DMG

BOILERS
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WHAT IS A BOILER?
A boiler is a closed vessel in which
water or other fluid is heated.
The heated or vaporized fluid exits
the boiler for use in various
processes or heating applications.
A portable boiler(preserved, Poland)

A stationary boiler(United States)

 MATERIALS

The pressure vessel in a boiler is usually made of

steel (or alloy steel), or historically of wrought
iron.
Stainless steel is virtually prohibited (by the ASME
Boiler Code) for use in wetted parts of modern
boilers, but is used often in super heater sections
that will not be exposed to liquid boiler water.
In live steam models, copper or brass is
often used because it is more easily
fabricated in smaller size boilers.
Cast iron may be used for the heating
vessel of domestic water heaters.
 FUEL
The source of heat for a boiler is combustion of any of
several fuels, such as wood, coal, oil, or natural gas.
Electric steam boilers use resistance- or immersion-type
heating elements.
Nuclear fission is also used as a heat source for generating
steam.
Heat recovery steam generators (HRSGs) use the heat
rejected from other processes such as gas turbines.
 CONFIGURATIONS
Boilers can be classified into the following configurations:

"Pot boiler" or "Haycock boiler": a primitive "kettle"

where a fire heats a partially-filled water container
from below. 18th century Haycock boilers generally
produced and stored large volumes of very low-pressure
steam, often hardly above that of the atmosphere. These
could burn wood or most often, coal. Efficiency was
very low.
 FIRE-TUBE BOILER

A fire-tube boiler is a type of boiler in which hot

gases from a fire pass through one or more tubes
running through a sealed container of water. The
heat energy from the gases passes through the
sides of the tubes by thermal conduction, heating
the water and ultimately creating steam.
Diagram of a fire-tube boiler

Sectioned fire-tube boiler from a DRB Class 50

locomotive.
 WATER-TUBE BOILER

A water tube boiler is a type of boiler in which water

circulates in tubes heated externally by the fire. Water
tube boilers are used for high-pressure boilers. Fuel is
burned inside the furnace, creating hot gas which heats
water in the steam-generating tubes.
Schematic diagram of a marine-type water tube boiler.
Diagram of a water-tube boiler.
 FLASH BOILER
A flash boiler is a type of water-tube boiler, whose tubes are strong and
close together with water pumped through the tubes. The tubes are kept
very hot so the water feed is quickly flashed into steam and superheated.
They have these advantages:
Less weight and bulk.
Less time to raise steam from cold.
A flash boiler is much easier than an ordinary boiler to overheat, as there
is no large reservoir of water to keep the tubes from high temperature if
the water flow is interrupted or inadequate.
 FIRE-TUBE BOILER WITH
WATER-TUBE FIREBOX

Sometimes the two above types have been combined

in the following manner: the firebox contains an
assembly of water tubes, called thermic syphons. The
gases then pass through a conventional fire tube boiler.
Water-tube fireboxes were installed in many
Hungarian locomotives, but have met with little
success in other countries.
Boiler for steam locomotive.
 SECTIONAL BOILER
In a cast iron sectional boiler, sometimes called a
"pork chop boiler" the water is contained inside
cast iron sections. These sections are assembled on
site to create the finished boiler.
DMG
BOILERS
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