JP6057469B2 - Heavy oil leak detector - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a heavy oil leakage detection device including an explosion-proof detection unit.

  An oil burner gun (hereinafter referred to as “burner gun”) is a spraying machine that is installed in a boiler shed, guides high-pressure heavy oil, compressed air, etc. to a boiler combustion chamber, sprays it with a tip provided at the tip, and burns it. . A gasket such as heavy oil or compressed air supplied from the outside is provided with a gasket at its connection, but there is a problem of oil leakage due to deterioration of the gasket. Since heavy oil leaked from the burner gun could cause a fire, a means for continuous monitoring was required.

  In Patent Document 1, an image monitoring system that monitors a monitoring object with an image and grasps the state of the monitoring object, an imaging unit that images the monitoring object, image data input from the imaging unit, and imaging An image monitoring unit that monitors a monitoring object based on information on the means, a display unit that outputs a monitoring image generated by the image monitoring unit, and an input that operates to add, update, or delete database information in the image monitoring unit And an image monitoring unit, on the display means, displays a captured image of the monitoring object, a sketch showing the arrangement of the monitoring object, and a monitoring focus point for each captured monitoring object, An image monitoring system that displays the positional relationship between the monitoring object and the imaging means on the floor plan has been proposed, and paragraph [0023] of the same document describes the case where the monitoring target facility is a heavy oil burner device. A.

JP 2009-044455 A

  The oil leakage detection device from the burner gun must be explosion-proof so as not to cause a fire. In addition, high reliability is required to withstand long-term continuous operation outdoors. Furthermore, it is necessary to solve the problem of rainwater and inflowing dust generated when installed outdoors.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide an explosion-proof heavy oil leakage detection device with high reliability that can withstand long-term continuous operation outdoors.

  The inventor conducted a test operation for detecting oil leakage using a detection unit (Comparative Example 1) including a funnel portion, a transparent plate, and an optical sensor device, and erroneous detection occurred due to inflowing dust during rainfall. Therefore, the present invention was created by making improvements to solve the problem of inflowing dust when installed outdoors. That is, the present invention comprises the following technical means.

  A first aspect of the present invention is a heavy oil leak detection device including an explosion-proof detection unit, a monitoring unit, and an optical fiber connecting the detection unit and the monitoring unit, wherein the detection unit has a lower opening. A transparent plate disposed below the lower opening of the funnel portion, an optical sensor device having a light projecting portion and a light receiving portion provided facing each other across the transparent plate, and the funnel portion at the top And a casing provided with a discharge port at the bottom, and the maximum width D1 of the lower opening of the funnel part is equal to or less than the distance D2 between the lower end of the funnel part and the transparent plate. The present invention relates to a leak detection device.

The second invention is characterized in that, in the first invention, a mesh covering the funnel portion is provided, the mesh being finer than the effective detection diameter of the light receiving portion.
According to a third aspect, in the second aspect, the maximum width d of the mesh is less than the maximum width D1 of the lower opening of the funnel portion.
A fourth invention is characterized in that, in the second or third invention, the mesh of the mesh is 0.1 to 3.0 mm.
According to a fifth invention, in any one of the first to fourth inventions, the light projecting portion is disposed below the transparent plate.

According to a sixth invention, in any one of the first to fifth inventions, the optical sensor device includes a first light projecting unit and a light receiving unit provided upstream, and a second light projecting unit provided downstream. And a light receiving portion.
According to a seventh invention, in any one of the first to sixth inventions, the monitoring unit determines that the oil is leaked when a state where the amount of light received by the optical sensor device is equal to or less than a set value continues for a set time or longer. It is characterized by doing.
An eighth invention is characterized in that, in any one of the first to seventh inventions, a plurality of the detection units are provided.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, it becomes possible to provide the leak detection apparatus of the explosion-proof heavy oil provided with the high reliability which can endure long-term continuous operation outdoors.

1 is a configuration diagram of a heavy oil leakage detection apparatus according to Embodiment 1. FIG. FIG. 3 is a side cross-sectional view illustrating a configuration of a detection unit according to the first embodiment. FIG. 3 is a plan view illustrating a configuration of a detection unit according to the first embodiment. (A) The graph which shows the result of the test operation which concerns on the comparative example 1, (b) The graph which shows the result of the test operation which concerns on Example 1. FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram of a heavy oil leakage detection device according to Embodiment 2. FIG.

  The heavy oil leakage detection device of the present invention according to the embodiment includes an explosion-proof detection unit, a monitoring unit, and an optical fiber connecting the detection unit and the monitoring unit. The detection unit includes a funnel portion having a lower opening, a transparent plate arranged with an inclination below the lower opening of the funnel portion, and a light projecting portion and a light receiving portion provided to face each other across the transparent plate. And a housing having a funnel portion disposed at the top and a discharge port provided at the bottom. The detection unit of the present invention according to the embodiment is for outdoor installation and has the following characteristics for solving the problem of rainwater and inflowing dust.

