Posted by Anthony Pritchard on May 14, 2000 at 12:23:42:
In Reply to: Thermal Shock posted by Anthony Pritchard on May 13, 2000 at 14:28:53:
Thanks for the responses! It was a shock to
us that there was that amount of debris as
the boilers are very well maintained, chemically
and mechanically. I should clarify that the
inlet temperature while the DA tank was out of
service never rose 'above' 1520 deg. F, and
only that high because a few steam traps (among
the hundreds that we have) are obviously failing.
The inlet temp to the boilers could have fallen
much lower (when pumped condensate return was
not coming from the zone of the leaking traps).
Would you all recommend hydrostatically testing
this boiler in these circumstances?
Thanks much, I really do appreciate your time
and attention. Most of my 23 years of experience
is with large water tube boilers in a power
generating environment, and sometimes these
fire tube boilers pose a 'lack of experience'
problem for me. I know that one of the draw
backs of a firetube boiler is that all of the
pressurized part of the boiler is external to
the tubes, and therefore nearer the operating
area, a greater problem for the operators in the
event of a failure of the boiler shell.
Tony