This paper presents new procedures and a wide spectrum of experimental results based on two-dimensional distributions
of the dynamic features of various IR signals captured through inspection ports of several process furnaces. All analyses
were made over a few seconds using the same set of 6 narrow band filters to evaluate sequences of IR thermographic
images of furnace walls, tube skins, flame and combustion products . The digital (on-line) version of this paper contains
samples of these videos. The final results provide samples of quantitative descriptions, which present a more complete,
often new, information about the symmetry and other properties of the combustion processes This was possible due to
minor modifications to the IR camera.
This paper presents the current state of our efforts to increase efficiency of petrochemical plant with using spectral-band
dynamic IR radiation thermometry. Depending on the type of investigations i.e. studying tubes' temperature, what is the
most typical and important case or studying energetic and dynamic features of the flames and flue gases, different
narrow-band optical filters and research procedures have to be applied. To perform both type of these measurements we
modernized commercial PtSi FPA camera and software to process various sequences of thermal images. Two of results
are highlighted: possibilities to increase tube' temperature measurements confident and reliability due to minimization of
errors going from mostly fluctuating reflections of surrounding heat sources and self-emissions of heating medium
between tube and camera, as well as a new diagnostic potential of the images of chosen gases features, for comparative
investigations in particular. Case histories, some challenges and limitations during elaborated method application have
also been addressed.
A few years ago we have developed a patent pending method that allows to increase the reliability of the heater's tube
temperature measurements through flames. The applications of this method showed additional potential for investigation
of heating medium, i.e. mixture of various gases and aerosols inside flames and flue gases. This paper presents the
recently developed, new version of the measuring system based on PtSi IRFPA commercial thermographic type camera.
Two additional optical (8 filter wheel) and digital interfaces have been applied. The main special feature of elaborated
techniques is the dynamic spectrally matched IR thermography, which bases on forming single images that consist of
pixels of chosen statistical value, minimum and maximum, noted during adequately long sequence of thermograms with
total independence to the moment of their capture. Sets of these data can be used either directly or as inputs to other
artificial images. In this way, additive or suppressed interferences of fluctuating character could be minimized or
exhibited, depending on the type of investigations i.e. studying tubes' temperature or energetic features of the flames and
flue gases. Some of the results emerged as very promising - in the future they may help in creating a new field of
thermal cameras application for furnaces control or steering to further enhance safety and efficiency of furnaces running.
A major concern in the petrochemical industry is both safety and efficiency of process heaters operation. As the tubes temperature and the symmetry of heating belong to the critical components, infrared imaging and measuring methods have been used worldwide for many years. Monitoring these high temperature objects has frequently been relying on highly subjective analyses, particularly due to fluctuations of flame and heating medium and/or sometimes inaccurate or not well-fit thermocouple data. Recent developments in infrared camera technology and data processing possibilities have brought significant progress for high resolution spatial and temporal analysis of infrared radiation distributions. This paper presents an innovative method which deals with the flickering and spectrally selective features of the heating mediums, analysed basing on capturing and elaboration of long sequence of images instead of the snapshot method. Thereupon, digital image processing algorithms enable automatic search of a few chosen statistic values for every pixel of the every frame, with the aim to form substitute images, which consist only from pixels of min., max, or mean values and their standard deviation distributions. By applying this new methodology, it is possible to separate extremes of fluctuating signals and, in result, to obtain deeper and more reliable knowledge about temperature distributions or about heating phenomena inside process furnaces. These data can be utilised to significantly increase heater throughput while helping to ensure safe operation of the heater. Many other applications could take advantage of presented idea, algorithm and tools.
This paper describes the methodology that aims at detecting tube temperatures and diagnosis of heating medium in presence of visible and invisible flames, by means of sequences of the narrowband images stored during steady position of the applied camera. The main special feature of elaborated techniques is the dynamic spectrally matched IR thermography, which bases on forming single images that consist of pixels of chosen statistical value, minimum and maximum, noted during adequately long sequence of thermograms with total independence to the moment of their capture. Arrays of these data can be used directly, or as inputs to other artificial images. In this way, additive or suppressed interferences of fluctuating character could be minimalized or exhibited, depending on the type of investigations. By the use of properly chosen optical filters and algorithm, the elaborated method offers a new possibilities to test temperature problems other than more reliable tube temperature measurements, as for example study of heating medium features, symmetry, etc.
The main special feature of elaborated method is that the dynamic IR thermography (DIRT) bases on forming of single image consisting of pixels of chosen minimum (IMAX) or maximum (IMAX) value, noted during adequately long sequence of thermograms with total independence to the moment of its (image's) capture. In this way, additive or suppressed interferences of fluctuating character become bypassed. Due to this method thereafter elaborated in classic way such “artificial thermogram” offers the quality impossible to achieve with a classic “one shot” method. Although preliminary, results obtained clearly show great potential of the method. and confirmed the validity in decreasing errors caused by fluctuating disturbances. In the case of process furnaces of gas-fired type and especially of coal-fired, application of presented solutions should result in significant increasing the reliability of IR thermography application. By use of properly chosen optical filters and algorithm, elaborated method offers a new potential attractive to test temperature problems other than in tubes , as for example symmetry and efficiency of the furnace heaters.
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