BOILERS

According to flow of water and hot gases.

1. Water tube.
2. Fire tube.
In water tube boilers, water circulates through the tubes and hot products of combustion flow over these
tubes. In fire tube boiler the hot products of combustion pass through the tubes, which are surrounded, by
water. Fire tube boilers have low initial cost, and are more compacts. But they are more likely to explosion,
water volume is large and due to poor circulation they cannot meet quickly the change in steam demand.
For the same output the outer shell of fire tube boilers is much larger than the shell of water-tube boiler.
Water tube boilers require less weight of metal for a given size, are less liable to explosion, produce higher
pressure, are accessible and can response quickly to change in steam demand.Tubes and drums of watertube boilers are smaller than that of fire-tube boilers and due to smaller size of drum higher pressure can be
used easily. Water-tube boilers require lesser floor space. The efficiency of water-tube boilers is more.
Water tube boilers are classified as follows. 1. Horizontal straight tube boilers (a) Longitudinal drum (b)
Cross-drum. 2. Bent tube boilers (a) Two drum (b) Three drum (c) Low head three drum (d) Four drum. 3.
Cyclone fired boilers
Various advantages of water tube boilers are as follows: (i) High pressure of the order of 140 kg/cm2
can be obtained. (ii) Heating surface is large. Therefore steam can be generated easily. (iii) Large heating
surface can be obtained by use of large number of tubes. (iv) Because of high movement of water in the
tubes the rate of heat transfer becomes large resulting into a greater efficiency.
Babcock Wilcox Boiler is also known as Longitudinal Drum Boiler or Horizontal Tubes Boiler . In
this type of boiler, one cylindrical drum is longitudinally placed above the heat chamber. In rear of the drum
down comer tube is filled and in front of the drum riser tube is fitted as shown in the figure. These downcomer tube and riser tube are connected to each other by 5o to 15o straight water tubes as shown in the
figure.

Working principle of Babcock Wilcox Boiler depends upon thermonyphon principle. The longitudinally
placed drum as mentioned in the construction of longitudinal drum boiler, is fed by colder mater at its rear

feed water inlet. As the colder water is heavier it falls down through down-comer fitted at the rear part of
the drum. From down-comer the water enters in to horizontal water tube where it becomes hot and lighter.
As the water becomes lighter, it passes up through these inclined horizontal tubes and ultimately comes
back to the boiler drum through riser. During travelling of water through inclined water tubes, it absorbs
heat of the hot gases, surrounds the water tube, consequently steam bubbles are created in these tubes. These
steam bubbles then come to the steam drum through riser and naturally separated from water and occupies
the space above the water surface in the longitudinal drum of Babcock Wilcox Boiler.
Fire tube boilers are classified as follows: l. External furnace: (i) Horizontal return tubular (ii) Short fire
box (iii) Compact.
2. Internal furnace: (i) Horizontal tubular (a) Short firebox (b) Locomotive (c) Compact (d) Scotch. (ii)
Vertical tubular. (a) Straight vertical shell, vertical tube (b) Cochran (vertical shell) horizontal tube.

The boiler is a cylindrical vertical water drum with a hemispherical domed top. This domed shape is strong
enough not to require staying. The firebox is another hemispherical dome, riveted to the base foundation
ring to give a narrow waterspace. The fire-tubes are arranged in a single horizontal group above this,

mounted between two flat vertical plates that are inset into the boiler barrel. The first of these plates forms
a shallow combustion chamber and is connected to the firebox by a short diagonal neck. The combustion
chamber is of the "dry back" form and is closed by a steel and firebrick plate, rather than a water jacket.
The exhaust from the fire-tubes is into an external smokebox and a vertical flue. For maintenance access to
the tubes, a manhole is provided in the hemispherical dome. Where composite firing is used,[4] there are
several possible arrangements for the heating gases.[6] Most use a double-pass tube arrangement where
another dry back combustion chamber routes the gases from one tube bank to return through the other.
Some arrangements use a separate tube bank for the heat recovery exhaust gases or the direct firing gases,
others pass the exhaust gases into the top of the (unlit) firebox. A pure heat-recovery boiler may have no
firebox at all, other than a shallow domed plate for strength.
NOZZLES
A nozzle is a device designed to control the direction or characteristics of a fluid flow (especially to
increase velocity) as it exits (or enters) an enclosed chamber or pipe. A nozzle is often a pipe or tube of
varying cross sectional area, and it can be used to direct or modify the flow of a fluid (liquid or gas).
Nozzles are frequently used to control the rate of flow, speed, direction, mass, shape, and/or the pressure
of the stream that emerges from them. In nozzle velocity of fluid increases on the expense of its pressure
energy.

