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Description of Failure
Description of Failure
Description of Failure
BOILER
DESCRIPTION OF THE BOILER
In the boiler there were twelve banks of hot
tubes(Risers) and twelve banks of cool tubes
(Down comers)
Ninety tubes were included to an each bank
The total number of tubes in the boiler was 2160
Diameter of the drums was 1.7m and the drums
were 17m in length
TECHNICAL DATA
BOILER OPERATING PARAMETERS
Max. evaporation rate -500 tonnes/hour
Max. heat flux through riser walls-20 kW/m²
Gas temperature at inlet -940C
Gas temperature at mid-space -650C
Gas temperature at outlet -490C
Operating pressure -4.8MPa(Gauge)
Normal operating temperature -264C
WATER-TUBE SPECIFICATIONS
Internal diameter -80mm
External diameter -90mm
Wall thickness -5mm
Operating hoop stress -38MPa
Material -Carbon Steel
Single longitudinal diffusion weld fabrication
SERVICE HISTORY
Approximately 1 year of operation at 85 to 95%
of full load
Ruptured water tube
DESCRIPTION OF FAILURE
The outside diameter of the tube had
increased to 103mm from 90mm of original
value
A bulge had formed on one side of the tube
and the centre of the bulge had thinned
down to 3.2mm
Chisel-edged creep rapture had occurred
giving fracture surface 0.35 to 0.8 mm wide
and 370mm long
The burst tube was in the 6th bank of riser tubes
counting in from the inlet side of the boiler
Under normal conditions the temperature of the
tube would have been 795C
90 neighbouring tubes were bent due to the
force of explosion and diameter of another 50
tubes were enlarged
Worst affected had swollen over a length of 1m
Even the tubes were normal in outside they were
coated with a layer of hard-water deposite
0.25mm thick
FAILURE ANALYSIS
CAUSES OF OVERHEATING,
Water tubes were to operate under the
highest possible heat transfer
Disastrously effective thermal barriers can be
provided due to deposites of hard-water
scale, layers of corrosion product and
delaminations
Thermal barriers interferes the cooling action
of the boiler and will lead to overheating
Water tube boilers are also subjected to steam
blanketing where a stable layer of steam forms
between the water and the inner surface of the
tube
This helps to insulate tubes from circulating
water and which results in warming up the tubes
The situation can become unstable and the
steam blanket tends to grow up and the whole
tube can boil dry
When this happens there is nothing to prevent
the tubes heating up to the temperature of
surrounding gasses(940C)
CACULATION OF THE TEMPERATURE DROP
ACROSS THE LAYER OF HARD-WATER
DEPOSITE,
From heat conduction equation,
(dQ/dt)=kA(dT/dx)
Term (1/A)(dQ/dt) is the heat flux and equal
to 20kW/m²
Rough estimation for K is 0.5Wm¯¹C¯¹
dx=0.25mm and when this is worked out,
dT=10C
DECISION MADE FROM THE RESULTS,
It is unlikely that this small thermal resistance
allowed the tubes to heat up much
More likely explanation is that a major
disruption in the circulation and boiler
behavior affecting a large number of the riser
tubes
REFERENCE
Engineering Materials- case studies on failure
analysis by D.R.H. Johns