Compressed air leaks cause the most energy losses in industry. Up to 10% of electrical energy is used there just to generate compressed air. On average, 30 percent of this is lost due to leaks. This makes it all the more important to find leaks, evaluate losses and initiate maintenance measures as a result. The goal of the sUSe project was therefore to develop a solution for compressed air systems that can be permanently integrated or retrofitted, which simplifies repair and maintenance decisions and significantly increases energy efficiency.

Monitoring of compressed air systems with distributed ultrasonic and volume flow sensors

To achieve this, the partners have developed a holistic monitoring system consisting of several networked and permanently installable ultrasonic and volume flow sensors distributed throughout a compressed air system, which can be used to monitor and evaluate the energy efficiency of the compressed air systems.

On the one hand, the volume flow, i.e. the integral quantity of compressed air, is measured with corresponding sensors at various points in the system and related to the quantity that is fed into the compressed air system. On the other hand, leaks are acoustically located and evaluated by the ultrasonic sensors also distributed in the compressed air system and from their arrangement to each other. From the combined data of the total volume flow and identified leakage points, the proportions of the leakages in the compressed air loss can be precisely assigned.

IMMS contribution: Electronic platform, signal processing and communication

IMMS developed and implemented the digital processing of the sensor data on an electronic platform and developed a scalable and high-performance system for this purpose. This platform is used for each measuring point of the monitoring system.

To be able to adapt the sensors very flexibly for customer-specific tasks without having to make changes to the hardware, IMMS developed the components for signal processing with a model-based design technology and configured the application algorithms for integration into the electronic components (FPGA) on this basis.

To ensure that the platform is also compatible with future requirements and can be integrated into maintenance systems, IMMS implemented appropriate communication interfaces and protocols and established the corresponding communications capability of the wireless sensors.