Bottom-Supported Boiler With External Vertical Column Load Transfer
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional bottom-supported boilers face challenges in distributing vertical loads and thermal expansion, limiting their application to smaller capacities due to the need for strong walls and dense buckstays, which complicates support structures and increases material requirements.
Innovation Solution
A bottom-supported boiler design using four vertical columns outside the boiler pressure body to transfer loads to the ground, minimizing the need for large-diameter tubes and dense buckstays, with sliding elements for horizontal expansion and flexible support structures to accommodate thermal movements.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If conventional bottom-supported construction is used for small boilers, then the walls need to be strong enough to carry vertical compression load, but this limits the application to relatively small boiler pressure bodies
Solution Approach 1:
The support function is segmented from the wall structure by introducing separate vertical columns positioned outside the boiler pressure body. These columns carry the vertical compression loads, allowing the walls to be optimized for their primary function of containing pressure and accommodating thermal expansion, rather than being oversized for structural support.
Solution Approach 2:
Vertical columns act as intermediary structural elements between the boiler pressure body and the foundation. These columns transfer vertical loads from the boiler walls to the ground, eliminating the need for the walls themselves to carry the full compression load, thereby enabling larger boiler capacities.
2Strength
If walls are made strong enough to carry vertical compression load in bottom-supported construction, then support is sufficient, but the use of large-diameter thick-walled tubes increases material requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The structural support function is separated from the pressure-containing walls by introducing external vertical columns. This segmentation allows the walls to use thinner, lighter tubing optimized for pressure containment, while the columns handle the vertical compression loads, reducing overall steel material requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
Vertical columns serve as intermediary load-bearing elements that transfer vertical forces from the boiler walls to the foundation. This intermediary structure enables the use of lighter wall tubing, thereby reducing the quantity of steel material required while maintaining adequate support capacity.
3Strength
If multiple support members are used below each bottom header, then vertical load support is provided, but this complicates the support structure and requires tedious shimming
Solution Approach 1:
The support members are extracted from beneath the bottom headers and repositioned as vertical columns outside the boiler pressure body. This extraction simplifies the support structure by eliminating the need for multiple support members per header and the associated shimming operations, while maintaining load support capability.
Solution Approach 2:
Vertical columns positioned outside the boiler pressure body act as intermediary support elements that carry vertical loads directly to the foundation. This configuration simplifies the support structure by eliminating complex arrangements of multiple support members and shimming requirements beneath each bottom header.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables the construction of larger capacity boilers with reduced steel requirements and simplified design, allowing for faster assembly and minimizing thermal stress and structural complexity.
Implementation Method 1
vertical loads, such as gravitational forces and forces caused by seismic loads and direct wind loads
Implementation Method 2
when the temperature of the boiler pressure body increases, thermal expansion of a top-supported boiler pressure body takes place mainly downwards whereas in a bottom-supported boiler pressure body thermal expansion takes place mainly upwards
Data Source
AI summary
A bottom-supported boiler that includes a boiler pressure body having a rectangular horizontal cross section formed by joining four planar water tube walls pairwise together so as to form four corners with water tube walls being formed with fins welded between the water tubes, and a support construction including four vertical columns vertically supported to the ground. The vertical columns are arranged outside of the boiler pressure body so that adjacent to each of the corner corners is arranged one of the four vertical columns. Each of the vertical columns is directly connected with a rigid joint to a respective corner so that vertical loads of the boiler pressure body are balanced by the four vertical columns, and so that the water tube walls are supported from their sides by the four vertical columns so that the weight of the boiler pressure body is transferred through the vertical columns, and such that each of the four vertical columns is directly attached to a respective corner.