Boiler Tubes are metal tubes located inside of boilers that heat water in order to produce steam. There are two major types of tube boilers: water-tube boilers and fire-tube boilers.
In water-tube boilers, water circulates inside the tubes and is heated externally by hot gases generated by the furnace. With fire-tube boilers, hot gas passes through one or many tubes, which through thermal conduction, heats the water surrounding them. Boiler tubes are susceptible to certain damage mechanisms, including:
In order to help prevent boiler tube failures, in 1985 the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) developed the model for a Boiler Tube Failure Reduction (BTFR) Program. The implementation of this program has greatly reduced the costs associated with failures.
Related Topics
- Aboveground Storage Tanks (ASTs)
- Boilers
- Bolts
- Coker Units
- Cooling Towers
- Crude Distillation Unit (CDU)
- Deaerators
- Fired Heaters
- Fixed Equipment
- Flanges
- Flare Systems
- Furnace Tubes
- Glass-lined Equipment
- Heat Exchangers
- HF Alkylation Units
- Hydrocracking Unit
- Hydrotreater
- Piping
- Pressure Relieving Devices (PRDs)
- Pressure Vessels
- Rotating Equipment
- Vacuum Distillation Unit (VDU)
- Valves
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