The potential of on-line optical flow measurement in the control and monitoring of pilot-scale oxy-coal flames

Digital image processing techniques offer a wide array of tools capable of extracting apparent displacement or velocity information from sequences of images of moving objects. Optical flow algorithms have been widely used in areas such as traffic monitoring and surveillance. The knowledge of instantaneous apparent flame velocities (however, they are defined) may prove to be valuable during the operation and control of industrial-scale burners. Optical diagnostics techniques, coupled with on-line image processing, have been applied in the optimization of coal-fired power plants; however, regardless of the available technology, the current methods do not apply optical flow measurement. Some optical flow algorithms have the potential of real-time applicability and are thus possible candidates for on-line apparent flame velocity extraction. In this paper, the potential of optical flow measurement in on-line flame monitoring and control is explored.