TURBINES
A Turbine is a device which converts the heat energy of steam into the kinetic energy & then to rotational
energy. The Power in a steam turbine is obtained by the rate of change in momentum of a high velocity jet
of steam impinging on a curved blade which is free to rotate. The basic cycle for the steam turbine power
plant is the Rankine cycle. The modern Power plant uses the rankine cycle modified to include superheating,
regenerative feed water heating & reheating

CLASSIFICATION OF STEAM TURBINE

(A)Simple impulse turbine
(B) Reaction turbine
Impulse turbineS
An impulse turbine has fixed nozzles that orient the steam flow into high speed jets. These jets contain
significant kinetic energy, which is converted into shaft rotation by the bucket-like shaped rotor blades, as
the steam jet changes direction. A pressure drop occurs across only the stationary blades, with a net increase
in steam velocity across the stage. As the steam flows through the nozzle its pressure falls from inlet
pressure to the exit pressure (atmospheric pressure, or more usually, the condenser vacuum). Due to this
high ratio of expansion of steam, the steam leaves the nozzle with a very high velocity. The steam leaving
the moving blades has a large portion of the maximum velocity of the steam when leaving the nozzle. The
loss of energy due to this higher exit velocity is commonly called the carry over velocity or leaving loss.
Reaction turbines
In the reaction turbine, the rotor blades themselves are arranged to form convergent nozzles. This type of
turbine makes use of the reaction force produced as the steam accelerates through the nozzles formed by
the rotor. Steam is directed onto the rotor by the fixed vanes of the stator. It leaves the stator as a jet that
fills the entire circumference of the rotor. The steam then changes direction and increases its speed relative
to the speed of the blades. A pressure drop occurs across both the stator and the rotor, with steam
accelerating through the stator and decelerating through the rotor, with no net change in steam velocity
across the stage but with a decrease in both pressure and temperature, reflecting the work performed in the
driving of the rotor.

Advantages of Steam turbines:

01) Thermal Efficiency of a Steam Turbine is much higher than that of a steam engine.
02) The Steam Turbine develops power at a uniform rate and hence does not required Flywheel.
03) If the Steam Turbine is properly designed and constructed then it is the most durable Prime Mover.
04) In a steam turbine there is no loss due to initial condensation of steam.
05) In Steam Turbine no friction losses are there.
Disadvantages of steam turbines
High efficiency is ordinarily obtained only at high speed.
Gas turbine locomotives had similar problems, together with a range of other difficulties.
These devices are heavy and cumbersome.
Turbines can rotate in only one direction.
CONDENSORS
Condenser
condenser is basically steam to water exchanger in which heat from exhaust steam is transferred to
circulating cooling water

steam from the turbine and reuse it as pure feed water in the boiler. Thus only make up water is required
to compensate loss of water
4. Advantages of condensers in steam power plant 1) High pressure ratio provides larger enthalpy drop 2)
Work output per kg of steam increases and hence specific steam consumption decreases 3) Condensate
can be reused as hot feed water to the boiler. This reduces the time of evaporation and hence fuel
economy 4) No feed water treatment is required and hence reduces the cost of the plant 5) The formation
of deposits in the boiler surface can be prevented with the use of condensate instead of feed water from
outer sources
Classification of condensers
1) Jet condensers (or) mixing type
a) Parallel flow type (Low level) b)Counter flow type (High & Low levels) c) Ejector type 2) Surface
condensers (or) non-mixing type a)Down flow type b) Central flow type c) Inverted type d) Regenerative
type e) Evaporation type
Jet condensers
condensers, water is in direct contact with exhaust steam. Hence these are also called direct contact type
(or) mixed type
Advantages & disadvantages of Jet condensers Advantages 1) As a result of effective mixing, it requires
less circulating cooling water 2) Equipment is simple and occupy less space 3) Maintenance is cheap

Disadvantages 1) Not suitable for higher capacities 2) Condensate cannot be used as feed water to boiler 3)
Air leakages are more 4) Requires larger air pump 5) Less vacuum is maintained
Surface condensers
exhaust steam and water do not mix together. Hence they are also called indirect contact type (or) nonmixed type
1Advantages & disadvantages of surface condensers Advantages 1) Can be used for large capacity plants
2) High vacuum can be created 3) Condensate is free from impurities and can be reused as feed water to
boiler 4) Impure water can also be used as cooling medium 5) Air leakage is comparatively less, hence less
power is required to operate air pump
Disadvantages 1) Design is complicated and costly 2) High maintenance cost 3) Occupies more space 4)
Requires more circulating water

COOLING TOWERS