I.

HEAT TRANSFER AS
APPLICABLE TO
BOILER TECHNOLOGY

NEXT

Contents
1.

INTRODUCTION

2.

HEAT TRANSFER MODES

3.

CONDUCTION HEAT TRANSFER

4.

CONVECTION HEAT TRANSFER

5.

RADIATION HEAT TRANSFER

6.

COMBINATION OF HEAT TRANSFER MODES

7.

HEAT TRANSFER SURFACE ARRANGEMENT

8.

OTHER HEAT TRANSFER ASPECTS IN BOILER

FIG.1.1 Typical Heat Transfer & Temperature Drop Thro Furnace

Water Wall Surface
FIG.1.2 Different Types of Heat Transfer Flow Arrangement
FIG.1.3 Steam Temperature Rise in Radiant & Convection
superheater for Various Loads

BACK

GoGo
to to
Manual
Index
Contents

NEXT

I. HEAT TRANSFER AS APPLICABLE TO

BOILER TECHNOLOGY
1.

INTRODUCTION
In boiler heat energy is released from the combustion of fossil fuels and the heat is
transferred to different fluids in the system and a part of it is lost or left out as unutilised. It is
therefore essential to study the general principle of heat transfer for understanding the design as
well as behaviour of boiler during different conditions of operation.

2.

HEAT TRANSFER MODES

There are three modes of heat transfer, viz. conduction, convection and radiation. Heat energy is
transferred from a heat source to a heat receiver by one or more of these modes for which heat
source should be at a higher temperature than the receiver.
Conduction is the heat transfer from one part of a body to another part of the same body or from
one body to another in physical contact without appreciable displacement of the particles of the
body.
Convection is the transfer of heat from one point to another within a fluid (gas or liquid) by the mixing
of one part with another due to the movement of the fluids. When the movement of the fluid or fluids
is caused solely by differences in density resulting from temperature differences within the fluid, the
heat transfer is referred to as free or natural convection. When the fluid movement results from some
mechanical force e.g., a fan or a pump, the heat transfer is called as forced convection.
Radiation is the transfer of heat energy from one body to another by electromagnetic waves which
can travel even through vacuum. When radiation impinges on a body, some of the radiant energy will
be reradiated, some of it will be transmitted through the body and the remainder will be absorbed.
The intensity of the radiant energy is dependent on the temperature of the radiating matter.

BACK

Go to Contents

NEXT

3.

CONDUCTION HEAT TRANSFER

If a flat plate is heated on one side and cooled on the other side, heat will flow from hot side to the
cold. The heat flow rate q can be expressed as below:

Metals are good conductors and hence have high thermal conductivities and used for heat transfer
purposes. Certain materials are poor conductors with low thermal conductivities and are suitable for
insulation purposes. The thermal conductivity varies with temperature for the same material.
Where more than one material in contact with each other is involved in the conduction heat transfer
the resistivity l/k in the formula (2) is substituted by the equivalent combined resistivity as below
:
l / k = l 1 / k 1 + l 2 / k 2 + ......
Conduction in the fluids follows the same way as in the solids. In practice the conduction in fluid
when compared to convection is very small. Thermal conductivity of gases increases with increase
in temperature and are practically constant for variations in pressure encountered in boiler. Hydrogen
has relatively high conductivity and hence used as good cooling medium in the electrical generators.

4.

CONVECTION HEAT TRANSFER

Heat transfer by convection between a fluid and a solid such as in a boiler tube is expressed as
below:

The convection film conductance is similar to conductance in the metal and the reciprocal of convection
film conductance, represent the resistance offered for heat transfer from the fluid to the solid surface.
This is also known popularly as the film coefficient.
BACK

Go to Contents

NEXT

4.1.Free Convection
The quantity of heat transfer by convection is significantly affected by the type of motion within the
fluid. A fluid at rest, if heated at one point, the temperature at that location rises and causes density
difference with respect to other location and this causes movement of circulation of fluid within the
fluid itself. This type of heat transfer is known as free or natural convection. It is distinguished from
forced convection where other forces like mechanical force, change of state of fluid or stack
effect is used for maintaining the circulation or movement of the liquid.
In boiler the free convection is significant in determining the heat losses from the boiler outer
casing to the surrounding atmosphere.
The following equation can be used for calculation of free convection heat rates.

