A real-time expert system for monitoring and diagnosing fire-tube boilers

Conference · Mon Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1990

OSTI ID:6146516

Chatterjee, J; Blazek, C F ^[1]; Schanche, G ^[2]

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1. Institute of Gas Technology, Chicago, IL (USA)
2. Army Construction Engineering Research Lab., Champaign, IL (USA)

An expert system is being developed for the United States Army Corps of Engineers, Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL) by the Institute of Gas Technology (IGT). This paper discusses the second phase of the developmental effort for the expert system, MAD, which optimizes boiler efficiency and minimizes downtime due to unexpected shutdowns and start-up failures. This expert system takes into account various boiler configurations in terms of available sensor information and adopts the most suitable approach for estimating operating efficiency. The main emphasis of this paper will however be on the diagnostic section of the expert system. This rule based diagnostic system which contains over 500 rules has been developed to identify causes of start-up failure and uncontrolled shutdowns. The paper will discuss the most frequently used knowledge engineering techniques adopted while developing the system. In this context, bottlenecks encountered during the knowledge acquisition phase will also be reviewed. Though it is recognized that the success of such techniques is probably domain dependent, the development of generic techniques for diagnosis is a distinct possibility. One such technique of using sequential indicators in a parallel manner will be discussed in detail with specific examples. 4 figs.

• Research Organization: Institute of Gas Technology, Chicago, IL (USA)
• Sponsoring Organization: IGT; Institute of Gas Technology, Chicago, IL (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6146516
• Report Number(s): CONF-9004135-2; ON: TI91008391
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS
200104* -- Fossil-Fueled Power Plants-- Components
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
990200 -- Mathematics & Computers
BOILERS
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
COMBUSTION
COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE
CONTROL EQUIPMENT
EFFICIENCY
ELECTRIC CONTROLLERS
EQUIPMENT
EXPERT SYSTEMS
FAILURES
FEEDBACK
FOSSIL-FUEL POWER PLANTS
FUELS
GAS FUELS
MONITORING
OXIDATION
POWER PLANTS
PRESSURE MEASUREMENT
REAL TIME SYSTEMS
SHUTDOWNS
START-UP
STEAM
THERMAL POWER PLANTS
THERMOCHEMICAL PROCESSES