Modelling and optimization of the force sensor network

The power boiler erection process requires temporary suspending of buckstays (Fig. 1). The aim of buckstays installation is to brace screens of combustion chamber. Suspending of buckstays is performed by means of strand jacks and steel rods. The amount, location and force ranges of each rods are modelled on the basis of static structural strength computations. In the paper the force sensor network incorporated into computer and wireless communication system designed to prevent overloading of the rods resulting from force asymmetry or computational faults is introduced and next subjected to optimization procedure. The operational data delivered by the network and recorded on the system hard drives let the authors perform the correlation analysis and linear regression to reduce the number of sensors. Thus two stage hierarchic algorithm which constructs the set of models for every single sensor and estimates their parameters, and then using genetic procedure minimizes a certain loss function to automate the sensor network optimization process is introduced. As a result, such investigation could significantly reduce cost of the whole system.