A great emphasis is being placed on predictive and preventative maintenance programs as a part of the solution to ensure trouble free boiler operation. This paper describes one such program, an ultrasonic technique used to identify waterside deposit loading in boiler tubes. The technique is designed to differentiate between regions within a boiler that have lower, moderate and higher deposit buildup. The technique thus provides a relative indication of deposit accumulation.

This ultrasonic test is ideally suited for outages when routine furnace wall thickness testing is being performed. Tube sampling can be made far more meaningful and a deposit map of the boiler as well as the effectiveness of acid cleaning a boiler can be determined. It would thus become economical to determine the loading profile over large areas of boiler, without sectioning tubes needlessly. Careful consideration needs to be given to the type of boiler tubes examined, surface conditions and deposit characteristics.

Subject
Surface finishing, External surfaces, Materials, Sand, Tubes, Walls, Deviation, Transducers, Internal surfaces, Wall thickness, Boilers, Magnetite, Deposit corrosion
Keywords:
non-destructive testing (NDT), ultrasonic, deposit, boiler, magnetite, deposit weight, surface finish, chordal thermocouple, borescope
© 1994 Association for Materials Protection and Performance (AMPP). All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of AMPP. Positions and opinions advanced in this work are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of AMPP. Responsibility for the content of the work lies solely with the author(s).
1994
Association for Materials Protection and Performance (AMPP)
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