Investigation of repeated economiser tube failures of a 135 tph cold cyclone CFB boiler - a case study

摘要

There were quick and successive failures of economiser tubes in a four years old cold cyclone circulating fluidised bed 135 tph boiler in a short span of three months. Advance inspection and failure analysis, change in operational practices were used to get the boiler running at full load at the earliest possible time. This paper presents details of the process of inspection, maintenance, operation and failure investigation carried out for the economiser tubes of the boiler. The failure of the economiser tubes was due to external corrosion of the tubes furnace fire side due to presence of sulphur in coal, accompanied by localised erosion by high levels of alpha-quartz in coal ash.