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Power Plant Questions and Answers

1.

What are the Engineering documents to be studied before starting an assignment in a

Power Plant?

1. Process and Instruments diagram of various system (P&ID)

2. Automatic Plant Control (APC)
3.Analog flow diagram
4.Analog logic diagram
5.Burner management system
6.Sequence control diagram
7.Permissive, Trips and Alarms setting list
8.Function setting list
9.Unit Interlock Diagram
10.Operation and Maintenance manual
2.

What is P&ID?

P&ID is the abbreviation for Piping and Instrumentation Diagram. Also understand as Process and
Instrumentation diagram. A drawing which indicates all the process components, piping details along
with control and instrumentation details is P&ID.
3.

How you will understand the meaning of the symbols?

From Legends of the drawing

4.

What is BMS?

Burner Management system which includes, Interlocks, Trips condition and logic for leak test, total
failure, loss of flame failure, Partial flame loss and master fuel trips. This is mainly a system for a
protection of furnace explosion. However it includes Boiler protection interlocks such as Drum level
HH/LL Reheat protection. It also includes sequence of start and stop of fuel firing equipment. FSSS-Furnace Safegaurd Supervisory System is also used by some manufacturers.
5.

What is SQC?

Permissive, Trip interlocks and Operation and Control of fans, pumps, Vanes, Valves and Dampers,
etc.,
6.

What is Unit Interlock Diagram?

This includes Interlocks, Logic between Main equipments such as Boiler, turbine, Generator,
Generator transformer, Unit transformer.
7.

What is the Standard applied for BMS?

National Fire Protection Association - NFPA, USA. NFPA 85 covers boiler and various fuel firing
8.

What are the pre-commissioning activities in Boiler, Turbine, Generator and others?

Boiler :
a. Trial run of Auxiliaries which includes the logic confirmation using simulated input/output signal
from field/marshalling panel
b. Confirmation of logic and protection for BMS
c. Trial Light up of burners
d. Alkali boil-out
e. Acid cleaning and passivation
f. Steam blowing
g. Safety valves testing
Turbine :
a. Trial run of Auxiliaries which includes the logic confirmation using simulated input/output signal

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from field/marshalling panel
b. Oil flushing
c. Trial start-up
d. Speed test, confirmation of Auto Run-up System (ARS)
Generator :
a. Trial run of Auxiliaries which includes the logic confirmation using simulated input/output signal
from field/marshalling panel
b. Back charging of Transformer. Some Power companies are not allowing this test. Transformers
shall be test after generator commissioning
c. Confirmation of Excitation, AVR System
d. OC and SC Test
e. Synchronizing and initial loading
9.

What are the parameters shall be monitored for equipments trial operation?

Current, bearing temperature, Winding Temperature, Noise Vibration, speed,

temperature, Lube oil temperature,

Cooling water

10. Describe the method for High Voltage Test for Motors?
May be for the first time the motor will be tested for 1.5 x V Rate + 1 KV ( DC). If AC is used it will
be 1.5 x V Rated x Sqrt 2 + 1.5 KV. At site it is advisable to test for rated voltage.
11. What is the action to be taken if the bearing temperature increases for a greased
bearing?
Grease shall be replaced.
12. What is the allowable bearing temperature?
92 Deg.C to 120 Deg.C
13. What is the allowable vibration level?
100 micron
14. What is allowable winding temperature?
100 t0 120 Deg.C
15. What are the types of limit switches provided in an electrical valve actuator?
Limit or position switches and Torque switched both for opening and closing
16. How to set-up the limit switches for different type of valves?
All types of valves shall be set to stop by limit switch ( position switch) upon opeing. Torque switch
shall be used as back-up. Closing shall be stoped by limit or torque sitch depending upon the type of
valve. Globe Valve - by torque switch, Gate valve avd others by limit switch and torque switch shall be
used as back-up.
17. What action shall be taken if a electrical actuator trips on Torque limit switch upon
start opening?
Normally in case of Globe valve where valve close will be limited by torque switch the valve will stop
upon receiving open command by the activation of open torque switch.
(operation solution)
- Valve shall be open manually for one or more turns.
( Control solution)
- The open torque switch shall be disabled for five percent.

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18. What is the control solution to over come the problem of electrical valve actuator
tripping on Torque limit switch while start opening?
By-pass open torque switch by close limit swich for 3% open. The limit switch shall open and bring
the open torque switch from 3 to 100% open.
19. What are the possible reasons for a motor to trip by Instantaneous over current and
what action to be taken?
Voltage may be higher than rated value or insulation may be failed. Confirmed by the Electrical
Engineer by checking the voltage/meggaring the motor, calbe, etc.
20. What will be effect when a motor driven equipment is started on load?
The starting current which will be 6 to 8 times the Rated current will remain same, unless the supply
voltage is higher than rated. The starting time will increase and the ppequipment may trip on thermal
over load.
21. What is Stalling with respect to Fan?
When a fan is loaded with discharge damper is closed or no through opening pass at the discharge, the
pressure will be higher than the normal for the flow. This cause, escape of air in between the casing
and the blades from discharge to suction. This will cause in reduction of pressure. The fan will behave
the same way. The pressure will increase and decrease and increase. This is known as Stalling of a
fan. The current also will behave in the same cycle. If allowed, the blades may break and will cause a
major demage.
22. Which Fan will suffer Stalling and why?
Axial fans.
Forced draft fan will suffer stalling. Since it has a variable resistance device
(Rotating air heater) Whose resistance to flow will increase due to choking during operation
are mal function of secondary air damper .
23. What are the starting interlocks for Fan?
Suction damper closed is the minimum interlock for a fan before start.
24. What are starting interlocks for pump?
Suction valve open is the minimum interlock for a pump before start.
25. Why minimum recirculation is necessary for a pump and how much the value will be
and what are methods to predict the loss of minimum flow?
Without re-

circulation, the fluid in the pump will be churned repeatedly resulting in heating/vaporization up of
the fuild.This will result in sealing glands/pump internals being damaged. Typically, inferred from
low flow by Flow switches In suction pipes or high differential temperature between suction and
discharge by temperature swiche.
26. What are the trip commands for a Fan?
Typical Trip interlocks for fans are: Bearing Temp OR Vibration High,Lube oil press Low, Electrical
switchgear faults.
27. What are the trip commands for a pump?

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Typical Trip interlocks for Pumps are: Bearing Temp OR Vibration High,Lube oil press Low, Suction
valve Closed , Electrical switchgear faults.
28. Explain the balance drum of a BFP?
Normally the differential pressure between discharge and suction sides of Boiler Feed Pumps are quite
high. Due to this, the rotor section experiences very high trust in one direction. The movement of
rotor (Axial shift), if it exceeds manufacturer's tolerances, will result in rubbing of mechanical seals
and damage the same. A Balance Drum is created by interconnecting suction and discharge sides
suitably and the wear out of seals can eb inferred by measuring Balance drum pressure.
29. Explain the procedure of alignment of a rotating equipment? What is reverse and soft
foot alignment?
Two rotating shaft shall be aligned such that the shear forces and bending moments at the
coupling are zero.
Final alignment of rotors are obtained by adjusting the bearings ( for turbine rotors) and by
adjusting the motor for Pumps, fans, etc to give parallelism and concentricity at each pair of
couplings.
The alignment is carried out by measuring the face gaps and periphery errors between couplings.
Gap measurements, using suitable gauges, are taken at the top, bottom and two side positions and
a repeat set taken with both shafts rotated through 180 deg. The average of the two sets indicates
the true parallelism of the coupling faces, eliminating any errors due to out of truth between
couplings and shaft.
Concentricity is checked by measuring between the peripheries of the two couplings, using either
dial indicators or feeler gauges, to a finger attached to one of the coupling. To eliminate coupling
errors, both shafts are turned together and readings taken at the top, bottom and two side
positions.
Calculations using ratios and similar triangles, taking account of shaft length, distance between
bearings and coupling diameter, determine the adjustment required at the bearings to obtain shaft
alignment.
With solidly coupled shafts, it is usual to work to very close tolerances of the order of plus/minus
0.025 mm.
30. What is mechanical seal?
For any pump, there will be glands between the rotot and the body at the end before bearing. This is to
avoid leak along the shaft. In a high pressure pumps, instead of asbestos gland ropes, a self
lubricating material made of carbon and iron will be used. This is called Mechanical seal.
31. What is the Gasket of valves? Name the type of bonnet gaskets and gland gaskets for
valves?
The soft material used between the body and the bonnet of a valve is called gaskets.
Asbestos reinforced Paper, rubber, metallic gaskets (Spiraket gaskets), etc.
32. How to categorize the type of boilers?
a) According to the use Utility Boiler, Processing type Boiler.
b) According to the tube content - Fire tube , Water tube Boilers.
c) According to the furnace position Externally fired &
Internally fired boiler.
d) According to the circulation - Natural & Forced circulation.

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e) According to furnace pressure Balanced draft & pressurized
33. What are the Secondary Air Dampers and how they differ between wall fired and
corner fired boilers?
The damper controlling the combustion air to fuel at the burner is known as Secondary air. The air
which is used to transport fuel to the burner is Primary air. Normally secondary air will be admitted
very close to the fuel. In a wall fired boiler the secondary air will be spinned around the fuel spary. If
the secondary air axial velocity component is greater than flame probagation velocity, then the flame
will become unstable. Hence the excess air will be supplied at the outer circle. This air is known as
Teritery air. In a corner fired boiler, the secondary air is known as Fuel air, the damper is called FAD.
The air will be admitted axially at the bottom and top of the fuel nozzle and will rotate at the
pheriperal of the fire ball. The excess air will be admitted at he next level of each FAD outlet and
called Auxiliary air and damper is called AAD.
34. How to operate the SADs in a wall fired and corner fired boiler?
SADs will be opened fully in wall fired boiler. The air flow to each burner in service will be always
equal. Hence unbalanced loading of fuel between mills shall be avoided except starting. In a corner
firing, the fuel air damper will be function of mill load. The AAd will maintain the Wind-box/furnace
differential pressure constant at 40 mm WCL before any mill is in service and at 180 mmWCL after
any mill is taken to service.
35. Can it be possible to open the inlet vane of an IDF during trial run and why?
It may not be possible. The fan may be over loaded. A fan handle volume. When the inlet vane is fully
open, the volume of gas/air will be the maximum. ID Fan handles flue gas at 120 to 140 Deg.C. The
density of gas will be less compared to air. ( Air density - 1.29 Kg/M3 at 15 Deg.C) . The load of
motor is proportion to mass of the gas. Hence the motor may over loaded. Care shall be taken during
trial run of ID Fan. The inlet vane shall be opened to the rated current.
36. What are the chemical cleanings for a boiler and end point for them?
Alkali boil out - It uses Alkali such as NAOH, CACO3, etc. The purpose is to remove grease in the
tubes. The boiler will be pressurized to 20 Kg/cm2 and kept for 24 to 48 hours. Blow-down will be
opened for 1 min for every 1 hour. End point is no traces of grease in the effluent.
Acid Cleaning It uses diluted Sulphuric acid. The purpose is to remove loose mill scales in the
boiler tubes. The end point is the saturation of iron in the mixture or 2 hours, which one is early.
Sometime acid cleaning at very mild concentration will be applied for old boiler to remove any
scaling in the water wall tubes.
Passivation The reaction of acid shall be cleared after acid cleaning. For this purpose, the mixture
Ammonia phosphate at 200 ppm and Hydrazine at 200 ppm will be left to evaporate at 20 Kg/cm2 for
24 hours.
The effectiveness will be confirmed by the colour on the coating tube inside.
All chemical cleaning are applied for water wall tubes. SH shall be protected during Acid cleaning.
37. What is the procedure for Alkali-boilout, Acid cleaning, passivation, etc.?
As above
38. What is steam blowing? Why it is necessary? How many type of steam blowing are in
the practice? What is deciding factor for the completion of steam blowing and who shall
decide the completion?
A process undertaken during initial plant installation, to remove any mill scale in SH tubes and pipes
by blowing steam and venting out the same is known as steam blowing. Continuous and Puff Steam
blow methods are used. In continuous method the boiler shall be prepared for full load and the steam
at full load flow, pressure and temperature shall be blown for some hours. In Puffing method, pressure
in the boiler will be raised to 250 Deg.C, at around 40 bar, and the stop valve in the temporary pipe is
opened quickly. This will create a sudden change in velocity in the pipe. It is claimed that this the best