The first feature is that the maximum width D1 of the lower opening of the funnel portion is equal to or less than the distance D2 between the lower end of the funnel portion and the transparent plate. This prevents clogging of dust between the lower end of the funnel portion and the transparent plate.
The second feature is that the net covers the funnel part and has a finer mesh than the effective detection diameter of the light receiving part. By blocking the entry of large particles of dust by the net, the light receiving portion is prevented from being completely shielded.
A third feature is that the maximum mesh width d is less than the maximum width D1 of the lower opening of the funnel portion. Thereby, even if dust enters the detection unit, it is easily discharged.
A fourth feature is that the monitoring unit determines that the oil leaks when a state in which the received light amount of the optical sensor device is equal to or less than a set value continues for a set time or longer. Even if one small dust flows in, the light receiving unit is not shielded, but if a plurality of dusts overlap on the optical path, there is a risk of erroneous detection. However, since the dust flowing in along with the rainwater passes on the optical path in a few seconds, it is possible to prevent erroneous detection by determining the oil leakage when the received light is blocked for, for example, 5 seconds or more.
A fifth feature is that two optical sensor devices are provided upstream and downstream. In the case of shielding with heavy oil, since the decrease in the amount of light received by the two photosensor devices continues for a certain period of time, it can be distinguished from dust.

  Since the detection part of this invention is connected with a monitoring part by an optical fiber, it is also possible to install a detection part in the distance several hundred m away from the monitoring part. Further, since the detection principle is simple and the amount of information accompanying monitoring is small, it is possible to install several hundred or more detection units.

  Hereinafter, the details of the present invention will be discussed with reference to examples, but the present invention is not limited to the examples.

The heavy oil leakage detection apparatus according to the first embodiment includes one or more detection units and a monitoring unit connected to the detection units by optical fibers as main components.
FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a heavy oil leakage detection apparatus according to the first embodiment. As shown in FIG. 1, the detection units 10 </ b> A to 10 </ b> N are arranged near the burner guns 1 </ b> A to 1 </ b> N that are likely to leak heavy oil (usually directly below). The burner guns 1A to 1N are heavy oil burners that use heavy oil as fuel, and are installed outdoors (including places with roofs where wind and rain enter). The monitoring unit includes a monitoring device 20 and a control device 30.

[Detector]
FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a configuration of the detection unit 10 according to the first embodiment. The detection unit 10 includes a funnel unit 11, a transparent plate 12 that is disposed below the lower opening of the funnel unit, an optical sensor device (13, 14), and a housing provided with a discharge port at the bottom. A body 15 and a net 19 are provided.

  The funnel portion 11 is detachably disposed on an upper portion of a substantially cubic housing 15. In order to prevent sunlight from entering the optical sensor device, the funnel portion 11 must be made of a light-shielding material, and it is necessary to prevent rust caused by rainwater. It is composed. Since the oil leakage from the burner gun 1 scatters to the periphery due to the high pressure, it is sufficient that the area of the funnel portion 11 is several tens of centimeters.

FIG. 3 is a plan view illustrating the configuration of the detection unit 10 according to the first embodiment.
The funnel portion 11 has a square shape when viewed from above, and has inclined surfaces from the four sides toward the central portion, and a lower opening 16 is provided at the central portion, which is the deepest portion. Since the lower opening 16 is formed in the substantially horizontal direction as shown in FIG. 2 so as to face the transparent plate 12, the incidence of sunlight is minimal. The maximum width D1 (the opening length in the vertical direction in the first embodiment) of the lower opening 16 is equal to or less than the distance D2 between the transparent plate 12 and the lower end of the funnel portion 11. With such a configuration, dust that has passed through the lower opening 16 is prevented from being clogged between the lower end of the funnel portion 11 and the transparent plate 12.

  The transparent plate 12 is composed of, for example, an acrylic plate or a glass plate. The transparent plate 12 is detachably attached so that it can be periodically replaced or cleaned. The transparent plate 12 is installed with an inclination of, for example, 35 to 55 degrees, preferably 45 degrees so that dust and rainwater do not remain on the surface.

  The light projecting unit 13 is lens means installed below the transparent plate 12 and at a position overlapping the flow path through which leaked heavy oil passes. The light receiving unit 14 is a lens unit that receives the light projected from the light projecting unit 13 and is disposed so as to face the light projecting unit 13 with the transparent plate 12 interposed therebetween. The reason why the light receiving unit 14 is not placed below the transparent plate and the light projecting unit 14 is placed below the transparent plate 12 is to avoid the influence of sunlight. The light projecting unit 13 is connected to the light projecting optical fiber 3, and the light receiving unit 14 is connected to the light receiving optical fiber 4.

