Influence of furnace tube shapeon thermal strain of fire-tube boilers

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to use numerical analysis and fine element method-FEM to investigate the influence of furnace tube shape on the thermal strain of firetube boilers. Thermal stresses in corrugated furnace tubes of different shape, i.e. with different corrugation pitch and depth, were analysed first. It was demonstrated that the thermal stresses in corrugated furnace tube are significantly reduced with the increase of corrugation depth. Than deformations and stresses in the structure of a fire-tube boiler were analysed in a real operating condition, for the cases of installed plain furnace tube and corrugated furnace tubes with different shapes. It was concluded that in this fire-tube boiler, which is of larger steam capacity, the corrugated furnace tube must be installed, as well as that the maximal stress in the construction is reduced by the installation of the furnace tube with greater corrugation depth. The analysis of stresses due to pressure and thermal loads pointed out that thermal stresses are not lower-order stresses in comparison to stresses due to pressure loads, so they must be taken into consideration for boiler strength analysis.