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economical method. A target steel plate is put at the end of the pipeline sections and the same is
observed for the indentations after the steam blow to establish the cleanliness of the steam pipes.
Since the steam admitted to turbine should not contain any contaminant (damages the turbine
internals), the Turbine commissioning in-charge will give clearance for the completion of satisfactory
steam blowing operation.
39. What is safety valve and Relief valve?
A valve provided on any pressure vessel which will open to release the pressurizing media when
the pressure exceeds the set value.
Safety valve will open at a preset value and seat again at a fixed reset pressure.
Relief valve also will open at set value and sit when the pressure is less than set value.
40. How many safety valves shall be provided for a boiler and where?
The following are the main safety valves typically in a boiler :
Boiler drum (L) - 2 nos
Boiler drum (R) - 1 no
Super heater outlet (R) - 1 no
Reheater Inlet (L) - 1 no
Reheater Outlet (R) - 2 nos
Reheater Outlet (L) - 1 no
Super heater Outlet (L) - 2 nos
41. How to set a safety valve? What is Lift and Blow down? How to adjust them?
Raise boiler steam pressure. Near set pressure, lift the stem manually by using rope on the hand pop
level. Increase pressure and confirm that the valve is opening at the required set value. Start from the
highest set pressure valve. Jack close the low set pressure valves.
Confirm blow down. It shall be between 2 to 5%.
Lift : The amount of raise of stem while lifting is called lift.
Blow down : The difference between set pressure & reseat pressure
Expressed in percentage of set pressure.
Adjustment :
Lower ring adj :- To set a clear popping, to close slowly. (To avoid
Simmering & chattering ).
To reduce simmer, move the lower ring upward
ie. Anticlockwise direction.
1 notch = 42.2ksc.
Upper ring adj. :- To adjust blow down .
To reduce blow down, move the upper ring upward,
ie., turn anticlockwise.
To increase blow down , move the ring downward.
42. What is electrical relief valve and how to set up?
Electrical relief valve is used in M.S line to relieve the excess pressure,
thereby reduce the frequency of lifting the M.S line S.H safety valve.
The ERV is set for lifting electrically (by solenoid ) to operate below
the set pressure of super heater safety valve.
43. What is the boiler expansion? How much will be the expansion of a boiler at burner
level?
Boilers will expand when subject to heating. To allow the expansion, they will be either supported
from top by hanging or from bottom.
As a thumb rule, for every 100 Deg.C. per meter, the expansion from fixed support, will be 1.5
mm.

A 800 T/H capacity boiler, will expand to a maximum at the end will be 150 mm.
44. How many place the expansion will be checked?
Drum, in the furnace at least 3 places, burner area and at the end.
45. What is the function of Bucks- stay in a boiler?
The furnace will expand in all the 3 axis. To keep the shape it will be fixed at the middle of each
side by a strong beams and moving connections will be provided at the corners. This frame or
structure is called Bucks-stay.
46. What is steam separators and how many types will be there in a drum?
The steam from the raiser tubes will be mixture of steam and water particles. This is known as
wet steam. Steam shall be separated from water particles. The devices used are called steam
separators.
This functions are done in the drum. The steam from raisers ate taken back to drum and there it is
made to pass through the separators.
Centrifugal type of buckets of many in number will be provided. This is Primary separators. The
steam will be passed through radiator kind of separators before leaving the drum at the top. This
is known as Secondary separators.
47. What is super heater and how many types are there?
Additional heat is added by increasing the steam temperature through bundle of tubes.
These are Super heaters.
There are two kind of super heaters used in a boiler. Convection types are placed in the second
pass and heat transfer will be from flue gas by convection.
The exit coils will be placed at the top of furnace. Heat transfer will be mainly by Radiation. This
is the Final super heaters.
When the tubes are staggered horizontally, between the two headers, they can be provided with
drains. This is known as drainable super heaters. This arrangement is practiced in oil/gas fired
boilers. In a coal fired boiler, they are placed vertically and known as Platen super heaters. The
condensate in the bottom of each coil shall be made to evaporate to allow passage for steam. This
is achieved by slow firing with vent open. The starting time will be more in this case before
closing vents.
48. What is economizer? How to protect the economizer from evaporation?
To increase the boiler efficiency, the feed water is heated further using flue gas. This section of
heat recovery coils are known as Economizers.
Main criteria are that the steaming shall be avoided for smooth flow of feed water in to drum.
Otherwise hammering will take place in the feeder tubes.
The flue gas temperature at the exit of economizers shall be maintained well above Sulphur dew
point for the fuel in use.
A feeder pipe with non return valve and an isolating valve (for maintenance) will be connected at
the bottom header of the economizer. This keep the water level in the economizer will be same as
that of drum when there is no feeding from boiler feed pump. This will avoid evaporation in the
economizer.
49. What is the need for an Airheater? How many types are there? What is cold end
corrosion? How to protect from cold end corrosion?

If the heat input from fuel is extracted as much as possible, the efficiency of the boiler will
increase. The flue gas temperature at the outlet of economizer is around 300 Deg.C. The process
media, which is less than 300 Deg.C., is air used for combustion. The heat exchanger used to
extract the heat from flue gas after economizer to air is called Air heater.
Two types are in the market. One is Tubular and the other one is Rotary air heater. Tubular air
heater is used in small boilers. Rotary air heaters are used in large size boilers above 110 MW.
The average temperature between the exist flue gas and entering air is the temperature at the exit
of air heater. This end is called cold end.
If the cold end temperature goes below sulphur dew point, suphuric acid will form on the metal.
This will cause corrosion of the metal. The metal shall be protected from this possible corrosion.
One method is using non metallic material at the cold end. Rotten iron and Ceramic are used in
rotary air heaters. Another method is to keep the cold end temperature higher than sulphur dew
point. For this purpose, the air will be pre-heated by steam before admitting to rotary air heater.
Both of them are practiced in majority cases.
50. What is SCAH? And how many types of them in the market?
As explained above the air will be pre-heated before admitting to rotary air heater using steam.
This heat exchanger is known as Steam Coil Air Heater (SCAH).
Coil type and vertical tube are the two types used in the market. Coil type is using simple
instruments and control. But efficiency is low. The Trap used at the outlet of steam can only
extract the latent heat from the steam. The steam pressure will be 10 to 14 bar. The exit
temperature will be around 200 Deg.C. In a vertical tubular type the water is maintained in the
tubes and the heat can be extracted as low as 70 to 100 Deg.C.
51. What are the pre-commissioning activities of a steam turbine?
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.

Steam blowing of pipes

Oil flushing
Vacuum test
Initial rolling
Trial rolling

52. What are the pre-commissioning activities of Generator?

a.
b.
c.
d.

Excitation
Open Circuit Test
Short Circuit Test
Synchronizing

53. How to check the Generator and Unit Transformers?

Generator is tested by the above test.
Unit Transformer
a. Oil centrifuging
b. Open Circuit Test
c. Short Circuit Test
Unit transformer is checked by back charging. However some companies will nto agree for back
charging. They are tested using Generator by slowly increasing voltage.
54. How many types of over speed trips are available for turbine and what are the setting?
Electrical Over speed protection
Mechanical Over speed protection
Trip setting for Electrical is 1.05 times the rated speed and that of Mechanical is 1.1 times the
rated speed.

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A PID speed control will be provided as over-ride to the load control. A Troop control also will be
provided with 0.25 Hz deadband. The normal troop setting will be 4 to 8% . The range will be
upto 20%.
Troop control is a proportional control. Example 4% troop will produce a 100% output with a
deviation 2 Hz. Assume a Unit is running at full load with GOV demand as 95%. The GOV
demand will be 0 at 51.9 Hz.
In addition to avoid a turbine tripping due to overspeed, Anticipatory Load Schedule logic will be
provided. In such case during a load reduction more than 25%, the electrical and thermal load
will be compared and if thermal load high after 2 sec, the GOV will be demanded to close fully
for a few second and release to the position required by the electrical load before closing.
55. What is synchronizing? How to synchronize?
Connecting an incoming power supply to the grid or existing system is Synchronizing.
Frequency, phase angle and magnitude of voltage shall be same for both incoming and running
power supply. Normally an indicating instrument will be provided to compare them. When they
are satisfied the meter will be at 12 Oclock position. The breaker shall be closed at this
condition.
56. What is the function of AVR and AQR? How to maintain the export power factor?
AVR To maintain the terminal voltage of a Generator
AQR To maintain the Power Factor
Using Unit Transformer tap change in conjunction with AQR, the power factor of the export
power factor can be maintained.
57. What is the function of Exciter and how many types of exciters are there?
Exciter is the device which is providing the supply to provide field current of a generator.
Mechanical with a normal DC generator
Static Exciter Provide necessary supply from the AC supply by rectifying by using Thyristors.
58. What is baring gear?
Normally, the TG rotor is a heavy mass and rests on the bearings, when no steam is admitted to
Turbine. In order to prevent metal to metal contact/erosion during initial steam admission, the rotor
mass is lifted (Jacked up) slightly away from bearing metal thru thin film of high pressure Oil.Baring
Gear is the motive force to Rotate the TG rotor in slow speed. This is needed to faciliate easy rotation
of TG on steam admission. The TG rotor is also put on barring on Turbine stop to assist in uniform
cooling of rotor mass until the turbine metal reaches the room temperature.
59. What is Jacking oil pump?
A separate high pressure oil pumping system is designed to facilitate Baring operation and the Pump
is known as Jacking oil pump. This pump is switched on both at the the beginning of Baring
operation.
60. What is UPS and what is its function and what are their components?
UPS is Un-interruptable Power Supply System. The main componenets are Charger, Inverter and
Battery bank. Normally,these are used to provide power supply for limited period to Control and
Instrumentation systems during Main AC power failure.
61. How to test and maintain Battery?
By periodically measuring End cell voltage and the density of Acid to be within limits. Acid Topping
up is needed if density goes low.Nowadays, Maintenance free batteries are available, whose life is 10-15 years.

