ESTIMATION OF METAL TEMPERATURE-VARIATIONS FOR SCARRED BOILER TUBES

Boiler tubes in a fossil-fuelled power station are subjected to erosio n and corrosion that caused the tubes to become locally thinned or sca rred. To avoid unscheduled tube failures and hence prevent large finan cial loss due to boiler shut-down and tube repairs, it is important to estimate boiler tube lives. Boiler tube lives are very sensitive to t ube temperature. This paper describes the development of a non-dimensi onal parameter termed T. It is shown that T* can be used to estimate the tube temperature variation in the scarred tube section. Also a met hod has been described for volume estimation and characterisation of a tube scar. This is important for more accurate tube life assessments. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.