TECHNICAL FIELD

This invention relates to hand portal and wireless remote monitoring of steam leaks with steam traps developed to be used in industrial facilities, hospitals, hotels as well as industries of medicine, food, textile, dairy, paper, and tea, and private and public facilities, etc. making use of pressurized steam.

STATE OF THE ART

Energy, in the broadest terms, is a capacity of a system to fulfill a task. Energy is used for all sorts of tasks today and the amount of energy demanded is increasing day by day. There are a number of ways of energy acquirement. In this respect, since there is a tendency towards sustainable energy for energy acquisition and utilization, many countries, including our country, are making investments for the future of energy and trying to prevent energy leaks by keeping energy usage efficient.

Due to the reasons such as our country's foreign-source dependency, inability to use our energy resources more efficiently, and steam leaks’ causing serious damage to the country's economy, the fact that traps steam leaks cannot be externally seen with the naked eye reveals the lack of such a detection system.

Currently, there are internationally available systems measuring trap steam leaks. The malfunction of these trap control devices is detected by ultrasonic sensors and concluded by a subjective evaluation of an expert. The subjectivity of these controls causes some errors to be overlooked. However, when such systems are designed with artificial intelligence-equipped systems, these controls can be made objectively and malfunction assessments can become more precise and faster.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

This invention eliminates the disadvantages described in the state of the art and meets the needs. This invention is a hand terminal and remote monitoring system developed to detect the externally invisible steam leaks of the steam traps used at the outlet points of the machines such as steam exchangers used in steam transmission pipes and steam consumption points, boilers, steam autoclaves, tumble dryers, calenders, etc. in businesses making use of saturated steam.

The system is the product of an interdisciplinary study of scientific fields such as acoustics, thermodynamics, electronics, and signal processing. The traps operate with mechanical, thermostatic, and thermodynamic principles and produce mechanical vibrations during their operation. They stay locked while not in use, and steam may be leaked as a result of damage or contamination in its internal mechanisms while in use. As the steam escape takes place inside the traps, this is unlikely to notice with the naked eye. The traps discharge the condensed hot water in the installation from the crosssection called orifice and thusly ensure the most efficient heat transfer between the surfaces.

Mechanical vibrations and temperature changes in the traps are crucial for the determination of whether or not the traps are leaking steam. Trap diagnostics is made possible with the embedded software developed with such technical information as well as the signal information received by the probe contacting the trap. The hand terminal is for conducting measurements near the trap. Remote monitoring is for monitoring the traps distributed across the field via computer. Both systems monitor and control whether or not the trap is operational.

Failure to detect trap steam leaks in businesses making use of steam causes very critical energy losses. In order to prevent such energy losses, it is of importance to continuously monitor the traps. A trap leak detection device and system are required in order to enable such control. In line with such requirements, it has been aimed in the project design an economical device that will monitor trap leakage and a SCADA (remote monitoring) system that can control the former.

The main novelty brought by said invention is automatic malfunction detection with the use of advanced signal processing techniques and artificial intelligence systems. Another novelty is that the steam installation has the advantages of 24/7 monitoring and also the ability to check all traps distributed across the field thanks to the automatic decision mechanisms and the inclusion of the SCADA system. The fact that most of this control mechanism to be designed will be realized with national resources will make the device a domestic and national device.

The invention conducts instantaneous leakage tracking by monitoring with the hand terminal and remote monitoring systems near the trap or remotely with SCADA (an extensive and integrated database-fitted control and monitoring system) and supports this process with an alarm system.

Due to the automated nature of the system in said invention, there will be no human error.

Since the system is wireless, there are no problems such as cable breaks and cable spanning difficulties; consequently, its costs stand out as an advantage.

This invention diagnoses trap leaks based on ultrasonic sounds and temperature with artificial intelligence applications.

The brands TLV and Spirax-Sarco have similar products. There is a hand portal product in the TLV model. This invention differs from this model in that it diagnoses malfunctions with signal processing methods and artificial intelligence. The temperature sensor and the ultrasonic probe are provided through a conductor (metal-stainless steel). In addition, the record data is infinitely backed up to the computer with the CD card. The brand Spirax- Sarco has a remote monitoring system. The system is based on temperature monitoring. However, the system of the invention can perform malfunction tracking both ultrasonically and with temperature tracking.

