Modeling of the buckstay system of membrane walls in watertube boiler construction

Abstract

Membrane walls are very important structural parts of water-tube boiler construction. Based on their specific geometry, one special type of finite element was defined to help model the global boiler construction. That is the element of reduced orthotropic plate with two thicknesses and two elasticity matrixes, for membrane and bending load separately. A global model of the boiler construction showed that the high value of stress is concentrated in plates of the buckstay system in boiler corners. Validation of the new finite element was done on the local model of the part of membrane wall and buckstay. A very precise model of tubes and flanges was compared to the model formed on the element of a reduced orthotropic plate. Pressure and thermal loads were discussed. Obtained results indicated that the defined finite element was quite favorable in the design and reconstruction of the boiler substructures such as a buckstay system.