Visual Flame Monitoring System Based on Two-Color Method

Monitoring and control of combustion flames in utility boilers are required in order to optimize combustion conditions.This paper presents an instrumentation system for the concurrent measurement of the temperature distributionand soot concentration of flames developed on the two-color principle. This system consists of an endoscope,an optical assembly with optical filters, a CCD camera, a frame grabber and associated image processingsoftware. Experiments are performed on a methane-air combustor and the temperature fields and the soot concentrationscorresponding to the flame images are obtained. The results have demonstrated that the system is capableof performing on-line measurement of flame and temperature distribution, providing temporal and spatial characterizationof the combustion process. In addition, the combination of advanced optical sensing and digital imageprocessing technique can help to define the threshold by the analysis of the background noise. Furthermore, theutilization of the filter technique can enhance the image presentation effect to an extent.