Research on stress monitoring technology for pressure bearing components of power plant boilers based on digital twin platform

Power plant boilers and steam generators constitute the core equipment of thermal power plants. Power plant boilers contain numerous pressure-bearing special equipment components. Due to factors such as working conditions and service life, some pressure-bearing components, such as steam drums and boiler drums, require careful maintenance and inspection by the user. The digital twin platform utilizes visual reality simulation monitoring to transfer special equipment from offline to online within the power plant boiler system. Given the numerous pressure vessels within the boiler system, a significant amount of manpower and resources are required for inspection and testing. However, the digital twin platform enables real-time online detection of special equipment, including boilers, pressure vessels, and pressure pipelines, utilizing feedback data from sensors such as stress, pressure, and temperature. This facilitates online safety assessments and life predictions for these devices. During a routine internal inspection of a 130t/h power plant boiler at a thermal power plant, potential defects in the steam drum were identified based on stress change data feedback from the platform. Subsequently, surface non-destructive testing was conducted on the equipment, revealing a significant circular defect at the longitudinal circumferential weld joint of the steam drum. Research was conducted on the causes of this defect and stress changes, resulting in a proposed solution.