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62. What is the function of Circuit Breakers and what are the types and their applications?
A device used to close/Open a electrical equipment to the power supply is called
Circuit Breaker.
They are named by the cooling or arc quenching media used in the device. When an equipment is
disconnected from a power supply, the potential strength will be more. This will produce heat in
between the surfaces and cause the media to ionize. This is spark. If the spark continues and it
will be called as Arc. The heat energy will damage the device.
To reduce the effect of heat generation, the area provided to the breaker will be increased. The
time to separate the equipment from power supply will be minimized by using spring. However
the arc can be controlled by cooling or using media which can withstand high potential strength.
Air, Oil and SF6 gas are some of the quenching media used in a circuit breaker. The breaker is
named based on them. They are Air Circuit Breaker (ACB), Oil Circuit Breaker (OCB) and SF6
Circuit Breaker.
63. What are the main parameters shall be controlled during start-up of turbine?
Pressure and Temperature are the steam parameters to be matched with turbine metal
temperature.
64. What is the function of dust collectors and what are the types of dust collectors are
there? What are the limits of the precipitators? What is the environment limits?
Ash and unburned carbon will leave the furnace along with flue gas. These dusts shall not be left
to chimney. To control pollution in the atmosphere, the dust shall be collected by some means
before going to chimney. The equipment serves this function is dust collectors.
Mechanical separators, Electro static precipitator and bag filters are some of the dust collectors
used commercially in boilers.
The finesse is the limit in the case of mechanical separators .
Electrical resistance is the limit for ESP
40 mg/M3 of dust burden is accepted in many countries. However dust burden specified is 20
mg/M3.
65. Explain the principle of EP and their components? What may the reason for low current
and High voltage and High current and Low voltage? How to set the operating condition
manually?
Two Electrodes at high potential difference of DC supply will be build in the flue gas path
after air heater before ID fan. The emitting electrode is a thin wire. The potential strength
around wire will ionize the gas. This is known as Corona. The ionized gas will be with
Electrons and positive ions. The collecting electrode are plates and provide large area.
The electrons are traveling from discharge electrode towards the collecting electrode at a
high velocity. ( Normally the gap is 250 mm).The flue gas consists of dust is passing through
the electrode at a low velocity of 1 m/sec or less. The dust particles are bombarded by the
electrons and attached to the dust. The dust will be now charge vely. They are attracted by
collecting electrode plates. The velocity at which the dust is moving towards collectors is
known as migration velocity.
Migrations velocity will be more than the gas velocity. This bring the dust to the collectors.
There they are attached to the plates. The efficiency of a zone of ESP will be around 90%.
Discharge electrodes, collecting electrodes, Insulators, high voltage transformer/rectifiers,
hammering systems for the electrodes and controllers are some of the main components of
an ESP.
Low current and High voltage is caused by the deposit of fine dust on discharge electrode.

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High current and low voltage is caused by deposit of coarse dust on the collecting plates.
High resistive dust will make the condition worst in this case. There will be corona near
collecting plated when high potential strength is established by the dust deposit. This
phenomenon is called Back Carona. The electrons from this corona will combine with the
positive ion from the main corona and similarly the positive ion from back corona will
combine easily with electrons from main corona. The dust will escape from ESP to chimney.
When control is on Manual, increase the current until there is spark. Leave at a level where
2 to 5 sparks/min is occurring.
66. What is the Smoke Density and what is its regulation limits and operation limits?
Flue gas consists of large quantity of CO is smoke. When light can pass through the flue gas fully,
the smoke density is 0%. When no light pass through the flue gas, smoke density is 100%.
Smoke emission of 20% in the chimney is allowed. However a good practice is to operate a boiler
within 0 to 5% smoke density in the flue gas.
Operation of a boiler at more than 40% for more than 5 min in a day is an offense and subject to
penalty by Government.
67. What is the function of Chimney and its principle?
The main function of chimney is to dispose the flue gas at a high level so as spread it to a wide area
and thereby reducing the pollution.
68. What are the chemical parameters shall be monitored at the chimney exit?
CO, CO2, SOx, NOx, dust burden & smoke density.
69. How to reduce SOx emission?
By using fuel with lower sulphur content and also by installing de-sulphurisation plants to remove
sulphur from flue gas at chimney.
70. How to control NOx emission?
Keeping the flame temperature less than 950 Deg.C will reduce the NOX emmission. The
achieve the above condition the O2 in the air can be reduced to 18% by adding flue gas from
economizer outlet in the wind-box. Alternately air can be admitted at the top of the flame.
71. What is the function of Air-ejector? How many types are there?
Normally Ejectors are used for creation of vacuum in a vessel. There are two types--Air ejectors and
Steam ejectors.
72. What is the function of condenser?
Condensers are used to remove Heat from Steam and thereby convert steam into water. Normally this
is at the steam exit of Turbine.
73. What is the function of cooling water? How many types of cooling systems are there?
A circulating water system at atmospheric temperature is used to remove exhaust medium
temperature is Cooling water system.
Condenser cooling water system and Auxiliary Cooling water system are the 2 main cooling
water systems in use in a power plant.
Condenser cooling water system is a once through system when sea water is used for cooling.
This is the most common practice in the world. However river water with cooling towers are also
used in inland plants. Natural cooling tower and forced cooling tower are two types.

12

Bearing lub oil, Turbine operating oil, lub oil, etc are cooled in a tubular heat exchangers using a
closed circuit cooling water system. This cooling water is mostly raw water used for water
treatment plant.
74. What is the condensate pump? What is the critical point of NPSH for the pump and
how to handle it?
Condensate pumps help circulate water (condensate) from Condenser thru LP heaters to De-aerator.
Net Positive Suction Head (NPSH) is the minimum Head (pressure) required at the suction of the
Pump to function properly. The NPSH can be maintained by a combination of the Pressure and the
Level at the vessel from which the pump is taking its suction from.
75. What is the function of De-aerator? What is the operating pressure?
De-aerator helps in removing dissolved O2 in the condensate thereby preventing possible corrosion
inside the pipelines. Normally it is maintained at Positive pressure sufficient to maintain NPSH for
BFP at all loads. Normally, for 210 Mw plant,the Dearator will be maintained at 1.5--3.5 bars.
76. What are the feedwater heaters in the system and what is their function?
Feedwater heaters are nothing but heat exchangers between BFP and Boiler drum. These heaters will
impart heat to feed water to prevent large temp differential between water in boiler drum and the incpminf feedwater. Large temp difference would result in water hammering. these heatersoving
efficiecy of overall thermal cycle.
77. What are the control final elements used?
Control Valves (pnuematic, Hydraulic and electric actuator), Power cylinders, Variable speed
controllers are the main final control elements used.
78. Assume that there is a load reduction in the Unit. The control system has changed to
manual. How you will control, Boiler Master, Drum Level and Steam Temperature
control?
Boiler Master
Check/adjust Boiler Master demand proportional to the steam flow.
Drum Level
Check/adjust Feed water flow nearest to the steam flow.
Steam Temperature
Check/adjust super heater inlet temp nearest to that corresponds to steam flow.
79. What is Re-heater? How to control re-heat outlet steam temperature?
In large boilers, to increase the efficiency, the steam from the HP cylinderr outlet will be taken to the
boiler again and passed through the set of heating coils and used at the MP cylinder. This heating coil
is known as re-heater.
In a wall fired boiler the flue gas from Eco-inlet will be pumped through a fan to the furnace. This is
known as gas re-circulation. This way the flue gas mass will be more than the steam flow. This will
help to increase the temperature pickup in the re-heater. In this case the re-heater pickup may be
mainly by convection.
Some times flue gas will be bypassed over the re-heater.
In a corner fired boiler, burners will be tilted up or down to control re-heat temperature. In this case
the Effective Projected Radiant Surface (EPRS) of the re-heater is changed. In this type of
arrangement, re-heater coils are in such a way that the effective heat pickup is by radiation.
Two methods are in practice: Reheat Spray control, Burner tilt/Bypass damper/Gas re-circulation
control systems.
80. How to know reverse flow in the case of GR Fan and how to handle it?

13
A reverse flow of flue gas in the GR system will produce high temperature at the outlet of GR
duct after the fan.
A shut of damper as close as possible at the inlet to furnace will stop the reverse flow. However
during operation of GR fan a positive feedback from the shaft of fan end will ensure no reverse
flow in the GR system. This is a must when hydraulic coupling or equivalent methods are used to
control the speed of the fan.
81. Whether the drum level between left and right will be same on load? If different what is
the reason?
There will some differences between Left and Right side Drum level measurements primarily due to
unbalanced evaporation between side walls. This is caused by shift in fire ball in a corner fired boiler
or unbalance firing of burners with respect to drum center. It can be to the extend of 50 mm.
82. Whether the drum level between the transmitter, direct level gauge and electronic level
monitors will be same on load? If no, what is the reason and how the level will be
indicating?
The DP transmitter measures the difference of force ( due to pressure + mass of the liquid/steam)
applied at the two ports. When used to measure level, the same shall be corrected for any change of
Density of the liquid in the legs. When drum level is measured with DP transmitter, the density of
water and steam in one port and the reference coloumn water are applied deriving from drum
pressure. This is a real time correction applied from 0 to rated pressure of the boiler. Hence the level
indicated by the transmitter will be nearer to the actual in the drum for all load.
However, direct level guages and electronic level monitors (like Hydarstep) do not provide this
correction. The water in the measuring vessel will be less thatn that of drum. Typically the
temperature of the drum will be 340 Deg.C and the level gauge will be 150 Deg.C. The density of
drum water will be 0.6 and that in the level coloumn will be arround 0.8. This is known sub- cooling.
This will cause a considerable difference in the level between the DP transmitter and the direct level
gauge. It can be 120 mm for a boiler of 180 bar drum pressure. Mounting/ insulation of measurement
legs on which these devices are mounted will have considerable bearing on measurements of Drum
level vis-a-vis actual level in the drum. The direct mounted devices will read always lower level
compared to compensated DP Transmitter measurement.
83. The distance between top and bottom tapping in a drum for level measurement using DP
transmitter is 1200mm. There are 600 mm apart from center of drum. The normal water
level will be 250mm below the center line. The span of the level indicator is plus or
minus 250 mm. What will be the calibration range of the dp transmitter?
The minus pressure from Drum minimum level to the constant column vessel middle is 4 mA.
Ie., minus 1100 mm of WCL 4 mA
The minus pressure from the drum maximum llevel to the contant column vessel middle is 20 mA.
Ie. Minus 600 mm WCL 20 mA.
84. What is soot blower? What are the types?
Soot blowers are devices used to blow steam on water walls to remove carbon deposits/soot. Two types
Rotary (Wall blowers) and Long Re-tractable (furnace walls).
85. Whether the blowing pressure will be same for all the blowers? How to set the blowing
pressure?
The blowing steam pressure for soot blowers will be different between them. The blowers for final
super heater/re-heater will be maximum. The pressure depends on the temperature in that zone.
Pressure at super heater zone will be 22 bar, convection super heater zone is 12 bar, economizer
zone is 10 bar and it is 8 bar for air heaters.

