An expedient and highly reliable method for detecting small tube leaks in chemical recovery boilers has been developed. Due to the potentially explosive nature of tube leaks, early detection is essential to protecting the safety of operation personnel and to prevent expensive damage to the boiler.The basic principle of the software leak detection system discussed in this paper, is the mass balance around the steam drum. Rule based and statistical methods detect changes in moving averages of the drum balance. For each sample period, the drum balance is compensated for changes in mass inventory in the drum. A significant difference between the moving averages is attributed to a possible leak.This method detects small leaks quickly and reliably with very high confidence utilizing instrumentation required for daily operations. It has also been tested, patented, and implemented at several sites.By combination of both the rule based and statistical methods, a detection system with high sensitivity and without false alarms is developed.
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