Water tube boiler construction and operational principles

Starter
1 Comment on the picture.

Vocabulary
2 Match the words in bold with the definitions.
1. This fresh water generator is really efficient; its capacity range is up to 35 tons of fresh water
a day.
2. When your kettle is boiling saturated steam comes out of it.
3. A duty officer while keeping watch should regularly check the pressure in the steam drum.
4. If you need to get superheated steam you should heat saturated steam in certain temperature
and pressure conditions.
5. Boiler water for testing should be taken from a feed water drum.
6. Excessive water from a steam drum is thrown back to feed water drum through a downcomer
tube.
7. Go check up the pressure on the pressure gauge!

1 Essential part of a boiler, a chamber which is filled with water and

connected with steam drum with the tubes.
2 Amount of work/product which can be conducted by a device
3 An instrument that measures and gives a visual display of the amount,
level, or contents of something.
4 A large external pipe in a water-tube boiler, carrying unheated water
from the steam drum down to the water drum as part of the circulation
path
5 Water vapor in equilibrium with liquid water at or above the normal
boiling point.
6 A reservoir of water and steam at the top end of the water tubes in a
boiler.
7 Steam at a temperature higher than its vaporization point at the
absolute pressure where the temperature is measured

3 Group the words from 2

Part of boiler Substance Parameter

Reading

4 Answer the questions

1. What are the main principles of heat transmission?
2. What branch of science studies heat transmission?
5 Read the text and highlight parts of water tube boiler.
The water tube boilers work on the principle of convection & radiation. Most modern water tube
boiler designs are at very high pressures within a capacity range of 4,500 – 120,000 kg / h. Many
water tube boilers used as fuel for oil and/or gas are of “pack” construction.
The main features of water tube boiler are:
 Low tolerance for water quality for water treatment plants.
 High thermal efficiency level.
 High-pressure rating.
 Improved steam quality.
 Suitable for large capacity systems.

All high-pressure water tube boilers mainly consist of 3 important sections:

 Water Drum: It is located at the bottoms of the boiler & carries hot water. The same waters are
supplied to the steam drum where steam is produced.
 Steam Drum: It is located in the top half of the boiler and is fitted with external and internal
mounting, including safety valves and steam stop valves (main and auxiliary) to supply steam to
the ship’s system.
 Tubes: Modern water tube boilers have different types of water tubes with different functions.
The main types are:
Screen tubes: Fitted before the superheater, these tubes are adjoining the furnace and absorb the
flame as well as heat the generated gas. Since this tube is directly exposed to the heat of the
furnace, they are of large diameter to prevent overheating.
Superheater tubes: They are placed behind a screen tube to carry superheated steam from the
boiler.
Generating tubes: These tubes connect water drums and steam drums. As the name suggests, hot
water is transported from the water drum to the steam drum, where steam is produced.
Downcomers: Downcomer tubes transfer hot water that does not go into the water drum, where
the water is heated in the generating tube before the steam goes back into the drum.

6 Mark the statements as True (T), False (F), Doesn’t Say (DS). Correct the false ones.
_____1. All water tube boilers are low-pressure boilers.
_____2. There are 5 types of tubes in a water tube boiler.
_____3. Water tube boilers can be used for high-capacity systems.
_____4. Screen tubes are located below the superheater and carry superheated steam.
_____5. The main parts of a water tube boiler are feed water drum, steam drum and 3 types of
tubes.
_____6. Downcomer tubes transfer residual water from steam drum to water drum.
_____7. Diameter of screen tubes prevents them from overheating.

7 Answer the questions.

1. What principles does a water tube boiler work on?
2. What are the main features of a water tube boiler?
3. What are the main parts of a water tube boiler?
4. What are the main types of tubes?
5. Where are the drums located?
6. What are the drums connected with?
7. What types of steam do you know?
8. What is the difference between them?

8 Explain the working principle of water tube boiler using the picture
Speaking
9 Speaking triads on the construction and working principle of a water tube boiler. Every triad
has a speaker, an interviewer and a listener. An interviewer asks a speaker questions, a speaker
answers them, a listener listens and makes summary of all the information.