DoveLogo

BOILERS & BOILER PLANT

Support for Boiler Corrosion, Structural Failure, Feedwater Treatment and Flue Gas Analysis issues.

Competence in Water-Tube and Steam Generator Types, Locomotive Boilers, Economic and other Fire-Tube Patterns

Specification and installation of Steam, HPHW, LPHW & HTF Systems.

Design and operation of Biomass Boilers & Biothermal Plant.

Dove Thermal has long experience of many boiler types, fuels, applications, and operating pressures. Heated media may be LPHW, HPHW or Steam; otherwise synthetic heating fluids or mineral oils in liquid or vapour phase. We have been concerned with conventional firing by light, medium and heavy residual fuel oils, gas oil distillates, natural gas, coal and various solid & gaseous biofuel categories.

Industrial & municipal solid waste (MSW), and biomass-derived fuels are widely used, and we have served as expert witness in several instances of fuel usage, boiler design and construction, systems installation, operation and maintenance. Many of our boiler plant investigations have entailed stoichiometric combustion and flue gas analysis for conventional fuels and for the oxidation of process sidestreams. We also have a wholly successful record of providing technical support for a broad range of litigation and boiler dispute resolutions entailing boiler and plant design, corrosion and feed water treatment.

Our operational experience takes-in marine power boilers and propulsion machinery in the 30-40 bar range, and process steam plant working under similar pressures. Generally, these are either D-type water tube and sectional header types or coil-tube steam generators. Monobloc LPHW and fire-tube biomass boilers frequently share features in common with exhaust gas economizer and process heat recovery equipment. Process boilers for lower pressures are usually of the 3-pass wet-back and "Economic Pattern" shell configuration, while cast iron sectional types are widely used for tower block and small scale district heating.

Other types we have been called to investigate include gas-fired helical coil liquid phase heaters and mixed waste LPHW heating equipment. Particularly, we have been involved in litigations concerning locomotive boilers, several imported biomass boilers, batch-fired and mdf-burning equipment, and a new-build campus-heating boilerhouse installation.

Completed Boiler Projects

Economic-Pattern Steam Boilers
DTI Boiler Replacement Scheme

Marine Exhaust Gas Economizers
Ships' Funnel Fires

Thermal Recuperator
Flow-induced Vibration

Monobloc Tubestack Biomass Boilers
Expert Witness re Structural Failure

Shell-Type Steam Boiler Plant
Removal and Re-application

Economic-Pattern Steam Boilers
Process design & installation

Helical Coil HTF Boiler plant
Process design & build

Mixed-waste-fired Boiler plant
Design & build contract

Locomotive Boiler
Structural investigation; Xpt Witness

Coil-tube Steam Generator
Fault Investigation and rectification

New-build Boilers and boilerhouse
Investigation and dispute resolution

Wood Chip Boiler & heating system
Design & Build consultancy

Imported Biomass Boilers
Structural Investigation Xpt Witness

Tower Block Sectional Boiler Array
Forensic resolution of installation

Batch-Fired Boiler design & usage
Environmental Litigation Xpt Witness

Fire-Tube Shell Boiler Corrosion
Forensic Investigation

Boiler Corrosion & Fatigue in Steam and Hot Water Systems

corrosion mechanisms that may be evident in water tube and shell boiler operation

Circumferential Cracking
Form of fatigue stress corrosion, mostly at fire-side bends

Caustic Embrittlement
Occurs under high static stress in concentrations of caustic soda

Necking and Grooving
Waisting of fire-side stay bolts & rods at entry to boiler end plates

Boiler Stress Cracking
A fatigue corrosion in areas of repeated or alternating stresses, usually of low frequency and relatively high magnitude

Air Bubble Pitting
Associated with small bubbles of oxygen adhering to metal surfaces

Fatigue Corrosion
Caused by alternating stress fatiguing of a component, associated with crazy and circumferential cracking

Stress Corrosion
A consequence of high mechanical stress in a chemically active local environment

Galvanic Attack
Physically weakening electrochemical transformations between dissimilar metals in the presence of an electrolyte

Crazy Cracking
Most commonly occuring in the bore of a fire tube, particularly at bends. Surface has a fissured, wrinkly appearance

Crevice Attack
Occuring along seams between adjacent components, caused by electrochemical and/or chemical stress in the presence of mechanical straining

Scab Pitting
A deep-acting electrochemical cell penetratrating fure-side tube surfaces, although similar structures can develop under less specific circumstances

Priming
Consequent upon foaming caused by dissolved salts. Small bubbles aggregate from rough surfaces to form a stable foam, which is carried-over into steam spaces - causing explosive displacement of large quantities of water into (particularly) superheater drums

Dove Thermal Engineering Limited, Uttoxeter, ST14 8QX

Telephone: 01889 569933