July 8, 2009 REPORT ON BOILER INSPECTION AT ARASMETA POWER PLANT By K.K.

Parthiban, Venus Energy Audit System The visit was called for diagnosis of the bed coil overheating & economiser coil erosion. At the time of the visit the boiler no 2 was under shut down. The bed coils were being replaced at the time of visit. Economiser banks were being replaced up to six rows from the ESP side. It was planned to modify the economiser inlet duct to reduce ash build up in the duct. Following is the report of observations & recommendations. Observations & recommendations A. Bed coil erosion The bed tubes which are seen eroded above the coal nozzle points. It is suggested to take care of the following. 1. The deflection rings were found to have dislodged from the coal nozzles. The dislodged rings can lead to diversion of fuel flow to bed tubes. It is recommended to avoid the use of these rings. In CVL design there are no such rings used and there is no erosion of bed tubes. If it is still wanted by operational people it is suggested to go for integral ring which is machined out of thicker plate. 2. The shields are not recommended for protection of the bed tubes. They get distorted in service and lead to one sided erosion of the bed tubes. 3. When using high ash coals more ash drain points reduce the accumulation of bigger size denser shale particles. A drawing showing the location of additional drains was given during the call from M/S OEG. The drawing is sent separately. The open bottom design of FBC is like a bed with bed ash drain points to ensure over size particles are removed easily & effectively. 4. The application of phoscast refractory leads to localized erosion if it is not applied properly. Excess application of phoscast refractory can lead to directing of the PA air to the restricted space and lead to faster erosion of the studs. It is recommended to apply refractory only up to stud tips. In CVL design the phoscast is not applied and there is no such erosion above the coal nozzle. Providing additional drain can help in removal of coarser particles settling and this can bring down the erosion rate. B. Economiser bank tube erosion The economiser is made of three banks. The upper and middle bank tubes are eroded at the ESP side. Six rows of the economiser banks are being replaced in this shut down. It is seen that the economiser tubes are eroded only in the bottom zone of the economiser banks. See photograph in annexure. The causes for the erosion of the economiser bank are explained below. The causes & remedial solutions 1. There is horizontal length of duct at the economiser inlet. Ash is found to settle in this area. As the ash settles, the gas velocity becomes higher and leads to preferential gas flow to the rear. It is natural that the flow path of gas is always to rear area if no gas baffles are used at economiser inlet duct. There is a casing distortion in economiser bank. See photo in annexure. The

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economiser coil to casing is more at the top than at the bottom. More gas enters at the top and leaves by the less area at the bottom where there is no casing distortion. As the gap comes down gas flow is accelerated leading to erosion of the bed tubes. This can be the reason for erosion of tubes specifically at the bottom zone of top bank (sparing the top most tubes). The economiser support beams were designed with slotted holes and supported on the main structure accommodating the sliding movement of the beams on thermal expansion. It is found that these fasteners are too tight & they may not move in transverse axis at all. The self weight if the economiser coils may prevent this. This phenomenon can cause distortion of the economiser casing. The economiser pitch is maintained by the pinned support at the top & a lateral tie angle at the bottom. This angle is designed to be welded to all the economiser bank tubes. It is seen that the angle is not welded to some coils. This could have led to improper pitching at the bottom of the top bank. See photo in annexure. The lifting of economiser bank has to be done with care- possibly with a separate lifting structure. While turning from horizontal position to vertical portion itself, the coil spacer would get distorted. Tying lifting ropes direct to the coils can lead to distortion of the coils as the coil support is flimsy. It is seen than that coil supports have got distorted almost in all coils. It is suggested to weld two lateral tie channels in between the economiser support beams so that main beams move along with casing. All the economiser pinned supports at the bottom have to be loosened. A quarter turn looseness would suffice. See photo in annexure. The economiser inlet duct is generally provided gas baffle for ensuring the uniform flow. Carrying out flow modeling is one solution. Cold flow studies lead to wrong results as the gas velocities are higher in reality that it is possible to test at cold flow studies. It is suggested to carry out CFD analysis with suggested gas baffle arrangement. CFD analysis can be done separately if M/S KSK would be interested. For this the gas duct drawing will be required. See photo of baffle in another site where the inner gas baffle was relocated after observing the preferential gas flow to the rear of economiser. The alteration of inlet duct by KSK will help in removing the ash bridge and lead to lesser erosion at the rear. But it may lead to erosion of some coils where the ash will fall more due to the sloping plate. The polishing of top tubes may be checked when the opportunity is available. The economiser bends are being eroded due to narrow gap between the bends & casing at certain locations. The cassette baffles which are being installed will help in solving the problem.

