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VIII. Tower type boilers are somehow exposed to high maintenance and spare cost due to its design:
Since in tower type boilers the entire heat transfer surfaces penetrate through the water wall
tubes, there is a high probability of air ingress in the boiler causing erosion. Therefore, a
carefully designed sealing arrangement and its timely inspection and maintenance is of very high
importance. (see Fig. 2)
The supporting tubes and the support elements of tube banks are in the gas path exposing them
to the erosive forces and high temperatures. Such supports are on high stress due to load of
pressure parts, high temperature and aggressive nature of exhaust gases. In case there is any
leakage in a supporting tube, it should be removed on urgent basis. In this regard they may take
short interval overhauls for inspection. The start-up time is limited by the temperature attained
by the support tubes which are dry initially.
Spares cost is high in tower type boilers due to large number of supports in the gas path, large
number of sealing arrangements, longer piping (due to height of boiler), longer belts for coal
conveying etc.
Use of high capacity cranes at times of major overhaul is an added cost.
Any pressure part failure leads to higher amount of downtime due to space constraints during
inspection of tube leakages in the tube banks
IX. In tower type boiler with opposed firing and tangential firing, it makes sense to have mills and
bunkers on either side of the boiler, which:
Reduces the length of coal pipes, and the overall length from boiler to chimney
The mill vibrations are also kept away from the TG hall & control room
This helps to keep all the dirty plats away from the clean TG hall
Mills on each side minimize the hot suction ducting and mill piping
This is at the expense of long fuel feeders and more complex conveying system for coal supply to
the bunkers inevitable with this layout (in our case of two boilers).
The choice between two-pass and tower-type boilers is not easy to make as each has its advantages.
Customer preference, and their prevailing O&M practices also influence the choice, besides pure
technicalities.
[1] Spiral tube wall in furnace results in uniform heating of all the tubes, departure from nucleate boiling and a smaller number
of tubes than vertical wall arrangement. Due to no nucleate boiling it is also considered as maintenance free under normal
operation.
[2] Due to non-drainable headers, condensate remained in the tubes and required a gentle heating during startups. Direct
impact of high temperature flue gases to these tubes will cause vapor locking inside the tube that will ultimately results in tube
damage due to overheating. In addition, boiler design with drainable headers can be preserved during longer layoffs.