Proceedings of the Second International Energy 2030 Conference,
November 4-5, 2008, Abu Dhabi, U.A.E.

Developing Heterogeneous Fiber Optic Sensor Network for Online Monitoring of Combustors and Power Plants

Miao Yu
University of Maryland, USA

Ashwani Gupta
University of Maryland, USA

Abstract
Future advanced power plants will need to be more efficient and have far fewer emissions. This will require a significantly improved real-time monitoring, control, and analysis of the system. This paper focus on seeking improved performance of future power plants using online monitoring of a practical combustor under various operational conditions. A heterogeneous fiber optic monitoring system is proposed, which involves a diverse variety of sensors including novel micro-optical sensors for pressure, flow, and temperature measurements and nano-structured sensors for gas species measurements. It is expected that such a heterogeneous sensor system will provide more reliable view and higher confidence level on the operational status of the combustor as well as its implementation in future advanced power plants.