NON-INVASIVE WIRELESS REMOTE MONITORING METHOD(S) FOR MEASURING, PREDICTING AND QUANTIFYING VALVE POSITION, TRAVEL, CAVITATION, FLASHING, EROSION, LEAKAGE AND MECHANICAL FAILURE

PROCEDE DE SURVEILLANCE A DISTANCE SANS FIL NON INVASIF PERMETTANT DE MESURER, DE PREDIRE ET DE QUANTIFIER LA POSITION, LA COURSE, LA CAVITATION, LA VAPORISATION INSTANTANEE, L`EROSION, LA FUITE ET LA DEFAILLANCE MECANIQUE DE VANNES

English Abstract

Described are the method(s) and devices that integrate sensors, algorithms,
software applications, wireless technologies, data protocols, communication
networks, data storage, energy harvesting, computing and processing at the
device, and machine learning techniques to measure valve opening, closing
and intermediate travel statuses based on the position and/or orientation
measurements obtained wirelessly using said devices and peripherals attached
to a handwheel or lever or handle or any other mechanical linkage that is
attached to a valve stem or shaft or plug or disc or any throttling mechanism
inside a valve for the purpose of valve monitoring remotely. The wireless
valve monitoring device can be fitted as a plug-and-play attachment to any
type of valve including, but not limited to, ball, gate, plug, on/off,
butterfly,
globe, pinch, disc, angle, multi-way and any customized valve design with a
stem or shaft or plug or disc which are actuated by a handwheel or lever or
handle or any mechanical linkage. The wireless valve monitoring device can
be used to measure percentage of valve movement in sliding stem, rotary,
quarter turn or multi-turn valves which are actuated by handwheel or lever or
handle driven by manual human intervention or using a pneumatic or electric
or mechanical or electro-hydraulic mechanism. In addition to the valve travel,
the device uses a combination of sensor data and machine learning algorithms
to non-invasively measure, predict and quantify mechanical failures that are
detrimental to valves such as valve cavitation, erosion, flashing, clearance
leakages, hydraulic shocks, hydrodynamic/aerodynamic noise, stiction,
hysteresis, hammering, slamming, leakage through packing-valve
body/bonnet, pipeline induced vibration, and actuator air leakages. Valve
travel, communication status, and valve mechanical health are transmitted
wirelessly from the valve monitoring device over network or relay devices and
gateways to a centralized data processing hub at a remote location and alerts
can be sent to the end-users electronic communication or visualization for
further decision-making, historizing, and automation purposes.

Claims

LIST OF CLAIMS:
1. A wireless remote valve monitoring device comprising: nine-degree of
freedom
inertial measurement sensor system containing accelerometer, gyroscope and
magnetometer; computing and processing algorithms and machine learning
techniques at the device; software applications, wireless technologies, data
protocols,
relays and communication network(s), data storage and energy harvesting.
2. The wireless remote valve monitoring device of claim 1 is attached
to a handwheel or
lever or handle or any other mechanical linkage that is connected to a valve
stem or
shaft or plug or disc or any throttling mechanism inside a valve to obtain
valve
opening, closing and intermediate travel statuses.
3. The wireless remote valve monitoring device attachment described in claim 2
can be
installed in any orientation and an in-built auto calibration algorithm(s)
will be able to
scale sensor measurements accordingly.
4. The valve statuses of claim 2 are estimated from the position and/or
orientation
measurements provided by the nine-degree of freedom inertial measurement
sensor
system containing accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer described in claim
1.
5. Additional sensor nodes are placed on the pipeline either upstream or
downstream of
the valve body to identify valve mechanical problems including, but not
limited to,
valve cavitation, erosion, flashing, clearance leakages, hydraulic shocks,
hydrodynamic/aerodynamic noise, stiction, hysteresis, hammering, slamming,
leakage
through packing-valve body/bonnet, pipeline induced vibration, and actuator
air
leakages.
6. The additional sensor node(s) in claim 5 run machine learning algorithms at
the
node(s) and communicate the valve mechanical health status to wireless remote
valve
monitoring device described in claim 1.
7. The additional sensor node(s) in claim 5 complement the wireless remote
valve
monitoring device described in preceding claims and provide additional
intelligence
about the valve mechanical integrity and health.
8. The wireless remote valve monitoring device and sensor node(s) described in
preceding claims are non-intrusive and do not interfere with the mechanical
integrity
of the valve or the pipe line.
9. The wireless remote valve monitoring device and sensor node(s) described in
preceding claims fit valves and pipelines of any size, shape or form factor.
10. The wireless remote valve monitoring device and sensor node(s) described
in
preceding claims have the capability to lock the information inside the
device(s) and
node(s) when they are tampered or forcibly moved from their geo fence.
11. The wireless remote valve monitoring device and sensor node(s) described
in
preceding claims have remote alarming capability(s) and send last measured
value,
time stamp, geological coordinates, and alarm code for tampering to the remote
server
before shutting down.

