Abstract: A system for use in ac to ac or dc to ac power conversion equipment to detect faults in an inverter when the inverter is in a high impedance mode. The system detects ground faults or cross wiring conditions by converting the inverter outputs to digital signals and evaluating the frequencies of the resulting signals. The system keeps the inverter in the high impedance mode until after it has been determined that neither of the described abnormal statuses exist. The system tests for both of the abnormal statuses on power up and thereafter tests only for a ground fault whenever the inverter switches are disabled.

Abstract: A method and apparatus and for detecting faults in components of a continuous process such as a steam generator. A model of the process is developed using a modeling technique such as advanced pattern recognition and the model is used to generate predicted values for a predetermined number of the operating parameters of the process. Statistical process control methods are used to determine if the difference between the predicted and actual measured values for one or more of the parameters exceeds a configured statistical limit. A rule set is used to indicate an actual or probable fault in a component of the continuous process.

Abstract: A new way of applying the compartmental approach to the simulation of multi-stage separation processes in the process industry leads to more robust simulation models and higher success rate. The new approach makes use of steady-state component balances, constant vapor-liquid equilibrium ratios, and initialization models. Guidelines are provided for creating a computer executable regular model of the multi-stage separation process. Guidelines are also provided for creating a computer executable model that solves the problem of initialization failure of the regular model for the process.

Abstract: A technique for dynamically determining the occurrence of a high impedance fault (HIF) independent of load. An HIF algorithm provides the energy value for a given number of samples of the input signal that is phase (load) currents and/or neutral (residual) current. The input signal energy value is multiplied by a factor that ranges from about 110% to about 300% to calculate a threshold energy value and the result of that calculation is stored in a buffer. A HIF detection signal is generated when the energy value determined for samples of the input signal that are the same in number as the given number of samples and taken after the given number of samples is greater than an energy value derived from a predetermined number of the calculated threshold energy values.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for detecting and automatically identifying defects in technical equipment, is disclosed. Measurement signals varying in time are downloaded as spectrograms to a computer memory. Using a predetermined criteria a set of designated peak values is created. Using another predetermined criteria the set of designated peak values is divided into two subsets. Then in one of the subsets, peak groups differing from each other by the basic frequency values are distinguished. The second subset, created from the set of designated peak values, is searched for the presence of sidebands for peaks from each specified peak group and if the sidebands are present the basic frequency of the sidebands is calculated. Then the existence of a defect in the technical equipment is detected, and identified by comparing the basic frequencies and the basic frequencies of the sidebands with the frequency values collected in the computer memory.

Abstract: An apparatus, system, and method for detecting high impedance faults in electrical power lines using a composite high impedance fault detection system having a voter logic that samples the logical outputs from a plurality of independent high impedance detection systems and determines a high impedance fault if any two of the plurality of independent high impedance detection systems indicates a high impedance fault. Preferably, the plurality of high impedance detection systems include a wavelet based high impedance fault detection system having a first logical output, a higher order statistics based high impedance fault detection system having a second logical output, and a neural net based high impedance fault detection system having a third logical output. Preferably, each of the plurality of high impedance fault detection systems includes an independent high impedance fault detection application that independently detects a high impedance fault on the electrical power line.

Abstract: A device for suspension of a sample body which rotates in space about a rotation axis which is in a fixed position or is related to a fixed position, as a function of the intensity of a measurement effect. In order to ensure that a sample mass is mounted in the device securely and such that it can rotate very largely without any lateral movement, the suspension, which has at least two springs, for the sample body is designed to be planar in a rest position.

Abstract: An induction heating device or work coil for heating electroconductive material to a desired temperature that can be used on a roll or cylinder of any diameter. The work coil has an open core of ferrite material shaped in a U. Wire is wound around the opposing legs of the U so that on excitation one leg becomes the N pole and the other leg becomes the S pole and the polarity alternates as the polarity of the excitation current alternates. A substantially thin rectangular flat layer of ferrite can be attached to ends of each pole piece. Each layer of ferrite has having a length sufficient to cover bottom end of each leg and a width in the direction of an axis perpendicular to the face of the U that corresponds to the width of the desired control heating effect.

Abstract: There is described a method and apparatus for controlling the combustion by-product formation rate in at least one burner of a fossil fuel fired power plant. The burner has an associated flame scanner which is focused on a small area of the burner flame to obtain an image signal of the flame. A flame signal that represents properties of temporal combustion in the visible light spectrum of the burner is generated from the image signal. Combustion turbulence at the burner is analyzed from the flame signal by a dynamic invariant that has a relationship to the combustion by-product values and different combustion by-product levels at the burner and the combustion turbulence is correlated to the combustion by-product formation rate at the burner. The method and apparatus can also be used to correlated the combustion turbulence at a multiplicity of burners to the associated combustion by-product formation rate.