4.2. Forced Convection

In forced convection heat transfer, the flow of fluid is produced by external forces like fan,
pump, stack, change of state etc. Most of the heat transfer inside the boiler is transferred by this
method and hence this mode of heat transfer is dealt here with more details. Some of the
dimensionless numbers which are more frequently used in heat transfer are :

Reynolds Number is used for comparing the fluid flow turbulance in pipes. If the Reynolds Number
is below 2,000 the flow is laminar (stream line). For Turbulent flow this number will be more than
12,000. Between these limits there is a, transition zone where either type of flow may occur.

BACK

Go to Contents

NEXT

There are large number of empirical formulae and curves obtained experimentally for calculating
heat transfer coefficient and amount of heat transfer for different variations encountered in practical
cases.

5.

RADIATION HEAT TRANSFER

The fractions of radiation reflected, transmitted and absorbed by a surface are known respectively
as the reflectively P transmissivity T and absorptivity a, of the body. The sum of the fractions are
equal to one.
Bodies that are good absorbers are equally good emitters of radiation and emissivity of a body is
equal to absorptivity during thermal equilibrium. A black body is defined as one which absorbs
all the radiant energy incident upon it and hence reflectivity and transmissivity of black body
is zero. The black body need not appear to be black in colour to the eye. A hole in a wall is
equivalent to the black body.
BACK

Go to Contents
NEXT

Radiation emitted by a black body depends upon its surface area and temperature. The relationship
between them is given by Stefan-Boltzman law

In boiler the radiation becomes luminous by entrained particles such as pulverised coal, soot
etc. and calculation of luminous radiation is complex. The gases such as Oxygen and Nitrogen
absorb or emit only slight amount of radiation. But water vapours, Carbon-dioxide, Sulphur-dioxide
and Carbon-monoxide which are part of flue gases in the boiler also absorb and emit. They emit
and radiate only in certain wave length bands that lie outside of the visible range and are called as
nonluminous gas radiation.

6.

COMBINATION OF HEAT TRANSFER MODES

In boiler the heat transfer from flue gas to the cooler fluid occurs by more than one mode. Let us
take a typical example of superheater tube in high temperature region but does not directly view
the flame. Here the heat is transferred from flue gas to superheater tube metal by convection and
by non-luminous radiation and in the tube metal by conduction and to the steam by forced
convection. The resistance to the heat flow is to be calculated similar to that in electrical circuit.
The resistance to heat flow due to radiation and convection through the gas film is parallel and this
resistance is in series with resistance of tube wall and the film resistance of the steam. This can
be expressed as:

BACK

Go to Contents
NEXT

If there is some salt scale on the inner side of tube this also offers resistance to heat flow. This
not only reduces the amount of heat flow, but also raises the temperature of the tube metal as the
cooling medium is separated from the metal by the scale.
As the scale has poor conductivity this will raise the temperature of the tube to such an extent that
tube limiting temperature may be exceeded and can result in tube failures.
If there is some soot on the gas side of the tube, this again offers another resistance to the heat
flow. Soot reduces the heat transfer and to a small extent the tube metal temperature. The heat
transfer for furnace water wall surface for clean surface, sooted wall, scaled wall and sooted
and scaled wall is shown in the Fig. 1-1. The figure clearly indicates the metal temperature at
different conditions and the permissible metal temperature.

7.

HEAT TRANSFER SURFACE ARRANGEMENT

There are three general kinds of arrangements of heat transfer surfaces as the relative flow of
fluid is concerned . They are parell flow , counter flow and across flow . In parell flow , both
the fluids enter at the same reactive physical location with respect to the heat transfer surface .
In the counter flow the two fluids enter at opposite ends of the heat transfer surface and flow in
opposite directions over the surface. In cross flow , the flow path of the two fluids are
perpendicular two each other.
These flow arrangement and temperature varition of two fluids are shown diagramatically in fig1-2
if one of the fluid is evaporating or condensing then the temperature of that fluid will be constant
through the process.

The arrangement of heat transfer surface in the boiler is decided by so many practical factors such
as:
i)

Available space to suit the arrngement of other equipments.

ii)

Type of fuel, firing rate, etc.

BACK

Go to Contents

NEXT

8.

iii)

Allowable metal temperature for the selected tube metal and thickness.

iv)

Standards set by government or associations.

v)

Economical reasons such as initial cost, operating and maintenance cost,

manufacturing limitations, etc.

