Patent Application
20150017591
The invention relates generally to combustion systems, and more specifically to systems and methods for improved and advanced control of combustion systems.
Combustion systems within gas turbine systems, boiler systems (e.g., coal fired boiler systems), or other similar systems may include a number of sensors to measure and/or detect the various operating parameters of the combustion systems, and by extension, the operating parameters of the systems (e.g., gas turbine systems, boiler systems, and so forth) including the combustion systems. However, these sensors may be limited in detecting certain data of the combustion systems. Moreover, the data detected by more advanced sensors may require more advanced data converters and/or data processors. It may be useful to provide systems to improve data detection and control of combustion systems.
Certain embodiments commensurate in scope with the originally claimed invention are summarized below. These embodiments are not intended to limit the scope of the claimed invention, but rather these embodiments are intended only to provide a brief summary of possible forms of the invention. Indeed, the invention may encompass a variety of forms that may be similar to or different from the embodiments set forth below.
A system includes an analytics system including a processor configured to receive an indication of a detectable radiation associated with a combustion system. The detectable radiation includes multidimensional granular data associated with an operation of the combustion system. The processor is configured to determine a first value of one or more operational characteristics of the combustion system based at least in part on the indication of the detectable radiation, and to derive an output. The output includes a second value derived based on the first value of the one or more operational characteristics to adjust the first value thereto.
A non-transitory computer-readable medium having code stored thereon, the code includes instructions to receive an indication of a detectable radiation associated with a combustion system. The detectable radiation includes multidimensional granular data associated with an operation of the combustion system. The code includes instructions to determine a first value of one or more operational characteristics of the combustion system based at least in part on the indication of the detectable radiation, and to derive an output. The output includes a second value derived based on the first value of the one or more operational characteristics to adjust the first value thereto.
A system includes a plurality of sensors configured to detect electromagnetic radiation associated with a combustor of a turbine system, and a data analytics system configured to receive an indication of the electromagnetic radiation. The indication of the electromagnetic radiation includes multidimensional granular data associated with an operation of the combustor. The data analytics system is configured to determine a first value of one or more operational characteristics of the combustor based at least in part on the indication of the electromagnetic radiation, and to derive an output. The output includes a second value derived based on the first value of the one or more operational characteristics to adjust the first value thereto. The system includes a controller configured to receive the output and to generate a control command based at least in part on the output.
These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become better understood when the following detailed description is read with reference to the accompanying drawings in which like characters represent like parts throughout the drawings, wherein:
One or more specific embodiments of the invention will be described below. In an effort to provide a concise description of these embodiments, all features of an actual implementation may not be described in the specification. It should be appreciated that in the development of any such actual implementation, as in any engineering or design project, numerous implementation-specific decisions must be made to achieve the developers' specific goals, such as compliance with system-related and business-related constraints, which may vary from one implementation to another. Moreover, it should be appreciated that such a development effort might be complex and time consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking of design, fabrication, and manufacture for those of ordinary skill having the benefit of this disclosure.
When introducing elements of various embodiments of the invention, the articles “a,” “an,” “the,” and “said” are intended to mean that there are one or more of the elements. The terms “comprising,” “including,” and “having” are intended to be inclusive and mean that there may be additional elements other than the listed elements.
Present embodiments relate to systems and methods useful in providing improved control of combustion systems (e.g., combustions systems in gas turbine systems) in real-time. Specifically, one or more electromagnetic detectors (e.g., optical detectors, transducers, spectrometers, and so forth) in conjunction with an analytics system may be provided as part of a closed-loop control system. The electromagnetic detectors in conjunction with the analytics system may allow for improved control of gas turbine and/or combustion system operational parameters of interest such as the combustion dynamics (e.g., pressure, flame intensity), heat rate, gas emission dynamics, maintenance factor, and so forth to improve the operational characteristics of the gas turbine and/or combustion system. The electromagnetic detectors in conjunction with the analytics system may also provide for better prognostics and diagnostics of the gas turbine and/or combustion systems that may be otherwise unavailable using only observational devices such as infrared cameras. Although discussed primarily in relation to a gas turbine system, it should be appreciated that the present embodiments may be applicable to any system including combustion systems and/or burner systems such as coal-fired boiler systems or other similar systems.
