Abstract

Steam Quality (dryness fraction) is defined by the presence of water droplets in steam. It is undesirable as lower steam quality leads to poor heat transfer characteristics, erosion of piping and critical equipment such as turbine blades [1]. Sample based measurement, such as separating calorimeter [2], throttling calorimeter and online measurements (optical based [3]) are different methods for dryness fraction measurement. Sample based measurement takes several hours as the full thermal equilibrium of whole probe body should be established from one operating conditions to another. This may result in missing of transient data. Hence, online measurement techniques suitable for fluctuating environments are essential. Real-time monitoring of steam quality (Steam dryness) by considering a novel approach of using a broad band super luminescent light emitting diode (SLED) based absorption spectroscopy combined with water droplet scattering is proposed and demonstrated.

© 2017 IEEE