Internally riffled boiler tubes

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Internally riffled boiler tubes are used to evaporate water into steam inside boilers of thermal power plants. Because of their internally riffled shape, they are more efficient. The boiling crisis takes place later, thus allowing for greater heat transfer between the pipe and the fluid inside the pipe. Costs of this type of tube are generally higher than plain tubes. Current research into these tubes is being conducted due to their potential to increase efficiency of power plants.

[edit] History

These tubes are sometimes called Serve tubes after the name of their French inventor ^[1]. However, Serve used them in fire-tube boilers rather than the water-tube boilers used in modern power stations.