STRUCTURING AND CLASSIFICATION OF PREVIOUS RESEARCH

IN THE PREDICTIVE MAINTENANCE OF INDUSTRIAL BOILERS

2.1. INTRODUCTION
This chapter is based specifically on the data obtained from the meticulous research and selection
of 19 papers about the maintenance and inspection of boilers made by robots since they usually
perform jobs that demand more movement in less time in large masses, apply important forces
and it is through them that we are allowed to perform the tasks that we want to be maintenance
and inspection controlled through a remote operator.
These papers are extracted from various sources of research such as electronic magazine packages
that have changed the landscape of research such as ScienceDirect, Ebsco Online, SweetWise,
Emerald, or JSTOR and also the search engines such as: Dogpile, Metasearch Search Engine,
Metacrawler or Ixquick, and also using the advanced query of information retrieval to obtain
greater quality of the relevance and specificity possible to our need of information about the
predictive maintenance of boilers, also reviewed scientific articles of proven quality, allowing to
search for scientific content by pre - print server material and web congresses such as: Google
Scholar, CiteSeer.IST, CiteSeerX (beta). Scientific Literature Digital Library and Search Engine.
So we present a selection of these resources, chosen from documentary criteria, such as the
organization, content presented, the responsible institution or organization and its acceptance by
the international scientific community with a high reputation with a public and private database
2.2. STRUCTURE AND CLASSIFICATION
2.2.1 ROBOTIC SOLUTION
 PAPER 1 - FOLDER 1
In this Paper we report that the power plants have a maintenance based on cleaning and periodic
inspection of the boiler chambers since in the continuous combustion process, the pipes are
covered with layers of waste, for which it is necessary employ scaffolding and this is a process
that takes a long time, for which the company Alsthom in collaboration with Waterjet is
developing an automatic tracker that performs this maintenance, showing promising results by
performing the task in a few hours as it is able to crawl on the wall of the camera and at the same
time send data to the operator that controls from the floor of the boiler to the system.
The biggest benefit of this robot is the time saving and improvement of EHS (environment, health
and safety), in addition to the integrated ultrasound technology allows a reliable measurement of
wall thickness, the first test was performed in the laboratory, but the validation of the reliability
will be carried out in real conditions to demonstrate the performance of the robot in the process
of cleaning and automated inspection.
 PAPER 2 - FOLDER 1
We propose a robot with a compact design capable of cleaning ash, slag purge, thickness
measurement and marking of symbols for the maintenance of the water cooling pipes of the boiler
in a work cycle.
In this paper we describe the structure, method of operation, devices, self-protection mechanisms
and the control system that is offered in the design idea.
We know that the boiler in operation generates amounts of ash in the pipes and that some
inorganic salts become slag and some of the segments of the pipes become corrosion and erosion,
these factors cause serious damage to the boilers and even disastrous accidents; for this through
experiments it was demonstrated that the multitasking robot can autonomously perform a
complete maintenance of boilers developing a process cycle.
 PAPER 3 - FOLDER 1
We see that the main reason for the forced interruptions in the fossil power plants is the failure in
the boiler tubes, causing two main defects: the external reduction of the thickness of the wall due
to abrasion and corrosion, and internal cracks or holes due to erosion, for which mobile robot
systems were developed with two types of EMAT sensors for the automatic diagnosis of boiler
tubes in fossil power plants for which three types of functions were designated for these purposes,
which are: 1) the linear displacement 2) direction and transverse displacement to move to the next
tube and 3) travel along the convex and concave surface of the tubes and 4) contacting and
separating EMAT towards the target; and large pipes which had the function of detecting cracks
and holes in the walls of the pipes in which the gas or liquid flows.
Obtaining in the field tests that the boiler tube inspection robot was able to detect an external
reduction of 1mm and the large pipe inspection robot could detect holes of around 2mm in
diameter.
2.2.2 FAILURES IN INDUSTRIAL BOILERS
 PAPER 3 - FOLDER 2
This paper shows us the maintenance of a boiler to address possible causes of the breakdown of
it and the possible impacts that this breakdown could generate in the system, it should be
mentioned that maintenance is a set of organized activities that are carried out to maintain a article
in its best operating condition with the minimum cost acquired, therefore it is a combination of
financial and engineering practices that are coupled so that during the life cycle of a device can
be restored, configure commission, parameterize, diagnose, repair , manage assets and audit.
Taking into account the design of a thermal power plant, the boiler is the second largest element
after the chimney, as well as being a closed vessel.
- The boilers can be classified as follows:

1. On the basis of boiler shaft:

(i)Horizontal (ii) Vertical (iii) Inclined
2. On the basis of the passage through boiler tubes:
(i)Water pipe boiler (ii) Water pipe boiler
3. On the basis of the manufacturing method:
(i)Packaged boilers (ii) Boilers assembled in the store
4. Based on the nature of the fuel source used:
(i) Gas boilers (ii) Oil boilers (iii) Solid fuel boilers
5. Based on the working pressure of:
(i) Low pressure boilers (ii) High pressure boilers
6. On the basis of the circulation method:
(i) Natural circulation (ii) Forced circulation
With its accessories:
 Safety valves
 Water level indicators
 Manometer
 Fuse socket
 Stop valve
 Feed retention valve
 Blow-off Cock
 Man hole
 Air preheater
 Economizer
 Superheater
 Feed pump
In this paper we are also shown the different approaches to the main boiler faults which may have
originated in the boiler material, steam condition related to its temperature and pressure, to see
that the decision is also taken into account of replacement of boiler since its useful life is of 15 to
20 years before having to perform the studies of operating conditions and review of service history
2.2.3 ADVANCED MONITOR TECHNIQUES
 PAPER 4 - FOLDER 1
This Paper is a key diagnostic tool for boiler combustion safety, The Acoustics Pyrometry, which
has two key techniques, the measurement of the wavelength TOF of the sound wave and the
reconstruction algorithm of the two-dimensional temperature field , making correct use of the
cross-correlation analysis and the serial expansion method.
Acoustic Pyrometry has the benefit of non-intrusive, accurate, detailed, continuous and real-time
monitoring, replacing traditional methods and being applied to engineering step by step; A
pyrometer is basically composed of an acoustic transistor and a receiver which detects the pulse
emitted by the sound of the transistor.
It has as an application the diagnosis of the safety of the combustion since it can detect many
types of abnormal combustion, ensures a good operation and reduces the emission of polluting
gases besides that it can expand the useful life of the units of the boiler
 PAPER 5 - FOLDER 1
Through a resilient monitoring system which is decentralized, autonomous and resistant to
monitor plant conditions whether normal or anomalous, this measure of resistance is quantified
based on the divergence of Kullback - Leibller and shown to be sufficiently high in all the
scenarios considered.
This system is carried out in a modeling environment to obtain a suitable design to have a
monitored plant and thus have a process variable.
This system consists of sensors which are restructured when they are under attack either by
reassigning some sensors or by deducting the measurements of others, or both for the best
condition of the plant, however, we assume that the attack could force a sensor to project data
confusing, that is, data that are not statistically related to the process variable, and characterizing
the level of discrepancy through a scalar parameter called data quality.
 PAPER 6 - FOLDER 1
Ultra-supercritical coal power plants are the main power generating power in the present and the
near future in China. The surface of heating to high temperature of the ultra-supercritical unit
always works in extremely hard environments, so that often happen accidents by over temperature
and explosive tubes, before this has developed a set of system of monitoring in line of the
temperature of the wall of the surface of heating of the ultra-supercritical boiler which helps to
comply with the safety requirements of the boilers of public services, which guarantees that the
operation of the boiler is more economical and safe.
This monitoring has as basic functions to show the structure diagram of the tube screen, monitor
the temperature of the wall in real time, consult the record of the history and show main operating
parameters, which provides us with an operative and effective guide for the operators and a useful
information of the wall temperature on the heating surface for the maintenance personnel.
2.2.4 DIAGNOSIS AND PROGNOSIS
 PAPER 1 - FOLDER 3
In this paper we will see the operation and main characteristics of a hybrid system which is a very
powerful tool since it combines expert systems with network technology, this system is trained to
provide a model under normal operation.
For this study, it was based on the plant growth factor taking into account the collection of the
key measures of the power plant.
Obtaining from this neural network a different graph between the values of the sensors produced
and the real ones, thus demonstrating its capacity to model the complex and time-dependent
behavior of the electric plant's boiler, under a furnace with variable load.

