THE DESIGN OF AN APPARATUS TO TEST WEAR OF BOILER TUBES

Wear of boiler tubes in pulverised fuel power stations by erosion is a serious problem that often leads to unscheduled and costly outages. Hence there is a need for a hot erosive wear testing facility that simulates boiler conditions and allows accelerated wear testing of materials to be undertaken. This paper reports on the development of an apparatus that is intended to simulate the conditions in the final stages of a boiler where the wear by erosion is at its most severe.