14
The soot blower steam will be taken after primary super heater before attemparator . It will be
reduced to 25 bar. Each soot blower will be provided with a valve. The lift of the valve can be
adjusted by a nut. Hence the pressure after the valve,
the blowing pressure, can be adjusted as requires. Throttling of the valves shall be avoided if
possible.
First the soot blower far away from the reducing station in super heater zone shall be selected. A
pressure gauge shall be fixed after the valve. The valve shall be left full open. Confirm the
blowing pressure. Adjust the soot blower steam header pressure to get the blowing pressure of the
soot blower.
Move upward towards reducing station and set the blowing pressure by throttling the valve. The
temporary pressure gauge shall be used for confirmation.
Re-adjust the station if it is to be increased to get the highest blowing pressure and repeat
downward and set the pressure bu adjusting the lift of the blower valve.
86. How to find out the soot blower header pressure?
As explained above during, the maximum pressure required is the header pressure.
87. What are the parameters to be monitored when they are operated manually?
SB steam pressure and steam temperature, Time cycle and sequence of blowers.
88. What will happen if a soot blower is tripped on over current during forward motion?
Normally, if the SB motor trips in the forward position of blower, the blower can get damaged due to
exposure to furnace heat. Hence, either the blower has to be withddrawn using manual operation from
local.
89. What are the reasons for high steam temperature at the primary super heater outlet?
How to handle it?
The heat transfer in this zone is purely by convection. In this the steam flow and mass flow of
flue gas shall be matched. If the flue gas mass is more than the steam flow, the steam temperature
will increase. No attemperator is possible for this section. By properly adjusting the air flow for
this low load will maintain the primary super heater steam temperature within limits. When the
Automatic combustion is tuned, the fuel/air ratio shall take this into consideration in fixing the
excess air.
Care shall be taken during Manual operation of ACC at low loads.
90. What are the type of control algorithms used?
Proportional, Integral, Derivative are the three algorithm of feed-back control..
91. Why to maintain 6 7 Kg/cm2 dp across the feed water control valve?
Normally in a boiler the spray water will be tapped of at the inlet of Feed Water Control valve. At
full load the pressure drop between the tapping point and the attemperator nozzle will be 10 bar
without any pressure drop across the FWCV. On minimum auxiliary power consumption point,
this is ideal operating condition. The boiler feed pump speed will be modulated to provide the
quantity of feed water flow to drum.
The 10 bar dp across the spray control valve is enough to provide the required spray water flow.
At 50% the dp across the spray water control valve, with same 0 dp across FWCV, will be 2.5 bar.
This dp will not be enough to provide the spray flow. More over the quantity of spray at 50% will
be maximum and that at full load will be minimum.
The required dp across TCV can be provided by maintaining a minimum dp across the FWCV.
Hence in Drum Level control loop, the feed water flow is controlled by LC and the dp across
FWCV is controlled by the BFPs speed control.

15
The steam temperature control is a case cade loop. The secondary will control after attemperaor
temperature. Assume that spray water required to reduce 1 Deg.C at full load is 1 T/H. The spray
water demand at 50% load to 1 Deg.C. will be 0.5 T/H. If the dp across the TCV is maintained
constant, a Equal % valve will provide satisfactory results in this application.
If the dp across the FWCV is controlled constant at 7 bar from 50% to 100%, the dp across TCV
will be 9.5 bar at 50% load and at 100% load it will be 17 bar. In this case an adaptive gain shall
be applied .
The dp across TCV can be maintained constant at 17 bar by setting the FWCV dp at 14.5 bar at
50% and 7 bar at 100%.
92. What is the meaning of lead/lag control with respect to Boiler Master? What is cross
limit and cross bias?
The Boiler Master Controller controls Boiler outlet Steam pressure by regulating Fuel (Coal/Oil/Gas)
and Air required for combustion. For any combustion to be effective , the volume of air required has to
be equal to atleast the Schiometric ratio. However, it is necessary to prevent Fuel rich conditions in
the bolier as it can lead to unburnt carbon and un-controlled combustion resulting in possible
explosion. Hence, the control system design shall ensure an air rich condition always. to accomplish
the same, whenever there is a demand to increase fuel, the actual airflow shall be increased first and
then fuel flow (Air leads Fuel). When the Boiler Master demands decrease in fuel flow, first fuel has
to be reduced and then air flow (Air lags Fuel). The Cross limiting circuit ensures the above to
happen--actual Airflow and Fuel flow measurement shall be used to cross limit increase/decrease (thru
Max/Min selectors) to ensure air rich condition always.
93. How to ensure air rich in the furnace?
Thru cross limit circuits (Lead-Lag) as explained above.
94. What will be operation logic for selection of transmitter when redundant transmitters
are used for control?
When both transmitters are healthy, operator can select any transmitter or average value for control
(on Auto).When one transmitter fails, the control shall changeover to the other healthy transmitter
and the alarm (failure) status to be notified to the operator. When both transmitters are faulty OR
there is a deviation between the two transmitter readings (beyond specified margin), the control loop
shall be forced to Manual and Failure to be alarmed to operator including forced manual status.
95. What will be logic when the transmitter fails?
Refer above. Force the controller to Manual mode, if there is no redundancy.
96. How to make sure the failure of transmitter?
Failure of transmitter is determined thru signal out of range (above 106% (20.96 mA) or below
-6%(3.04 mA)) detection of DCS .
97. What is Bump-less transfer and how to achieve it?
Controllers can be on Cascade/Auto/Manual Modes. Whenever the controller status is changed, the
process should not experience a variation(BUMP). In order to achieve this, the output should be held
in its last value before the change in status and the output has then to be varied as per the conrol
requirements. Different "Tracking" computations can be configured to achieve the same(PV-SV track
etc.), so that the controller does not see a deviation during Mode change.
98. What is balance-less transfer and how to achieve it?
This is experienced in a controller which is controlling more than one secondary output
simultaneously. If one of the secondary o/ps is switched to manual or fails, the remaining o/ps have to
be adjusted(balanced) automatically to attain the desired parameters. This action of automatic
balancing of the active o/ps (in a multi o/p controller) without experiencing a bump is known as

16
Balance-less transfer (achieved thru slow ramping). The combination of Auto Gain change and
Tracking techniques are used to achieve the same.
99. Under what circumstances, the boiler master output will hunt and what is the solution?
Boiler Master demand (PV:Bolier outlet pressure) will hunt when the Load demand controlled by
turbine is varying (eg: excessivegrid frequency variation). In such circumstances, it is better to switch
to "Turbine Follow Mode". Boiler controls will look at Load Variation and Turbine controls will
maintain Boiler outlet pressure.
100.When air limit fuel alarm will appear and how to handle it?
During Load demand variations, if the airflow cannot be maintained as per the fuel demand (refer
lead-lag control), the fuel flow will be limited by actual airflow--air limit fuel alarm. In such a case,
the load demand (fuel flow demand) has to be reduced OR additional air fans(FD) have to be started
to increase air flow. We should also check healthiness of Oxygen analyzer as the error in its reading
can give wrong airflow values for control.
101.How to protect the super heater from saturation steam?
By providing Temperature limiting controls to the Setpoint of the Secondary loop in a Steam
Temperature control.
102.When the gain of a control loop will need to change?
When the response of the Process is different at different conditions (eg: Oil or Coal or Gas firing,
Load increase or decrease, No of Mills in operation, no of Fans/Pumps in operation etc) the control
loop gain needs dynamic variation design.
103.What is the meaning of load test and what is the use of it in the
Control system?
Operation of a plant at various loads is known as Load tests. The parameters used in Function
generators, which are load dependent are collected after 30 min at each load. Ex. MW, Steam Flow,
Fuel flow, Air flow, O2 in flue gas, SH out temperature, Attemperator outlet temperature, Burner
tilt/Gr fan vane position, etc are the minimum to be collected. Main purpose of the test is to correct all
FX as per the present plant conditions.
104.How to confirm the performance of control system?
As a part of Performance Guarantee, C&I contractor is expected to limit the deviations in critical
parameters within limits specified (+/- % age) both for steady state and dynamic load variations (Step
and Ramp). By proper design of the control system including feedforward/feedback signals and by
correct tuning of control loops, the performance of control system is established in limiting the
deviations within limits.
105.What is furnace purge? Why 30% air flow? Why not 100% air flow?
Why 5 Min?
Furnace Purge would involve allowing some minimum quantity of air to flow thru the furnace
(without fuel) for a specified period of time to remove any unburnt fuel. This activity is done every
time boiler is started by running Air fans and Draft fans as required. It is expected that with 30%
airflow maintained for a period of 5 min, the volume of air is adequate for the furnace to be purged
completely of all the unburnt fuel that may be residual in the furnace during the previous firing
operations thereby removing possible uncontrolled ignition/explosion during next firing operation.The
Purge cycle is performed with furnace maintained under the design pressure(draft) conditions.
106.What is generator purging?
During Power generation, Generators radiate enormous heat. Hence the Generator casing needs to be
cooled. Hydrogen gas is used for fillling the Generator casing as it is most effective. However, H2 will
easily react with air (O2) unless it is >98% pure. In order to ensure that there are no entrapped air in

17
the Gen casing,the casing is first purged with Nitrogen gas as N2 is an inert gas.Subsequently, the N2
gas is displaced with H2 and purity maintained > 98%.
107.What is three element control in drum level control? Why it is
necessary?
Drum level is controlled using three measurement parameters-- Steam Flow, Water Flow and Drum
level signals. During rapid load changes, the water level in boiler drum swells or shrinks due to
change in Drum pressure. This would result in erroneous reading in actual Drum level measurements.
Hence level measurement alone will not be adequate for control purposes. In order to control level
effectively, the control loop is designed to vary the water into drum by balancing the Stem flow (boiler
OUT) and Feed water Flow(boiler IN).The controller signal is corrected thru the actual Drum Level
deviations to continuously correct the steady state level variations.
108.What is Over-firing and Under-firing? What parameter of the boiler
will be affected much? How to overcome?
When load is increased in a boiler, as a dynamic compensation, fuel fired will be more than that
required for steady state. This is called over firing. Similarly when load is decreased in a boiler
fuel fired will be less than that of steady state. This condition is under firing.
The temperature pick-up in the final super heater will vary considerably. The value of change is
proportional to the % of mismatch. The feed forward loop input shall be compensated suitably to
over come the effect of mismatch.
109.When to use derivative control? When to use dynamic compensation?
Derivative control action is designed when the process variable has a tendency to change rapidly.
Hence an enhanced and immediate control action is needed with respect to rate of change. It needs
careful application as improper tuning may result in process swinging out of control. Dynamic
compensation action is designed to aid the control action, by the influence of other parameters (not
controller PV), which may recognise the anticipated variation of controlled PV.The controller
response needed may required to be varied under different conditions and hence typically Feedforward
control concepts are used for dynamic compensation.
110.How to over come the non-linear characteristic of a controls final
element?
If the characteristics of process variations are linear w.r.t valve opening, but the control valve
characteristics are non-linear, a suitable characterisation curve can be designed at the ouput of
controller to overcome the non-linearity.
111. How to compensate the gain for multiple drives for a single process
value?
When as single controller is designed to control multiple control elements in parallel, depending on
the number of the control elements in operation, the controller demand (common) has to be varied for
the same process deviation. This is achieved by dynamically varying the Controller Gain depending
on the number of ouputs active at any given point of time (Dynamic Gain changer).
112.What is the meaning of MOCS (Multiple Output Control System) and
where it shall be applied?
The control system which control single PV using a process PID controller as Master and an auxiliary
Integral controller as slave is called MOCS.When the PV is controlled by more than 1 final element,
using MOCS will provide automatic gain modification for number of A/M stations on Auto. Also
provide facility to use Feed Forward loop for such loop. One example is the Furnace Pressure control
using 2 x 60% ID Fans. The FF will be from the FD Fan inlet vane demand.
113.What is Boiler Follow mode?
The Power generation (Load), in a power plant can be changed by modulating governer valve. This
will cause a change in steam flow in turn a change in steam pressure.The Boiler Master will change

