilers:

1. As the water required for operation of the boiler is quite large, it requires long time for
rising steam at desired pressure.

2. As the water and steam are in same vessel the very high pressure of steam is not possible.

3. The steam received from fire tube boiler is not very dry.

Water tube boilers

In water tube boilers, water and steam flow inside the tubes and the hot gases flow over the
outside surface. Modern high capacity boilers are of water tube type. The boiler circulation
system is constructed of tubes, headers, and drums joined in arrangement that provide water flow
to generate steam. Water tubes have high pressures and capacity than shell tube boilers. These
boilers can be of single- or multiple-drum type. These have higher efficiencies than fire tube
boilers.

Depending on layout boilers can also be classified as:

1. Longitudinal drum boiler

The feed water is feed in drum. The drum is placed above the heat source. The cooler water goes
to the inclined tubes and the water is heating eventually in the hot tubes. As the water boils its
density decreases and there is circulation of hot water and steam. Steam is separated from water
in steam drum and taken out. Longitudinal drum boilers range from 2250 kg/h to 3600 kg/h.

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2. Cross drum boiler

The drum in this type is placed in cross to the heat source. The temperature obtained in this type
of arrangement is more uniform. When the steam loads are high the upper tubes can become dry
which cause them to fail. The layout of tubes is made in such a way that large numbers of tubes
are made available. The capacity of cross drum ranges from 700kh/h to 240000 kg/h.

3. Stirling boiler:

A Stirling boiler has near vertical, almost straight water tubes that zig-zag between a number of
steam and water drum. Usually there are three banks of tubes in a four-drum layout. The feed
water enters the left upper drum, from where it falls to lower water drum. Water in pipes and two
drums is heated, the steam produced rise in upper drum from where steam is separated and taken
off.

Package Boiler:

These boilers come as complete package. It requires only the steam, water pipe work, fuel supply
and electrical connections to be made for it to become operational. Package boilers are generally
shell type with fire tube design so as to achieve high heat transfer rates

The packaged boiler is so called because it comes as a complete package. Once delivered to site,
it requires only the steam, water pipe work, fuel supply and electrical connections to be made for
it to become operational. Package boilers are generally of shell type with fire tube design so as to
achieve high heat transfer rates by both radiation and convection.

The features of package boilers are:

1. Small combustion space and high heat release rate resulting in faster evaporation.

2. Large number of small diameter tubes leading to good convective heat transfer.

3. Forced or induced draft systems resulting in good combustion efficiency.

4. Number of passes resulting in better overall heat transfer.

5. Higher thermal efficiency levels compared with other boilers.

Advantages of Water Tube Boilers:

1. Larger heating surface can be achieved by using more numbers of water tubes.

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 2. Due to convectional flow, movement of water is much faster than that of fire tube boiler,
hence rate of heat transfer is high which results into higher efficiency.

3. Very high pressure in order of 140 kg/cm2 can be obtained smoothly.

Disadvantages of Water Tube Boilers:

1. The main disadvantage of water tube boiler is that it is not compact in construction.

2. Its cost is not cheap.

3. Size is a difficulty for transportation and construction

The following steps may not apply to all types of boilers and each boiler requires some
additional steps to be followed though the basic steps are the same.

1. Ensure that the vent valve on the boiler is open and check there is no pressure in the
boiler.
2. Check that the steam stop valve is closed.
3. Check that all the valves for fuel are open, and let the fuel circulate through the system
until it comes to the temperature required by the manufacturer recommendation.
4. Check and open the feed water valves to the boiler and fill the water inside the boiler
drum to just above the low water level. This is done because it is not possible to start the
boiler below the low water level due to safety feature which prevent boiler from starting.
Also, the level is not filled much because if filled too much, the water inside the boiler
might expand and over pressurize the boiler.
5. Start the boiler in automatic mode. The burner fan will start the purging cycle which will
remove any gases present in the furnace by forcing it out through the funnel.
6. After the pre-set purge time the pilot burner will ignite. The pilot burner consists of two
electrodes, through which a large current is passed, via the transformer, producing the
spark between the electrodes. The pilot burner is supplied with diesel oil and when the oil
passes over, the former ignites.
7. The main burner which is supplied by heavy oil catches fire with the help of pilot burner.
8. Check the combustion chamber from the sight glass to ensure the burner has lit and the
flame is satisfactory.
9. Keep a close eye on the water level as the pressure increases and open the feed water
when the level of water inside the gauge glass is stable.
10. Close the vent valve after the steam starts coming outside.
11. Open the steam stop valve.
12. Once the working steam pressure is reached, blow down the gauge glass and float
chambers to check for the alarms.