  The housing | casing 15 is a box comprised with the light-shielding material, and plays the role of the cover which prevents that sunlight and a wind and rain reach | attain the transparent plate 12 and an optical sensor apparatus. In the first embodiment, the casing 15 is made of stainless steel. On the bottom surface of the housing 15, a discharge port 17 for discharging dust and rainwater is provided at a position that is the lower end of the slope of the transparent plate 12. In addition, legs are provided on the bottom surface of the casing 15 so that discharged dust and rainwater do not return into the casing 15. A connector 18 is disposed on the side surface of the housing 15, and optical fibers 3 and 4 extend from the connector 18 to the outside.

  The mesh 19 is a metal mesh having a mesh d smaller than the effective detection diameter (φR) of the light receiving unit 14 and having a mesh of a certain level or more (d <R). The reason why the mesh of a certain level or more is necessary is that the heavy oil may not pass through the wire mesh due to the viscosity of the heavy oil, or the passage may be significantly delayed. For example, in an experiment using a nonwoven fabric, it was confirmed that heavy oil did not pass through the nonwoven fabric. Furthermore, the inventor prepared a wire mesh having a plurality of mesh sizes, and conducted an experiment for measuring the passage time of heavy oil. This experiment was carried out by hanging heavy oil on the wire meshes A to K of different stitches and measuring the time until it dropped on the saucer 10 cm below with a stopwatch. The temperature of the experimental environment is 14.5 ° C. The results of the experiment are shown in Tables 1 and 2.

From Table 1, it was confirmed that at room temperature, a variation of 8 to 125 seconds occurred in the time for heavy oil to pass through the wire mesh according to the size of the mesh (0.1 to 3.0 mm).
From Table 2, when the temperature of heavy oil is around 60 ° C., there is a slight difference in the transmission time depending on the size of the mesh (0.1 to 3.0 mm). Transmitted.
It is assumed that the heavy oil leaking from the burner gun 1 has a high temperature, and is about 60 ° C. even when reaching the net 19. Therefore, it is considered that oil leakage can be detected at a speed that can sufficiently withstand practical use when the mesh size (also referred to as an opening or an opening) is 0.1 to 3.0 mm. If it is .5 to 3.0 mm, the delay time is considered not to be a problem at all. On the other hand, in the place where the burner gun 1 is installed, it is preferable that the size of the mesh be 2.0 mm or less where iron rust pieces of about 1 cm square are scattered. From the above, it is considered that the most preferable practical range of the mesh size is 0.5 to 2.0 mm.

[Monitoring device]
The monitoring device 20 includes a photoelectric sensor 21, a sequencer 22, and a communication unit 23.
The photoelectric sensor 20 is connected to the optical fibers 3 and 4 and displays the received light amount with a numerical value of 0 to 4000. The photoelectric sensor 20 includes a light projecting element for projecting light from the light projecting unit 13 toward the transparent plate 12, and a light receiving element that receives light received by the light receiving unit 14, and detection output from the light receiving element. The light reception signal is transmitted to the sequencer 22.

The sequencer 22 includes an arithmetic device, a main storage device, and an external storage device, and continuously records detection signals from the light receiving elements in the external storage device. The sequencer 22 includes a determination unit that determines that there has been an oil leak when the amount of received light set by the user is below. This determination unit has not only the amount of received light but also a function of determining that there has been an oil leak only when the decrease in the amount of received light continues for a certain time or longer. As will be described later, in the test operation at the Anan Power Plant, a 2.0 mm mesh wire mesh is installed and an alarm is issued when the received light intensity of 10 or less continues for 5 seconds. No false detection occurs for more than 5 months. It was.
The communication unit 23 is a wireless or wired communication device. If the determination unit determines that there has been an oil leak, the oil leak detection information is transmitted to the control device 30 via the communication unit 23.

[Control device]
The control device 30 is a panel PC in which dedicated software for communicating with the monitoring device 20 is installed. The control device 30 includes a buzzer for issuing a warning and a buzzer stop button for stopping the notification from the buzzer. The control device 30 communicates with the monitoring device 20 wirelessly or by wire, and can display the amount of light received by each of the detection units 10A to 10N on the screen in real time.

[Test operation]
4A is a graph showing the results of the test operation according to Comparative Example 1, and FIG. 4B is a graph showing the results of the test operation according to Example 1. FIG.
(Comparative Example 1)
Although the comparative example 1 is a detection part provided with the funnel part, the transparent plate, and the optical sensor device, it does not include the first to fifth features for solving the problem of the inflowing dust described above.
From June 18, 2012 to June 29, the detector of Comparative Example 1 was installed around the burner corner of the Anan Power Station, and the amount of light received by the optical sensor device was continuously recorded. As a result, 4 degrees of false detection occurred during precipitation.

