Patent ID: 11913857
Assignee: nan
Field: Thermal processes and apparatus (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC F  G | IPC G

Claim 0:
1. A method of controlling an industrial installation, the industrial installation including:
fluid cooled equipment;
a cooling fluid circuit, thermally communicating with the fluid cooled equipment, and having a conduit having a free-surfaceless flow of cooling fluid therealong;
a fluid leak detection system comprising an acoustic emitter, positioned at a first location along said conduit;
an acoustic sensor positioned at a second location along said conduit spaced from said first location; and
an installation processor electronically communicating with the acoustic sensor and operable to output control signals to control at least one operating parameter of the industrial installation,
the acoustic emitter operable to output and propagate at least one output acoustic signal along said free-surfaceless flow, the at least one acoustic signal including one or more preselected baseline frequency components;
the acoustic sensor operable to receive and sense the at least one output acoustic signal to detect a change in at least one said preselected baseline frequency component or a harmonic frequency correlated to the at least one preselected baseline frequency component,
the method comprising:
outputting from the acoustic emitter at least one said acoustic signal, so as to propagate along said conduit, the output acoustic signal including at least one preselected baseline frequency components having at least one frequency or frequency band detectable by the acoustic sensor,
the baseline frequency component being selected whereby a conduit fluid leak results in a threshold change in the at least one frequency or frequency band,
with the acoustic sensor, detecting the output acoustic signal; and
wherein on identifying the threshold change in the frequency or frequency band in the detected acoustic signal, outputting at least one said control signal from said installation processor to control at least one said operating parameter; and
wherein the step of identifying the threshold change in the frequency or frequency band comprises effecting a short time Fourier Transform of the detected acoustic signal.