For the last two days in a row, death has been getting a bit too close for comfort. The next series of images took place Fri around 1 o'clock and Sat around 9 o'clock. These were taken when the HRSG at SJSU ruptured anyway gaskets this is a combined cycle unit fired by an Alison 501KH gas turbine engine.

Fri 12:46
Right in the middle of lunch, I heard a loud hiss. I took a look out the control room door and the huge wall of steam and water was spraying from the Steam Drum. Pic taken after Main steam was secured.


The drum level was app. -2" on the gauge glass. This means -2 from centerline. This is a 60kpph watertube boiler. That's a lot of water. The pressure was about 100psi that's 327degF.



Note: The stairs leading to the upper cat walk. The top landing crosses right in front of the boiler door where the failure occurred. The door on the lower level and the stairway from the lower level. Hundreds of gallons of boiling water/flashing to steam rained on to them.

This let up pretty quick most of the water is below the point of the failure. The last picture is the gasket that failed.




The next couple of shots were taken today. This one after I chatted with the gasket manufacturer, inspected/cleaned sealing surfaces, refit new gaskets, and slow warmed the boiler. We started the gas turbine this morning. We let it idle while we performed post start checks. This minimum load allows the boiler to heat slowly while allowing personnel to tidy up loose ends and conduct inspection of the entire process. I was inspecting the upper cat walk just as took a step on to the stairway going down (right where the previous failure occurred) stream of water shot underneath me to the wall and instantly flashed to steam, a second later, the entire area was engulfed in steam. I was trapped between a wall of steam and the railing on the upper level. I had to climb down I-beams on the far side of the boiler to get down.




This was an incredible amount of water and steam. The failure occurred at the lowest point in the boiler, the mud drum. Again take note of the space. Notice the entry ways, the terracotta floor, and the lack of water. All of it flashed to steam. Lobster anyone?



Monday's is going to be a fun day for sure. Incident reports, will include pics gaskets, and follow up actions to include full investigation, safety retrofit, gasket and sealing surface evaluation, egress retrofit, inter-plant radio communication, procedure formation and implementation, training.

It always takes an incident to get the ball rolling. Thankfully no one got hurt. I am going to go buy a few quick picks tonight.

 

damn. that is some crazy ****. glad you and your team are OK and nobody was injured.
I wonder if there are tankless units that could serve that much hot water. probably not.

 

We generate steam because of the distance it must travel to deliver it's energy. SJSU is about 6 sq. blocks. It's much more efficient to deliver steam energy than it is to pump hot water.

 

oh man, so you work at SJSU?

 

I do. I'm the assistant chief engineer at central plant.

 

don't lie Jeff, I know you're just there for the freshmen girls volleyball team.

Wait... They do have volleyball, right? Second best spectator sport to WRC.

 

there are unspoken benefits working at a university.

 

ahh ic, cool! so im guessing by the pictures that the building is that big one near the business college with the smoke coming out all the time? sometimes more than usual.... haha

 

That's the one.