18
the fuel demand from the SF as FF and by deviation in pressure as feed back.
This Process where in the Boiler Pressure Control "Follows" Turbine Load controller is known as the
"Boiler Follow" mode of operation. During Bolier Follow mode, Boiler Master will be on Auto
(controlling pressure) and Turbine Master will be on Manual or local Auto (controlling MW).
114.What is Turbine Follow mode?
The Power generation (Load), in a power plant can be changed by changing the fuel/air demand
manually. In this condition the Turbine Master will control the steam pressure.
This Process where in the TG Master "Follows" Boiler is known as the "Turbine Follow" mode of
operation. During Turbine Follow Mode, The Boiler Master will be on Manual and Turbine control
will be on Auto (controlling throttle steam pressure)
115.What is Co-ordinate control mode?
In order to get the Optimum response of both Boiler Follow and Turbine Follow mode, as higher level
control function called Co-ordinated Master Control is designed.In this configuration, CMC will be
the main Load demand controller and will parallely sending demand for fuel from MWD as a feed
forward signal to Boiler Master and the MWD to the Turbine Master in a Co-ordinate manner. This
helps Bolier controls to take corrective measures, even before the PV is changed and at the same time
Turbine control to quickly respond to load variations utilising the stored enery in the bolier. This
mode is called as MW Control or Co-ordinated Boiler Follow Mode by Venders. Sometimes it is
necessary to operate plant in Co-ordinated Turbine Follow Mode ( BM - control MW and TM - control
steam pressure). This mode helps to over come the large time lag in boiler.
116.What is Load Block?
During CMC mode the demand is applied parallel to BM and TM. The response of boiler will be slow
when compared to turbine. This will create deviation in boiler loops, such as Fuel flow controller, Air
flow controller, Steam temperature controller, Drum level controller, etc. It is not advisable to
continue load change with a high deviation. The cahnge in load demand will be blocked until the
deviation become less.Load block will be applied for Load Increase and Load Decrease. Alarm will be
initiated to alert the operator.
117.What is Rundown?
During load ramping, the auxiliaries may not be able to meet the required load due to change in boiler
conditions, aging of auxiliaries, etc. It is practiced to reduce the load and CMC demand slowly to a
safe limit. This is known as Rundown.
118.What is Runback?
In a large units, the auxiliaries will be split to two of 2 x 60% capacity. This will help to produce
atleast 50% load during any such auxiliary. Loss FDF/IDF will reduce air supply. Loss of BFP will
reduce feed water supply. Loss of Mill will reduce fuel supply. When a loss of auxiliary is sensed the
load shall be reduced to below 50% as quickly as possible. Loss of Fan needs 100%/min rate. This
control is initiated logically.This is called Runback. Runback for FDF can be achieved successfully for
almost all the boilers. However the unit can survive for loss of BFP only in the case of assisted
circulation boilers. Loss of coal Mill will transfer the coal flow control to Manual.The unit will go to
Turbine follow Mode for Runback.
119.What is Constant Pressure mode and Sliding Pressure mode?
Large units will be operated at reduced steam pressure at loads less than 60% from 25%. The pressure
will be maintained constant at rated value from 60 to 100% load. Typically for a 550 MW Unit,
pressure will be 120 bar at 25% load and increased proportionally to 160 bar upto 60% load. This
mode of unit operation is known as Sliding/Variable pressure mode. The governer valve will reamin at
a fixed value except for any emergency. From 60% to 100% the pressure will be maintained constant
at 160 bar by modulating the governer valve, it is called constant pressure mode.In sliding pressure
mode an appreciable amount energy is saved in the BFP.
120.What are the characters of Control valve and give example of their
application?

19

The typical flow characteristics of a control valve are Linear, Equal percentage, Quick opening type.
The characteristic of valve depends of loop sense, differential pressure across the control valve etc.
Fuel oil flow control - Controller is Linear characteristic. Error at various valve opening, from 0 to
100%, demands same flow change.The DP across the control valve is high at loa loads and decrease
with respect to load. Hence the CV at low loads shall be small compared to at high loads. A Equal
percentage valve will provide such CV.
Fuel Oil Temperature Control - Controller is non linear characteristic. Error is temperature. Same
error at small valve opening require less flow. At higher valve open demands large flow. The mass of
steam required for 50% fuel can only change the temperature by 50% at 100% fuel flow. DP across the
valve is constant. Hence an Equal % valve can perform better. However the valves characterics can be
matched with the process using adapting gain in DCS using valve position demand.
121.What are the fail-safe conditions of control valves, give typical
example?
Fail safe conditions of Control valves are Fail-Open and Fail-Close (Depending on the end position
reached by control valve on loss of control signal/air supply).Normally Fail open valves are used in
Emergency applications like Recirculation line or Bypass lines (HP bypass, Heater bypass etc). Valves
used for fuel flow are fail close type.
122.What are the types of Instrument air compressors? What is loading
and unloading?
Reciprocating and centrifugal type. Loading - Compressor running with suction valve open.
Unloading - Compressor running with suction valve closed, ideal running
123.What are the type of pumps and give their typical example?
Positive displacement, reciprocating, centrifugal type, etc. Positive displacement type - Fuel oil
pumps, Reciprocating Type - Chemical dosing pump, Centrifugal type - Feed water pump and othe
general servcie pumps.
124.How to control process flow for centrifugal pump and positive
displacement pump?
Centrifugal pump - Modulating the discharge side valve.
Positive displacement pump - Modulating recirculation valve.
125.How to control flow of fan?
By modulating the inlet vane
126.What are the types of fan? What is difference and give examples for
their application?
Axial and Radial fan. Axial fan can provide large flow at low head. Ex. FD fan, Ignitor fan, ID Fan,
etc
Radial Fan can provide less quantity at high pressure. PA fan, Flame scanner cooling air
fan, etc.
127.How expansions are managed in the ducts?
Expansion joints (Metal, cloth,etc) with sliding supports
128.How expansions are handled in the pipes?
Bends with sliding supports. Spring loaded hangers.
129.Why insulations are used? Why to insulate the gas duct up to
chimney?

20
To protect accidental burning of human. To reduce heat losses. Ducts are insulated up to chimney,
even though there is no reason of heatloss or protection, to maintain the temperature above sulphur
dew point and thereby to reduce corrossion.
130.What are the compensations to be applied for flow measurement
using dp transmitters? Why compensation is necessary?
Pressure and Temperature compensations. The calibration data provided by the manufacturer is based
on design pressure and temperature of the flow sensor. DP is proportional to Velocity-square. Velocity
is proportioan to Volume and volume in turn inversionally proportional to density. Hence a mass flow
is determined using DP measurement it is necessary to compensate for actual mass flow.
131.What is the meaning of pressure compensation in the case of drum
level measurement using dp transmitter? What is the temperature
compensation for drum level measurement using dp transmitter?
Both are density compensations. Since the drum steam is at saturation condition, it is possible to get
density of steam and water using either pressure or temperature.
132.How to install transmitters for gas, steam and water?
Gas - Above tapping point, Steam - Preference below tapping point. Tapping shall be at the side of the
pipe. For flow condensate pot shall be used. If need to install above the tapping point, condensate loop
shall be provided. The distance shall not be more than 10 M. Water - Below tapping point.
133.How to connect the lever between a damper and the actuator for
maximum utilization of the minimum torque?
Keep the damper at the middle. The Levers in the damper and actuator shall be horizontal and
vertically in line.
134.How to take care of the differential expansion between boiler and fuel
oil pipes?
By hose connection.
135.How to connect the flexible hose for a advance/retract burner?
To avoid twist during movement in and out, oil pipe shall be below burner gun vertically in the same
line .
136.What is Eccentricity and Differential expansion of turbine? How to
handle during operation?
Eccentricity - It is defined as the out-of-centre excursion of the axis of rotation of the shaft and is
measured as the diameter of a locus traced by the centre of the shaft at the point of measurement.
The normal value is less than 30 micro meter. If high eccentricity with no associated bearing
vibrations, it is possible that the it is not genuine.
Differential
expansion - Due to high steam temperature both stator and rotor of the turbine will expand. The
difference between the two expansion is differential expansion. This shall be as minimum as possible.
Otherwise the gap between them will reduce and can cause damage to the turbine blades.
Uniform slow rise in temperature shall be maintained. Rotor will obtain the temperature quickly. But
the stator will take long time to obtain the actual steam temperature.
137.Explain on line valve testing of a turbine?
To confirm that the governor valves and stop valves will closed fully during emergency trip, they will
be tested during load operation. The load will be reduced to 70% and below. One valve at a time will
be initiated to close. Load will remain same. The othe valves will open and compensate the excess
flow.

21

138.What are the annual maintenance activities of a thermal plant?

Annual maintenance activities of a thermal plant : Over hauling of burners, drum internals, rotary equipments
Such as ID, FD, & PA Fans ,Pressure parts such as tube
Rectification works& tube thickness survey , Flue gas duct
Inspection & repair works , etc.
Over hauling of TURBINE
H/P & L/P Valves, BFPs and its feed water lines, etc.,
Replacement of insulation.
139.What are the auxiliary plants in a power plant?
DM Water Treatment Plant, Ash Handling plant, Waste Water treatment plant, Instrument air and
Service air plant, Hydrozen plant, Gas chlorination plant, Electro hypochloride plant, CW plant, etc.
140.What are the functions of DM Water plant?
Storage of raw water, filtering, an-ion and cation treatment, back wash of ion exchangers, storage of
DM water.
141.What are the materials of the various component of the boiler?
Drum, down comer and water wall tubes, economizer tube, Headers - Carbon steel
Primary and part of final super heater - Low cromium alloy steel, T11
Exit coils of final super heater - High cromium alloy steel, T22
Ducts - Mild steel
Boiler tubes - Water wall tubes Carbon steel SA210 Gr. C,
SCW - Carbon steel SA 210 Gr. C , Eco. Tube -SA210 Gr. A1.,
LTSH tubes - SA 209Gr. T1., SA 213 Gr. T11., SH tubes ---SA 213 Gr. T22., Headers alloy steel., Burners - Coal nozzle
Cast steel. , Coal tip S.S.310.
142.What is the allowable rate of increase and decrease of pressure and
load?
The main criteria is saturation temperature of water in the drum. Max 80 Deg.C/Hour for increasing
the load. 56 Deg.C/Hour for decreasing. For some boiler where the drum metal is also alloy steel with
Vanadium, the difference of metal temperature between bottom and top shall not be more than 50
Deg.C
143.What is silica purging?
When a boiler is started after shut down, the silica in drum water will be high. The allowance of silica
is matter depending on pressure. During startup, the pressure will be maintained at the allowable low
value and water wall and drum blow downs wili be operated. This process will continue at various
pressure. The aim is to run the boiler at low silica for the pressure. This operation is called Silica
Purging.
144.How to charge steam in a pipe/header?
The drains and vents shall be left open. Steam shall be admitted at low rate until continuous steam
flow is observed in the vents and drains. The steam admittance shall be increased simultaneously
closing the vents and drains.
145.In which condition, BFP can be started with discharge valve fully
open and scoop in rated position? What will be the changes in the
starting current and is the design criteria on the motor?
During Auto staring in Standby mode. Starting current will be same. The starting time willing be
more and settling current will be more and equal to the load current. The motor shall be designed to
with standing the heating during this start up on load. Thermal relay shall be set by this heaqt loss.

22

146.How to change over FOP during boiler in service?

