In the scorching steam of chemical plants and the deafening roar of power stations - cooling towers are like the "steel lungs" of the industrial world, constantly swallowing and spitting out tens of thousands of tons of cooling water. However, a single oil leakage due to overheating of the bearing or a 0.5-millimeter deviation of the blade may both trigger a chain explosion. Modern cooling tower monitoring systems are precisely usedMillisecond-level early warningandAll-weather fluoroscopic eyeInstall "digital lifelines" on these colossal creatures.
The siren of a petrochemical plant in the dead of night broke the silence - the bearing of the cooling tower fan suddenly broke, and 20 tons of blades flew out like cannonballs, smashing through adjacent equipment. A post-event investigation revealed:The vibration value exceeded the limit as early as 72 hours agoHowever, traditional manual inspections failed to detect it5. Such accidents expose three fatal blind spots of cooling towers:
Vibration out of controlMost blade detachment accidents result from a 0.2mm bearing offset, while the human tactile threshold is as high as 1mm8
Oil leakage stealthThe slight oil leakage from the gearbox rapidly vaporizes at high temperatures and is difficult to track with the naked eye
Energy consumption black holeDue to the imbalance of fan speed in a certain power plant, the amount of electricity wasted annually is equivalent to that of 2,000 households5
"Blades flying out will damage the packing, injure workers and lead to production halts" - the painful complaint of a Sinopec engineer reveals the industry's pain5
In the high-temperature area at the top of the tower, special sensors transform into "nerve endings" :
Vibration transmitterCapture an abnormal tremor of 0.01g (equivalent to the vibration of a mosquito landing)4
Oil level probeA 0.1mm precision magnetostrictive probe can precisely locate the leakage point in oil at 90℃
Non-contact temperature measurementThe infrared array scans the gearbox in real time and automatically marks it in red when the temperature difference exceeds 5℃7
When the temperature of a certain bearing rises sharply, the industrial wireless RTU (such as Fourxin F2X64) initiates a life-and-death speed:
Collect the 4-20mA current signal from the sensor
It is compressed and transmitted via GPRS/4G networks
The data will be delivered to the central control room 3 kilometers away within 0.5 seconds39
Compared with traditional inspection: manual meter reading takes 2 hours, while an emergency outbreak only takes 180 seconds6
The monitoring screen suddenly flashed red - the vibration value of a certain fan exceeded the 8.5mm/s threshold for three consecutive times. System moment
Trigger text message alerts to the mobile phones of five responsible persons
Automatically generate shutdown maintenance instructions
Retrieve the historical fault model of the same type of equipment
After Tianjin Petrochemical applied this system,The downtime due to faults has been reduced by 76%5
When the vibration exceeds the limit, the system canRemote emergency stop equipmentPrevent the leaves from flying off8
If the oil level drops abnormally by more than 31T to 3T, the associated valve will be automatically closed and the laying of the oil-absorbing mat will be initiated4
After the deployment of Datang Power Plant,Safety accidents caused by mechanical failures are reset to zero6
The constant rotational speed of traditional fans is like a "continuously speeding carriage". The intelligent system, however, enables the fan to learn the "breathing rhythm" :
Real-time calculation of wet-bulb temperature and heat load
Dynamic adjustment of fan speed (±15% range)
Tianjin Petrochemical saves 1 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annuallyIt is equivalent to reducing 600 tons of carbon dioxide emissions5
The operation and maintenance logs of a certain chemical plant reveal changes:
In the past, 40 person-days were spent climbing the tower for inspection every month. Now, the system automatically generates the "Bearing Life Prediction Table" - the remaining life of the No. 7 tower reducer:42 days ±3 days”7
Cutting-edge technologies are driving the leapfrog upgrade of monitoring systems:
Vibration fingerprint databaseAdvantech has established 100,000 sets of vibration spectra, with AI comparison accuracy exceeding 98%7
3D heat map early warningWhen scanning the tower body with AR glasses, the oil leakage points flickered in the virtual model like flames
Swarm intelligence regulationIn a certain park, 12 cooling towers were linked together, reducing the total energy consumption by 111 tons to 3 tons4
When the fan cuts the airflow at a height of a hundred meters, and when hot water splashes into a waterfall on the packing layer -The cooling tower monitoring system is like an invisible hand, safeguarding the industrial pulse with an accuracy of 0.1 millimeters. It turns every abnormal vibration into the humming of a mobile phone, every drop of oil seepage into the flashing of a screen, and makes "post-event rescue" a thing of the past.
According to statistics from the power industry, intelligent monitoring has reduced the failure rate of cooling towers by 89% over the past five years. But what's more touching than the figures is that operators no longer fear late-night alarm calls, and residents around the factory area can open their Windows with peace of mind. On the mottled tower body -Steel and data are jointly writing a new epic of industrial security.
Next Article:How does a wire rope flaw detector prevent accidents worth hundreds of billions of yuan? »
English 
简体中文 
Español 
Français 
Русский 
العربية 
