In-service monitoring of steam pipe systems at high temperatures

摘要

An effective in-service health monitoring system is needed for steam pipes to track through their wall the condensation of water in real-time at high temperatures. The system is required to measure the height of the condensed water inside the pipe while operating at temperatures that are as high as 250°C. The system needs to be able to make time measurements while accounting for the effects of water flow and cavitation. For this purpose, ultrasonic waves were used to perform data acquisition of reflected signals in pulse-echo and via autocorrelation the data was processed to determine the water height. Transmitting and receiving the waves is done by piezoelectric transducers. There are transducers with Curie temperatures that are significantly higher than the required for this task offering the potential to sustain the conditions of the pipe over extended operation periods. This paper reports the progress of the current feasibility study that is intended to establish the foundations for such health monitoring systems.