Steam Boilers

Subtitle
 Classifications
Position Of
Position Of Position Of
Water And
Furnace Axis Of Boiler
Flue Gases

Circulation Of
Where It Can Source Of
Water And
Be Used Heat
Steam

Nature Of
Pressure
Draught
Generated
Employed
Position Of Water And Flue Gases
Smoke Tube Or Fire Tube
In these type of boilers the hot gases or the flue gases from the furnace
are passes through the tubes surrounded by the water outside to be
evaporated
Ex : Cochran, Lancashire, Locomotive boilers etc

Water Tube
In these boilers the water to be evaporated passes through the tubes
and the gases from the furnaces are passed over the external surface of
he tubes.
Ex : Babcock-Wilcox, Stirling boilers etc
Position Of Furnace
Internally Fired Boilers
In these the furnace is inside the body of the boiler
shell.
Ex : Lancashire, Locomotive boilers etc

Externally Fired Boilers

In these the furnace is outside the boiler shell.
Ex : Babcock-Wilcox, Stirling boilers, Loeffler etc
Position Of Axis
Vertical Boilers
In which the axis of the boiler shell is in
vertical plane

Horizontal Boilers
In which the axis of the boiler shell is in
Horizontal plane
Where It Can Be Used

Stationary

Portable

Marine or locomotive
Source Of Heat

Heat energy due to combustion of solid,

liquid or gaseous fuels.

Hot waste gases or electrical energy or

atomic energy etc
Circulation Of Water And Steam
Natural Circulation
In case of Natural circulation the circulation is set up by
convection current or by gravity.
Ex : Babcock-Wilcox boilers

Forced Circulations
In Forced circulations the circulation is set up for high pressure
steam through pumps.
Ex : LaMont and Loeffer boilers
Pressure Generated
Low Pressure Boilers
The boilers which produces steam less than 20 bar are called
low pressure boilers.
Ex : Cochran, Lancashire and Locomotive boilers

High Pressure Boilers

The boilers which produces steam above 20 bar are called high
pressure boilers.
Ex : Babcock-Wilcox, Stirling
Nature Of Draught Employed

Natural OR Chimney Draught

When the fuel is burnt on the surface due to natural
circulation of air, the draught is called as natural or chimney
draught.

Artifical Draught
If the air is circulated with help of the fan driven by external
sources of power, the draught is called artificial draught.
 Different Boilers

Simple Vertical
Cochran Boiler
Boiler

Lancashire Babcock-
Boiler WIlcox Boiler
Simple Vertical Boiler
A vertical boiler is a type of fire-
tube or water-tube boiler where the
boiler barrel is oriented vertically
instead of the more common
horizontal orientation. Vertical boilers
were used for a variety of steam-
powered vehicles and other mobile
machines, including early steam
locomotives.
Simple Vertical Boiler
Advantages Disadvantages

low initial cost because of lesser parts. Vertical design limits its working in
many places.
Low maintenance cost.
Because of the limited grate area
Simple working. steam production is limited.

Easy to install and replace. Impurities settle down at the bottom

Occupy small space on ground
Simple vertical boiler have water level
tolerance
thus prevent water from heating.
Boiler tubes must be kept short to
minimize height. As a result, much of
the available heat is lost through the
chimney, as it has too little time to
heat the tubes.
Cochran Boiler
Cochran boiler consists of a
cylindrical shell with a dome shaped
top where the space is provided for
steam. The furnace is one piece
construction and is seamless. Its
crown has a hemispherical shape and
thus provides maximum volume of
space.
Cochran Boiler
Advantages
The minimum floor area is required.
Cost of construction is low.
it can be moved and stet up take it to
different location.
Boiler has self contained furnace . No
brick work setting is neccessary.
Any type of flue can be used.
Disadvantages
Steam raising capacity is less due
to vertical design.
Difficult in cleaning and
inspection due to vertical design.
The capacity and pressure are
limited.
The boiler requires high head
room.
Lancashire Boiler
It is a simple horizontal boiler and
belong from the shell and tube types
of boilers. It has a circular shell
connected to end plates supported by
gusset plates. It has a circular shell
connected to end plates supported by
gusset plates. Lancashire boiler have
two fire tubes whose length is equal
to length of the boiler and diameter of
the fire tube is less than half of the
diameter of the shell.
Lancashire Boiler
Advantages Disadvantages
Lancashire Boiler is an Economical Corrosion in water legs.
boiler.
It is difficult to clean inside.
It can be easily operated.
Low steam production rate
Compactness. (9000kg/hr) .
Portability.
Horizontal structure cover more
Simple design . ground space.
Easy construction. Maintenance of brick work is tedious.
Have low maintenance cost High Have limited grate area because the
overall efficiency (80% to 85%) fire tubes have small diameter.
Babcock-WIlcox Boiler
It is a water tube boiler used in steam
power plants. In this, water is
circulated inside the tubes and hot
gases flow over the tubes.
Babcock-WIlcox Boiler
Advantages Disadvantages
Steam can be generated at very high It is less suitable for impure and
pressures.
sedimentary water, as a small deposit
Heating surface is more in comparison of scale may cause the overheating
with the space occupied, in the case of and bursting of tubes. Hence, water
water tube boilers.
treatment is very essential for water
Steam can be raised more quickly than tube boilers.
is possible with a fire tube boiler of
large water capacity. Hence, it can be Maintenance cost is high.
more easily used for variation of load.
The hot gases flow almost at right
angles to the direction of water flow.
Hence maximum amount of heat is
transferred to water.
 Boiler Mountings
Safety Main Steam Feed Check
Valves Stop Valves Valves

