Method and system for detecting deposits in a vessel

• Main Authors: Hergenrother Michael Louis, Keiser Geoff, Zhang Yibing, Stober Berne K, Song Limin, Kalamaras Patricia H
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 03.10.2017
• Subjects: INVESTIGATING OR ANALYSING MATERIALS BY DETERMINING THEIRCHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES; MEASURING; MEASURING QUANTITY OF HEAT; MEASURING TEMPERATURE; PHYSICS; TESTING; THERMALLY-SENSITIVE ELEMENTS NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR

Systems and methods for detecting a deposit in a vessel with a sensing cable including an optical fiber sensor array aligned with a heating element disposed in the vessel. An excitation source is configured to propagate at least one heat pulse through the heating element along at least a portion of the sensing cable to affect an exchange of thermal energy between the heating element and media exposed to the sensing cable. An optical signal interrogator is adapted to receive a signal from a plurality of sensor locations and configured to measure, a temperature profile corresponding to the heat pulse at the sensor locations. A control unit is configured to detect a deposit by determining one or more properties of the one or more media exposed to the sensing cable at each of the plurality of sensor locations based on the temperature profile corresponding thereto.