C. Bed superheater tube distortion The bed SH coil distortion was inspected. It is reported that the distortion is present in running boiler as well. It is seen that the inner coil is touching the outer coil. This is a permanent deformation. There can be some elastic deformation during operation due to thermal expansion. The causes & remedial solutions 1. In general bed SH can hang down due to its 180 deg bend & long span. However any twisting force due to main steam piping / radiant SH outlet piping can cause distortion of the bed SH coils. It was seen that the steam piping spring support is not taking the load. The lock nuts of the spring support shall be reset for cold load and then the jacking has to be done in order to take the load. Then the lock nuts shall be fully released. See photographs showing the gap between the pipe & support in both boilers. 2. The long main steam pipe can easily transfer it is longitudinal movement to bed SH header if the header is not rigidly held to waterwall. The anchor point for the steam piping seems to be at

the common intersection points from both the boilers. In other boilers it is seen that the bed SH upper header is also rigidly clamped to waterwall. 3. It is recommended to pad up the bed SH coils at the rubbing point. The material of construction of the pad shall be the same as that of bed SH. The pad size can be just 25mm x 25mm. The thickness has to be not more than 4 mm. The pad should be fully welded to parent tube. D. Radiant superheater & convection superheater coil distortion It is seen that the convection SH is distorted. Close inspection was not possible due to unsafe accessibility. It is possible that the SH clamp supports are not as per drawing. The design of support as per the drawing was discussed with Head / maintenance. There is no problem with the present design. As the high temperature superheater expands more by length, there will be no restriction for thermal expansion. The photograph of the failed tube (2 years back) was seen. The failure was due to short term overheating. This could have happened due to zero steam flow condition only. It is possible the coils have got distorted at this time after the tube burst. The possible cause 1. All coils have to be checked for proper clamp location as per drawing. The drawing is available with KSK at site. 2. In this boiler the start up burner is located right below the nose. Care should be taken to gradually raise the firing rate after the steam production takes place. There can be non uniform heating of SH coils during start up. It is advised to add a thermocouple right below the radiant SH close to nose tip. This temperature can be used for start up purpose. Otherwise there is no indication at all for the operator to control the firing rate during the start up. 3. Use of hot deaerated water is to be used for start up. This will enable quick steaming. 4. The possibility of water carryover is ruled out. The steam drum was inspected and found to be in good condition. The water quality had been maintained well that the magnetite layer is very well formed. There is no color difference in drum internal surface at the water to steam interface. E. Preferential erosion of ferrules at APH bottom block It is learnt that the ferrules fitted at Airpreheater bottom block have got eroded preferentially at the ESP side. It was also informed that the APH tubes have failed / got blocked due to condensation of flue gas moisture in the cold block at economiser side. It implies that there is not much of gas flow over the rows of tubes on the economiser side. The cause 1. There is a single common ash hopper for economiser & Airpreheater provided by the manufacturer. The shape is such that there is acceleration of gas flow as the gas comes out of economiser. This can cause flow at the ESP side APH block. 2. It is recommended to introduce ash hopper at economiser & additional ash transmitter. The ash hopper can be a mirror image to the existing hopper. It is necessary to measure the hopper dimensions & fabricate at site only as the drawing is not available at site. OTHER OBSERVATIONS F. Distortion of the flue gas duct at boiler to economiser duct

1. The horizontal duct at economiser inlet is found to have sagged. This has led to distortion of the expansion joint here. There is sign of water ingress inside the duct at the expansion joint. It is possible that the expansion joint is cracked due to distortion. 2. It is advised to remove the insulation at the top of the expansion joint and correct any leakage. 3. It is advised to add 50 nb pipe stiffeners at this duct as shown in the annexure. G. Requirement of insulation wool in manhole door covers at economiser & APH Insulation shall be filled and covered with a plate in the manholes of economiser & airpreheater. Otherwise there will be condensation of flue gas moisture which run down and lead to APH tube failures. H. Incomplete sealing of economiser casing There are locations of air ingress in economiser casing due to incomplete welds. Air can enter in to these holes and cause erosion damage to the tubes nearby. This happens due to continuous air impingement. I. Char deposits in bed coils above fuel feed points There are locations char deposits over the bed tubes. This is not to be confused as burning of bed tubes due to starvation. Overheated tubes become red in color and they swell and fail in no time. Moreover the water quality is seen to be excellent as per drum internal surface condition. During the earlier visit it was seen that the bed drains were not operated properly and black particles were coming in the drain. This could be the reason for char formation. During compartmental transfer if the coal was not burning for some time then the char formation could have taken place. J. Leakage of bed particles in the Air box expansion joint It was seen that the seal plate fit up was incomplete at one location. This is to be corrected. The detail provided by Thermax is attached in annexure. Otherwise also after few cycles of start up & shut down, there will be bed material spillage in to the expansion joint. The expansion joint should be opened and locked up bed ash must be emptied out. Otherwise boiler downward expansion can cause failure of RCC beams. K. Gas velocity at chimney exit It is noted that the gas exit velocity at chimney is about 24 m/s. This is causing the pressurization of chimney base. The additional draft loss at chimney base should be measured and ID fan needs to be replaced with bigger impeller.