Water Pressure Salinometer

Gauges Gauges Cocks

Blowdown Scum
Valves Valves
Safety Valves
They are two in number but can be
three also, if the boiler has an super
heater fitted inside it. This is a very
important mountings fitted on the
boiler and its proper function is
prerequisite. If it is not maintained
properly, its working is abysmally
affected. Safety valve protects boiler
from an uneven increase in pressure.
It entails to be set up on a desired
value that is safe enough and when
pressure in boiler reaches to that
level, it lifts up and releases the
pressure developing inside the boiler.
It is always set at a pressure which is
3% more than the boiler working
pressure.
Main Steam Stop Valves
This valve regulates the flow of steam
to the distribution lines from boiler. It
is slowly opened, so as to avoid any
type of water hammering taking place
in the distributing lines and
damaging them. It is a Screw down
non return valve and do not allow
steam to come to the boiler back.
Adjacent to it an auxiliary steam stop
valve is also installed and it is used in
case main Steam stop valve is
damaged due any reason and making
unfit for further use.
Feed Check Valves
Fresh water from hot well tank is
supplied to the boiler with the help of
these valves. These are also SDNR
(Screw down non return valve) type
of valve and have a flow that can only
go in one direction. It avoids
pressurized water inside the boiler to
come out and damage the pump,
pumping the fresh water.
Water Gauges
This piece of equipment is used to
measure the level of water inside the
boiler. It is very important to keep an
eye on the level of water inside the
boiler, because if it goes below the
normal level, then it can affect boiler
working. There are two water level
gauges provided in every boiler and
one works as a standby type.
Pressure Gauges
To measure the pressure of steam that
is being developed inside the
boiler,pressure gauges are used. But
they are not directly connected to
boiler and reason behind this is that,
direct steam can damage this piece of
instrument. So, a coil which cools
down the steam to low levels is used
before this pressure gauge.
Salinometer Cocks
These cocks are used to for taking
samples of boiler water for taking
readings related to the presence of
chemical inside the boiler. A cooling
coil is also fitted for the high pressure
boilers.
Blowdown Valves
This valve is used for purging the
boiler. By purging we mean that, in
course of time at the bottom of boiler
various types of impurities like
corrosion deposits, chemical starts
accumulating. So, it becomes
necessary to remove theses sediments
and hence this process is called as the
purging.

Scum Valves
Sometimes with feed water, some oil
particles come inside the boiler. Now
these oil particles starts floating at the
top of the water level and this
sometimes cause less heat transfer to
water. A valve called as Scum is used
in order to remove these oily particles
and get rid of this problem creating
stuff.
 Boiler Accessories

Super
Economiser Injector
Heaters

Steam
Air Preheater
Separator
Economiser
An economiser is a device in which
the waste heat of the flue gases is
utilised for heating the feed water.
Injector
The function of an injector is to feed
water into the boiler. It is commonly
employed for vertical and locomotive
boilers and does not find its
application in large capacity high
pressure boilers. It is also used where
the space is not available for the
installation of a feed pump.
In an injector the water is delivered to
the boiler by steam pressure; the
kinetic energy of steam is used to
increase the pressure and velocity of
the feed water.
Super Heaters
The function of a super heater is to
increase the temperature of the steam
above its saturation point. The super
heater is very important accessory of
a boiler and can be used both on fire-
tube and water-tube boilers. The
small boilers are not commonly
provided with a super heater.
Steam Separator
The steam available from a boiler
may be either wet, dry; or
superheated; but in many cases there
will be loss of heat from it during its
passage through the steam pipe from
the boiler to the
Air Preheater
The function of the air pre-heater is to
increase the temperature of air before
it
enters the furnace. It is generally
placed after the economizer; so the
flue gases pass through the
economizer and then to the air
preheater.
The End