scholarly journals Over-attemperation and Short-term Overheating in Pendant-type Superheaters

R&D Journal ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Basson ◽  
W. F. Fuls

ABSTRACT A water-wedge is often suspected to be the root cause for short-term overheating in fossil-fuelled boiler superheaters. However, it can be argued that evaporation of the water-wedge would cool the tube sufficiently and prevent overheating. This study aims to determine if the thermo-physical conditions occurring at low loads support this claim by studying the transient behaviour of a representative superheater segment under postulated conditions. A flow model was constructed to facilitate direct comparison with a boiler pendant superheater of a full-scale fossil-fuelled power plant. Several scenarios of water-wedges sustained by attemperation spraywater were simulated at low load operating conditions. The temperature evolution of the tube wall was tracked and, together with calculated equivalent stresses including thermal stress, was compared to the yield strength of the material. The results show that the stresses exerted over the tube wall and throughout the tube length are not sufficient to overcome the yield strength of the tube material, even for an aged tube under severe process conditions of boiler overfiring. Evaporation of the water-wedge provides sufficient cooling to the superheater tube to prevent failure. It was concluded that water-wedging alone is unlikely to be the root cause of short-term overheating at low boiler loads. Additional keywords: Short-term overheating; water-wedge; boiler superheater tube; attemperation; thermal stress, evaporation.

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 407-416
Author(s):  
Essam R. I. Mahmoud ◽  
Vineet Tirth ◽  
Ali Algahtani ◽  
A. Aljabri ◽  
Sohaib Z. Khan

The present investigation portrays the tube failure in the superheater used in the power plants. The failure occurred after only three months of operation, by longitudinal fish-mouth rupture. The operating pressure of the object boiler is 192 bar while the temperature of its superheater steam is 540 °C. The failed tubes were fabricated from standard Si killed carbon steel. Many longitudinal parallel fine crack-like grooves were detected at the outer surface of the rupture area. Metallurgical examinations revealed that the failed tube remained subjected to overheating for the short-term. According to the analysis of the failed tubes, the temperature reached over 600 °C by insufficient coolant flow or unpredicted operating conditions. The carbon steel emerged as an underperforming material for the applications in superheater tubes, and it is highly recommended to replace the carbon steel by a high-grade Cr-Mo steel.


Author(s):  
Yoav Weizman ◽  
Ezra Baruch ◽  
Michael Zimin

Abstract Emission microscopy is usually implemented for static operating conditions of the DUT. Under dynamic operation it is nearly impossible to identify a failure out of the noisy background. In this paper we describe a simple technique that could be used in cases where the temporal location of the failure was identified however the physical location is not known or partially known. The technique was originally introduced to investigate IDDq failures (1) in order to investigate timing related issues with automated tester equipment. Ishii et al (2) improved the technique and coupled an emission microscope to the tester for functional failure analysis of DRAMs and logic LSIs. Using consecutive step-by-step tester halting coupled to a sensitive emission microscope, one is able detect the failure while it occurs. We will describe a failure analysis case in which marginal design and process variations combined to create contention at certain logic states. Since the failure occurred arbitrarily, the use of the traditional LVP, that requires a stable failure, misled the analysts. Furthermore, even if we used advanced tools as PICA, which was actually designed to locate such failures, we believe that there would have been little chance of observing the failure since the failure appeared only below 1.3V where the PICA tool has diminished photon detection sensitivity. For this case the step-by-step halting technique helped to isolate the failure location after a short round of measurements. With the use of logic simulations, the root cause of the failure was clear once the failing gate was known.


1992 ◽  
Vol 26 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 1355-1363 ◽  
Author(s):  
C-W. Kim ◽  
H. Spanjers ◽  
A. Klapwijk

An on-line respiration meter is presented to monitor three types of respiration rates of activated sludge and to calculate effluent and influent short term biochemical oxygen demand (BODst) in the continuous activated sludge process. This work is to verify if the calculated BODst is reliable and the assumptions made in the course of developing the proposed procedure were acceptable. A mathematical model and a dynamic simulation program are written for an activated sludge model plant along with the respiration meter based on mass balances of BODst and DO. The simulation results show that the three types of respiration rate reach steady state within 15 minutes under reasonable operating conditions. As long as the respiration rate reaches steady state the proposed procedure calculates the respiration rate that is equal to the simulated. Under constant and dynamic BODst loading, the proposed procedure is capable of calculating the effluent and influent BODst with reasonable accuracy.