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Safety Precautions

1. After the heater was switched off and the boiler temperature was left drop until room
temperature was reached, don’t open the valve at the water inlet port as it is highly
pressurized at high temperature.
2. Always make sure that the valves at the level sight tube are closed before turning on the
heater as the sight tube is not designed to withstand high pressure and temperature.
3. Never open the valve when the boiler is heated as pressurized steam can cause severe
injury.

Most of the boiler failures can be attributed to low water conditions. For safe boiler operations
this must be kept under check. Low-water level conditions in the boiler occur when the water in
the boiler drum falls below the low water level mark. Such conditions have the potential to
severely damage the boiler. The furnace temperatures usually exceed 1,800°F (980°C). The
strength of steel drops sharply at temperatures above 800°F (480°C). Hence, a Low-water
condition has the potential to melt the steel tubes.

Controlling the boiler drum level is complicated as the "water level" in a steam drum is
actually a fairly unstable mixture of water and steam bubbles that shrinks and swells as the
pressure changes. This is because of the fact that as the steam demand increases, the pressure in
the boiler drops causing the water level to rise. Also, when the fresh water is added from the feed
tank it cools the drum water, leading to collapse of the steam bubbles and an immediate drop in
the water level. To overcome this shrink and swell effect in boiler one may opt for a 3-level
drum control.

Both operator and equipment error result in low water conditions. Some of the common causes
include:

• Feedwater pump failure

• Control valve failure
• Loss of water to the deaerator or make-up water system
• Drum level controller failure
• Drum level controller inadvertently left in "manual" position
• Loss of plant air pressure to the control valve actuator
• Safety valve lifting
• Large, sudden change in steam load

For safe boiler operations it must be ensured first that the low water level trips are functional at
all times. In case a trip occurs, the operator must check for the root cause to avoid unsafe
operating conditions.

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 Observations

Test Steam Steam Pressure Steam Temperature (℃) Average Average

No. Pressure (bar) 1st 2nd 3rd Temperature Temperature
(kg/𝑐𝑚2 ) time time time (℃) (K)
1 43 42.17 107.7 108.4 111.2 109.1 382.1
2 45 44.13 107.6 108.6 112.9 109.7 382.7
3 47 46.09 109.3 110.2 112.2 110.6 383.6
4 49 48.05 113.0 114.2 115.4 114.2 387.2
5 51 50.01 117.5 118.4 120.5 118.8 391.8
6 53 51.98 122.9 124.1 125.3 124.1 397.1
7 55 53.94 127.5 128.5 124.5 128.8 401.8
8 57 55.90 132.6 133.5 135.3 133.8 406.8

58

56

54

52

50
Steam Pressure
(bar)

48

46

44

42

40
380 385 390 395 400 405 410
Average Temperature (K)

Graph of Pressure Vs Temperature

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This experiment was carried out to determine the relationship between the pressure and the
temperature of saturated steam in equilibrium. The marcet boiler was used for this experiment to
investigate the relationship between the pressure and the temperature of saturated steam in
equilibrium with water at all temperature levels between the atmospheric pressure and 10 bars.

When the pressure increases, then the temperature also increases. Therefore, the relationship of
pressure and temperature is directly proportional. Theoretically, the values measured should be
almost the same with predicted values. However, at some certain points, the values are not the
same. This may because of the errors made in the experiment.

An ideal gas obeys the equation of states that relates the pressure, the specific volume or density,
and absolute temperature with mass of molecule and the gas constant (R). However, real gas
does not absolutely obey the equation of state. A few modifications on the ideal gas equation of
state allow its application in the properties of real gas.

An ideal gas can be characterized by three state variables:

1) Absolute Pressure (P)

2) Volume (V)

3) Absolute Temperature (T)

The relationship between them may be deduced from kinetic theory and is called the Ideal Gas
law. The ideal gas law was originally determined empirically and is simply:

PV = nRT

Where;

P = Absolute pressure

V = Volume

n = Amount of substance (moles)

R = Ideal gas constant

T = Absolute temperature (K)

If a real gas behaves exactly as the ideal gas laws would predict it to behave in terms of the
volume, pressure, moles and temperature, then the gas is said to be an ideal gas. On the other
hand, the gas deviates from Ideal Gas behavior, then the gas is said to be acting like a “real gas”.
When energy is added within water, the increasing of activities among the molecules caused the
increase in the number of molecules escape from a surface until the equilibrium sate is reached.
The state of equilibrium depends on the pressure between the water surface and steam. The lower

9
the pressure, the easier the molecules leaving the water surface and thus less energy is required
to achieve the state of equilibrium (boiling point). The temperature where equilibrium occurs at a
given pressure level is called saturated temperature.

