Continuous Health Monitoring of Coal Power Plant Components using Acoustic Emission Technology

Several critical components of a coal power plant that operate at high temperature and high pressures ¿ including boilers, high pressure pipelines, waterwall tubes, and boiler support structures ¿ are very susceptible to various time-dependant failure-causing mechanisms such as high temperature tensile failures, creep and rupture failures, hydrogen embrittlement, and hot corrosion/erosion failures. The evaluation of the condition of these power plant components, and the subsequent estimation of their remaining life, could lead to an optimization of inspection and maintenance schedules, and prevent unplanned plant component shutdowns. However, current non-destructive evaluation (NDE) techniques for time-based maintenance cannot be applied while the components are in operation, because the normally-used piezoelectric transducers cannot handle the high temperature of the components. This project will develop a low cost, non-intrusive acoustic emission (AE) technique for continuous structural health monitoring of the critical components of coal power plants. The AE sensors will operate at high temperatures and will be attached permanently to the components. Data interpretation procedures for the location of defects and for failure prediction also will be developed. Performance of the technology will be demonstrated at a coal power plant in Pennsylvania. Commercial Applications and other Benefits as described by the awardee:The acoustic-emission-based continuous health monitoring technology should improve the safety and reliability of coal power plant components and provide condition-based maintenance of these components, thereby avoiding plant shutdowns and the unnecessary loss of millions of dollars.