{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T02:45:42Z","timestamp":1760150742405,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":35,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,12,27]],"date-time":"2023-12-27T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1703635200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000015","name":"Department of Energy (DOE)","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["DE-FE0031765"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["DE-FE0031765"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000015","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The growth of renewable energy sources presents a pressing challenge to the operation and maintenance of existing fossil fuel power plants, given that fossil fuel remains the predominant fuel source, responsible for over 60% of electricity generation in the United States. One of the main concerns within these fossil fuel power plants is the unpredictable failure of boiler tubes, resulting in emergency maintenance with significant economic and societal consequences. A reliable high-temperature sensor is necessary for in situ monitoring of boiler tubes and the safety of fossil fuel power plants. In this study, a comprehensive four-stage multi-physics computational framework is developed to assist the design, optimization installation, and operation of the high-temperature stainless-steel and quartz coaxial cable sensor (SSQ-CCS) for coal-fired boiler applications. With the consideration of various operation conditions, we predict the distributions of flue gas temperatures within coal-fired boilers, the temperature correlation between the boiler tube and SSQ-CCS, and the safety of SSQ-CCS. With the simulation-guided sensor installation plan, the newly designed SSQ-CCSs have been employed for field testing for more than 430 days. The computational framework developed in this work can guide the future operation of coal-fired plants and other power plants for the safety prediction of boiler operations.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s24010154","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,12,27]],"date-time":"2023-12-27T07:45:32Z","timestamp":1703663132000},"page":"154","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Four-Stage Multi-Physics Simulations to Assist Temperature Sensor Design for Industrial-Scale Coal-Fired Boiler"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"24","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2005-0115","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Tanuj","family":"Gupta","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Mechanical Engineering, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6306-4947","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mahabubur","family":"Rahman","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Mechanical Engineering, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Xinyu","family":"Jiao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9191-5596","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yongji","family":"Wu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Chethan K.","family":"Acharya","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Southern Company, Birmingham, AL 35203, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Dock R.","family":"Houston","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Machining and Technical Services, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Susan","family":"Maley","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Electric Power Research Institute, Charlotte, NC 28262, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Junhang","family":"Dong","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Hai","family":"Xiao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9714-4515","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Huijuan","family":"Zhao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Mechanical Engineering, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,12,27]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"(2023, September 20). What Is U.S. Electricity Generation by Energy Source, Available online: https:\/\/www.eia.gov\/tools\/faqs\/faq.php?id=427&t=3."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"320","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ijthermalsci.2018.03.005","article-title":"Numerical simulation of convective superheaters in steam boilers","volume":"129","author":"Taler","year":"2018","journal-title":"Int. J. Therm. Sci."},{"key":"ref_3","unstructured":"Bozzuto, C. (2009). Clean Combustion Technologies, Alstom. [5th ed.]."},{"key":"ref_4","unstructured":"(1995). Predicting Generating Unit Reliability, North American Electric Reliability Council."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"83","DOI":"10.1134\/S0040601517020082","article-title":"Review of the coal-fired, over-supercritical and ultra-supercritical steam power plants","volume":"64","author":"Tumanovskii","year":"2017","journal-title":"Ther. Eng."},{"key":"ref_6","unstructured":"Nalbandian-Sugden, H. (2016). Operating Ratio and Cost of Coal Power Generation, IEA Clean Coal Centre."},{"key":"ref_7","unstructured":"Black, J. (2013). Cost and Performance Baseline for Fossil Energy Plants, Volume 1: Bituminous Coal and Natural Gas to Electricity, U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Scientific and Technical Information. DOE\/NETL-2010\/1397."},{"key":"ref_8","first-page":"16","article-title":"The cost of cycling coal fired power plants","volume":"2006","author":"Lefton","year":"2006","journal-title":"Coal Power Mag."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2031","DOI":"10.1016\/j.engfailanal.2008.12.006","article-title":"Failure analysis of a boiler tube in USC coal power plant","volume":"16","author":"Lee","year":"2009","journal-title":"Eng. Fail. Anal."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1490","DOI":"10.1016\/j.engfailanal.2010.05.005","article-title":"Root cause failure analysis of a division wall superheater tube of a coal-fired power station","volume":"17","author":"Rahman","year":"2010","journal-title":"Eng. Fail. Anal."},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"40","DOI":"10.1016\/S0924-4247(99)00368-4","article-title":"Fiber optic sensor technology: An overview","volume":"82","author":"Grattan","year":"2000","journal-title":"Sens. Actuators A Phys."