Sheet Metal Structure of an Exhaust Gas Boiler

Abstract

Higher manufacturing and logistical costs, different geopolitical risks and new emission standards drive product development projects to discover new technologies and processes to tackle these problems. For these reasons Alfa Laval Aalborg Oy is developing Exhaust Gas Boilers that have outdated and heavy steel structure design. This thesis is done as a part of this product development project. Goal of this thesis is to construct a concept of a new state-of-the-art sheet metal wall structure for the Exhaust Gas Boiler. Firstly, information about different materials and sheet metal manufacturing processes that can be used in the concept is introduced. It also defines the different design and calculation methods used in the concepting phase. Additional goals of this thesis are also defined to generate proper design parameters. In concepting phase, three different wall structure designs are presented and the best features out of these designs are combined into one assembly that is further developed. The concepts are compared according to the different design parameters and goals that are set for the designs. Key features that were highlighted were corrugated sandwich structure, optimized roll formed sheet metal profiles and modularized construction. The final concept was constructed out of these features and then analysed as a whole boiler assembly. Structural calculations were done with FEM analysis. Linear static and linear buckling analysis were used in the process. After the analysing the final concept was compared with the current design used and the results were presented. The final concept performed well against the current design and the goals were met. The final concept was significantly lighter, and the manufacturing can be performed with autonomous solutions and with modern technologies to its advantage. With the new design boiler’s logistics can be performed with standard sea containers and the final assembly conducted without special tools. The manufacturing phase itself can be divided into different locations due to the standard parts and common manufacturing practices.