Investigation and Inference of Boiler Tube Leakages with Proposed Techniques to Arrest Inception of Leak Event

Abstract

A continuous process system such as a steam generator process has many components. The steam generator
system includes a boiler that has tubes through which water flows. Because of heat, pressure, and wear over time, the boiler
tubes eventually begin to leak, i.e., the beginning of a “leak event.” When a boiler tube(s) starts to leak, steam which flashes
over from the water escaping through the leak therein is lost to the boiler environment. In general, the amount of leaked
water/steam may be small at the inception of a tube leak event. However, unless the tube is repaired, the leak will continue to
grow, i.e., the tube leak rate increases with time until the tube eventually ruptures. Further a rupture in one tube may damage
adjacent tubes resulting in a huge overall leak. Thus, once a rupture occurs the utility operating the boiler is forced to shut
the boiler down immediately. [1]
Moreover the severe service condition in coal fired thermal power plants causes failures such as the effects of high
temperature, erosion, stress, vibration and corrosion combined resulting in failure of the boiler tubes thus it is extremely
important to determine the location & beginning of leak event to get your boiler back on line and reduce or eliminate future
forced outages.