Engineering Failure Analysis 30 (2013) 1726

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Engineering Failure Analysis

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/engfailanal

Failure detection and optimization of sugar mill boiler using

FMEA and Taguchi method
A. Mariajayaprakash a,, T. Senthilvelan b
a
b

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Rajiv Gandhi College of Engineering and Technology, Puducherry, India
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Pondicherry Engineering College, Puducherry, India

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 27 June 2012
Accepted 11 December 2012
Available online 4 January 2013
Keywords:
Boilers
FMEA
Cause and effect diagram
Taguchi method

a b s t r a c t
Sugar industry plays an important role in economic development of country. Cogeneration
is an important source of income for sugar industries. Boiler is one of the essential components used in cogeneration process. Unscheduled boiler outages in sugar mills are major
problem resulting loss of production. The boiler may be failed due to number of reasons;
some of the reasons such as mechanical failure, electrical failure and temperature sensors
failure. This paper describes the failures of the fuel feeding system frequently occurred in
the cogeneration boiler and gives the solution to rectify these failures by using three
important tools, namely, cause and effect diagram, Failure Mode and Effect Analysis and
Taguchi method.
2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
India faces a peak electric generating shortage of over 20% and an energy shortage of 12% [1]. One of the methods of savings energy in sugar mills is cogeneration [2]. India is the worlds largest producer of sugar. Boilers are used in various elds
such as garment industries, steam power plants, paper industries, and sugar mills. In sugar mills not only sugar is manufactured but also electricity is produced by cogeneration [35]. Boiler is the essential component in the sugar mills. This research work is carried out one of the sugar industry located in Tamil Nadu. The cogeneration option is adopted in the
above mentioned sugar mill. The major problem occurred in this sugar mill is frequent failure of boiler, which leads loss
of production. The main objective of this research work is to identify the failures which are frequently occurred in the boiler
and to minimize those failures. Three tools are employed to minimize the failures. The rst tool name is cause and effect
diagram or Ishikawa diagram. It helps to bring out all the parameters, which leads to failures of boiler. Then, the most signicant parameters to cause the boiler failures are identied by using Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA).
Finally, Taguchi method is employed to optimize the parameters thereby failures are minimized.
2. Boiler
Boiler is a closed vessel in which water or uid is heated under pressure. The steam or hot uid is then circulated out of
the boiler for use in various processes [6]. The boiler used in this research work is vertical, water tube, top supported, high
pressure boiler. The working pressure, generating capacity and steam temperature of this boiler are 66 kg/cm2, 75 tonnes/h,
and 485 C respectively. The main components used in cogeneration boiler are fuel feeding system, furnace, super heater,
attemperator, economizer, air preheator, FD fan, ID fan and dust collector [7]. The fuel feeding system consists of storage
Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 9786022257.
E-mail address: jayaprakashrgcet@gmail.com (A. Mariajayaprakash).
1350-6307/$ - see front matter 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.engfailanal.2012.12.010

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A. Mariajayaprakash, T. Senthilvelan / Engineering Failure Analysis 30 (2013) 1726

Nomenclature
r
yi
DOE

number of tests in a trial

response value of observation in the ith test
design of experiments
m
degrees of freedom
mA
degrees of freedom for factor A
kA
number of levels for factor A
mrequired total degrees of freedom required
mLN
total degrees of freedom of the available orthogonal array
N
number of trials
ANOVA analysis of variance
M
overall mean percentage defects
VFactor
variance of factor
SS
sum of square
expected amount of variation
V0
P
percent contribution
l
mean
a
level of risk
me
degrees of freedom for the error
Ve
error variance
F(a, 1, me)
F ratio required at the level of risk
geff
effective number of replications
n
total number of experiments
CI
condence interval
T
average values of defects at different levels

bunker(silo), drum feeder and screw conveyor. The drum feeder and screw conveyor combination is intended to feed controlled and varied quantity of fuel to the boiler from the storage bunker.
The drum feeder extracts bagasse from the storage bunker and the quantity extracted is proportional to the speed of rotation of the drum. The extracted bagasse is fed to the screw conveyor which transports the same longitudinally and feeds into
the chute connecting the conveyor and pneumatic distributor. There are four such assemblies per boiler. In the above mentioned cogeneration boiler, failures were frequently being occurred in the fuel feeding system. Hence the important components and fuel are described.
2.1. Fuel
The fuel that is used in the boiler are bagasse (B), which is a byproduct of the sugar extraction process, palm boom (P) and
cane trash (C). The short fall of bagasse is a problem during the process. Hence, we have to look for other fuels such as palm
boom, wood chips, cane trash etc. This boiler is designed to burn bagasse, palm boom, cane trash or a mixture [3,8].
2.2. Drum feeder
The drum feeder is designed to withstand the vertical load due to the fuel column in the storage bunker. The drum is located eccentrically in the casing of the feeder shroud plates are provided on top of the drum feeder at the fuel entry location
from the storage bunker, to avoid entrapment of ne fuel dust and bers between the drum and casing which can cause jamming and over loading during inspection. Spikes are welded to the drum and are arranged in an inclined axis to the centre
line of rotation of the feeder, to ensure efcient extraction of fuel. The drum feeder extracts fuel from the storage bunker and
the quantity extracted is proportional to the speed of rotation of the drum. The drum feeder is driven by variable speed drive
which is connected to combustion control of the boiler. The drum feeder capacity is 9500 kg/h.
2.3. Screw conveyor
The trough of the screw conveyor is of carbon steel and the bottom portion of the trough is lined with stainless steel
plates to ensure smooth ow of fuel to the distributed chute. The lining is plug welded on to casing. Quick opening access
doors on the casing are provided to enable access for cleaning the trough. The carbon steel screw has a toothed prole which
gives positive conveying of the brous material. The ights of the screw are terminated at the outlet end to make sure that
there is no packing of bagasse at the discharge end. The shaft ends screw conveyor is located in antifriction bearings at both

