Fouling and corrosion detector for burner tips in fired equipment

• US 20070072137A1
• Filed: 09/29/2005
• Published: 03/29/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rosemount Incorporated (Emerson Electric Company)
• Original Assignee: Rosemount Incorporated (Emerson Electric Company)
• Inventors: Peluso, Marcos, Brown, Gregory, Eliason, Scott
• Granted Patent: US 8,469,700 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 431/13
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 17/00 Investigating resistance of materials to the weather, to corrosion, or to light
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 17/008 Monitoring fouling
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2291/02872 Pressure
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2291/044 Internal reflections (echoes), e.g. on walls or defects
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2291/2634 cylindrical from outside
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 29/11 by measuring attenuation of acoustic waves
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 29/12 by measuring frequency or resonance of acoustic waves measuring frequency or resonant frequency of mechanical vibrations or acoustic waves in general G01H1/06, G01H3/04, G01H13/00; acoustic resonators G10K11/04; vibration or shock testing of structures G01M7/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 29/4427 with stored values, e.g. threshold values
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 29/4481 Neural networks

Abstract

A system for predicting fouling and corrosion of a combustion system in an industrial process includes a pipe, a restrictive element, and a fouling and corrosion detector. The pipe contains a fuel. The restrictive element is coupled to the pipe and the fuel passes through the restrictive element. The fouling and corrosion detector is coupled to the pipe and is adapted to detect a characteristic signature of the restrictive element and to generate an alarm if a change in the detected signature exceeds a predetermined limit relative to a baseline signature.

Claims

1. A system for predicting fouling and corrosion of a combustion system in an industrial process comprising:

a pipe containing a fuel;

a restrictive element coupled to the pipe; and

a fouling and corrosion detector coupled to the pipe and adapted to detect a characteristic signature of the restrictive element and to generate an alarm if a change in the detected signature exceeds a predetermined limit relative to a baseline signature.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the restrictive element comprises a burner tip within a heat delivery system of the industrial process.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the characteristic signature comprises a reflected acoustic signal.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein the fouling and corrosion detector comprises:

an acoustic transducer coupled to the pipe and adapted to detect acoustic signals within the process fluid;

a memory; and

fouling and corrosion detection circuitry coupled to the pressure transducer and to the memory and adapted to compare the characteristic signature detected by the acoustic transducer against the baseline signature stored in the memory, the fouling and corrosion detection circuitry adapted to generate the alarm if a difference between the characteristic signature and the baseline signature exceed a predetermined limit.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the fouling and corrosion detector is adapted to detect changes in background noise indicative of problems within the industrial process independent of fouling or corrosion.

6. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

an acoustic transducer coupled to the pipe and adapted to generate an acoustic signal toward the restrictive element;

wherein the characteristic signature comprises a reflection of the acoustic signal from the flow restrictive element.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the fouling and corrosion detector comprises:

intelligent systems adapted to analyze the characteristic signature.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the change is indicative of fouling and/or corrosion of the flow restrictive element.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the signature comprises an optical signature.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein detector is adapted to detect the characteristic signature using wavelet technology.

11. The system of claim 4 including a memory adapted to store the baseline signature.

12. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

a local operator interface adapted to allow a user to set the predetermined limit.

13. A system for monitoring fouling and corrosion of fired equipment within an industrial process, the system comprising:

a pipe containing a fuel;

a burner tip coupled to the pipe and adapted to deliver the fuel to the fired equipment, the burner tip defining a flow restriction at one end of the pipe;

a transducer coupled to the pipe and adapted to detect an acoustic signature of the burner tip; and

circuitry adapted to process the detected acoustic signature against a stored baseline signature and to generate an alarm signal if the detected acoustic signature varies from the baseline signature by more than a predetermined amount.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the transducer comprises a pressure transducer.

15. The system of claim 13 wherein the characteristic signature comprises a detectable acoustic signal caused by the fuel flowing through the burner tip.

16. The system of claim 13 further comprising:

an acoustic transducer coupled to the pipe and adapted to direct an acoustic signal toward the burner tip;

wherein the detected acoustic signature comprises a reflection of the acoustic signal.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein the reflection varies as the burner tip becomes fouled or corroded.

18. The system of claim 13 and further comprising:

intelligent systems coupled to the circuitry and adapted to analyze the detected acoustic signature to predict fouling and/or corrosion of the burner tip.

19. The system of claim 13 further comprising:

a memory coupled to the circuitry and adapted to store the baseline acoustic signatures.

20. A system for detecting fouling and corrosion of a burner within fired equipment in an industrial process comprising:

a plurality of pipe sections, each pipe section comprising a pipe segment containing fuel and a burner tip coupled to the pipe segment;

a plurality of acoustic detectors, each acoustic detector coupled to one of the plurality of pipe sections and adapted to detect an acoustic signature of the burner tip; and

a common electronics coupled to the plurality of acoustic detectors and adapted to process the acoustic signatures detected by the plurality of acoustic detectors against stored baseline signatures specific to each of the plurality of burner tips, the common electronics adapted to predict fouling and/or corrosion of a particular burner tip based on a change in the acoustic signature of the particular burner tip as compared to its baseline signature.

21. The system of claim 20 further comprising:

a plurality of acoustic transducers, each acoustic transducer being coupled to a particular pipe segment upstream relative to the fuel flow and adapted to generate an acoustic signal toward the burner tip.

22. The system of claim 20 further comprising:

a memory coupled to the common electronics and adapted to store the baseline signature for each burner tip.

23. The system of claim 20 wherein the common electronics processes each acoustic signature using wavelet technology.