OTHER HEAT TRANSFER ASPECTS IN BOILER

8.1

Effect of Lanes

Lanes in the tube banks formed by omission of a row of tubes, may decrease the heat
absorption considerably. These passages act as by-passes for the hot gases through the banks.
Although overall heat transfer decreases, the high mass flow through the lane increases the
absorption rates of the adjacent tubes. Critical tube metal temperature in superheater and
steaming economiser may develop. And hence whenever possible, lanes should be eliminated
both within tube banks and between tube banks and enclosure walls.
In the case of tube failure, if it is decided to plug the tube (due to non-availability of tube or shortage
of time) it is desirable to leave the tube inside the gas path after the plugging near the header till the
replacement is done with good tube so that lane cavity can be avoided. In the case of lane formation
(during design stage) for additional surfaces to be added at later stage for maintenance purposes,
calculations are made to check that the tube metal temperature is within limits.
8.2

Insulation and Heat Loss

The heat transfer through insulation can be calculated similar to conduction through a composite
wall. The hot face temperature can be taken as the temperature of the fluid in the tube which forms
as wall. The heat loss and cold face temperature decrease as the thickness of insulation increases.
When the insulation is thick the change in cold surface temperature for increase in thickness is small.
But the cost of the insulation increases proportionally with the thickness.
The detailed calculation of overall heat loss by radiation and convection from the Surfaces of a
steam generating unit which is usually called as radiation loss is tedious and time consuming.
Normally this loss is taken from standards for calculation as well as for guarantee test.
Low ambient temperature and high air velocities tend to reduce the cold face temperature although
they have only a small effect on total heat loss.

8.3

Convection and Radiation Superheater Heat Rate for Load Variation

The superheater surface which can directly view the flame is called radiant superheater. The other
superheater surfaces are called convection superheaters even though they may have partial radiation
heat transfer including non-luminous heat transfer.
As the load is increased, the convection and non-luminous heat transfer rate increases enormously
as the flow rate of flue gas and steam increases with load. This results in increase of temperature in
the case of convection superheater with load. In the case of radiation heat transfer whichmainly on
the source temperature (flame) the increase in heat transfer with load is much less as the

B A C K

Go to Contents

NEXT

flametemperature is fairly constant. But as the steam flow increases with load, the temperature rise
in the radiant superheater decreases. The temperature change with load for radiation and convection
superheater is shown in Fig. 1-3. This characteristic of convection and radiant superheater is used in
proportioning the surface at different superheating and reheating surfaces so as to attain fairly constant
temperature over wide load variation on the steam generator.
8.4

Effect of Excess Air on Heat Transfer In Boiler

Any air put inside the combustion chamber over and above the theoretically calculated air
requirement for complete combustion is called excess air. The amount of excess air used in boiler
depends on, so many factors such as fuel, combustion, boiler load, burner and furnace design, etc.
Here let us discuss about the effect of variation in excess air on heat transfer assuming the fuel input
to furnace and heat released from fuel remains the same.
When excess air is increased the mass of product of combustion increases and as the heat release
remains constant the temperature of product of combustion in furnace will be lower. Or in other
words the excess air cools the flame. This will have marked effect on stagging. Slagging in the
furnace can be reduced by increasing the excess air. As the flame temperature has come down the
heat transfer to water wall and radiant zone reduces.
As the quantity of flue gas is more due to additional air put in, the velocity throughout the flue gas
path will be more. This will result in higher heat transfer in con. vection zones. This will be
predominantly seen in the case of low temperature superheaters. Normally the proportion of radiant.
heat transfer surface being low in superheater and reheater, the increase in excess air results in higher
pick up in superheater and reheater. This principle can be used for controlling the superheater
reheater temperature and to increase the controlload range. But as the excess air is increased, the
flue gas leaving the boiler is more and hence the heat loss. And so use of excess air for temperature
control is not advisable on the efficiency point of view. Instead the flue gas from the boiler after
economiser can be admitted into the furnace using gas recirculating fan which has same effect as
excess air as far as heat transfer is concerned but the loss of efficiency is averted.

BACK

Go to Contents

NEXT

FIG.1.1 Typical Heat Transfer & Temperature Drop

Thro Furnace Water Wall Surface

BACK

Go to Contents

NEXT

FIG.1.2 Different Types of Heat Transfer Flow Arrangement

BACK

Go to Contents
NEXT

FIG.1.3 Steam Temperature Rise in Radiant & Convection

superheater for Various Loads

BACK

Go to Contents

Go to Manual Index