Start the standby pump. Confirm the current of this pump. Stop the runing pump immediately.
147.What is atomizing of fuel oil? How many type of atomizing are in
practice?
Make a spray of fine particle is called Atomizing of fuel. Mechanical and Assisted atomizing. Air and
steam are the medium used for atomizing the fuel.
148.What is turn down ratio of a burner?
The ratio of full capacity to the lowest capacity of fuel that can be fired in a burney with safety and a
size than can be detected by the scanner is known as Turn Down of a burner.
149.What are the components of a Fuel Oil Burner?
Distributor, mixer and spray plate.
150.How many types of FO burners with regards to mixing of fuel and
atomizing medium are in practice? What will be relation between the
fuel Oil and Atomizing medium pressure for the different type of
mixing?
Two types. External mixing and Internal mixing. External mixing - Atomizing medium pressure will
be constant from low load to full load of the burner. Efficiency of combustion is moderate. Easy to
operate and control. Internal mixing - Atomizing medium pressure will be always 1 to 1.5 bar higher
than fuel oil. The diffential pressure shall be maintained. Combustion efficiency is good. Difficult to
operate in manual.
151.What is Multiple feedforward and in which loop it is used?
When a feed forward signal has an equation y=mx, the correction by PID shall be a multiplier. The 0
-100% shall be converted to 0 to 2. Otherwise the conventional feed forward will produce a wrong
output and the PID has to correct the output for every load. Example is Boiler Master. When steam
flow is 0 the output shall be 0. But conventional FF loop will produce an output equal to PID output.
152.How to decide the temperature of Fuel Oil heating?
Fuel oil around 15 C.S is suitable for atomizing and burning in burner. Every oil has its viscosity. A
characteristic between Temp and viscosity will be provided by the fuel oil supplier. The temperature of
oil heating is that will make oil viscosity equal to 15 C.S.
153.What type of valve characteristic is suitable for Fuel Oil Heating with
steam? How to compensate the control gain in case of Linear valve?
An Equal percentage valve is suitable for oil heating with steam control valve.
The gain shall be multiplied (measured oil flow/rated oil flow)
154.How to compensate the effect of swell and shrink in the drum during
load change?
During incrase of steam flow, the level in the drum will raise due to decrease in density. This is
known Swelling. Similarly during decrease in steam flow, the level will reduce due to increase of
density. This is Shrinking. A d/dt of steam flow with a time constant of 30 to 45 sec and gain of 0.2
will provide required compensation for the above effect.
155.What are the type of flame scanner? What type is suitable for Fuel oil,
Natural Gas, LPG and Coal?
Visual Flicker, IR, UV, etc are some of the flame scanners available in the market.
Fuel Oil - VF

23
Natural Gas - UV
Coal - VF
156.How much steam can be produced for a ton of Fuel Oil of HHV
10,000 Kcal/kg?
Around 17 T of steam can be produced for a Ton of Fuel Oil.
157.What is excess air in a boiler? Why it is necessary? How much it will
be in the case of Coal, Fuel Oil and Gas?
The air supplied above the Theoretical air required for combustion is Excess Air.
Excess Air I % = (Total air- Theoretical air)/Theoretical air.
Coal - 25 to 30%
Fuel Oil - 5 - 15%
Gas - 5 to 10%
158.How to measure excess air?
By measuring the excess Oxygen in the flue gas.
Excess air % =(O2/21) X 100
159.What is the range of correction by O2 control?
0.8 TO 1.2
160.What is combustion?
Combustion is the process of high speed oxidation. And converting the Carbon and Hydro carbon in a
fuel with ignition energy in to CO2 is called combustion. So speedy that the heat of reaction keeps the
unburned part of the fuel, keeping the Flame or burning combustion. We burn coal, wood or gasoline,
we really burn gas produced from those solid or liquid.
161.What is Flame propagation velocity?
The ignition energy from a flame will be transferred to the fuel adjacent. The energy propagation from
middle of a flame to the root of the fuel admission is the propagation velocity. This is proportional to
the volatile matter ( CH component) in the fuel. The axial component of secondary air and flame
propagation velocity shall be adjusted such that propagation shall stop around 300 mm from the root
of the burner.
162.What is the effect of modulation of air register in a wall fired
burner?
Irrespective of the position of air register, the air flow will be equally distributed between burners if all
the air registers were at the same position. Closing of AR will increase the angle of incidence. This
will increase the differential pressure between wind-box and furnace. The vertical compenent will be
more and axial component will be less. This will bring the flame towards the burner and increase the
swirrle number. Opening of AR will produce opposite effect. Flame will be longer and away from the
burner.
163.What do yellow and blue flame indicates?
Yellow flame - More carbon combustion, Blue flame - More hydro carbon ( valatile matter)
combustion
164.How are soot and smoke formed?
Soot - deposit of unburned carbon, Smoke - uncompleted combustion, more CO content
165.What is the effect of soot on the heating surface?

24
Soot will reduce the heat transfer to the flowing medium
166.Which will increase tube metal temperature, soot or scale?
Scale will increase the metal temperature
167.What are commercial fuels?
Coal, Fuel oil and Natural gas
168.What are the function of burner and furnace?
Burner is the equipment which mix air to the fuel and spray the fuel to the flame. Furnace provides
necessary volume for the fuel and air to mix and burn.
169.How are soot and smoke prevented?
Proper mixing of air. Enough air supply. Spliting the fuel to the finest level. Retaining the fuel in the
flame zone to enough period of time.
Good comnustion depends on Three Ts, Temperature, Time and Turrbulance.
170.What are the principle components of fuel used by power engineers?
Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, nitrogen, sulfer.
171.What is the average heat value of Fuel Oil and Gas?
10,000 Kcal/Kg, 10,000 Kcal/KNM3
172.What are the combustible elements in fuels?
Carbon and Hydro carbons ( CHn)
173.What element in the fuel is harmful to metal?
Sulphur
174.What are the products of the complete combustion of Carbon,
Hydrozen and Sulfur?
CO2, H2O and SO2
175.What are the products of incomplete combustion of Carbon,
and Sulfur?
CO and SO are the products of incomplete combustion.
176.What are the terminology used in firing fuels?
Atomizing, secondary air, pulverized fuel, etc. are some of the terminology used in firing fuel.
177.How does pulverized fuel burned in the furnace?
Pulverized coal is one that ground to fine powder before being fed into the furnace.
Pulverized fuel is carried by air and sprayed through burner/nozzle into furnace. The fuel is
ignited by any other flame, Igniter/oil burner in the beginning. The furnace temperature shall be
raised about 250 Deg.C before admitting Pulverized coal (PC).
The primary air, secondary air and tertiary air shall be adjusted to make the ignition at 200 to 300
mm from burner. Secondary air is spined to provide mixing and to increase the stay time of the
fuel in the flame zone.

25

178.Explain Flash point and the grades of oil?

Flash point is applicable for fuel oil. Fuel oil will easily get ignited at a higher temperature. This
condition is known as Flash Point for the fuel oil.
Diesel oil, Bunker C oil, Low sulphur High stroke oil, etc. are some grade of fuel oil fued in
boiler.
179.Is fire point important?
The temperature, at which oil start firing, is firing point. It is important to burn a fuel.
180.Why do plant operators know about pour point of their oil?
The pour point is the temperature of the fuel will start flow when it is pumped. The fuel in the
pipe shall be kept at a temperature above pour point by heat tracing provided for the pipes,
fittings and the pumps. Operator shall adjust the set point depending on the pour point of the fuel.
When fuel oil is imported from different countries, the same will vary consignment to
consignment.
181.What is leak test and how to carry out leak test?
Leak test in this question is referring to the test in BMS. Other leak test, air leak test will be
conducted for the furnace after completion of construction. The furnace will be isolated by the
dampers and a smoke bomb will be exploded inside the furnace. Check for any leakage of smoke
around furnace.
The leak test in BMS will be conducted every time before firing. The burner isolating valves and
long re-circulation valve will be closed. Fuel will be charged using a small capacity valve known
as charge valve. The charge valve will keep open for 2 min. Then it will be closed. The DP across
the Trip will be monitored after 2 min. If dp is higher than the preset value then it will be
considered Fail. Otherwise it is successful. A successful completion of leak test will
permit/initiate furnace purge.
182.What is cold junction compensation in the measurement of
temperature using thermocouple?
Thermocouple is working on the principle that the mV developed between the two junctions of
dis-similar metal is proportional to the temperature difference between te junctions. One junction
will be placed at the unknown zone and the other junction will be made in a known temperature,
normally at atmospheric temperature. The measure temperature is determined from the table for
the metals. The known temperature, which is cold junction shall be added to the measured
temperature to get the unknown temperature. This calculation is cold junction compensation with
respect to thermocouple.
183.What is compensating cable in the temperature measurement using
Thermo-couple?
Very often the cold junction will be made at the control room. The thermo-couple will be extended
using cable of same metal before connected to copper wire. This cable is known as compensating
cable.
184.What is saturated steam?
The steam in raiser and drum is a mixture of water and steam. This is saturated steam.
185.What is super heated steam and why is steam superheated?
The dry steam whose temperature is more than saturation temperature is super heated steam. By
super heating the steam more energy is added to the steam. Less mass of steam is transported
from boiler to turbine. Reduce the size of pipe and fittings.

26
186.What would be the effect of sudden rise or drop in pressure in a
header and boiler?
Sudden rise ad drop of pressure will change the temperature. This temperature difference between
inside and out side header and drum will create uneven stress and crack.
187.Compare the use of steam for power and for heating?
Super heated steam is good for power generation. Saturated steam is better for heating.
188.What are the critical temperature and pressure for steam?
600 Deg.C and 225 bar.
189.How are steam boiler rated?
Boilers are rated by Pressure, Temperature and capacity.
190.What are the effects of impure feed water in boilers?
Impure feed water leave scale in super heater tubes. Silica carried by steam will deposit on the turbine
blades.
191.What are the common impurities in Boiler feed water?
Salts of Sodium, carbon and Silica are some of the common impurities in feed water.
192.What are the chemical methods of treating the boiler feed water?
Mainly feed water is treated in water treatment plant by passing through an ion and cation
exchangers. It is tried to maintain PH of the water around 9 to 9.5
193.What are the On Line chemical dosing for a boiler? What are the
respective Effects?
Ammonia phosphate is used to reduce acidity of feed water. Hydrozen is added to remove any
dissolved oxygen.
194.What dangers may arise from oil passing in to the Boiler with feed
water?
Oil in feed water increases the risk of tube corrosion. Over heating and subsequent damage is
attributed to slugs of emulsified oil.
195.Describe an apparatus for removing air and other dissolved gases
from boiler feed water.
De-aerator
196.What is boiler preservation?
When a boiler is not in service for more than a week, the inside of the tubes will be attacked by
Oxygen in the air. Rust may form. To avoid this boiler shall be kept in suitable condition. This
process is known as preservation.
There are two types of preservation methods are in practice.
They are Wet and Dry method.
In both cases the drum and water wall tubes are protected by feed water mixed with 200 ppm of
ammonia phosphate and 200 ppm of Hydrazine.
Sometimes super heater tubes also filled with the above mixture. This is not advisable if the super
heater is not drainable.

27

In dry method, the boiler will be filled with the above mixture up to of drum. The remaining
volume and the super heater tubes are filled with Nitrogen at 0.5 kg/cm2.
197.Why should bare surfaces be insulated?
a.
b.
c.