With the foregoing in mind, it may be useful to describe an embodiment of a gas turbine system, such as an example gas turbine system 10 illustrated in
In certain embodiments, the combustion chambers 22, using the fuel nozzles 24, may take in fuel 31 that mixes with the now compressed air 30 creating an air-fuel mixture. The air-fuel mixture may combust within the combustion chambers 22 to generate hot combustion gases, which flow downstream into the turbine 26 to drive the turbine 26. For example, the combustion gases may move through the turbine 26 to drive one or more stages of blades of the turbine 26, which may in turn drive rotation of a shaft 32. The shaft 32 may connect to a load 34, which may include, for example, a generator to convert the output of the shaft 32 into electric power. In certain embodiments, upon passing through the turbine 26, the hot combustion gases may vent into the environment as exhaust gases 36 via the exhaust section 28. The exhaust gas 36 may include major species such as, for example, carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen (N2), water vapor (H2O), and oxygen (O2), as well as minor species (e.g., pollutants) such as, for example, carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), unburned hydrocarbons (UHC), and sulfur oxides (SOx).
In certain embodiments, the control system 14 may include a controller 38 communicatively coupled to an analytics system 40, and a number of sensors 42. The analytics system 40 may receive data relating to one or more components of the gas turbine system 12 from the sensors 42, and generate and transmit outputs to the controller 38 based on an analysis of the sensor 42 data. For example, as will be further appreciated, the analytics system 40 may use the sensor 42 data to determine, for example, CO2 levels in the exhaust gas 36, pollutant (e.g., CO, NOx, UHC, SOx) levels in the exhaust gas 36, carbon content in the fuel 31, temperature of the fuel 31, temperature, pressure, clearance (e.g., distance between stationary and rotating components), flame temperature or intensity, vibration, combustion dynamics (e.g., fluctuations in pressure, flame intensity, and so forth), and load data from load 34.
Turning now to
As further illustrated in
Indeed, the analytics system 40 may be any hardware system, or a combination of a hardware and software system, suitable for analyzing, deriving, and/or modeling combustion data, exhaust emissions data, and/or other data relating to the combustion chambers 22 of the gas turbine 12. As illustrated, the analytics system 40 may include one or more processors 44, a memory 46 (e.g., storage), input/output (I/O) ports (e.g., one or more network interfaces 48), and so forth, useful in implementing the techniques described herein. Particularly, the analytics system 40 may include code or instructions stored in a non-transitory machine-readable medium (e.g., the memory 46 and/or storage) and executed, for example, by the one or more processors 44 that may be included in the analytics system 40. Additionally, the analytics system 40 may include a network interface 48, which may allow communication between the analytics system 40 and the controller 38 and sensors 42 via a personal area network (PAN), a local area network (LAN) (e.g., Wi-Fi), a wide area network (WAN), a physical connection (e.g., an Ethernet connection), and/or the like.
In certain embodiments, the analytics system 40 may receive and/or derive granular three-dimensional (3-D) data (e.g., combustion data, exhaust emissions data, or other data relating to non-homogenous phenomena) based on the inputs received from the sensors 42. For example, as previously noted, the analytics system 40 may used the data collected by the sensors 42 to derive certain composition of gases of the exhaust gas 36, wear patterns inside of the combustion chambers 22, thermal distribution of the flame of the combustion chambers 22, inner geometry of the individual combustors (e.g., individual can combustors), pollutant levels in the exhaust gas 36, carbon content in the fuel 31, temperature of the fuel 31, flame temperature, combustion dynamics such as fluctuations in pressure, flame intensity, and so forth.
