BHEL / TIRUCHY

Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited TIRUCHIRAPALLI

BHELSONIC
Steam leak detection system

Committed to making a better world

 BHELSONIC

Trigger:
Imported systems found to be costly and lacking
certain features. Hence BHEL decided to develop in-
house steam leak detection system
 Conventional Methods of steam Leak
Detection in Boilers

1. Noticing increase in makeup DM water requirement.

2. Operator’s ability to distinguish steam leak sound from
background noise.
3. Observing oxygen level hunting, furnace pressure
fluctuation, ID fan load increase etc.
4. Noticing fog fumes from chimney.

Above methods are

• Relatively insensitive
• Late in detecting the steam leak.
• Not capable of identifying the leak locations.
 Why Early Detection is essential ?

UTILITES

• To prevent expensive secondary damage and

unscheduled outage in boilers, feed water heaters,
headers, steam pipe and valves.

PAPER MILLS

• To prevent smelt water explosive reactions in recovery

boilers.

PROCESS PLANT

• To provide early warning of steam leaks in steam pipes,

valve and heat exchangers.
 TYPICAL STEAM LEAK DETECTIONS REPORTED USING
ACOUSTIC LEAK SENSING METHOD

Pressure Leak size Distance Leak location

(PSIG) between
leak &
sensors
(Feet)
2525 Small crack 24 Rear reheat pendant

3675 Pin hole 38 Floor tube

3675 2 Holes @ 3/8” d 27 Economiser

2525 3/8”x3/16” crack 45 Floor sloped tubes

2500 Many pin holes 35 Primary super heater

2525 Pin hole 23 Reheat water wall

1400 Pin hole 27 Water wall

 Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited TIRUCHIRAPALLI

Major subsystems for BHELSONIC

• Sonic Tube and sensor assembly

• Field amplifier units
• Signal processing module (one each for 3 channels)
• Alarm Processing Module
• Power Supply Unit
• Decibel Scanner, PC and software
• Audio Channel Selector, Calibrator

Committed to making a better world

 Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited TIRUCHIRAPALLI

Sonic Tube Assembly

Committed to making a better world

View of sensor
View of Field amplifier in JB
 Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited TIRUCHIRAPALLI

Panel & Accessories

Alarm
Signal Processing
Processing Module
Modules

Decibel
PC
Scanner

Redundant
Audio
PS
Channel
Selector

Committed to making a better world

 Calibrator

1.CALIBRATOR CONTAINS A POWER SUPPLY AND A SOUND

SOURCE

2.THIS IS PRE-CALIBRATED FOR A PARTICULAR dB (94 dB)

 AUDIO CHANNEL SELECTOR

BY PRESSING ‘TEST’ BUTTON IN THE AUDIO CHANNEL

SELECTOR, THE SOUND GENERATORS KEPT IN ALL SENSOR
ASSEMBLIES GET ACTIVATED AND PRODUCE SOUND ABOVE
20 dB . THIS IS PROCESSED IN THE SYSTEM AND CAN BE
SEEN IN THE MONITOR.
 BHELSONIC
Steam Leak Detector
BHELSONIC at Site
 BHELSONIC
Steam Leak Detection System- Overview
F IE L D CONTROL ROOM

P R E F A B R IC A T E D C A B L E B H E L-S T LD
S YS TEM

W ATER W ALL SENSOR

TU BES ANA LO G
M O DU LES

M O N IT O R

SEA L BO X
HEAD C P U U N IT
BA LL VA LVE
A M P L IF IE R

L IS T E N IN G T U B E

FLANG E K EY BOA RD
IN T E R C O N N E C T IN G C A B L E

P R IN T E R
TEFLO N FLAN GE

SYSTEM PANEL
 Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited TIRUCHIRAPALLI

Schematic of BHELSONIC
BAR GRAPH

MIMIC

TREND

SPECTRUM Scanner
GROUP TREND

HISTORY
MUX CARD

P
S
S
P
Signal Processors
m CONTROL ROOM
m

PRINTER

FIELD
Field Amplifiers

Sensors
Committed to making a better world
 Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited TIRUCHIRAPALLI

SENSOR CONTROL
ROOM
PC

AMPLIFIER

COMBUSTION BAND PASS

NOISE DB CONVERTER SUBTRACTOR V/I
FILTER
SUBRESSOR
4-20
BACK GROUND NOISE
mA
SUPPRESSOR
FIELD

ALARM SET

COMPARATOR

DELAY
Block diagram of BHELSONIC system
ALARM RELAY

Committed to making a better world

 Finalisation of No. of sensors

 Boiler is divided into a number of zones.

 In each zone, one sensor is installed
 Each sensor forms part of one channel
 18 channels for 210 / 250 MW &
24 channels for 500 MW (Recommended)
 Being modular in design, additional channels can also be
given
 Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited TIRUCHIRAPALLI

BHELSONIC Features

• 4-20mA Output from each channel.

• Adjustable leakage alarm level setting.
• Common alarm contact, for leakage exceeding the limit in any
channel.
• Adjustable time delay for alarm initiation (0–10 minutes).
• Alarm inhibition during soot blower operation.
• Current output, digital readout, alarm available, even if PC fails.
• Self test pushbutton.
• Facility to hear each zone’s sound in system panel (@ control
room, for cross checking).

Committed to making a better world

ADVANCED FEATURES
MMI Software facilitates viewing leak information in the following
formats in PC screen
BARGRAPH
PLANT MIMIC
TREND
GROUP TREND
HISTORY
BARGRAPH
SINGLE TREND
GROUP TREND
HISTORY TREND
REPORT GENERATION
 Bench marking
BHELSONIC vs IMPORTED SYSTEMS
FEATURES IMPORTED ASLD BHELSONIC

MAKE BHEL
Vendor 1 Vendor 2 TRICHY

DESCRIPTION SOFT WARE SOLID STATE HYBRID

BASED BASED SYSTEM

TREND, HISTORY FUNCTIONS YES NO YES

EACH CHANNEL INDEPENDENT NO YES YES

FAILURE OF ONE CHANNEL
DOESNOT AFFECT OTHER
CHANNELS

PC FAILURE DOESNOT AFFECT NO YES YES

THE SYSTEM

ON LINE TESTING OF SENSORS NO YES YES

SERVICE MODULE LEVEL MODULE LEVEL COMP. LEVEL

(EXPENSIVE) ( EXPENSIVE) ( ECONOMICAL)

TIME FOR SERVICE HIGH HIGH RELATIVELY LOW

COST OF SPARES HIGH HIGH RELATIVELY LOW

 Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited TIRUCHIRAPALLI

Tube Failures

Committed to making a better world

OUTAGES DUE TO TUBE LEAK
IN TYPICAL 500 MW UNITS
OUTAGES DUE TO TUBE LEAK
IN TYPICAL 210 MW UNITS
BHELSONIC - ROI
BENEFITS OF EARLY DETECTION OF
TUBE LEAKS

• Reduced secondary damage.

• Reduced repair cost.
• Reduced outage time.
• Avoidance of unscheduled outages.
• Increased personnel safety.
• Increased tube life.
• Increased plant availability.
• Increased operating profits.