12. The wireless remote valve monitoring device and sensor node(s) described
in
preceding claims have the capability(s) to disconnect automatically from all
and any
data networks and displayed in a color coded virtual representation to the end
user.
13. The wireless remote valve monitoring device and sensor node(s) described
in
preceding claims store the time stamped measurement and diagnostic data from
the
last 24 hours in an on-board non-volatile memory.
14. The wireless remote valve monitoring device and sensor node(s) described
in
preceding claims can be embedded into the valve and pipe mechanical parts
during
manufacturing and draw renewable energy from the heat or friction or vibration
of the
valve and pipeline.
15. The data from the wireless remote valve monitoring device and sensor
node(s)
described in preceding claims can be used to build inferential models and
calculations
for estimating the flow rate through the pipeline.
16. The data from the wireless remote valve monitoring device and sensor
node(s)
described in preceding claims can be used for detecting pipe flow conditions
such as
stratification, laminar vs turbulence flow and presence of air in the
pipelines.
DEFINITIONS(S):
Geo-fence: a virtual geographic boundary, defined by GPS or RFID technology,
which
enables software to trigger a response when a mobile device enters or leaves a
particular area.
11

Description

FIELD OF INVENTION:
This invention relates to remote wireless monitoring, controlling and
maintenance operations related to any type of valve including, but not limited
to, ball, gate, plug, on/off, butterfly, globe, pinch, disc, angle, control
valve,
multi-way and any customized valve design. In particular, this invention
relates to remote monitoring of domestic, commercial and industrial
operations, which use multiple types and sizes of valves. Some of the remote
monitoring applications include, but not limited to, oil and gas, mining,
pipeline, energy, chemical, construction, oilsands, refinery, power, offshore
petroleum, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, food, water and waste, textiles,
commercial facilities, utilities, paper and pulp, building automation,
tankage,
and transportation.
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BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS:
Figure.] illustrates how the wireless remote valve monitoring device can be
installed or
placed or used as a plug and play attachment on a handwheel or lever or handle
or
any mechanical linkage connected to a valve stem or disc or plug or throttling
mechanism inside a valve.
Figure.2 illustrates the various electronic and computational blocks inside
the wireless remote
valve monitoring device and additional modules that compute valve position,
travel,
and mechanical health information of the valve.
Figure.3 is an illustrating of how the information from the wireless remote
valve monitoring
device is delivered to control systems, enterprise, end-user, and mobile
operator
using wireless networks, on premise, cloud, application software and mobile
applications.
Figure.4 is an embodiment of a graphical user interface used by the end-user
to monitor valve
position, travel and health metrics
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SUMMARY:
Valve travel and/or position of a manual valve or automated control valve is a
significant
measurement variable for process control, automation, and alarming in various
industrial
operations including, but not limited to, oil and gas, mining, pipeline,
energy, chemical,
textiles, commercial facilities, construction sites, power, offshore
petroleum, petrochemical,
pharmaceutical, food, water and waste, utilities, paper and pulp, building
automation,
tankage, and transportation. Prior art methods used to measure valve travel
and/or position
involved installing commercially available valve position transmitters that
require special
mounting brackets and physical mechanical linkages to the valve throttling
components such
as stem/shaft/plug/disc making it an expensive solution for installation on
several manual
valves seen in industries. As these prior art methods require mechanical
linkages to the
throttling components of the valves in order to detect valve travel, any new
installation
required taking the valve offline resulting in process outage and disruption
to the business.
Some of the practical issues with these prior art methods include, but not
limited to,
inefficiency with different mounting brackets and mechanical linkages for
various types of
valves and sizes, existing valve body/bonnet modifications, and external power
requirements
making it less economical and impractical for an end-user using prior art
methods.
In this invention, we are proposing a wireless remote valve monitoring device
100 that can
measure valve travel or position using a novel, non-invasive method without
any
modifications to the existing valve and actuator assembly. Using a plug-and-
play concept, the
wireless remote valve monitoring device 100 can be attached seamlessly to a
handwheel or
lever or handle or any other mechanical linkage that is attached to a valve