While the existing technique diagnoses malfunctions with an accuracy of 70%, our devices of the invention will perform diagnosis with a minimum accuracy of 85%.

The system of the invention will consist of two parts. The first part is the hand portal and the second part is the remote monitoring system. The hand terminal will consist of three basic parts. The first part is the temperature and ultrasonic sensor while the second part is an electronic circuit that will detect acoustic and temperature changes. The third part, in turn, is the part that will analyze the obtained data and display the result on the screen. The interface on the screen will consist of pages accessible through the menu. While the informative time-dependent change of acoustic sound data is observed on the screen, the changes in frequency bands will be observed in another graphic display, and thus the changes in the frequency domain of the acoustic sound data will be monitored. Additionally, the screen will display the surface temperature after the completion of the measurement. The operational pressure of the trap and the surface temperature will be compared, the result will be analyzed in the ‘Is it locked? Or not?’ field of the trap software, and the corresponding result will appear on the screen in case it is locked. If it is not locked, the acoustic sound will be analyzed and the result whether the trap is leaking or working normally will be reflected on the screen in its interface. The following steps will be applied in the hand terminal design of the project:

- The operating sounds of the trap will be detected as a digital signal with a heat- resistant acoustic sensor detecting sound and heat and the trap temperature information will be simultaneously obtained.

- Frequency analysis information will be obtained after the signal processing methods to be embedded in the interface program.

- There will also be software that detects and checks whether the attributes of these data are within the limit values in the interface.

- The limit values provided will be compared with the values in this chart, and the corresponding warning results will be displayed on the screen: appropriate if the values are appropriate and the trap is operating correctly; and ‘trap is leaking’ if the values are not appropriate.

- The results such as ‘locked’ condition or ‘low temperature’ of the trap relating to the temperature information of the trap will be reflected on the screen.

SCADA system will be used in Remote Monitoring. The SCADA system will be wirelessly controlled from the center. Trap signals will be transmitted to the main computer by means of sensors to be mounted on each of the traps. The sensor will detect temperature and ultrasonic sound. The interface program on the computer will analyze the data and the malfunctions and normal conditions of the traps will be continuously monitored. The system will be designed with the following steps:

The cover comprising the temperature sensor and clamp system will be mounted on the outlet pipe of the traps. - This cover will be suitable for wireless communication.

- This cover will transmit the signal to the receiver (repeater) part.

In addition, SCADA interface software will be included in the project.

LIST OF REFERENCES

1 . Hand portal

1.1. Probe protection cover

1 .2. Multi-measurement probe

1 .3. Screen

1 .4. Shock absorbers

1 .5. Adjustment and measurement buttons

1 .6. On/off button

1 .7. CD card socket

1 .8. Headphone socket

2. Cloud

3. Host computer

4. Trap control unit

5. Repeater

6. Modem

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Fig. 1 Representative view of the remote monitoring system

Fig. 2. Representative general view of the hand portal (1 )

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The production methods of the present invention consist of a hand portal (1), a multimeasurement probe (1 .2), electronic hardware and embedded software, a display (1 .3), a probe protection cover (1.1 ), shock absorbers (1.4), adjustment and measurement buttons (1.5), an on/off button (1.6), a CD card socket (1.7), and a headphone socket (1.8). The multi-measurement probe (1.2) consists of a stainless quality steel thermocouple temperature sensor and a piezoceramic resonator placed on it. The electronic hardware consists of ADC, temperature hardware, headphone, and memory card combination PSB. The outer body will be molded or 3D-printed as plastic. SCADA remote monitoring system: It is the same as the multi-measurement probe (1.2) part and Wi-Fi hardware is included in the hardware. The SCADA interface software and malfunction diagnosis embedded software are available. The signals received from the traps (4) will be transferred from the trap control unit (4) to the host computer (3) and then to the trap control unit (4) via the repeater (5).