Pipe Ranges for Water at High Pressures and High Temperatures with Special Reference to Boiler Feed Systems

Abstract

With the pressures now being used for central station boiler plant, the feed water pipelines may be excessively stiff and distortion of feed pump bodies is possible owing to the thermal expansion of the pipes when carrying feed water at temperatures up to 500°F. Everything must, therefore, be done to increase the flexibility of the feed pipelines by providing an arrangement which will reduce the pipe thrust and bending moment on the pump terminals, by reducing the pipe bore and increasing the velocity consistent with economic pressure drop, and by reducing the pipe wall thickness to the limit imposed by the safe working stress for the available materials.