Engineering Bulletin No 1: Boiler and Furnace Testing.

by Rufus T. Strohm.

MAXIMUM PRODUCTION.

MINIMUM WASTE.

The United States Fuel Administration is making every effort, through the producers and transportation lines, to obtain an adequate supply of fuel for the industries of the country.

Twenty-five to fifty million tons of coal a year can be saved by the improved operation of steam-power plants without changing their present equipment and without abating their production the slightest.

It is absolutely necessary that this saving be realized, if our overburdened railroads are to be relieved and our industries kept in full operation.

The extent to which it will be realized depends upon the cooperation of the owners, engineers, and firemen of every power plant of the country.

YOUR FIRING LINE IS AT THE FURNACE DOOR.

DAVID MOFFAT MYERS, _Advisory Engineer to United States Fuel Administration_.

BOILER AND FURNACE TESTING.

By RUFUS T. STROHM.

NECESSITY FOR TESTING BOILERS.

A boiler test is necessary in order to determine how well the boiler is doing the work expected of it; that is to say, we must find out whether we are wasting coal in making steam and how much this waste may be. Such a test may be made to discover the efficiency of the boiler, or the quant.i.ty of water it is evaporating, or the cost of evaporating 1,000 pounds of water.

The United States Fuel Administration recommends that every boiler plant have some means of daily checking the efficiency of the boiler and furnace. The simplest and best way of finding out how efficiently the boiler is working is to make an evaporation test, as described in this bulletin. All the necessary records can be made automatically with suitable instruments, although in many small plants the coal must be weighed on ordinary scales. The efficiency of the furnace can be found by making a.n.a.lyses of the flue gases. (See Bulletin No. 2 of the United States Fuel Administration.)

Too many engineers and firemen have the idea that they are not fitted to make boiler tests. This is altogether wrong. Any man who can weigh water and coal and read steam gages and thermometers is able to do the work required in making a boiler test for evaporation or efficiency. Such a test requires a knowledge of the following:

1. The total weight of coal used.

2. [1]The total weight of water fed to and evaporated by the boiler.

3. The average temperature of the feed water.

4. The average steam pressure in the boiler.

If these four items are known, a series of simple calculations will show how much water is being evaporated per pound of coal, and the efficiency of the boiler and furnace.

To make a test, the following apparatus and instruments are necessary:

1. Scales to weigh the coal.

2. Apparatus to weigh or measure the feed water.

3. Thermometers to take feed-water temperature.

4. Gages to indicate steam pressure.

A boiler test to be of value should extend over a period of at least eight hours. The longer the test the more accurate the results.

[Footnote 1: For the sake of simplicity, only the essential elements of boiler and furnace testing are treated in this bulletin. For rules covering the refinements for an exhaustive test, the reader is referred to the boiler test code of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Copies of this code can be obtained from the secretary, 29 West Thirty-ninth Street, New York City.]

WEIGHING THE COAL.

The weight of coal used during a test may easily be found by using an ordinary wheelbarrow and a platform scales, arranged as in figure 1. At each side of the scales build an incline with its top level with the top of the platform, but take care not to have either one touch the platform. Set the empty wheelbarrow on the scales, run the movable weight or poise out until it exactly balances the weight of the barrow and lock it in position with the thumbscrew.

Next, put weights on the scale pan _A_ to correspond to a net weight of 250 or 300 pounds of coal. Fill the barrow with coal, run it on the scales, and add coal or take off coal until the scales balance. This is easily done by having a small pile of coal _B_ beside the scales. If the weights on the scale pan represent, say, 300 pounds, the net weight of coal in the barrow is exactly 300 pounds. This coal is wheeled in front of the boiler and dumped on the clean floor, and the barrow is returned for another load.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Fig. 1._

1 _Set to balance tare of wheelbarrow_ 2 _Add to balance net weight of coal_]

Each time the barrow of coal is weighed on the scales and taken to the boiler being tested, a tally mark should be made on a board nailed to the wall beside the scales. Each tally mark represents 300 pounds of coal, since the amount of coal in the barrow is adjusted at each weighing, so that the scales just balance. At the end of the test, therefore, the number of tally marks is multiplied by 300, and the product is the weight of coal used, provided it has all been fired; but if any coal remains in front of the boiler at the close of the test, it must be gathered up and weighed, and its weight must be subtracted from the total weight indicated by the tally marks to get the number of pounds of coal actually fired. You should, of course, start the test with no coal in front of the boiler.

Care must be taken not to forget to make a tally mark each time a barrow of coal is run off the scales. By setting the scales so as to show any net weight, such as 250 or 300 pounds, and making each barrow load exactly this weight, much time is saved, as it is unnecessary to change any of the weights or the position of the rider on the scale beam.

If the coal used in the test is to be a.n.a.lyzed, take a sample of from 4 to 6 pounds from each barrow and throw it into a box near the scales. Do this _before_ the coal is weighed. These small amounts from the various barrow loads will then give a fair average sample of the coal used during the test.

The condition of the furnace should be the same at the end of the test period as at the start. Therefore, at the moment the test is begun, observe the thickness of the fuel bed and the condition of the fire. If the fire was cleaned, say, an hour before the test began, see that it is cleaned an hour before the time when the test is scheduled to end. If the coal was fired, say, eight minutes before the test started, the last coal used during the test should be fired eight minutes before the end of the test. The object of these precautions is to insure the same conditions at start and finish, as nearly as possible; otherwise, the coal weighed will not be the same as the coal consumed.

MEASURING THE FEED WATER.

The quant.i.ty of water fed to the boiler during the test may be found by metering or by weighing. A reliable water meter is recommended for this work. There are a number of good makes, of different types, such as:

1. Venturi meter.

2. Weir or V-notch meters.

3. Diaphragm meters.

4. Displacement meters.

5. Water weighers.

The best form of meter to use in any particular case depends on the local conditions in the plant; but _every plant should be provided with a permanently installed meter of some type_. The displacement form of meter should be used only with cold water, however.