K.K.Parthiban

Annexure 1: Photographs & comments

Photo 1: The erosion of economiser is seen to be concentrated at the bottom portion of the top economiser bank. The casing to coil clearance might be less at the bottom causing preferential erosion at the bottom.

Photo 2: Apart from the bend erosion the straight portion of the bottom portion of the top economiser bank is seen eroded. The root cause is that more gas flow is taking place along the casing and the casing is distorted.

Photo 3: The picture shows the abnormal gap between the casing and the end economiser tube on the furnace side. The casing might have got distorted due to lock up by the economizer support beams.

Photo 4: The distortion of economizer casing near the second bank starting point. The restraints offered by the economizer support can be causing this bow. It is advised to add an ISMC 250 tie between the support beams along the outside of the casing. This will enable movement of the economizer support beams and avoid distortion. The channel must be insulated well.

Photo 5: The gas baffle was shifted from the original location at another 90 TPH boiler in order to avoid preferential gas flow to the rear of economizer. Gas baffle needs to be introduced after a CFD analysis. This will help in avoiding preferential gas flow.

Photo 6: Non uniform once sided erosion of bed coil is due to either the excess castable applied over the bed coil studs or due to distorted shields. The stud at the bottom is seen to be intact.

Photo 7: Distorted expansion joint at boiler to economiser duct. Water is seen inside the duct. The expansion joint is likely to have cracked. The insulation shall be removed and inspected.

Photo 8: Typical expansion joint cracks observed at other boiler in the boiler to economiser duct.

Photo 9: Pipe supports provided at another boiler at boiler bank to economiser duct to prevent sagging of the duct. 50 nb Pipe supports can be introduced at a spacing of 1 m.

Photo 10: This is the picture of economiser Photo 11: This is the picture of economiser clamp clamp at the support point. There is no at the intermediate support point. Since the stiffener is located well above the tube, the distortion of the support here. support is seen collapsed.

Photo 12: At many places the economizer bends are found to be touching the casing. The cassette shields being provided will help to extend the life of the bends.

Photo 13: The bottom support angle is not welded to the extreme coils at the ESP side. The welding shall be carried out during the coil replacement. The angle should not be a continuous one. Only five to six coils can be bunched together to maintain the pitch. There shall be 5 mm gap between the two angles.

Photo 14: A hopper shall be introduced below economizer to avoid the preferential erosion of the APH tubes. This will change the flow pattern of the flue gas to the tubes at ESP side.

Photo 15: The bed SH outlet spring support is not offering a support to the piping in the boiler no 1. Such situations can cause loading of bed SH header and cause distortion of the bed SH coils. The support shall be loaded to hot condition in the present situation. Otherwise cracks develop at piping weld joints.

Photo 16: In boiler no 2 also the bed SH outlet piping is not loaded at spring support. The support shall be loaded with the spring locked at cold condition. After the support is loaded the lock nuts shall be released.

Photo 17: The bed SH coils are distorted due to thermal expansion loads. The distortion is now permanent. Yet there can be rubbing due to elastic deflection under hot condition. Pads are advised at the rubbing point.

Photo 18: The sealing arrangement at air box is improperly erected. The missing plates shall be arranged.

Figure 1: This is the detail of expansion joint at air box zone. The missed out plates shall be erected to avoid seepage of the bed material.

Figure 2: Sketch shows the ash hopper introduction below economiser. economiser inlet is recommended after a CFD analysis.

The baffle at

Figure 3: This is the detail of tie between the support beams of economiser. The fasteners have to be removed and stopper blocks have to be used for guiding the economiser expansion.