Pattern of thermal fluctuations in a recovery boiler floor

The floor of a black liquor recovery boiler at a mill in central Canada has experienced cracking and delamination of the composite tubing near the spout wall and deformation of the floor panels that is most severe in the vicinity of the spout wall. One possible explanation for the observed damage is impacts of salt cake falling from the convective section onto the floor. In order to determine if such impacts do occur, strain gauges and thermocouples were installed on the boiler floor in areas where cracking and deformation were most frequent. The data obtained from these instruments indicate that brief, sudden temperature fluctuations do occur, and changes in the strain experienced by the affected tube occur simultaneously. These fluctuations appear to occur less often along the spout wall and more frequently with increasing distance from the wall. The frequency of these temperature fluctuations is insufficient for thermal fatigue to be the sole cause of the cracking observed on the tubes, but the data are consistent with what might be expected from pieces of falling salt cake.