Experiment No.

11
Objective:
To determine the efficiency of boiler and turbine with super heater

Apparatus:
Vertical Fire tube boiler with super heater

Figure:

Figure 1- Vertical fire tube Boiler with superheater

Theory:
Superheater
A superheater is a device used to convert saturated steam or wet steam into dry steam used
in steam engines or in processes, such as steam reforming. There are three types of superheaters
namely radiant, convection, and separately fired. A superheater can vary in size from a few tens
of feet to several hundred feet (a few metres to some hundred metres).
Types

• A radiant superheater is placed directly in the combustion chamber.

• A convection superheater is located in the path of the hot gases.
• A separately fired superheater, as its name implies, is totally separated from the boiler.
Procedure:

1. Put the power plug in the Socket, switch it “ON” and Switch “ON” ELCB & CB
2. Open the tap water valve for opening the Condenser cooling water flow
3. Adjust the cooling water flow rate at 4 Lpm from cooling water flow meter regulator
4. Open and the LPG cylinder and adjust the cylinder pressure at 0.5 kg/cm2
5. Start the burner of boiler after a little opening the boiler LPG flow (less than 1Lpm)
when the burner is ignited then increase the boiler LPG flow to the 3Lpm and wait for 10
minuts so that boiler guage pressure increased to 3 kg/cm2
- Make sure that valves V1, V2, V3, V4, V5, are closed
6. When the boiler guage pressure become 3 kg/cm2 then open the V1, V3 and start the
superheater burner by little open the superheater LPG regulator, when burner is ignited
then increase the superheater LPG flow rate to maximum at 25 cc/min.
7. When boiler guage pressure become 5kg/cm2 then decrease the boiler LPG flow rate to
the about 1 Lpm to delay reaching the required pressure
8. Now, Do purging of water/water vapours by little opening the V5 and both pressure
guages purging valves to maintain the boiler pressure at 5kg/cm2
9. Wait until T3 is at 160 C, when T3 is 160 C then decrease the superheater LPG flow rate
from regulator to minimum at 5 cc/min.
- Note: for upto T3, 160 C it will take long time but after 160 C the temperature will
rise rapidly,
- If boiler pressure become more than 5 kg/cm2 then open the V5 for releasing little
steam for some time to maintain the pressure
- If boiler pressure become less than 5kg/cm2 then close V5 and slightly increase the
boiler LPG flow rate
- Controlling superheated steam to a stable temperature requires a little practice and
experience as the burner does not have an automatic control device
10. At 160 C start open the turbine flow control valve to adjust turbine inlet pressure at 0.6
kg/cm2.
 11. At steady operation, for No electrical load condition, note down the temperatures (T1,
T2, T6) and observed fuel volume flow rate of the boiler (qfob) to find out the boiler and
turbine efficiency (with superheater), see the corresponding values of enthalpies from
steam table

Useful Relations:

Total heat input by LPG fuel to the boiler and superheater

𝑄𝑄𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 = 𝑚𝑚𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓 × 𝑄𝑄𝑓𝑓

Where

𝑄𝑄𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 is total Heat input by LPG fuel to the boiler and superheater

𝑚𝑚𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓 is total mass flow rate of LPG fuel to the boiler and superheater

𝑄𝑄𝑓𝑓 is lower heating value of fuel

Boiler Efficiency (with Superheater)

ℎ3 − ℎ1
ή𝑏𝑏 = 𝑚𝑚𝑐𝑐 × 100%
𝑄𝑄𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖

Where

ή𝑏𝑏 is boiler efficiency

𝑚𝑚𝑐𝑐 is condensate mass flow rate

ℎ3 is enthalpy of superheated steam
ℎ1 is enthalpy of feed water after feed pump and is calculated from the equation
ℎ1 = ℎ0 + (𝑃𝑃1 − 𝑃𝑃𝑎𝑎 ) × 𝑣𝑣0

𝑃𝑃1 is Pressure of steam leaving the boiler

𝑃𝑃𝑎𝑎 is Atmospheric pressure of feed water
𝑉𝑉0 Specific volume of saturated liquid of feed water at T1
 ℎ0 is Enthalpy of feed water

Isentropic efficiency (with superheater)

𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴 𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤 𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝 ℎ3 −ℎ4
Isentropic efficiency = =
𝐼𝐼𝐼𝐼𝐼𝐼𝐼𝐼𝐼𝐼 𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤 𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝 ℎ3 −ℎ4𝑠𝑠

Where,
ℎ3 is enthalpy of steam leaving the superheater or at inlet of turbine
ℎ4 is enthalpy of steam leaving the turbine during actual process
ℎ4𝑠𝑠 is enthalpy of steam leaving the turbine during ideal (Isentropic) process

Observation and Calculations:

Atmospheric Pressure, 𝑃𝑃𝑢𝑢 = __________ Ambient temp, 𝑇𝑇10 = _______
LPG cylinder pressure : 0.5 kg/cm2 LPG mass flow rate: 3 Lpm
Condenser cooling water flow rate: 4 Lpm
Boiler guage pressure: 5kg/cm2 Turbine inlet pressure: 0.6 kg/cm2

Mass flow Boiler

Feed Superheate Enthalpy of Enthalpy of Heat Total
of Heat input Efficiency
water d steam feed water superheate input to Heat
condensat to boiler with
Sr. temp temp after pump d steam superheat input
e (Qib) superheat
No (𝑇𝑇1 ) (𝑇𝑇4 ) (ℎ1) (ℎ3 ) er (Qis) (Qit)
mc=ms er (ήbs)
1

2
Table 1-Experimental data to find the Boiler efficiency with superheater

Specimen calculations:

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Comments:

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