Draught, in chimneys, is caused by the difference between the weight of
the air outside and that inside the chimney. This difference in weight
is produced by difference in heat.
Now, heated air has a strong tendency to rise above cool air and a very
slight difference will cause an upward flow of the heated particles,
and the hotter the air, the brisker the flow.
As these particles ascend it leaves a space which the cooler air
eagerly hastens to fill; in the boiler furnace, the hot air pushing its
way up the chimney, is replaced through the grate bars with cool, fresh
air.
It is the mingling of this fresh air with the combustibles that
produces heat, and the power of the draught is absolutely necessary to
the reliable operation of the furnace.
An excess of draught can be corrected by the use of a damper or even by
the closing of the ash pit doors, but no more unhappy position for an
engineer can be imagined than a deficiency of draught.
This lack is produced by, 1st, too little area in the chimney flue; 2d,
by too low a chimney; 3d, by obstructions to the flow of the gases;
4th, by the overtopping of the chimney by adjacent buildings, hills or
tree tops. There are other causes of failure which practice develops;
hence, the draught of a new chimney is very often an uncertain thing
until every-day trial demonstrates its action.
The draught of steam boilers and other furnaces should be regulated
below the grate and not in the chimney. The ash pit door should be
capable of being closed air tight, and the damper in the chimney should
be kept wide open at all times unless it is absolutely necessary to
have the area of the chimney reduced in order to prevent the gases from
escaping too fast to make steam.
When two flues enter a larger one at right angles to it, opposite
each other, as is frequently the case where there is a large number
of boilers in a battery, and the chimney is placed near the center of
the battery, the main flue should always have a division plate in its
center between the two entering flues to give direction to the incoming
currents of gases, and prevent their “butting,” as it may be termed.
The same thing should always be done where two horizontal flues enter a
chimney at the same height at opposite sides.
In stationary boilers the chimney area should be one-fifth greater than
the combined area of all the tubes or flues.
For marine boilers the rule is to allow fourteen square inches of
chimney area for each nominal horse power.
The draught of a chimney is usually measured in inches of water. The
arrangement most commonly made use of for this purpose consists of a
U-shaped glass tube connected by rubber tubing, iron pipe, or other
arrangement, with some part of the chimney in such a way that the
draught will produce a difference of level of water in the two legs of
the bent glass tube.
The “Locomotive” suggests that _the unit for chimney construction_
should be a flue 81 feet high above the level of the grates, having
an area equal to the collective area of the tubes of all the boilers
leading to it, the boilers being of the ordinary horizontal return
tubular type, having about 1 square foot of heating surface to 45
square feet of heating surface.
Note the above conditions, and, in case of changing the above
proportions, it should be observed that the draught power of chimneys
is proportional to the square root of the height, so we may reduce
its area below the collective area of the boiler tubes _in the same
proportion that the square root of its height exceeds the square root
of 81_.
For example, suppose we have to design a chimney for ten boilers, 66
in. in diameter, each having 72 tubes, 3-1/2 in. in diameter, what
would be its proportion?
The collective area of the 720 3-1/2-in. tubes would be 6,017 square
inches, and if the chimney is to be but 81 feet high, it should have
this area, which would require a flue 6 ft. 5-1/2 in. square.
But, suppose, for some reason, it is decided to have a chimney 150 feet
in height, instead of 81 feet. The square root of 150 is 12-1/4; the
square root of 81 is 9; and we reduce the area of the chimney by the
following proportion: 12.25:9 = 6,017:4,420 square inches, which would
be the proper area, and would call for a chimney 5 ft. 6 in. square,
and similarly if any other height were decided upon.