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Yin, S., Ruffin, P.B., and Francis, T.S. (2017). Fiber Optic Sensors, CRC Press. [2nd ed.].","DOI":"10.1201\/9781420053661"},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Krohn, D.A., MacDougall, T., and Mendez, A. (2015). Fiber Optic Sensors: Fundamentals and Applications, SPIE Press. [4th ed.].","DOI":"10.1117\/3.1002910"},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"49","DOI":"10.1016\/j.fuel.2018.11.008","article-title":"Coupled modeling of combustion and hydrodynamics for a coal-fired supercritical boiler","volume":"240","author":"Chen","year":"2019","journal-title":"Fuel"},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"114057","DOI":"10.1016\/j.applthermaleng.2019.114057","article-title":"CFD study of pulverized coal-fired boiler evaporator and radiant superheaters at varying loads","volume":"160","author":"Laubscher","year":"2019","journal-title":"Appl. Therm. Eng."},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"100512","DOI":"10.1016\/j.tsep.2020.100512","article-title":"Coupled simulation and validation of a utility-scale pulverized coal-fired boiler radiant final-stage superheater","volume":"18","author":"Laubscher","year":"2020","journal-title":"Ther. Sci. Eng. Prog."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"90","DOI":"10.1016\/j.applthermaleng.2012.03.015","article-title":"CFD based prediction of erosion rate in large scale wall-fired boiler","volume":"42","author":"Gandhi","year":"2012","journal-title":"Appl. Ther. Eng."},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2001","DOI":"10.1016\/j.fuel.2010.01.036","article-title":"Coupled fluid dynamics and whole plant simulation of coal combustion in a tangentially-fired boiler","volume":"89","author":"Park","year":"2010","journal-title":"Fuel"},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"149","DOI":"10.1016\/j.fuel.2014.01.032","article-title":"Coupled simulation of a tangentially hard coal fired 700 C boiler","volume":"122","author":"Schuhbauer","year":"2014","journal-title":"Fuel"},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"87","DOI":"10.1016\/j.applthermaleng.2019.03.074","article-title":"Numerical investigation of combustion optimization in a tangential firing boiler considering steam tube overheating","volume":"154","author":"Yu","year":"2019","journal-title":"Appl. Ther. Eng."},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"854","DOI":"10.1016\/j.applthermaleng.2018.10.063","article-title":"Mathematical procedure for predicting tube metal temperature in the second stage reheater of the operating flexibly steam boiler","volume":"146","author":"Szczepanek","year":"2019","journal-title":"Appl. Ther. Eng."},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"92","DOI":"10.1016\/j.applthermaleng.2017.07.121","article-title":"Numerical and experimental study on biased tube temperature problem in tangential firing boiler","volume":"126","author":"Akkinepally","year":"2017","journal-title":"Appl. Ther. Eng."},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"117423","DOI":"10.1016\/j.energy.2020.117423","article-title":"CFD analysis of steam superheater operation in steady and transient state","volume":"199","author":"Granda","year":"2020","journal-title":"Energy"},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"929","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2018.01.119","article-title":"Numerical simulation of the heat transfer of superheater tubes in power plants considering oxide scale","volume":"122","author":"Qi","year":"2018","journal-title":"Int. J. Heat Mass Transf."},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2537","DOI":"10.1002\/apj.2537","article-title":"A thermal stress analysis of fluid\u2013structure interaction applied to boiler water wall","volume":"15","author":"Zhang","year":"2020","journal-title":"Asia-Pac. J. Chem. Eng."},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1016\/j.engfailanal.2014.10.012","article-title":"One-way fluid structure interaction modelling methodology for boiler tube fatigue failure","volume":"48","author":"Botha","year":"2015","journal-title":"Eng. Fail. Anal."},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"131","DOI":"10.1016\/j.enconman.2013.03.025","article-title":"Analysis of temperature and stress distribution of superheater tubes after attemperation or sootblower activation","volume":"71","author":"Madejski","year":"2013","journal-title":"Energy Convers. Manag."},{"key":"ref_28","unstructured":"Jiao, X., Wu, Y., Zhu, X., Rahman, M., Gupta, T., Gravley, D., Houston, D., Acharya, C., Nguyen, T., and Maley, S. (2022, January 19\u201322). Distributed Coaxial Cable Sensors for In-Situ Condition Based Monitoring of Coal-Fired Boiler Tubes. Proceedings of the 39th Annual International Pittsburgh Coal Conference, Clean Coal-Based Energy\/Fuels and the Environment, International Pittsburgh Coal Conference, Online."},{"key":"ref_29","unstructured":"(2013). ANSYS CFX-Solver Modeling Guide, ANSYS."},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Gupta, T., Rahman, M., Acharya, C.K., Maley, S., Dong, J., Houston, D.R., Xiao, H., and Zhao, H. (2021, January 1\u20135). Full Scale 3D Computational Model of the Industrial-Scale Coal Fired Boiler Performance for Temperature Sensor Installation Guidance. Proceedings of the ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, V012T12A043, Online.","DOI":"10.1115\/IMECE2021-73399"},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"719","DOI":"10.1016\/S0082-0784(77)80366-4","article-title":"On mathematical modeling of turbulent combustion with special emphasis on soot formation and combustion","volume":"16","author":"Magnussen","year":"1977","journal-title":"Symp. (Int.) Combust."},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"269","DOI":"10.1080\/10407799308914901","article-title":"Computation of radiant heat transfer on a nonorthogonal mesh using the finite-volume method","volume":"23","author":"Chui","year":"1993","journal-title":"Numer. Heat Transf."},{"key":"ref_33","unstructured":"Patankar, S.V., and Spalding, D.B. (1983). Numerical Prediction of Flow, Heat Transfer, Turbulence and Combustion, Elsevier."},{"key":"ref_34","unstructured":"(2022, February 05). Defense Technical Information Center. Available online: https:\/\/discover.dtic.mil\/."},{"key":"ref_35","unstructured":"(2022, February 05). Air-Thermal Conductivity vs. Temperature and Pressure. Available online: https:\/\/www.engineeringtoolbox.com\/air-properties-viscosity-conductivity-heat-capacity-d_1509.html."}],"container-title":["Sensors"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/24\/1\/154\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,10]],"date-time":"2025-10-10T21:42:45Z","timestamp":1760132565000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/24\/1\/154"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2023,12,27]]},"references-count":35,"journal-issue":{"issue":"1","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,1]]}},"alternative-id":["s24010154"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/s24010154","relation":{},"ISSN":["1424-8220"],"issn-type":[{"type":"electronic","value":"1424-8220"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2023,12,27]]}}}