This paper documents the design of an acoustic horn and development of internet of things (IoT) model for acoustic maintenance of boilers. The aim was to design an acoustic horn cleaner which use acoustic energy or sound waves to blast off particles build-up from the boiler tubes while the boiler is operating. AutoCAD Invertor 2021 was used to generate a modelled acoustic horn which was then simulated using real life forces, pressures and temperatures encountered in the operation of the boilers. Different sources were also used to develop an Internet of Things model. The application of the acoustic cleaner is in a boiler which is a critical environment with an approximate pressure of 552 kPa and a maximum temperature of 300 °C. Stress (static ad transient dynamic) and thermal analysis simulations were conducted on the critical components of the design using Ansys R2 student version. The deflection of the diaphragm was determined under the action of maximum pressure supplied by the compressed air to deflect to approximately 0.546 m without restrictions., However, in actual sense the Diaphragm deformation is restricted by the Housing and thus, excessive deformation above 100mm of the diaphragm is unlikely. The endcap of the housing has a deflection allowance of 80mm which is enough for the membrane to vibrate at natural frequency of 75.322 Hz. An IoT model was developed for remote access to the developed acoustic cleaning system. The developed IoT boiler maintenance model is also known as a smart boiler model.

Keywords

Acoustic horn cleaner; Internet of Things; boiler maintenance; deflection; critical environment.

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Mr. Sbusiso Nelson Dhludhlu