Is the way of testing Safety Valves on steam boilers by seeing the safety valves venting steam to the atmosphere only is correct and then stopping the burner immediately? During my visits to the sites, most of the test engineers stop the burner immediately after the Safety Valves vent steam to the atmosphere and this is not correct, why ? Any Safety Valve must be classified according to two points: 1) Set pressure: The pressure at which the spring of the safety valve will lift and steam to be escaped to the atmosphere. 2) The sizing of the Safety Valve: The size of the inlet/outlet ports of the Safety valve that must be selected correctly to be able to vent the required amount of steam according to the boiler capacity. the problem is that sometimes I see small safety valves installed on big boilers ( wrong sizing ) even though the set pressure is ok so, the correct way of testing is: during testing the safety valves, you should leave the safety valve open for 2-3 min and the burner to be working on max load and to monitor the pressure inside the boiler to check there is no build up in the pressure ( it is better to decrease ). by this way, you are making sure in case of any excess pressure inside the boiler and the burner did not stop, the safety valve will be able to vent the amount of the steam required hence, no excessive pressure will happen in case the pressure increased for 2-3 min + the burner is working + safety valve is venting to the atmosphere, the safety valve sizing is not correct or some blockage is consisted into inlet/outlet ports of the valve ( maintenance required) Hope this point is helpful
This is very educating Thanks for sharing Sir
I totally agree with you. and that's what you taught me during your time with us for the commissioning. you are an excellent engineer Mr Samir
Good to know! Thanks Mohamed
Great advice!
Utilities Management || Team Leadership || Boilers and Burners || Steam Systems || Water Treatment || Energy Management || Valves || Control & Instrumentation
4moYou are the best Lotfi Ghriss