To protect human from accidental contact with the hot boiler surface
To avoid heat loss
To maintain the metal above sulphur dew point and reduce corrosion from sulphuric acid
condensed from flue gas.

198.What are some insulating materials?

a. Glass wool
b. Asbestos
c. Calcium silicate
199.What are the types of valves used in a boiler? Give example for each
valve:
a. Gate valve
- Stop valves at the high pressure steam and water pipes
b. Parallel slide valve
- Stop valves at the high pressure steam and water pipes
c. Globe vale
- Regulating valves
d. Butter fly valve - Regulating valve
e. Multy stage valve - Pressure reducing valve
f. Ball valve
- Tight shut off valves
200.What is the meaning of Re-Heat production?
Re-heater tubes are fed from fleeding steam of HP cylinder of the turbine. During start-up for
until rolling turbine, no steam will be available for re-heater. The metal temperature shall be kept
below 540 Deg.C. A thermocouple will be inserted below re-heater coils and the furnace
temperature will be monitored and controlled by slow firing rate. If the temperature goes more
than the set value and remain for more than few minutes, Master Fuel Trip will be initiated. This
is the re-heater protection during start-up.
Some plants are provided with HP/LP by-pass system. Flow through re-heater will be established
when the pressure is more than 20 bar. No MFT is initiated as long as flow is established.
However when the turbine is tripped and the HP/LP by-pass is not open, after a few secs MFT will
be initiated as re-heater protection..
201.What is HP-LP bye pass system? What is the purpose of this system?
Steam around the turbine can be by-passes to condenser. They are actually reducing station and
de-superheating stations. The main steam is reduced to cold re-heat pressure and attemperated to
the cold re-heat temperature. This steam is fed to re-heater. The steam from hot re-heat is reduced
to LP cylinders exhaust pressure and the temperature is also reduced below 180 Deg.C and
admitted to condenser.
This system of by-passing HP cylinder and MP/LP cylinder is HP-LP by-pass system.
202.What is balance draft?
Normally for solid fuel fired boiler, two fans will be provided to handle the air and flue gas. Since
the pressure drop will be considerably high, it is economical to provide a fan, forced draft fan, to
supply combustion and primary air. A second fan at the outlet of dust collectors will be provided
to suck the flue gas from furnace.
In this case the furnace pressure will be maintained around minus 10 to minus 25 mm.
This draft system is balanced draft boiler.
203.Where to apply pressurized furnace?

28
The pressure drop in air/flue gas system will be around 600 mm at wind-box for oil/gas fired
boilers. Furnace pressure will be at 400 to 500 mm. Present technology is able to handle
pressurized furnace by proper buck-stays.
204.What are the types of pulverizers in practice?
Ball- mill
Ball tube mill
Hammer mill
Bowl mill

- Low speed heavy mill with iron balls only Indirect firing is possible
- Low speed heavy mill with iron balls. Suitable for
direct firing
- Medium speed and less weight with hammers and
beating. Direct firing
- Medium speed and less weight with hammers and
beating. Direct firing

205.What is air balance test for a pulverizer?

A coal mill normally will supply coal to 4 burners. It is necessary to set equal flow of coal to each
burner.
At the exit of classifier, provision is provided to insert orifice plates. The longest coal pipe to the
furthest burner will not have any orifice. Air will be admitted through mill during
commissioning. Pitot tube is inserted in all the 4 coal pipes. The flow is measured by monometer.
Orifices of different size will be introduced in the remaining 3 pipes. The orifice size will be
adjusted to achieve equal flow through all the 4 coal pipes. This is Air balance test for coal
pulverizer.
206.How to overcome plugging of impulse line for pressure measurement
in the case of pressurized coal pulverizer? Explain the set up? What
is the important indication for such system?
Take-off pipe for pressure measurement in a pressurized mill or furnace shall be Inch. It shall
be fixed at more than 60 deg vertically. Impulse tapping of inch shall be provided ate the sides
and at the top.
Air at a pressure of 1 to 1.2 bar will be admitted at the top impulse tapping. The measurement
impulse lines shall be taken from the sides..
This arrangement of continuous air purging shall be used to over-come plugging of impulse lines.
A confirmation of air flow shall be made by a roto meter.
207.What are the permissive for furnace purge?
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
h.
i.
j.
k.
l.

All Burner shut-off valve Closed

Trip valve Closed
Burner Header re-circulation/vent valves open
All Burner air dampers Open
IDF/FDF running
Air flow > 30 % < 40% of rated value
Master Fuel Trip (memory ) ON
No MFT condition
Drum Level is normal
Leak Test successfully completed
All Flame Scanners Healthy
No scanner sense flame

208.What is MFT? What are the trip commands of a boiler?

MFT is abbreviation of Master Fuel Trip. It is also known as Boiler Trip. All fuel supplying
Valve/equipment will close/stop during MFT. Furnace purge cycle will be armed. MFT can
be reset only after successful completion of furnace purge.

29
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.

Drum Level very low

Furnace pressure very high/very low
Air flow < 20% of rated value
Fuel pressure very low
Total Flame Failure
Partial Flame Failure
Loss of all fuel

209.What is partial loss of flame?

In a wall fired boiler when a flame scanner sense no flame, the respective burner shut-off valves
are demanded to close. If they are failed to close after 10 sec. it is announced as Partial Flame
loss.
If the number burners are less than a number which can cause unsafe condition, MFT will be
initiated. Sometimes a load factor less then 75% is also ANDed for MFT.
Conservatively some plants are initiating MFT for Partial Flame loss irrespective of any condition
of the boiler.
210.What is total flame failure? When it will be enabled?
In a wall fired boiler, after establishing any burner, if all scanner sense no flame for 2 sec, it is
announced as Total flame failure and will cause MFT.
In a corner fired boiler, if 2/4 scanners in any level of burners sense flame, then it is fire ball is
proven. If no level sense fire ball then it is announced as Total Flame failure and will cause MFT.
211.What is loss of all fuel? What is the purpose of this trip? When it will
be enabled?
If any burner shut-off valve is sensed not closed and all the burner shut-off valves are proven
closed or trip valve is closed it is known as Loss of all fuel and will initiate MFT
This is enabled as soon as any burner shut-off valve is proven not closed.
212.What is Reset wind-up? What is the best way to handle this in steam
temperature control?
In PID control, if steps are taken, the out put will go on change by Integral, as long as the
error exists. The final element will operate between 0-100%. Beyond these limits, there will
not be any change in process. The out put of any control shall be stopped beyond this limits
for immediate action when there is a change in the direction of error.
The unlimited action of PID by Integral is Rest Wind-up. Any action taken to stop this
action is Anti-reset wind-up.
In a Feedback loop, as an Anti reset wind-up, the out put will be limited to 0-100%
In a case cade loop, the Integral of Primary shall be stopped when there is no change in
process variable of secondary loop. The out put of the primaryshall be sum of the secondary
PV and the Proportional component of error of Primary loop.
The above logic for reset wind-up acts satisfactorily for Steam Temperature Control.
213.What are the types of coal feeder? How to detect the plugging of inlet
chute for Boiler Master control?
Conveyor type and rotary type are two main coal feeders used in boilers.
Conveyer type is provided with weigh bridge. The flow will be available for control.
When a rotary feeders are used the flow is calculated from revolution of the feeder. This may be a
misleading factor for some conditions. The change in Boiler Master out put more than that
required for the load will provide a good indication of plugging of coal chute.

30

214.What is the main cause for the vibration of a vertical spindle

pulverizer?
Presence of stone, iron piece and similar foreign material are the main cause for vibration
for a vertical spindle mill.
215.Which is the most suitable pulverizer for hard, more abrasive coal or
dirty Coal storage area?
Ball tube mill
216.How is air flow is measured in a small boiler? Why it is must to
Measure the air flow after Rotating air heater?
Air flow is measured at the inlet of fan. Some times the dp across tubular air heater is used for
flow calculation.
About 10% of the air will leak to flue gas in an rotary air heater. This leak is also depends on air
heater chokage, seal condition, etc. To make certain the air flow for combustion, the actual flow
after air heater shall be measured.
Aerofoil is used for the measurement.
217.What is the principle of the heat transfer to water wall, primary
super heater, platen super heater?
Water wall
Primary super heater
Platen super heater

- Radiation
- Convection
- 80% Radiation, 20% convection

218.What is air balance test in a EP? What is the purpose?

To achieve best results, the velocity of flue gas through ESP shall be as minimum as possible,
around 1 m/sec. A duct of large area is provided for ESP. Due to aero dynamic the flow will be
uniform through out ESP.
A distribution plate is provided in the inlet of the ESP. It will have uniform holes. Cold air will be
send through ESP. Velocity will be measure between electrodes. Blocking plates will be used to
close certain holes in the distribution place to get an uniform velocity across the ESP. This is air
balance test of ESP.
It is to improve the efficiency.
The following are some of the causes for poor performance of ESP:
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
h.
i.

Excess gas volume

Poor gas distribution
Tracking and air leakage
Electrode breakage
Ash resistivity
Particle size
Electrical conditions
Over-full hoppers
Defective collector plates

219.What will be the normal flame temperature for coal, oil and gas?
Coal
Oil
Gas

- 950 Deg.C
- 1050 Deg.C
- 1200 Deg.C

31
220.What is the effect of high flame temperature in the case of coal?
Ash will melt and make heavy slag on the water wall tubes. Clickers will form in the furnace and
cause trouble to bottom ash removal system
221.What will be the maximum and minimum PA velocity in a pc pipe?
Minimum velocity
Maximum velocity

- 90 m/sec
- 120 m/sec

222.What is EPRS? Why pressure increases and temperature reduces

rapidly during wall blower operation in a coal fired boiler?
Effective Projected Radiation Surface is abbreviated as EPRS.
Some area of super heater, re-heater, water wall, etc. are covered by other tubes, slag, etc. This
will cause reduction in surface area of the heat exchanger which is subjected to direct radiation
from flame. The area which is subjected to direct radiation from flame is EPRS.
When Wall blowers are in service, the slag from water wall tube will reduce and EORS of water
wall will increase. This cause more heat absorption by water wall and more steam evaporation.
This will increase steam pressure.
On the other hand, the heat transfer to super heater will reduce.
223.When does Air heater fire start?
The possibility is extremely remote on boilers operated predominantly on PF firing at
Continuous high loads. It is more likely during or after a boiler light off on fuel oil, particularly
from cold or during periods of lengthy low load operation during which PF flames are stabilized
by fuel oil.
224.What is full arc and partial arc operation?
Large size turbines will have multiple governor valves for control. Most of them are with 4 or 8
valves.
Steam flow can be controlled by throttling all valves equally or in split mode.
When the valves are operated with equal position, it is on Full Arc mode.
This mode is followed during start-up or continuous low load operation.
The Split range operation of governor valves is Partial Arc Mode.
This is mode for normal operation.
225.What is Anti-pump circuit in a latched contactor control circuit?
?????
226.What is the consideration to be applied for installation of orifice in a
pipe for flow measurement?
Straight length of pipes shall be provided at the down stream and up stream of orifice.
At least 4 times the diameter at the in let and 10 times diameter at the out let shall be available.
227.What is scan time in a DCS? How to decide the scan time?
In a DCS the input and output are monitored at intervals. The calculation is performed from the
input data and out put are send after calculations. The interval between these operations is Scan
time.
The scan time shall be less than 1/3 of the process dead time. Very fast scan will not provide any
better result. For safety system Fast scan time of 10 msec may be considered. For process
parameter a scan time 500 msec is sufficient.