stem or shaft or
plug or disc or any throttling mechanism inside a valve. Referring to
Figure.1, the wireless
remote valve monitoring device 100 can be installed in different orientations
depending upon
the mechanical properties of the handwheel such as size, radius, and
flexibility. 101, and 102
shows the placement of the wireless remote valve monitoring device 100 on the
rim and the
centre of the handwheel. Placement 103 shows how the wireless remote valve
monitoring
device 100 can be installed and attached to the circumference providing the
installation
flexibility the end-user. Similarly, placement 104 and 105 illustrates how the
wireless remote
valve monitoring device 100 can be seamlessly attached to a handle or a centre
locknut of a
valve stem associated with various types of valve configurations.
Referring to Figure.2, the wireless remote valve monitoring device 100 moves
along with the
handwheel as the user turns the handwheel to open or close a valve. Device 100
runs an on-
board proprietary machine learning algorithm along with error detection and
drift
compensation to estimate valve position and /or travel. Embodiment 111
illustrates
components that implement estimation algorithms to predict valve movement
statuses such as
close, open, travelling, and percentage travel. Embodiment 111 also
illustrates how the
wireless remote valve monitoring device 100 is powered by a hybrid power
source that uses a
combination of energy harvesting and battery onboard. Embodiment 111 also
shows
components such as radio, self-calibration and reset routines, variables such
as temperature,
pressure, humidity, acoustic, acceleration, gyro, and magnetometer that are
required to
estimate valve statuses and the mechanism to transmit the information over
wireless networks
to an end-user. An on-demand light indicator and is present in the device 100
that flashes if
the end-user wants to identify the valve under low-light conditions. A
proximity sensor is
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also present in the wireless remote valve monitoring device 100 that can be
enabled to detect
any disturbance to the valve or handwheel by un-authorized personnel.
Additional sensor nodes 107, 108 are placed on the pipeline either upstream or
downstream
of the valve body. These additional sensor nodes run proprietary digital
processing
algorithms to identify valve mechanical problems including, but not limited
to, valve
cavitation, erosion, flashing, clearance leakages,
hydraulic .. shocks,
hydrodynamic/aerodynamic noise, stiction, hysteresis, hammering, slamming,
leakage
through packing-valve body/bonnet, pipeline induced vibration, and actuator
air leakages.
The sensor node(s) 107, 108 periodically runs machine learning algorithms at
the node(s) and
communicate the valve mechanical health status to wireless remote valve
monitoring device
100 which further transmits the valve travel, communication status, and valve
mechanical
health to a remote end-user. Embodiment 112 shows various components that
constitute the
add-on module(s) for additional intelligence about the valve mechanical
integrity and health.
Referring to Figure.3, the embodiment shows how the valve travel,
communication status,
and valve mechanical health are transmitted from the proposed wireless remote
valve
monitoring device 100 over a wireless network(s) 113, 114 to a centralized
data processing
hub at a remote location 117 and alerts can be sent to the end-users for
further decision-
making, historizing, and automation. The embodiment also shows how a mobile
operator can
walk next to the valve to receive valve travel, communication status, and
valve mechanical
health wirelessly on their smart phone or tablet application 115. The mobile
operator 115 can
also securely update the software of the device 100 standing in the vicinity
of the valve.
Device 100 has an onboard non-volatile storage that stores 24 hours of data
related to valve
travel, communication status, and valve mechanical health which the mobile
operator 115 can
download wirelessly to his phone, tablet or a wireless laptop. The mobile
operator can ping
the device 100 from their smart phone or tablet to identify a valve using the
on-demand light
indication present in device 100. Any personnel 118 driving by the valve and
wireless remote
valve monitoring device 100 can also download valve travel, communication
status, and
valve mechanical health wirelessly on their smart phone or tablet
applications. Remote end-
user(s) 117 can view the valve travel, communication status, and valve
mechanical health on
their console. 116 illustrates a typical dashboard that shows valve travel,
communication
status, and valve mechanical health. The end user(s) can further expand data
of various
variables to further analyse the valve travel, communication status, and valve
mechanical
health as shown in 118. In addition to the live display, all the valve travel,
communication
status, and valve mechanical health are stored onsite and cloud for future
retrieval and
decision making.
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Representative Drawing