Three-drum boiler

Three-drum boilers are a class of water-tube boiler used to generate steam, typically to power ships. They are compact and of high evaporative power, factors that encourage this use. Other boiler designs may be more efficient, although bulkier, and so the three-drum pattern was rare as a land-based stationary boiler.

The fundamental characteristic of the "three-drum" design is the arrangement of a steam drum above two water drums, in a triangular layout. Water tubes fill in the two sides of this triangle between the drums, and the furnace is in the centre. The whole assembly is then enclosed in a casing, leading to the exhaust flue.

Firing can be by either coal or oil. Many coal-fired boilers used multiple firedoors and teams of stokers, often from both ends.

Development of the three-drum boiler began in the late 19th century, with the demand from naval ships that required high power and a compact boiler. The move to water-tube boilers had already begun, with designs such as the Babcock & Wilcox or the Belleville. The three-drum arrangement was lighter and more compact for the same power.

The new generation of "small-tube" water-tube boilers used water-tubes of around 2 inches (5 cm) diameter, compared to older designs of 3 or 4 inches. This gave a greater ratio of tube surface heating area to the tube volume, thus more rapid steaming. These small-tube boilers also became known as "express" boilers. Although not all of these were three-drum designs (notably the Thornycroft), most were some variation of this. As the tubes of the three-drum are close to vertical (compared to the Babcock & Wilcox), this encourages strong circulation by the thermosyphon effect, further encouraging steaming.

The development of the three-drum pattern was generally one of simplification, rather than increasing complexity or sophistication. Even the first boilers packed a large heating area into a compact volume, their difficulty was in manufacturing and particularly for their maintenance on-board ship.

The convoluted tubes of early designs such as the du Temple and Normand were the first to go. A multi-row bank of tubes could provide adequate heating area, without this complexity. Tubes also became straighter, mostly to ease their cleaning. Yarrow had demonstrated that straight tubes did not cause any problems with expansion, but circular drums and perpendicular tube entry were both valuable features for a long service life. Where tubes entered drums at an angle, heating and cooling tended to bend the tube back and forth, leading to leaks. A perpendicular entry was easier to expand the tubes for a reliable seal and to avoid these sideways stresses. It was worth the compromise of the Admiralty boiler's bent tube ends to keep these two features, and these tubes were still simple enough in shape to clean easily.

Some of the first boiler tubes, particularly the du Temple with its sharp corners, could not be cleaned of scale internally. Tubes were later cleaned internally by attempting to pass a hinged rod through, with a brush at the end. For the curved tube designs, often only part of the tube could be reached. Another method was to pass a chain down the tube from above, pulling a brush behind it, although this was unworkable for boilers like the Thornycroft where the tubes first travelled horizontally or upwards. The eventual method was to use 'bullet' brushes that were fired from one drum into the other by use of compressed air. Sets of brushes were used, one for each tube, and they were carefully numbered and counted afterwards to ensure that none had been left behind, blocking a tube.