IPASJ International Journal of Mechanical Engineering (IIJME)

Web Site: http://www.ipasj.org/IIJME/IIJME.htm

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ISSN 2321-6441

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Volume 4, Issue 2, February 2016

STRUCTURAL AND THERMAL ANALYSIS

OF A BOILER USING FINITE ELEMENT
ANALYSIS
D.Kondayya
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Author Correspondence: Department of Mechancal Engineering, Sreenidhi Institute of Science & Technology, Ghatkesar,
Hyderabad 501301

ABSTRACT
Steam boiler is a closed vessel in which water or other fluid is heated under pressure and the steam released out by the boiler is
used for various heating applications. The main considerations in the design of a boiler for a particular application are
Thermal design and analysis, Design for manufacture, physical size and cost. In the present work a fire tube boiler is analyzed
for static and Thermal loading. The geometric model of boiler is created in CATIA V5 software as per the drawing. This model
is imported to HYPERMESH through IGES format and FEA model with converged mesh is developed using shell elements. To
this FEA model various loading conditions like design pressure, thermal loads and operating conditions are applied. One of the
supporting legs is arrested in all the directions and the other one is arrested only in X, Z-directions and all rotations. All these
are created by using HYPERMESH and it is exported to ANSYS for solution to obtain the deflections, stresses. Those values
are correlated with material allowable values as per the ASME Section VIII Division 2.

Keywords: Finite element analysis, boiler, thermal analysis, structural analysis

1. INTRODUCTION
A boiler is a closed vessel in which water or other fluid is heated under pressure. The steam or hot fluid is then
circulated out of the boiler for use in various process or heating applications. They can be used in stationary
applications to provide heat, hot water, or steam for domestic use or in generators and they can be used in mobile
applications to provide steam for locomotion in applications such as trains, ships, and boats. Using a boiler is a way to
transfer stored energy from the fuel source to the water in the boiler, and then finally to the point of end use. A boiler is
usually made of steel (or alloy steel), or historically of wrought iron. Stainless steel is virtually prohibited (by the
ASME Boiler Code) for use in wetted parts of modern boilers, but is used often in super heater sections that will not be
exposed to liquid boiler water. In live steam models, copper or brass is often used because it is more easily fabricated in
smaller size boilers. A fire-tube boiler is a type of boiler in which hot gases from a fire pass through one or more tubes
running through a sealed container of water. The heat energy from the gases passes through the sides of the tubes by
thermal conduction, heating the water and ultimately creating steam.

2. DESIGN BASED ON STRESS ANALYSIS

2.1 Basis for determining stresses
The equivalent stress at any point in a vessel is the value of stress deduced from the stress condition at the point
by means of a theory of failure for comparison with the mechanical properties of the material obtained in tests
under uniaxial load. The theory of failure used in the rules of this combining stresses is the maximum shear stress
theory. The maximum shear stress at a point is equal to one-half the difference between the algebraically largest
and the algebraically smallest of the three principal stresses at the point. In this design, we need to design the
boiler in such way that it should withstand for pressure as well as temperature load conditions. Both thickness and
the material are studied for this design.
This work deals with the design of the boiler which is mostly used in many areas like power plants, petrochemical
plants, aerospace, etc. The main problem is that, the boiler thickness should be optimized for its minimum weight
and also be taken care that stress should not exceed allowable or yield stress given for the material. Since the
minimum weight is the one of the objective in the design.
The main shell of the boiler is shown in figure 1.

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A Publisher for Research Motivation........

Volume 4, Issue 2, February 2016

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Email: editoriijme@ipasj.org
ISSN 2321-6441

Figure 1: Sketch of main shell of the Boiler

3. ANALYSIS OF BOILER USING ANSYS

The objective is to limit the thickness, should not exceed 45mm. The increase in thickness will add considerable
weight to the boiler. With the previous parameters, the dimensional parameters the structure is modeled in
CATIA modeling software. The models can be meshed for further analysis using a meshing package
HYPERMESH with free and mapped mesh and then exported to ANSYS. Meshing of the component plays an
important role in analysis, as it is the basis for analyzing the component in any software package, which supports
finite element techniques. The meshed component is imported into ANSYS software, which is being used broadly
for analysis.
Table 1: Material properties of Carbon Steel- SA 516 Gr 70.
Material Properties
Magnitudes
Density, tons/mm3
1.3738e-8
2
Youngs Modulus, N/mm
1.7625e5
Poissons Ratio
0 .28
13.14 x 10-6 / 0C

Thermal Expansion coefficient

3.1 Meshing and analysis of boiler

The solid modeling is done in CATIA and the finite element modeling and three dimensional analysis is carried
out to obtain the stresses of isotropic Carbon STEEL-SA 516 Gr 70 loads acting internally and externally on the
boiler.
The model of the boiler are shown in the previous chapter with Fig.4.5 and Fig.4.6 The boiler analysis is carried
out with shell elements are used wherever the direct contact between the surfaces is not there shown in table 5.2.
Table 2: Element type and no of element
Element Type
Shell 63,Solid 45
Rigid (CP)
Quad4
Hexa8
Total No. of nodes
Total No. of elements

336
25494
14120
57206
39950

3.2 Load conditions

The Analysis has been carried out for following cases:
Case1. Design Pressure: Pressure = 2.157 MPa.
Case2. Atmospheric Pressure: Pressure = -0.10135 MPa
Case3. Thermal Loading (stresses due to temperature): Change in temperature T= 330C
Case4. Combined Loading: Pressure = 2.157 MPa; Change in temperature T= 330C

Figure 2: The finite element model of the Boiler

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IPASJ International Journal of Mechanical Engineering (IIJME)

A Publisher for Research Motivation........