Author(s):  
O. B. Berdnik ◽  
I. N. Tsareva ◽  
M. K. Chegurov

This article deals with structural features and characteristic changes that affect the mechanical characteristics after different service life in real conditions using the example of the blades of the 4th stage of turbine GTE-45-3 with an operating time of 13,000 to 100,000 hours. To study the change in the state of the material under different operating conditions, determine the degree of influence of heat treatment on the regeneration of the microstructure, and restore the mechanical characteristics of the alloy after different periods of operation, non-standard methods were used: relaxation tests on miniature samples to determine the physical yield strength and microplasticity limit and quantitative evaluation of the plasticity coefficient of the material from experimental values of hardness, which allow us to identify the changes occurring in the microvolumes of the material and predict the performance of the product as a whole.


2014 ◽  
Vol 1061-1062 ◽  
pp. 431-435
Author(s):  
Xiao He

An actual case of PTH fracture after soldering process was studied. By means of cross section analysis using metallography microscope and SEM, together with thermal analysis results, root cause of PTH fracture was concluded that a high density of twin copper weakened the mechanical strength so seriously that PTHs could not undergo thermal stress from soldering process, and higher CTE was attributed to an accelerative factor. Moreover, it is recommended to enhance current density properly and make sure the effectiveness of electroplating additives to prevent twin copper by theoretical analysis.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Masoud Behzad ◽  
Benjamin Herrmann ◽  
Williams R. Calderón-Muñoz ◽  
José M. Cardemil ◽  
Rodrigo Barraza

Purpose Volumetric air receivers experience high thermal stress as a consequence of the intense radiation flux they are exposed to when used for heat and/or power generation. This study aims to propose a proper design that is required for the absorber and its holder to ensure efficient heat transfer between the fluid and solid phases and to avoid system failure due to thermal stress. Design/methodology/approach The design and modeling processes are applied to both the absorber and its holder. A multi-channel explicit geometry design and a discrete model is applied to the absorber to investigate the conjugate heat transfer and thermo-mechanical stress levels present in the steady-state condition. The discrete model is used to calibrate the initial state of the continuum model that is then used to investigate the transient operating states representing cloud-passing events. Findings The steady-state results constitute promising findings for operating the system at the desired airflow temperature of 700°C. In addition, we identified regions with high temperatures and high-stress values. Furthermore, the transient state model is capable of capturing the heat transfer and fluid dynamics phenomena, allowing the boundaries to be checked under normal operating conditions. Originality/value Thermal stress analysis of the absorber and the steady/transient-state thermal analysis of the absorber/holder were conducted. Steady-state heat transfer in the explicit model was used to calibrate the initial steady-state of the continuum model.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pradeep Lall ◽  
Tony Thomas ◽  
Ken Blecker

Abstract Prognostics and Remaining Useful Life (RUL) estimations of complex systems are essential to operational safety, increased efficiency, and help to schedule maintenance proactively. Modeling the remaining useful life of a system with many complexities is possible with the rapid development in the field of deep learning as a computational technique for failure prediction. Deep learning can adapt to multivariate parameters complex and nonlinear behavior, which is difficult using traditional time-series models for forecasting and prediction purposes. In this paper, a deep learning approach based on Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) network is used to predict the remaining useful life of the PCB at different conditions of temperature and vibration. This technique can identify the different underlying patterns in the time series that can predict the RUL. This study involves feature vector identification and RUL estimations for SAC305, SAC105, and Tin Lead solder PCBs under different vibration levels and temperature conditions. The acceleration levels of vibration are fixed at 5g and 10g, while the temperature levels are 55°C and 100°C. The test board is a multilayer FR4 configuration with JEDEC standard dimensions consists of twelve packages arranged in a rectangular pattern. Strain signals are acquired from the backside of the PCB at symmetric locations to identify the failure of all the packages during vibration. The strain signals are resistance values that are acquired simultaneously during the experiment until the failure of most of the packages on the board. The feature vectors are identified from statistical analysis on the strain signals frequency and instantaneous frequency components. The principal component analysis is used as a data reduction technique to identify the different patterns produced from the four strain signals with failures of the packages during vibration. LSTM deep learning method is used to model the RUL of the packages at different individual operating conditions of vibration for all three solder materials involved in this study. A combined model for RUL prediction for a material that can take care of the changes in the operating conditions is also modeled for each material.


