An Unsupervised Classification Method for Flame Image of Pulverized Coal Combustion Based on Convolutional Auto-Encoder and Hidden Markov Model

Combustion condition monitoring is a fundamental and critical issue that needs to be addressed in the wide-load operation of coal-fired boilers. In this paper, an unsupervised classification framework based on the convolutional auto-encoder (CAE), the principal component analysis (PCA), and the hidd...

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Main Authors: Tian Qiu, Minjian Liu, Guiping Zhou, Li Wang, Kai Gao
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2019-07-01
Series:Energies
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/13/2585
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author Tian Qiu
Minjian Liu
Guiping Zhou
Li Wang
Kai Gao
author_facet Tian Qiu
Minjian Liu
Guiping Zhou
Li Wang
Kai Gao
author_sort Tian Qiu
collection DOAJ
description Combustion condition monitoring is a fundamental and critical issue that needs to be addressed in the wide-load operation of coal-fired boilers. In this paper, an unsupervised classification framework based on the convolutional auto-encoder (CAE), the principal component analysis (PCA), and the hidden Markov model (HMM) is proposed to monitor the combustion condition with the uniformly spaced flame images, which are collected from the furnace combustion monitoring system. First, CAE is adopted to extract the features from the flame images, which obtain the sparse representations in the images. Then, PCA is applied to project the feature vectors into the orthogonal space for robustness and computation efficiency. Finally, a HMM is built to calculate the corresponding optimal states by learning the temporal behaviors in the compressed representations. A coal combustion adjustment experiment was conducted in a 660 MW opposed-firing boiler, and the sequential 14,400 flame images with three different combustion states were obtained to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. We tested six different compression dimensions of the latent variable <i>z</i> in the CAE model and ensured that the appropriate compress parameter was 1024. The proposed framework is compared with five other methods: the CAE + Gaussian mixture model (GMM), CAE + Kmean, the CAE + fuzzy c-mean method, CAE + HMM, and the traditional handcraft feature extraction method (TH) + HMM. The results show that the proposed framework has the highest classification accuracy (95.25% for the training samples and 97.36% for the testing samples) and has the best performance in recognizing the semi-stable state (85.67% for the training samples and 77.60% for the testing samples), indicating that the proposed framework is capable of identifying the combustion condition, changing when the combustion deteriorates as the coal feed rate falls.
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spelling doaj.art-c2ab93d20eb041f7b9c282b48f138ca32022-12-22T02:53:25ZengMDPI AGEnergies1996-10732019-07-011213258510.3390/en12132585en12132585An Unsupervised Classification Method for Flame Image of Pulverized Coal Combustion Based on Convolutional Auto-Encoder and Hidden Markov ModelTian Qiu0Minjian Liu1Guiping Zhou2Li Wang3Kai Gao4Beijing Key Laboratory of New Technology and System on Measuring and Control for Industrial Process, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, ChinaBeijing Key Laboratory of New Technology and System on Measuring and Control for Industrial Process, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, ChinaState Grid Liaoning Electric Power Supply Co, Ltd., Shenyang 110004, Liaoning Province, ChinaState Grid Liaoning Electric Power Supply Co, Ltd., Shenyang 110004, Liaoning Province, ChinaState Grid Liaoning Electric Power Supply Co, Ltd., Shenyang 110004, Liaoning Province, ChinaCombustion condition monitoring is a fundamental and critical issue that needs to be addressed in the wide-load operation of coal-fired boilers. In this paper, an unsupervised classification framework based on the convolutional auto-encoder (CAE), the principal component analysis (PCA), and the hidden Markov model (HMM) is proposed to monitor the combustion condition with the uniformly spaced flame images, which are collected from the furnace combustion monitoring system. First, CAE is adopted to extract the features from the flame images, which obtain the sparse representations in the images. Then, PCA is applied to project the feature vectors into the orthogonal space for robustness and computation efficiency. Finally, a HMM is built to calculate the corresponding optimal states by learning the temporal behaviors in the compressed representations. A coal combustion adjustment experiment was conducted in a 660 MW opposed-firing boiler, and the sequential 14,400 flame images with three different combustion states were obtained to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. We tested six different compression dimensions of the latent variable <i>z</i> in the CAE model and ensured that the appropriate compress parameter was 1024. The proposed framework is compared with five other methods: the CAE + Gaussian mixture model (GMM), CAE + Kmean, the CAE + fuzzy c-mean method, CAE + HMM, and the traditional handcraft feature extraction method (TH) + HMM. The results show that the proposed framework has the highest classification accuracy (95.25% for the training samples and 97.36% for the testing samples) and has the best performance in recognizing the semi-stable state (85.67% for the training samples and 77.60% for the testing samples), indicating that the proposed framework is capable of identifying the combustion condition, changing when the combustion deteriorates as the coal feed rate falls.https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/13/2585flame imagesconvolutional auto-encoderhidden Markov modelunsupervised classification
spellingShingle Tian Qiu
Minjian Liu
Guiping Zhou
Li Wang
Kai Gao
An Unsupervised Classification Method for Flame Image of Pulverized Coal Combustion Based on Convolutional Auto-Encoder and Hidden Markov Model
Energies
flame images
convolutional auto-encoder
hidden Markov model
unsupervised classification
title An Unsupervised Classification Method for Flame Image of Pulverized Coal Combustion Based on Convolutional Auto-Encoder and Hidden Markov Model
title_full An Unsupervised Classification Method for Flame Image of Pulverized Coal Combustion Based on Convolutional Auto-Encoder and Hidden Markov Model
title_fullStr An Unsupervised Classification Method for Flame Image of Pulverized Coal Combustion Based on Convolutional Auto-Encoder and Hidden Markov Model
title_full_unstemmed An Unsupervised Classification Method for Flame Image of Pulverized Coal Combustion Based on Convolutional Auto-Encoder and Hidden Markov Model
title_short An Unsupervised Classification Method for Flame Image of Pulverized Coal Combustion Based on Convolutional Auto-Encoder and Hidden Markov Model
title_sort unsupervised classification method for flame image of pulverized coal combustion based on convolutional auto encoder and hidden markov model
topic flame images
convolutional auto-encoder
hidden Markov model
unsupervised classification
url https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/13/2585
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