Industrial boiler damage is a common phenomenon encountered in boiler operation which usually lasts several decades. Since boiler shutdown may be required because of localized failures, it is crucial to predict the most vulnerable parts. If damage occurs, it is necessary to perform root cause analysis and devise corrective measures (repairs, design modifications, etc.). Boiler tube bundles, such as those in superheaters, preheaters and reheaters, are the most exposed and often the most damaged boiler parts. Both short-term and long-term overheating are common causes of tube failures. In these cases, the design temperatures are exceeded, which often results in decrease of remaining creep life. Advanced models for damage evaluation require temperature history, which is available only in rare cases when it has been measured and recorded for the whole service life. However, in most cases it is necessary to estimate the temperature history from available operation history data (inlet and outlet pressures and temperatures etc.). The task may be very challenging because of the combination of complex flow behaviour in the flue gas domain and heat transfer phenomena. This paper focuses on estimating thermal load non-uniformity on superheater tubes via Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation of flue gas flow including heat transfer within the domain consisting of a furnace and a part of the first stage of the boiler.

The continued growth and evolving lifestyles of the human population require the urgent development of sustainable production in all its aspects. Microalgae have the potential of the sustainable production of various commodities; however, the energetic requirements of algae cultivation still largely contribute to the overall negative balance of many operation plants. Here, we evaluate energetic efficiency of biomass and lipids production by Chlorella pyrenoidosa in multi-tubular, helical-tubular, and flat-panel airlift pilot scale photobioreactors, placed in an indoor environment of greenhouse laboratory in Central Europe. Our results show that the main energy consumption was related to the maintenance of constant light intensity in the flat-panel photobioreactor and the culture circulation in the helical-tubular photobioreactor. The specific power input ranged between 0.79 W L−1 in the multi-tubular photobioreactor and 6.8 W L−1 in the flat-panel photobioreactor. The construction of multi-tubular photobioreactor allowed for the lowest energy requirements but also predetermined the highest temperature sensitivity and led to a significant reduction of Chlorella productivity in extraordinary warm summers 2018 and 2019. To meet the requirements of sustainable yearlong microalgal production in the context of global change, further development towards hybrid microalgal cultivation systems, combining the advantages of open and closed systems, can be expected.

The paper solves the determination of the optimal size of the shear gap when dividing components with a circular cross section (hydroformed metal bellows and tubes) with a disc knife to achieve the smallest burr size on the divided surfaces. The analyzes were performed on bellows with an outer diameter of 15 mm and a wall thickness of 0.4 mm. During the experiments, the size of the shear gap between the inner disc knife and the outer knife was changed, and the pressing force of the inner disc knife was changed. The experiments were carried out using a cutting tool after 20,000 cuts and after 120,000 cuts. The optimal size of the cutting gap was determined, allowing the minimum size of the burr to be achieved, thus reducing the time to remove it by brushing or tumbling in the subsequent operation. The mentioned procedure can be applied to analogous cases of division.

Superheater-tube failure is listed among the major causes of a fossil-fuel-fired boiler outage. Therefore, it is necessary not only to identify and repair it in the case of failure but also to eliminate the root cause of this problem. As there may be multiple reasons of failure in exposed equipment such as a superheater, a thorough investigation of more than one probable cause is usually required. This article focuses on a failure analysis of a boiler located in a chemical plant. After a leak was discovered, several cracks on the superheater tubes were identified as its main cause. It was necessary to assess the extent of the damage, detect the root cause and propose corrective actions. Two problematic locations with cracks were identified during the visual inspection: the first was on the superheater-tube bends and the other was the weld joint between the superheater and the transition pipe. As the first step, the material-microstructure and composition analyses of the tubes in these critical locations were carried out. Even though small weaknesses were found in the microstructure, the main cause of the tube failure was not identified. As the next probable cause, thermal-dilatation stresses were investigated using the finite-element analysis (angl. FEA). The support system, consisting of fixed and spring supports, as well as the compensator were included in the analysis that confirmed the thermal-dilatation stresses as the major cause of the failure. Based on the results, a new technical solution for the supports was suggested and verified with the FEA. Keywords: corrosion, weldment cracks, superheater supports, thermal dilatation Napaka cevi pregrevalnika je znana kot ena najpogostej{ih napak pri kotlu na fosilna goriva. Zato jo je treba, ne le prepoznati in v primeru okvare popraviti, pa~pa tudi v splo{nem odpraviti vzrok za njen nastanek. V tako izpostavljenem elementu kot je pregrevalnik, je za tovrstno napako lahko ve~vzrokov, zato je za ugotovitev le-teh, potrebna temeljita preiskava.^lanek je osredoto~en na analize okvar kotla, ki se nahaja v kemi~ni tovarni. Potem, ko so odkrili pu{~anje, je bilo na pregrevalnih ceveh ve~razpok, ki so bile opredeljene kot glavni vzrok. Treba je bilo oceniti obseg {kode, odkriti vzrok in predlagati ukrepe za popravilo. Med vizualnim pregledom sta bili ugotovljeni dve problemati~ni lokaciji z razpokami. Prva na zavojih cevi pregrevalnika in druga v spoju zvara med pregrevalnikom in prehodno cevjo. Najprej je bila izvedena analiza mikrostrukture materiala in analiza sestave cevi na kriti~nih mestih.^eprav so bile ugotovljene pomanjkljivosti v mikrostrukturi, glavni vzrok napake cevi ni bil ugotovljen. Naslednji mo`ni vzrok bi lahko bila termodilatacijska napetost, ki je bila raziskovana z uporabo analize kon~nih elementov (FEA). Sistem za podporo, ki je sestavljen iz fiksnih in podpornih vzmeti pa tudi kompenzator, so bili vklju~eni v analizo, ki je potrdila, da je toplotna dilatacijska napetost glavni vzrok napake. Na podlagi rezultatov je bila predlagana nova tehni~na re...

The recent trend in the steam and electricity production has been both to increase the efficiency of the facility and to keep tightening legislation concerning emission limits. The lifetime of energy equipment is greatly influenced by the operating temperature, pressure and operating characteristics. The new conditions lead the operator to more often changes of these parameters, which has negative influence to the facility in terms of service life. Precise knowledge of the facility being operated and the ability to predict the residual life of its key parts in time is therefore necessary. A new methodology for determining the residual life and evaluating problematic situations of medium size boilers was developed at Brno University of Technology. Its approaches and advantages will be presented in this paper. The methodology provides the user with approaches for the lifetime evaluation of an equipment as a whole, based on detailed knowledge of the equipment being investigated and the ongoing damage. Additionally, if the equipment is continuously evaluated, it is possible to extend the inspection interval or to achieve a significantly higher lifetime of the entire equipment, thereby reducing the economic cost. If defined criteria are met, the methodology also allows inclusion of FEM and CFD simulations for achieving higher relevance of the results.