2004 ◽  
Vol 50 (10) ◽  
pp. 139-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Oehmen ◽  
Z. Yuan ◽  
L.L. Blackall ◽  
J. Keller

The effectiveness of enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) systems is directly affected by the competition of polyphosphate accumulating organisms (PAOs) and glycogen accumulating organisms (GAOs). This study investigated the short-term effects of carbon source on PAO and GAO performance. The tests were designed to clearly determine the impact of volatile fatty acid (VFA) composition on the performance of two types of biomass, one enriched for PAOs and the other for GAOs. The two populations were enriched in separate reactors using identical operating conditions and very similar influent compositions with acetate as the sole carbon source. The only difference was that a very low level of phosphorus was present in the influent to the GAO reactor. The abundance of PAOs and GAOs was quantified using fluorescence in-situ hybridisation. The results clearly show that there are some very distinctive differences between PAOs and GAOs in their ability to utilise different carbon substrates. While both are able to take up acetate rapidly and completely, the GAOs are far slower at consuming propionate than the PAOs during short-term substrate changes. This provides a potentially highly valuable avenue to influence the competition between PAOs and GAOs. Other VFAs studied seem to be less usable in the short term by both PAOs and GAOs, as indicated by their much lower uptake rates.


2017 ◽  
Vol 262 ◽  
pp. 38-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariette Smart ◽  
Robert J. Huddy ◽  
Catherine J. Edward ◽  
Charl Fourie ◽  
Trust Shumba ◽  
...  

In the commercial BIOX® process, an acidophilic mixed bacterial and archaeal community dominated by iron and sulphur oxidising microorganisms is used to facilitate the recovery of precious metals from refractory gold-bearing sulphidic mineral concentrates. Characterisation of the microbial communities associated with commercial BIOX® reactors from four continents revealed a significant shift in the microbial community structure compared to that of the seed culture, maintained at SGS (South Africa). This has motivated more detailed study of the microbial community dynamics in the process. Microbial speciation of a subset of the BIOX® reactors at Fairview mines (Barberton, South Africa) and two laboratory maintained reactors housed at Centre for Bioprocess Engineering Research, University of Cape Town, has been performed tri-annually for three years by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. The laboratory BIOX® culture maintained on Fairview concentrate was dominated by the desired iron oxidiser, Leptospirillum ferriphilum, and sulphur oxidiser, Acidithiobacillus caldus, when operated under standard BIOX® conditions. Shifts in the microbial community as a result of altered operating conditions were transient and did not result in a loss of the microbial diversity of the BIOX® culture. The community structure of the Fairview mines BIOX® reactor tanks showed archaeal dominance of these communities by organisms such as the iron oxidiser Ferroplasma acidiphilum and a Thermoplasma sp. for the period monitored. Shifts in the microbial community were observed across the monitoring period and mapped to changes in performance of the commercial process plant. Understanding the effect of changes in the plant operating conditions on the BIOX® community structure may assist in providing conditions that support the desired microbial consortium for optimal biooxidation to maximize gold recovery.


PeerJ ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. e8088 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcelo González-Aravena ◽  
Nathan J. Kenny ◽  
Magdalena Osorio ◽  
Alejandro Font ◽  
Ana Riesgo ◽  
...  

Although the cellular and molecular responses to exposure to relatively high temperatures (acute thermal stress or heat shock) have been studied previously, only sparse empirical evidence of how it affects cold-water species is available. As climate change becomes more pronounced in areas such as the Western Antarctic Peninsula, both long-term and occasional acute temperature rises will impact species found there, and it has become crucial to understand the capacity of these species to respond to such thermal stress. Here, we use the Antarctic sponge Isodictya sp. to investigate how sessile organisms (particularly Porifera) can adjust to acute short-term heat stress, by exposing this species to 3 and 5 °C for 4 h, corresponding to predicted temperatures under high-end 2080 IPCC-SRES scenarios. Assembling a de novo reference transcriptome (90,188 contigs, >93.7% metazoan BUSCO genes) we have begun to discern the molecular response employed by Isodictya to adjust to heat exposure. Our initial analyses suggest that TGF-β, ubiquitin and hedgehog cascades are involved, alongside other genes. However, the degree and type of response changed little from 3 to 5 °C in the time frame examined, suggesting that even moderate rises in temperature could cause stress at the limits of this organism’s capacity. Given the importance of sponges to Antarctic ecosystems, our findings are vital for discerning the consequences of short-term increases in Antarctic ocean temperature on these and other species.


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