🔍 Key Concepts

• Boiler accumulation test purpose and what it measures • Relationship between safety valve set pressure, maximum allowable working pressure (MAWP), and normal operating pressure • Effect of increasing steaming capacity or firing rate on required safety valve capacity and settings

💭 Think About

• In an accumulation test, what are you trying to prove about the boiler pressure when the safety valves are lifting at full fire? Does pressure exceed MAWP by a permitted percentage? • If the boiler’s normal operating pressure is lowered, but the boiler can now generate more steam, does this make the original safety valve sizing and set pressures automatically correct, automatically wrong, or something that must be re‑checked? • Are the criteria for conducting an accumulation test tied to changes in operating pressure, steaming capacity, or both?

✅ Before You Answer

• Verify what an accumulation test must demonstrate about boiler pressure rise over MAWP when safety valves are fully open at maximum firing rate. • Check whether any change in maximum firing rate / steam-generating capacity requires re‑evaluation of safety valve capacity, regardless of normal operating pressure. • Confirm whether changing only normal operating pressure (not MAWP) by itself is a reason specified for repeating or redefining the accumulation test.