32
228.What is the difference between DCS and PLC?
DCS Scan time will be above 100 msec., Consists of blocks for regulatory controls. Dedicated
Human Machine Interface
PLC - Scan time will be less than 10 msec. Consists of less variety of blocks for regulatory
control. Can be used with third party software as HMI
229.What is SER (SEM)?
A plant trip will initiate many trip signals. It is necessary to find out what is the actual cause for
the trip. All events will be kept in system memory for 5 min. When a trip occurs, the events
before 5 mins after the trip will be displayed and also printed. This feature is Sequence of Events
Recording (SER) or Sequence of Events of Monitoring (SEM).
230.How to handle instrumentation in a hazardous area?
a.
b.

Providing explosion proof instruments of various safety level for the location
Using Intricically safety system. This system reduces the energy level at the electrical contact
in the field to a very minimum value. Still provide monitoring to the control system.

231.What is the C and I equipment housing classification according to

IEC?
Ingress Protection Codes in accordance with IEC 60 529 IP XX
Digit
0
1
2
3

First Digit
Physical Protection
No Protection
Protection against back of hand
contact
Protection against finger contact

Protection
tools
Protection
wire
Protection
wire
Protection
wire
-

4
5
6

against contact with a

No Protection
Protection against solid foreign
bodies 50 mm dia
Protection against solid foreign
bodies 12.5 mm dia
Protection against solid foreign
bodies 2.5 mm dia
Protection against solid foreign
bodies 1.0 mm dia
Protection against dust

Second Digit
Water Protection
No Protection
Protection against water drops
falling vertically
Protection against water drops
falling at an angle (15 deg.)
Protection against water spray at
an angle up to 60 deg.
Protection against water spray from
all directions.
Protection against water jets

against contact with a

Dust tight

Protection against strong water jet

Protection against
immersion in water
Protection
against
immersion in water

against contact from

against contact with a

Foreign body Protection

232.Explain Gland Steam System?

Gland s are provided on HP and IP turbines to reduce escape of steam to minimum when the
turbine s are on high load and to prevent the ingress of air into the turbines during start-up or low
load operation, when the pressure is less than atmosphere.
LP turbine glands need only seal against air ingress as the cylinders run under vacuum conditions
at all loads but, whatever the application , steam-packed labyrinth-seal-type glands are invariably
employed.
The stationary part is divided into two or more sectors, each of which is spring loaded in and
annular groove.
HP and IP cylinders usually employ relatively long glands divided into sections, separated by
ports or pockets.
233.What are the kinds of oil system in use in a steam turbine?

intermittent
continuous

33

a.
b.
c.

Lub oil system

Control oil system
Power oil system

234.What are the types of Governer controls?

a.
b.
c.

Hydraulic governor
Electro-hydraulic governor
Digital Electronic hydraulic governor

235.What is the purpose of Condenser?

The condensing system is simply a heat-exchange process in which steam from LP turbine is
condensed back into water to re-use in boiler
Quantity of Heat loss is very large. It has a serious impact on the efficiency of the whole Thermal
system.
.
236.How to protect the condenser from sea water plant/cell? What are the
kinds of such treatment?
The marine growth is controlled in the condenser cooling water system by injecting Chlorine.
Gaseous Chlorine is dosed intermediately by pubs.
Hypo-Chlorine is injected continuously.
237.What are the typical trouble spots for air ingress in a condenser?
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.

Turbine to Condenser joints

Turbine expansion diaphragms
Turbine atmospheric valves
LP glands and gland housings
LP bled-steam lines and feed heaters
Condenser fittings ( Gauge glass, etc.)
Any drain line passing back to the steam spaces of condenser, erosion at pipe bends can be a
particular problem

238.What are the methods used to detect the tube leak with vacuum and
with out vacuum?
Detection methods requiring vacuum include :
a. Foam
b. Halogen gas
c. Bubbler leak
d. Indiplugs
e. Acoustic meters
f. Conductivity measurements
Those that do not require vacuum includes :
a. Fluorescein
b. Bubbler leak
c. Furmanite guns
d. Corrodograph survey
239.What are the trip interlocks for a steam turbine?
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.

Vacuum very low

Hot-well level very high
Vibration very high
Exhaust steam temperature very high
Speed very high (>1.1 times rated speed)

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f.
g.
h.

Boiler Trip
Generator trip
Steam temperature very low

240.What are the trip interlocks for Generator?

a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
h.

Turbine trip
Loss of excitation
Stator earth fault
Stator phase to phase fault
Stator interturn fault
Negative phase sequence current high
Rotor temperature very high
Loss of synchronism

241.What is the limit for pressure raising with respect to drum metal
Differential temperature? What is the normal pressure raising and
reducing rates in a boiler?
The differential temperature between top and bottom shall not be greater than 50 Deg.C.
Pressure change rate depends on saturation temperature of drum water. At low pressure the rate of
raise is very small. The minimum time required to raise from 0 to 1 bar shall be 1 hour assuming
the initial drum water is at atmospheric temperature.
Rate of increase of saturation temperature is 83 Deg.C
Rate of decrease of saturation temperature is 56 Deg.C
242.What is mean by start-up characteristic? What are the types?
The requirement of steam pressure and temperature during starting of a turbine depends on the
metal temperature. The characteristic showing speed/load vs steam pressure//Temperature is startup characteristic.
The three type of start-up in any plant are :
a.
b.
c.

Cold star
Warm start
Hot start

243.What is performance diagram of a Generator? What are the limiting

factors?
The curve between MW (Generator) vs MVAR is the basic performance cuve.
The limitations are :
a. Minimum excitation
b. Practical stability limit
c. Rated current
d. Rated MW output
e. 90 deg. Rotor angle
f. Maximum excitation
g. Minimum MW output
h. Transformer Tap limit
i. Generator transformer overfluxing lmit
244.What is Potier voltage and Potier reactance? Explain the relation
between Potier voltage and zero pf curve?
Refer to Modern Power Station Practice, Vol.G, Station Operation and Maintenance, Chapter 3,
para 5.3 (CEGB)

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245.Define Stability? What is the two kind of stability?
Stability of a generator is defined as its ability to remain in synchronism with the power system to
which it is connected.
The two regimes of stability are :
a. Steady state stability
b. Transient stability
The Steady stability of a generator defines its ability to remain in synchronism under the
conditions of steady state operation. In practice, this also includes load drift, voltage drift and
small fairly slow load changes.
Transient stability defines the ability of the generator to return to its former state of stable
operation after having been disturbed from this state due to sudden changes of loading or voltage
conditions. The type of changes included here are those due to power system faults, load swing,
sudden tripping of sections of power system network, etc.
246.What is power angle equation and power angle characteristics of a
generator?
P = VxE/Xd Sin D
P
V
E
Xd
D

- Power generated
- Terminal voltage
- Generated Emf
- Generator reactance
- Delta, Power angle (The direct angle between rotor load axis and No load axis

The characteristic between Power vs D is Power angle characteristic of a generator.

247.What is function of AVR in the control of steady state stability?
In case of a generator connected to an isolated system with no other synchronous plant present,
then the function of the ACR is solely to maintain a constant busbar voltage, as in the static
system.
When applied to a multi-generator system, then voltage regulation forms one of its functions. Its
main effect is to maintain machine rotor angle and, therefore, to assist in maintaining steady state
stability.
248.What is Synchronizing power?
When a generator suffers a transient disturbance such as load surge, the rotor oscillates about its
mean power position. The accelerating and retarding action being assisted by flow power from or
to the system. This is synchronizing power.
This is transient in action and responsible for the machine locked to the system.
249.What are types of electrical motors used in power plant?
Induction motor and DC motor are mainly used in a power plant.
250.What is asynchronous operation of a generator?
Asynchronous operation is its operation out-of-synchronism with the rotor unexcited.
251.What are the abnormal operating conditions of a generator?
Faults can occur on operational plant. It may be required to operate the plant at less flexible
operation with a non correct rated equipment. This condition of operation is abnormal operation
of the generator.

36
a.
b.
c.

Failure of generator transformer

Failure of exciter. Using separate DC supply
Modified stator with reduced conductors

252.What are the fault conditions of a generator?

a. Stator earth fault
b. Stator phase to phase fault
c. Stator interturn fault
d. Negative phase sequence current high
e. Loss of excitation
f. Pole-slipping
g. Rotor fault
253.What is cold Pull with respect to pipe support?
Steam pipes will be supported by spring loaded hangers to accommodate thermal expansion. The
hangers will support the maximum load in the vertical position.
The expansion during normal operation will be calculated. The position from which it will obtain
vertical position will be determined. The support will be fixed in the calculated position at an
angle in the cold condition. The is cold Pull.
254.How to preserve SF6 switch-gear? Is it possible to test the breaker in
the preserved condition and why?
The SF6 breakers will be filled with Nitrogen to prevent corrosion.
It is not possible to test the breaker in that condition.
The insulation (dielectric strength) of Nitrogen is much less than SF6. The gas will break down
and create earth fault.
255.What is zero check in the case of pressure and differential pressure
transmitters?
In certain plants, it is practiced to check the transmitter zero between certain period.
Pressure transmitter and DP transmitters will be isolated from process. The drain will be opened
for PTs. The equalizing valve will be opened for DPTs. The output shall be 4 mA. Otherwise the
zero will be adjusted to get 4 mA..
This is similar to one point calibration for zero. The above is known as zero check.
256.What is temperature compensation of direct drum level gauge? How
it is achieved and how to operate this provision?
The flow through the normal gauge glass is due to the condensation. This will cause an
appreciable drop in temperature in the gauge glass. The density of water in the gauge glass will
be higher than that of the water in the drum. Typically, the density of water in the drum will be
0.6 and that of gauge glass is 0.8. Since it works on monometer principle, the level in the gauge
glass will be lower than that in the drum.
This suppression of level is known as cold water suppression.
To make the levels equal, it is necessary to maintain the temperature of the gauge glass same as
drum water. The drain of the gauge glass will be connected to the down-comer. The continuous
flow through the gauge glass created by the drain will maintain temperature. This is called
temperature compensation.
More flow of drain will create a low level in the gauge glass. To avoid such condition, the flow
shall be regulated. A suitable orifice will be provided in this line. The size will be fixed during
commissioning of the boiler.

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257.What is the procedure for pre-commissioning a soot blower after

completion of erection?
Soot blower shall have a minimum slope of 5 deg. Towards the furnace, to clear the condensate
after operation. The furnace will have expansion of furnace when it is on load. The other end will
be supported from structure with slot for sliding.
The cold condition shall have slope to provide the above slop during hot condition.
258.What are the Turbo Supervisory Instruments?
The turbo supervisory Instruments are provided to monitor essential moving parts during start-up
and shut-down. The parameters are :
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.

Turbine Speed
Differential Expansion
Eccentricity
Bearing vibration
Valve positions

259.How the Speed control will work after synchronizing in a turbine

control?
Speed control will act as Droop control after synchronizing.
260.What is the allowable voltage variation for a Generator?
Plus 5% and minus 7%
261.What is HOT alignment ?
Some times the shaft will be shifted upwards by thermal expansion of the driven equipment,
when running. The shaft shall be horizontal during running. To achieve this, the shaft of the
motor and driven equipment will be miss-aligned in the cold condition.
This is hot alignment.