Thus, in certain embodiments, the analytics system 40 may use Fourier analysis (e.g., Fast Fourier Transforms [FFTs], spectral analysis), image recognition techniques (e.g., pattern and gradient matching, optical character recognition), digital filtering techniques (e.g., Kalman filtering and/or other adaptive filtering), and similar signal processing techniques to extract and/or derive real-time or near real-time data from the input signals of the sensors 42 relating to the operation of the combustion chambers 22, and by extension, the operation of the gas turbine 12. Specifically, the analytics system 40 may perform various spectral analyses of the frequency components (e.g., frequency harmonics, power, frequency and/or signal distortion, and similar spectral components) to derive certain operational characteristics and/or parameters of the combustion chambers 22 and/or the gas turbine system 12. For example, in one embodiment, based on the inputs received via the sensors 42, the analytics system 40 may provide for improved detection and analysis of pollutant (e.g., CO, NOx, UHC, SOx) levels in the flame of the combustion chambers 22 and/or exhaust section 28, which, if left to persist, may result in undesirable variations in exhaust section 28 temperature, the power output of the gas turbine 12, as well as the heat rate of the gas turbine 12. Specifically, by the analytics system 40 deriving the pollutant (e.g., CO, NOx, UHC, SOx) levels in the flame of the combustion chambers 22, certain operating conditions such as, for example, lean blowouts (LBOs) (e.g., loss of flame due to a decrease in air-fuel ratio) in one or more individual combustors (e.g., can combustors) of the combustion chambers 22 may be detected with a higher degree a certainty.
Similarly, in other embodiments, the analytics system 40 may use probabilistic techniques, such as statistical methods (e.g., linear regression, non-linear regression, ridge regression, data mining) and/or artificial intelligence models (e.g., expert systems, fuzzy logic, support vector machines [SVMs], logic reasoning systems) to improve certainty in prognosis and/or diagnostics of the operating conditions of the combustion chambers 22, and by extension, the gas turbine 12. For example, certain knowledge of the gas turbine system 12 exhaust section 28 plane emissions may be analyzed to detect conditions possibly leading to an LBO, such as detecting that an outlying combustor of the combustion chambers 22 is not synchronized with other combustors of the combustion chambers 22.
As further illustrated in
Turning now to
The process 52 may then continue with the analytics system 40 analyzing (block 56) and/or deriving from, the system operating parameters for specific parameters of interest. For example, as noted above with respect to
The calculated one or more outputs may be then used by the controller 38 to generate (block 59) and execute one or more corresponding control commands. Indeed, the one or more calculated outputs may be used by the controller 38 to adjust (block 60) one or more control elements (e.g., final control elements such as actuators, valves, and the like) coupled to the combustion chambers 22 or other components of the gas turbine 12. For example, one or more actuator and/or control valve signals may be generated by the controller 38 to control, for example, the fuel flow to the combustion chambers 22, and by extension, the fuel (e.g., fuel 31) flow to the gas turbine system 12.
Technical effects of the present embodiments include systems and methods useful in providing improved control of combustion systems (e.g., combustions systems in gas turbine systems) in real-time. Specifically, one or more electromagnetic detectors (e.g., optical detectors, transducers, spectrometers, and so forth) in conjunction with an analytics system may be provided as part of a closed-loop control system. The electromagnetic detectors in conjunction with the analytics system may allow for improved control of gas turbine and/or combustion system operational parameters of interest such as the combustion dynamics (e.g., pressure, flame intensity), heat rate, gas emission dynamics, maintenance factor, and so forth to improve the operational characteristics of the gas turbine and/or combustion system. The electromagnetic detectors in conjunction with the analytics system may also provide for better prognostics and diagnostics of the gas turbine and/or combustion systems that may be otherwise unavailable using only observational devices such as infrared cameras.
This written description uses examples to disclose the invention, including the best mode, and also to enable any person skilled in the art to practice the invention, including making and using any devices or systems and performing any incorporated methods. The patentable scope of the invention is defined by the claims, and may include other examples that occur to those skilled in the art. Such other examples are intended to be within the scope of the claims if they have structural elements that do not differ from the literal language of the claims, or if they include equivalent structural elements with insubstantial differences from the literal language of the claims.