Abstract: A technique to optimize both the production schedule and the maintenance of plant assets based on predetermined criteria which may be economic or otherwise. In one embodiment the technique receives at least one maintenance trigger (MT) and one production order and evaluates those inputs to propose one or more solutions for the joint scheduling of the asset maintenance and required plant production. In another embodiment a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) acquires a new MT and proposes a new maintenance schedule. The technique transmits a blocking order to a production scheduling (PS) system for converting the maintenance request into a production schedule. In another embodiment, a CMMS acquires a new MT and asks for confirmation of a time slot to perform the maintenance action. The technique evaluates the priorities and finds based on the predetermined criteria the right time slot and communicates a request for that slot to the PS.

Abstract: A control system for a centrifuge that allows the centrifuge to continue to run when there is a short duration failure or outage of the AC power source. The control system allows the centrifuge to be brought to a stop in a normal shutdown mode where there are longer duration failures or outages of the AC power source. This allows power to be maintained to the pump that lubricates the centrifuge bearings so that the bearings are lubricated during the coast down of the centrifuge and the differential speed of the centrifuge to be controlled during coast down allowing the centrifuge bowl to be cleared of solids so that the centrifuge can be immediately started up at lower vibration levels once power is restored.

Abstract: The connection of serial bus systems which are known per se, but have no system-integrated redundancy apparatus, to one another by means of bus lines of redundant design, is accomplished by a redundancy apparatus which can be connected upstream is connected between the bus communications interface of a bus subscriber and the redundant bus lines. In this case, during operation, transmission always takes place on all the bus lines, and a fault-free bus line is selected at the receiving end. The redundancy apparatus has an evaluation stage that determines criteria of a data stream other than the presence or absence of data for a period of time and the content of said data stream for selecting one of the bus lines as the receiving line based on the criteria.

Abstract: Non-linear inductor(s) are used to reduce the percent total harmonic distortion of the harmonics in the line currents in the input side rectifier system of an ac drive system. Several constructions for the non-linear inductor(s) are described. The non-linear inductor(s) may be constructed from E and I laminations. The gap depends on the construction of the middle leg of the E laminations and may have a step with a constant spacing or a variable spacing which depends on the stacking of the laminations. Alternatively the non-linear inductor(s) may be constructed from a toriodal core that either has a step gap or a variable type gap.

Abstract: An apparatus and method to use steam to atomize water to produce a mixture of moisture and heat for application to the web of a paper machine for both production improvement and paper quality control. The method allows independent droplet size and heat control in the mixture, resulting in flexibility that can not be offered by conventional steam showers or water spray systems individually. In one embodiment the apparatus consists of a plurality of actuator nozzle modules which control the water volume flow feeding the nozzle through a pneumatic pressure signal. Pressurized steam feeding the nozzle is used to break the water into fine droplets. The resulting nozzle spray is a mixture of moisture in fine water droplets and steam vapor, and heat stored in the steam. Alternatively, a plurality of steam valves can be used to regulate the steam volume flow feeding each atomizing nozzle.

Abstract: An image analysis method designed to identify images in a sequence of images that are statistically different in a pre-selected region of interest. The method is suitable when there is no a priori knowledge of the nature of the interesting images. A reference image is used to identify specific regions of the image that may contain interesting changes (Detect Zone), that will not have interesting changes, but can be used to assess image quality (Veto zone), and an unanalyzed region (Ignore zone). To improve the spatial sensitivity, the Detect and Veto zones can be divided into specific cells. The analysis may also be performed on compressed data and another method automatically classifies a cell as either in the Detect zone or Ignore zone. The sensitivity can be further improved by removing periodic feature variation prior to the statistics calculation.

Abstract: Non-linear inductor(s) are used to reduce the percent total harmonic distortion of the harmonics in the line currents in the input side rectifier system of an ac drive system. Several constructions for the non-linear inductor(s) are described. The non-linear inductor(s) may be constructed from E and I laminations. The gap depends on the construction of the middle leg of the E laminations and may have a step with a constant spacing or a variable spacing which depends on the stacking of the laminations. Alternatively the non-linear inductor(s) may be constructed from a toriodal core that either has a step gap or a variable type gap.

Abstract: A method for generating application-specific input files for applications that require input files in varying file formats, where data for specifying industrial equipment are stored in a database of a computer system as XML-formatted files, which are based on a class model, and a modular transformation into at least one application-specific input file takes place. One or more of the XML files are loaded into a memory, decoded, interpreted and verified—particularly with regard to semantics and consistency. In the absence of an error specifications of objects of the industrial equipment are generated in XML format based on the verified XML files by using an interface containing descriptions of the functionality of the respective applications. The at least one application-specific file is generated via canonical transformation from the generated object specifications in XML presentation.

Abstract: A three-stream atomizing nozzle that has an air stream divider that separates the atomizing air from the source into three streams. The first stream is a straight air stream staying closest to and around the atomized water jet. The second stream is a swirl running around the first straight stream. The third stream is also a straight stream that wraps around the first straight stream and the second swirl. The nozzle also has a mixing chamber in which the three air streams are mixed together for the atomizing purpose. From the combination of the three air streams the nozzle can produce fine water droplets that are suitable for many uses and more importantly creates a tailorable water mass profile. The mass profile can be tailored into a shape that is close to a square shape which creates minimal coupling between adjacent zones.