There are several sources of error of the experiment:

1) Measurement reading accuracy.

2) Room temperature and pressure.

3) The stability of the material.

4) The calculations of the data obtained.

In order to make sure the accuracy of the data obtained, we must avoid the measurements
reading errors.

When the water in the boiler is heated up, the liquid molecules started to gain heat and move
faster. As they move around so fast that they cannot even hold on to each other anymore, all the
molecules started to flying apart and becoming gas. As the liquid absorbed enough heat energy,
it changes from liquid form to vapour form. However, as the steam is not allowed to exit, the
pressure in the boiler increases. Thus, causing the temperature rise. The liquid (water) undergoes
evaporation and becomes gas (steam).

In order to get accurate data and result, we should repeat the experiment about 2 to 3 times with
hope we can get the most accurate data by getting the average reading from the experiments. We
also need to mastered the data taking techniques to avoid failure in reading the data. Besides,
before doing the experiment, we need to learn how to use the equipment to avoid failure in
completing the experiment. We also need to be careful to not doing the same mistakes over and
over again.

Introduction to Steam Power Plant

Steam power plants are producing about half of the total power requirement in India. In a steam
Power plant, thermal energy is used to raise steam that is used to run steam turbines to produce
mechanical energy. This mechanical energy is converted into electrical energy in a generator.
Steam power plants are suitable for large scale production of electrical power.

Essential components and systems of a steam power plant:

1. Turbine Generator: This is the central power system where electrical energy is generated. In
the turbine velocity and pressure energy of the steam is converted into kinetic energy, turbines

10
are directly coupled to the generators which develop electrical energy. The steam turbines used
may be either impulse or reaction turbines based on the requirements of power generation. The
turbines are equipped with governing systems to control the power output of the plant.

2. Furnace-Boiler: This is the unit of the plant where steam is generated by burning fuels. The
type of fuel used may be solid, liquid, gaseous or pulverized based on the availability of fuel and
design of furnace. A combination of fuels is also possible. Water used to raise steam must be free
from any suspended or dissolved impurities. The impure water may lead to scale formation and
corrosion of the boiler plate or may cause foaming which all hamper the boiler operation. The
type of boiler used depends upon the pressure and quantity of steam required.

3. Fuel handling system: Steam power plants generally use coal or pulverized coal as the fuel.
The fuel is required in large quantities, which necessitates a fuel handling system. Usually, belt
conveyors or bucket elevator are used for handling the fuel.

4. Ash handling System: The ash produced in a steam power plant amounts to about 10-20
percent of the fuel burnt. This should be removed from the furnace and disposed. This is done by
a proper ash handling system. The system used may be mechanical, hydraulic, and pneumatic or
steam jet type. This selection is based on the quantity of ash to be handled and the type of boiler
used.

5. Draught System: This system is essential to supply required quantity of air for combustion of
the fuel, to force the flue gases through the furnace boiler system and finally to discharge the
gases to the atmosphere through a chimney. The draught system may be either natural or
mechanical type.

6. Condensing System: The used steam is pure having a higher temperature which can be
condensed and fed to the boiler. This increases the efficiency of the plant. Generally, water to
steam type of condensers is used with necessary pumping arrangements.

7. Water Cooling System: The quantity of water used in condensing the steam is very high and
should be reused in the condenser. This water gets heated up after condensing the steam and this
water is to be cooled for recirculation. This is achieved by cooling towers, where water is
pumped to a high altitude and allowed to flow over baffles. During this the water gets cooled
which is pumped back to the condensing unit.

8. Lubrication System: The turbines and generators are run at high speeds (3000 rpm). A proper
lubrication system is essential to keep the system running continuously. The lubrication system
not only avoids wear and tear but also provides a little cooling effect for the bearings of the
system.

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 References

1) Marcet Boiler. Slideshare.net. Retrieved 16 April 2018 from

http://www.slideshare.net/ShwanSarwan/marcet-boiler .

2) Marcet Boiler Lab Report. Scribd.com. Retrieved 16 April 2018 from

http://www.scribd.com/doc/51634867/Marcet-Boiler-Lab-Report#scribd .

4) Yunus A. Cengal & Michael A. Boles, “Thermodynamics – An Engineering Approach”, 8th

Edition, McGraw Hill, 2014.

5) Lab2E5 Marcet Boiler. Academia.edu. Retrieved 16 April 2018 from

https://www.academia.edu/9474636/Lab2E5_Marcet_Boiler .

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