 PAPER 3 - FOLDER 2
In this document reference is made to a new semi-physical model for the degradation of boiler
heat exchangers due to erosion, this model is a combination of physical erosion models and
gamma processes, which allows reliable predictions and extrapolation to change the conditions
of operation.
This model was adjusted taking the actual data of a boiler that operated in an Australian sugar
factory, the degradation originated analytically and the heat exchanger renewal was optimized, it
is important to emphasize that due to the nature of the model it could be adapted to different load
scenarios. In addition, with this model can serve as an example to model and optimize the
maintenance of other processes.
 PAPER 4 - FOLDER 3
Taking into account that steam generators are the main equipment used to generate thermal
energy, its operation is crucial, a failure in a boiler caused by losses in the measurement of critical
variables, such as pressure and the temperature of the main steam or the level of water in the
drum, can significantly affect the process, in this study there is a sensor detection and failure
system in a boiler turbine unit of a thermal power plant in Mexico. The system is based on an
observer of the residual life, it is considered an adaptive threshold for the residual evaluation to
avoid false alarms.
The quasi LPV model adequately represents the drum pressure and electrical energy, the
performance of this method is evaluated in a practical scenario using real data from the
thermoelectric plant, the main contribution of this paper is to propose a reliable fault diagnosis
system to detect sensual faults in a wide operational range of the base process from the macro
quasi - LPV.
 PAPER 5 - FOLDER 3
Knowing that industrial boilers is a type of important equipment in industrial production, this
Paper makes us mention that taking into account the reliability of fault diagnosis, we propose a
method that combines with competitive agglomeration and diffuse association rules which has an
advantage of the hierarchical grouping and partition grouping, in addition to being applied in fault
diagnosis at the same time can do the diagnostic correction.
This method makes use of the datamining technique that can extract useful information and
knowledge that is unknown before a large number of incomplete data, with this method we will
be able to know the state of the equipment at the time of execution and discover the failure before
time, judge the causes and location of the fault, forecast the trend of it.
 PAPER 6 - FOLDER 3
In this case we will see the improvement of the sustainability performance of the heating
installations in a central boiler room through maintenance based on the condition, this study used
two methods through which the data collection was carried out which are the Thermography and
vibrational analysis to monitor the condition of the equipment. It is known that a regular
maintenance program, such as periodic maintenance is of vital importance for the proper
functioning of a plant but we can reinforce it with the maintenance of condition since the results
revealed that the maintenance program with condition monitoring and troubleshooting Probably
more sustainable than the newspaper, such a decent performance improvement implies that state
monitoring and predictive maintenance can be a successful strategy in boiler rooms for better
sustainability performance.
 PAPER 7 - FOLDER 3
In this Paper, the robust failure detection of the turbine actuators was presented, the turbine plays
an important role in the industrial boiler, and it has to diagnose faults in the units in time, to detect
faults a dynamic neural network is applied with an internal feedback.
Two failure scenarios are considered, 1) the actuators are stuck and 2) the degradation of the
actuator, for this method we used a model error modeling approach, reducing the false alarm rate
and increasing the sensitivity of the Fault diagnosis approach in its different types, are the most
important properties of this type of method.
2.2.5 MAINTENANCE APPROACHES
 PAPER 1 - FOLDER 2
In this Paper we show the methodology and application of maintenance focused on the reliability
in a precise case of a plant that provides thermal energy to the Company of Minerals and Sales of
Egypt (EMISAL), the application of the methodology showed us that the main time between faults
for plant equipment and the probability of sudden faults decrease.
This reliability-focused maintenance (RCM) is the optimal combination of reactive maintenance
practices, preventative maintenance, condition-based maintenance and proactive maintenance
along with their patterns. Also having innovative approaches that improve the effectiveness of
machines to improve productivity.
The proposed preventive maintenance (PM) planning results indicate a saving of approximately
80% of the total cost of downtime compared to current maintenance (RTF). Increasing the
responsibility of the system decreases the labor cost.
The results show that approximately 22.17% of the annual cost of spare parts is saved when the
proposed PM plans another current maintenance (RTF) once.
 PAPER 2 - FOLDER 2
In the present we will see a focus on risk-based maintenance in the high-pressure feed water of
the power plant.
We know that one of the important parts of the power plant is the high pressure water supply
system which is responsible for providing water to the boiler incessantly, taking into account the
traditional maintenance, there is a high cost due to excessive maintenance or a decrease in
reliability due to poor maintenance, in this framework risk-based maintenance (RBM) is
presented which determines the method of expression of the effect of failure and risk, and the
optimal maintenance interval of the equipment in the system by using the fault tree algorithm.
Bearing in mind that maintenance of high pressure feedwater will directly affect the reliability,
safety and economy of the entire power plant, the implementation of Risk-Based Maintenance
(RBM) will reduce the probability of an unexpected error.
The RBM can be classified into qualitative, quantitative and semi-quantitative methods, since it
shows us the optimization of the maintenance elements. In the present case, it turned out to be
viable and effective, with benefits of decreasing maintenance costs based on guaranteeing the
system's risk.