Power station boiler furnace water-cooling wall tube leak locating method based on acoustic theory

•An approach to locate water-cooling wall tube leak based on acoustic array was provided.•The paper used a three-dimensional space location algorithm based on the time delay of arrival (TDOA).•The location precisions of different algorithms were compared.•The leak location technology was applied to a domestic 600-MW coal-fired boiler.

In a coal-fired power plant, measures such as early forecasting of boiler tube explosions, timely leak discovery, and the identification of the leak location prior to explosion are important to proper shutdown procedures, reduction of repair time, and minimization of financial losses. This study used a three-dimensional space location algorithm based on the time delay of arrival (TDOA) to determine the location of water-cooling wall tube leaks in real time. The location precisions of the Chan algorithm and the Chan–Taylor collaborative algorithm were compared. The location simulation showed that the time delay estimation and the number of sensors greatly impacted the location precision. The Chan–Taylor approach performed better than Chan alone. Data from the field experiments showed that the maximum likelihood (ML) windows-based generalized cross-correlation time delay estimation resulted in a more accurate TDOA. Then, the Chan–Taylor collaborative algorithm with an 8-element acoustic array could be used as a real-time location monitor for water-cooling wall leaks.