Experimental study of wall thinning behaviour in boiler pipes during bending process

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ABSTRACT

In boilers, there is a need of bent pipes to direct the flow of steam/air in and out of a boiler. Usually bent pipes are preferred than welded pipes. When a pipe is bent, wall thickness of the pipe tends to decrease on the outer side of the bending. When a pipe is not bent properly, it leads to excess wall thinning. Wall thickness is the main criteria that governs the strength of a pipe, because whenever a high-pressure fluid flows through the bend it should withstand the pressure. In cold bending at normal temperature, various fillers are used to reduce the effect of wall thinning. In incremental hot bending, the effect of wall thickness has been studied by varying bend radius of the pipe and percentage change in wall thinning and its effects are observed.

KEYWORDS:

• Boiler pipes
• cold bending
• incremental hot bending
• wall thinning
• fillers
• bend radius

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the help from Bharath Heavy Electricals Ltd, Trichy, India, for conducting the experiments.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

M. Karthikeyan

Dr. M. Karthikeyan, the corresponding author is having more than 13 years of experience entailing over 5 years of experience in the areas of Analysis & Simulation, Research & Development, Technical Support and Project Execution Activities in Electro-Mechanical Devices; possess over 7 years of experience in Teaching & Research.

M. P. Jenarthanan

Dr. M.P. Jenarthanan, the co-author is having more than 10 years of experience in teaching and research. His main research interests have been in the field of FRP composites to improve the machinability behaviour and minimize the damages to prolong the life of the engineering components. He has published 20 International Journals in the last five years and he is presently serving as areviewer for journals such as Journal of Pigment and Resin Technology, InternationalJournal of structural and Engineering mechanics and Robotics & computer integrated manufacturing.