Extended Kalman filter based tube leak detection for thermal power plant reheater

Boiler tube failure due to tube leak is one of many reasons due to which the thermal power plant unit goes off the line unexpectedly. Hence it is imperative to develop accurate and early tube leak diagnostic for consistent operation of power plant. This paper presents a review on recent studies and investigations done on the causes of failure in boiler tubes and leakage diagnostic system. Also, systematic tube leak diagnostic system for thermal power plant reheater based on parameter estimation using two different approaches of Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) is attempted. The experimental results prove that Dual Extended Kalman Filter (DEKF) outperforms in model parameter estimation when compared with Joint Extended Kalman Filter (JEKF). The advantage of the proposed methodology is that the leak detection is based on the already available plant measurements and does not require any additional hardware. The work outcome helps to prevent expensive secondary damage and unscheduled outages.