Application of the Continuous-Discrete Kalman Filter to State Estimation of the Convection Pass of a Once-Through Power Boiler

This paper presents an application of the continuous-discrete Kalman filter to the dynamics of a section of the convection pass of a once-through power boiler. The approach uses a high fidelity model of the plant's thermal and fluid mechanics in Flownex® to generate simulated plant measurement data. A simpler, lumped parameter model is developed in Matlab® (independent from this simulation) around which the state estimator is built. Based on measurements available at the system boundary, the estimator allows insight into the internal states of the physical system from which the presence of fouling can be detected. Furthermore, correct modelling of state-and measurement-noise, critical to the set-up of a Kalman filter, is shown.