Volume 4, Issue 2, February 2016

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Email: editoriijme@ipasj.org
ISSN 2321-6441

3.3 Mesh generation

Fine hexahedral elements and shell elements were generated according to the quality specifications. These quality
specifications are gathered from the hyper mesh shown in table5.3. All the quality criterias were maintained
within the default values in the hyper mesh. Quality criteria are mentioned as follows.
Table 3: Mesh Quality Parameters
Max warpage
23
Aspect Ratio
Skew
Minangleof quad

3.95
60
35

Max angle of quad

Jacobian

152
0.55

3.4 Validation:
Validation of a boiler is very complicated and it is very difficult to formulate mathematically. To validate a comparison
between the results obtained based on theoretical calculations and the results obtained form the ANSYS has been
carried out. For this purpose, a thin cylinder is subjected to same load theoretically and in the finite element solver. The
comparison of the results shows a very close conformance.
From the formula for thin cylinder,
= pd/2t Where, p= internal pressure, N/mm; d= internal diameter of the cylinder, in mm
t = thickness in mm
For, p=2.157 N/mm
d=3698mm; t = 45mm; We get, =88.62 N/mm
Table 4: Comaprision of Analytical and ANSYS result
Stress
Radial stress, MPa

Analytical
Result
88.62

Ansys Result
80.1

% Variation
9.7

From the above 9.7% variation is observed between the simulated and theoretical results. Therefore, the analysis results
can be considered in the design of the boiler.

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Case1: Design Pressure
The induced displacements and stresses with Design Pressure of 2.157 Mpa.
Name

Displacement in X-direction, mm
Displacement in Y-direction, mm
Displacement in Z-direction, mm
Stress in X-direction, MPa
Stress in Y-direction, MPa
Stress in Z-direction, MPa
Stress Intensity, MPa

Results as
per Analysis

Allowable stress as per

ASME SEC VIII DIV.2
(MPa)

1.071
0.913
1.089
239.871
310.446
116.043
377.022

7
7
7
524
524
524
524

From the table it is observed that the maximum stress induced is less than allowable stresses. Hence the design is safe
as per the strength criteria. Shows the variation of max displacement in X, Y and Z-directions respectively 1.071,
0.913and 1.089mm. The max. Allowable displacement is 7mm. Hence the design is safe based on rigidity.

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Volume 4, Issue 2, February 2016

Figure 3: Displacement in X-direction

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Figure 4: Displacement in Y-direction

Figure 5: Variation of stress intensity

Case 2. Thermal loading:
The induced displacements and stresses with Uniform Temperature loading of (T) =330C
Name

Displacement in X- direction ,mm

Displacement in Y-direction ,mm
Displacement in Z-direction ,mm
Stress in X- direction , Mpa
Stress in Y-direction , Mpa
Stress in Z-direction , Mpa
Stress Intensity , Mpa

Results as per
Analysis
0.8893
0.5836
3.159
129.977
206.226
110.288
206.782

Allowable stress as per

ASME SEC VIII
DIV.2 (MPa)
7
7
7
524
524
524
524

From the table it is observed that the maximum stress induced is less than allowable stresses. Hence the design is safe
as per the strength criteria. shows the variation of max displacement in X, Y and Z-direction respectively 0.8893,
0.5836 and 3.159mm. The maximum allowable displacement is 7mm. Hence the design is safe based on rigidity.

Figure 6: Displacement in X-direction

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Figure 7: Displacement in Y-direction

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IPASJ International Journal of Mechanical Engineering (IIJME)

A Publisher for Research Motivation........

Volume 4, Issue 2, February 2016

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Email: editoriijme@ipasj.org
ISSN 2321-6441

5. CONCLUSIONS
Thermal structural analysis of a boiler shell has been performed as per ASME Section VIII Division 2. CATIA was
used to model the boiler shell while the structural and thermal analysis was carried out using ANSYS software. Under
structural loading, the maximum deflection induced 1.089 mm under 2.157 MPa loads which is with in the allowable
limits i.e. < 7mm. The maximum stress induced is 377.02 MPa which is less than allowable limits of 524 MPa. Hence
the factor of safety is 1.389. Under thermal loading the maximum stress intensity is 206.782MPa, while the allowable
value as per ASME is 524 MPa. Hence the givenBoiler is safe to use under the present loading conditions.

References
[1] Bathe, K. J., Finite Element Procedures in Engineering Analysis, Prentice Hall, 1982.
[2] ANSYS Release 10.0, Documentation for ANSYS, 2011
[3] Wang Xucheng, Tang Yongjin, An effective numerical procedure for inelastic analysis of structures under thermomechanical loading, Finite Elements in Analysis and Design, Volume 18, Issues 13, December 1994, Pages 341
348.
[4] Ukadgaonkar V. G. Kale P. A., Agnihotri N. A., R. Shanmuga Babu, Review of analysis of tube sheets,
International Journal of pressure vessel and piping, 1996, PP 279-297.
[5] An Approach to Finite Element Analysis of Boiler Tube-Sheet R. D. Patil, Dr. Bimlesh Kumar, American Journal
of Engineering Research, ISSN : 2320-0936 Volume-02, Issue-08, pp-08-11.Zaili Zhao, Jinsheng Xiao, Ying Wu,
Xiaojun Zhang, Zhiming Wang, Structural Analysis and Optimal Design for Water Tube Panel in an Alkali
Recovery Boiler, Engineering, Scientific research,2010, 2, 353-359 doi:10.4236/eng.2010.25046

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