Patent GB-814454-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in apparatus for determining the performance of heat-generating plant, such as boilers, furnaces and atomic reactors
IPC: F22B35/00
Filed: 1955-08-23
Abstract: 814,454. Combustion apparatus. EULE, M. Aug. 23, 1955, No. 24263/55. Class 51 (1). Apparatus for ascertaining the performance of a steam geanerator, steel furnace or atomic reactor by measuring the heat transferred from the working fluid of the generator &c. to heat exchangers disposed at different positions in the generator includes means for passing fluid through such exchanger at a constant rate, means for controlling independently the flow through each exchanger, and means for indicating the difference in temperature at the inlet and outlet of each exchanger whereby the rates of heat transfer at the different positions may be directly indicated and readily compared. In a water-tube boiler having a combustion chamber 1, Figs. 1, 2, lined with generating tubes 18 and heated by burners 4, 4a, supplied with gas and combustion air through valved pipes 2, 6 respectively, and a flue 8 containing an economizer 14, generating and first stage superheater tubes 23 and first stage superheater tubes 25, the heat exchangers 35 ... 39, each in the form of a tube coil or loop, are connected in parallel between a distributer 32 and a collector 34 connected to the feed water supply pipe 11 on opposite sides of an orifice plate 30. The exchangers 35, 36, 37 are disposed in recesses in a wall of the combustion chamber and are subject mainly to radiant heat while the exchangers 38, 39 are opposed to the gases passing through the flue 8. The temperature differentials between the inlets and outlets of the heat exchangers are recorded by pairs of thermo-couplers 40, 41 ... 48, 49, Fig. 3, connected electrically to indicators 55 ... 59. The flow through the exchangers is regulated by valves 50 ... 54 on the inlet sides thereof, the valves being set so that the relation between the rate of flow and the surface area of each exchanger is such that the temperature difference is a measure of the heat exchange. Fig. 4 shows the invention applied to a smelting furnace heated by gas burners 75, 75a supplied with oil by a pump 79 and preheated air forced by a fan 76 through a heater 73 in the furnace flue and a duct 77, 78 to a chamber 97, the air supply to the burners being controlled by dampers 82. The heat exchangers 83, 84, 85 are supplied with air from a distributer 98 connected to the duct 77 upstream of a restriction 86 and discharge respectively into the duct 78, the chamber 97 and the duct 77. The exchangers are provided with temperaturemeasuring devices 90, 91 ... 94, 95 and the temperature differentials are indicated as described with reference to Fig. 3. In another arrangement, in which steam is generated by the heat evolved in an atomic reactor, the heat is transferred from the reactor through a primary circuit containing liquid sodium and including a pump 102, a heat-absorbing coil 104 in the reactor and a heating coil 106 in an evaporator 105, to a secondary circuit containing liquid and including a pump 108, a container 110, the evaporator 105 and a heating coil 113 in the generator, vapour evolved in the evaporator being condensed in the coil 113. Feed water is supplied by a pump 114 through a container 116 to the generator. In this arrangement, heat transfer coils 120, 121 and 122 are supplied with liquid from a distributer 124 and discharge to a collector 125. The coils are provided with temperature-measuring devices and the temperature differentials are indicated as described above.