Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Air Ingress
Most of us are ignorant about the
air ingress in boilers.
Let us see the detrimental effects
of air ingress.
There may be some exaggeration
in some points.
But Reality is that we are incurring
losses due to air ingress.
THE BALANCED DRAFT
WHAT IS AIR INGRESS?
FURNACE MEMBRANE
ROOF
More Ingress Points
6. Between boiler bank hopper and water
drum
7. Hopper manholes
8. Hopper isolation gates & flanges
9. Worn out rotary ash feeders
10. Failed fabric expansion joints
11. Corroded metallic expansion joints
12. Incomplete fastened flange joints
13. Improper roped flanged joints
14. Refractory wall cracks
15. Eroded / corroded APH tubes
16. Economiser casing joints
Some more ingress points
17. Access doors Seals often fail.
18. Roof panel to side walls side joints
19. Water drum to bank casing plates
20. Nose panel to Water drum
termination
21. Soot blower openings
22. Gas pressure tappings
23. Leaky view holes
24. Boiler bank casing plate joints
HOW TO LOCATE THE AIR INGRESS???
An easy way in coal fired boiler is of
course the ash would leak out in
locations where the air goes in.
One can always see the fresh ash
spillages around leakage points.
To locate the leakage points the
smoke test is done.
Another way is to carryout a flame
test with ID fan running.
Rectification
Having identified the leak points
measures are to be taken to arrest the
leakage.
Some leakages are simply rectified.
But at some locations, the design may
be faulty, for which one has to call up
the designer / consultant for help.
The seals may call for better
contemporary design.
The design may need a review from the
boiler thermal expansion point of view.
Harm due to Air Ingress
1. High un-burnt carbon in fly ash
We trim the air flow based on O2
indication in the flue gas.(At APH).
When the air leakage is present the O2
indicated by the O2 meter would
misleads us.
The furnace runs in to sub-
stochiometeric condition.
This ultimately leads to increased to un-
burnt.
Shiftup of the
Flame due to high
Primary air flow.
But we do not
measure the O2 at
this point as
the temperature is
too high.
Delayed
combustion.
As O2 is not
available in
the Furnace ,
But is
supplied
through the
air ingress at
higher
elevation.
More harm due to air ingress.
2.Increased Fuel consumption
The air ingress in the flue path
increases heat loss in the chimney. To
compensate for the heat loss one has
to feed more fuel.
3. Overloaded ID fan
When the ID fan is falling short of
capacity, we tend to invest in new ID
fan or
try to increase the fan capacity.
More harm due to air ingress.
synergem/d/BoilerCases 36
Schematic LTSH Header
MEMBRANE WALL
LTSH
HEADER
synergem/d/BoilerCases 37
The Cause
1. The fin welding at the bends was not
perfect.
2. There were many gaps in the fins.
3. These gaps were covered by the lagging.
4. In first 2-3 outages due to tube leakage,
this lagging was badly damaged.
5. This fact was not noticed by the B/M.
6. Air ingress through the gaps would carry
fly ash with it.
7. Quenching and ash erosion would result in
tube leakage.
synergem/d/BoilerCases 38
APH TO ESP DUCTING
KHAPERKHEDA TPS
UNIT # 1 & 2.
ELEVATION-MAIN PLANT (Mills infront of Boiler)
C
KERS
B H
BUN
O I
E.S.P. M
I
N
L E
E Y
R
TURBINECML.S I.D.
G.T. FANS
F.D.
P.A.
C
H
KERS
I
BUN
B
O E.S.P. M
I N
L E
E Y
R
TURBINE I.D.
CML.S FANS
G.T.
F.D.
P.A.
synergem/d/BoilerCases 42
ESP INLET DUCT
Khaperkheda U # 1&2 Larger Boilers, 40tph
CML.
Easily shared 210-215 MW with worst coal.
Ducting to cross mill/bunker bay.
Ducting layout was violating all norms of
fluid flow.
Aero-dynamics was ignored.
Duct is just a connection between two
elements.
Sudden changes in cross section.
Flow reversal.
Eddy formation.
synergem/d/BoilerCases 43
APH TO ESP DUCT
4 M.
2.5 M
AREA BELOW COAL
FEERDERS
synergem/d/BoilerCases 44
Reasons.
synergem/d/BoilerCases 47