Boiler Tube Leak Monitoring

Online Monitoring for Early Boiler Tube Leak Detection

MISTRAS' tube leak monitoring solution helps plants identify and locate boiler tube leaks faster than traditional methods while assets remain online, enabling smarter and timelier inspection and maintenance.

Boiler tube failures continue to be the leading cause of downtime for steam power plants. Recovery mills and process plants also face similar challenges, and feedwater heater and condenser leaks also pose a problem in overall efficiency.

Leaks in these assets can lead to extensive damage in both your equipment and facility, especially if they go undetected for long periods of time. Some of the damages that undetected tube leaks can lead to include hydrogen embrittlement tube failure, hydrogen damage, tube cracks, damage to neighboring tubes, and complete asset failure

Early boiler tube leak detection allows you to mitigate these risks and stay on top of your asset’s condition, enabling you to make more informed maintenance decisions. MISTRAS' tube leak monitoring solutions help operators identify and locate tube leaks much earlier than traditional methods, supporting a variety of power plant assets, including:

Conventional Power Boilers
Recovery Boilers
Package Boilers
Heat Recovery Steam Generators (HRSGs)
Feedwater Heaters

Boiler Tube Leak Acoustic Emission (AE) Monitoring

MISTRAS utilizes Acoustic Emission (AE) technology, which uses sound waves to listen for leaks in your equipment. By mounting non-invasive sensors on the asset, MISTRAS listens for changes in normal background noise which can indicate tube leaks or other undesirable operating conditions. The system monitors boiler tubes 24 hours a day, seven days a week, providing continuous information for operational and maintenance decisions.

By using this method, operators can detect leaks before audible noises or visible dripping occurs. Our monitoring solution detects:

Boiler Leaks
- Water wall
- Reheat
- Superheat
- Economizer
- Penthouse
- Dead Air Spaces
- Headers
Feedwater Heater leaks and Defects
Sootblower effectiveness
Stuck Sootblowers
Leaking Poppet Valves
Slag/Pluggage
Damaging Backpass Vibration
Aspirating and cooling air leaks
SCR horn operation

Acoustic monitoring system (AMS) for boiler tube leaks

The AMS is proven to detect and locate boiler tube leaks earlier than traditional inspection methods.

Benefits of Early Tube Leak Detection

Early tube detection can be crucial for plant and personnel health, allowing leaks to be detected, located, and repaired before serious damage, slowdowns in production or costly unplanned outages can occur. Monitoring solutions enable plants and mills to maximize their asset and personnel safety, in addition to optimizing maintenance spending.

Reduce downtime and locate leaks while plant remains online

MISTRAS’ monitoring solutions keep leaks under constant watch, and locates and alerts operators as soon as an indication is detected. This maximizes efficiency by allowing for quick leak location, allowing plant and mill personnel to spend less time looking for the leak and more time planning the outage.

Detecting and addressing leaks quickly also enables facilities to avoid secondary damages such as tube separation, impingement, or destruction of adjacent tubes.

Plan outages and make more informed market decisions, rather than being forced offline

Tube leak monitoring puts decision-making in operators’ hands. You can schedule outages based on your operational preferences, not circumstance. This enables plant operators and upper management to wait for an optimal coverage pricing window.

Ensuring tube leaks are repaired in a scheduled, controlled atmosphere – instead of a forced, uncontrolled, and unpredictable setting – can also increase safety and decrease the likelihood of accidents during outage work.

Maximize operational profits

General production is maximized because outages aren’t extended and downtime is minimized. Outage efficiency and downtime management are results of the MISTRAS’ early leak detection capabilities, which enable plants and mills to make manageable repairs in optimal situations with the earliest possible actionable information.

Plant and mill operators are also able to minimize visits to hard-to-access areas. Tube monitoring enables maintenance management personnel to extend intervals in between scheduled inspections, reducing the costs and hazards associated with sending technicians into high-temperature and hazardous regions of a facility.

On-Call Expertise for Boiler Tube Leaks

Prior to installation, our system engineers walk boilers with plant personnel to aid in selecting optimal sensor locations. We also provide on-site technical support for commissioning, baselining, and training for operators and electrical personnel.

After installation, MISTRAS' Surveillance teams provide daily, weekly, or monthly checks to examine data for suspicious acoustic changes, and to troubleshoot potential hardware issues. Our Surveillance teams are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for diagnostic services and maintenance consultations.

Supplementary surveillance programs are also available to provide plants and mills with additional monitoring and data analysis in between scheduled reports, including an interactive leak database for real-time leak event risk analysis.

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