Example 1
From August 29 to September 10, 2012, the detection unit 10 of Example 1 was installed around the burner corner of the Anan Power Station, and the amount of light received by the optical sensor device was continuously recorded. As a result, there were no false detections even though there were many days with heavy precipitation.
From the above results, it was confirmed that the heavy oil leakage detection device of Example 1 can be operated without causing false detection in no maintenance.

  The heavy oil leakage detection device of the second embodiment is different from the heavy oil leakage detection device of the first embodiment in that it includes two sets of light projecting units and light receiving units. Hereinafter, a configuration different from that of the first embodiment will be described, and a description of a common configuration will be omitted.

  FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a configuration of the detection unit 10 according to the second embodiment. As shown in FIG. 5, the detection unit 10 of the embodiment includes a light projecting unit 13A and a light receiving unit 14A provided upstream, and a light projecting unit 13B and a light receiving unit 14B provided downstream. The light projecting unit 13A, the light receiving unit 14A, the light projecting unit 13B, and the light receiving unit 14B are provided on a flow path (on the center line of the transparent plate 12) through which heavy oil flows. When the amount of leaked heavy oil is small, the amount of oil reaching the downstream light projecting unit 13B may be reduced. Therefore, the light projecting unit 13A and the light projecting unit 13B are preferably arranged as close as possible. On the other hand, if the distance L between the light projecting unit 13A and the light projecting unit 13B is too short, it is assumed that both the light projecting units are shielded almost simultaneously by the inflowing dust. Therefore, it is considered realistic to set the distance L between the light projecting unit 13A and the light projecting unit 13B to about 15 to 30 mm.

  Similarly to the first embodiment, the leak detection apparatus according to the second embodiment also includes a monitoring device 20 and a control device 30. The monitoring device 20 according to the second embodiment determines that oil leakage has occurred when the light receiving unit 14B detects a decrease in the amount of received light after a certain period of time has elapsed after the light receiving unit 14A has detected the decrease in the amount of received light. At this time, when the distance L to be set is short, for example, after the light receiving unit 14A detects a decrease in the amount of received light, an additional condition for determining the oil leakage is that the amount of light received by the light receiving units 14A and 14B decreases for a certain time or more It is good.

  According to the heavy oil leakage detection device of the second embodiment described above, it is possible to resolve the problem of erroneous determination due to inflowing dust with higher accuracy than the heavy oil leakage detection device of the first embodiment.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Burner gun 2 Heavy oil 3 Optical fiber for light emission 4 Optical fiber for light reception 10 Detection part 11 Funnel 12 Transparent plate 13 Light reception part 14 Light emission part 15 Case 16 Lower opening 17 Outlet 18 Connector 19 Network 20 Monitoring device 21 Photoelectric sensor 22 Sequencer 23 Communication unit 30 Control device

Claims (8)

A fuel oil leakage detection device comprising an explosion-proof detection unit, a monitoring unit, and an optical fiber connecting the detection unit and the monitoring unit,
The detection unit includes a funnel portion having a lower opening, a transparent plate disposed with an inclination below the lower opening of the funnel portion, and a light projecting unit and a light receiving unit provided to face each other with the transparent plate interposed therebetween. An optical sensor device, and a funnel portion disposed at the top and a housing provided with a discharge port at the bottom,
The heavy oil leakage detection device, wherein the maximum width D1 of the lower opening of the funnel portion is equal to or less than the distance D2 between the lower end of the funnel portion and the transparent plate.   The heavy oil leakage detection device according to claim 1, further comprising a mesh covering the funnel portion, the mesh being finer than the effective detection diameter of the light receiving portion.   The heavy oil leakage detection device according to claim 2, wherein a maximum width d of the mesh of the mesh is less than a maximum width D1 of a lower opening of the funnel portion.   The heavy oil leakage detection device according to claim 2 or 3, wherein the mesh has a mesh size of 0.1 to 3.0 mm.   The heavy oil leakage detection device according to claim 1, wherein the light projecting unit is disposed below the transparent plate.   6. The optical sensor device according to claim 1, further comprising: a first light projecting unit and a light receiving unit provided upstream, and a second light projecting unit and a light receiving unit provided downstream. Any heavy oil leak detection device.   The fuel oil according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the monitoring unit determines that the oil is leaked when a state in which the amount of light received by the optical sensor device is equal to or less than a set value continues for a set time or longer. Leak detection device.   The heavy oil leakage detection device according to claim 1, comprising a plurality of the detection units.