A. Mariajayaprakash, T. Senthilvelan / Engineering Failure Analysis 30 (2013) 1726

19

Fig. 1. Cause and effect diagram.

ends. The shaft of the screw conveyor is directly driven by constant speed geared motor. The geared motor is coupled to the
screw conveyor shaft through a tyre coupling. The drive is located in a common base frame. The screw conveyor capacity is
12,000 kg/h.
3. Cause and effect diagram
A cause and effect diagram is a graphical tool to display the causes of any quality problem. It is also named as Ishikawa
diagram or shbone diagram (due to their resemblance) [9]. An Ishikawa or cause and effect diagram is constructed to identify all the parameters that may affect the operation of drum and is shown in Fig. 1 [10,11]. The identied process parameters
are (i) fuel parameters type, size, foreign material and moisture, (ii) motor parameters current, relay contact, improper
rotation and oil level in gear box, (iii) storage bunker parameters fuel level and door not properly closed, (iv) operator
maintenance improper, mal function and fatigue. Among the above, the most signicant parameters are selected by using
the tool Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA).
4. Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA)
After constructing Ishikawa diagram, it is highly advisable to perform Failure Mode Effect Analysis [12]. Failure Mode and
Effect Analysis is an important quality tool used in the manufacturing and other industries to improve the product quality
and productivity [13,14]. It is a systematic procedure to identify the potential failure modes, and their causes and effects. In
this research work, FMEA is applied to analyze the failures occurred in cogeneration process and is used to nd out the most
signicant parameters affecting that process. It can also be used to asses and optimize maintenance plans. FMEA is usually
carried out by a team of experienced and skilled Engineers and experts knowledge. The failure modes are identied and
ranked with help of Risk Priority Number (RPN). RPN is the product of occurrence (O), severity (S) and detection (D) of failures. That is, RPN = O S D [15].
Each factor is rated on a scale 110. Generally, the failure mode having higher RPN will be given more important [16]. On
the basis of higher RPN, the most signicant parameters affected the drum failure are fuel type, fuel moisture, motor load and
silo level.
5. Taguchis method
There are various methods used for improving the quality in variety of industries. Taguchi method is one of the best optimization technique to achieve high quality without increasing cost. It is a simple, systematic and powerful method to increase the quality [17,18]. The advantage of this method is to reduce both product cost and number of experiments
required [19].
Mathematical and statistical techniques are combined in Taguchi method. In this research work, Taguchis method is used
for improving the quality by reducing the failures in the fuel feeding system during the cogeneration process in the sugar
industry. Two important tools employed in Taguchis method are signal to noise ratio (S/N ratio) and orthogonal arrays
(OA) [20].

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A. Mariajayaprakash, T. Senthilvelan / Engineering Failure Analysis 30 (2013) 1726

5.1. Factors and levels

In Taguchi method, rst, signicant process parameters and their levels are selected. The ranges of these parameters were
selected on the basis of preliminary experiments conducted by using one variable at a time approach [10]. In this research
work, four control factors and three levels are chosen for analyzing the drum failure. The most signicant process parameters
considered as control factors and their levels are shown in Table 1.
5.2. Selection of orthogonal array (OA)
In Taguchi method, experimental analysis is based on orthogonal array. Orthogonal array is used to minimize the number
of experiments, by which quality characteristics are examined [21]. The appropriate OA is selected on the basis of total degrees of freedom required [22]. By using number of factors, number of levels of each factor and number of interactions DOF is
determined. In this research work, the interaction effect between the process parameters is not considered. The degree of
freedom for three levels is 2 (DOF = number of levels  1). The required total DOF for four factors and three levels is
8(4  (3  1) = 8).In Taguchi method, the total DOF of selected OA must be greater than or equal to the total DOF required
for the experiment. Hence L9 OA having eight DOF is selected in this research work. The Table 2 shows L9 OA which has four
columns and nine experiment runs.
5.3. Signal to noise ratio
In Taguchi method, signal to noise ratio (S/N ratio) is employed to analysis the quality characteristics of the product or
process parameters. It is also called as statistical measure of performance [18]. It is the ratio of the mean (signal) to the standard deviation (Noise). Regardless of the category of the quality characteristic, process parameter settings with the highest S/
N ratio always yield the optimum quality with minimum variance [23].The following three types of S/N ratios are considered
to be standard and are widely applied in Taguchi method [24].
(1) Smaller is better
n
. X
:y2i

g 10 log 1 n

i1

(2) nominal is the best

n
. X
:l2 =r2

g 10 log 1 n

i1

(3) higher is better

n
. X
:1=y2i

g 10 log 1 n

i1

Table 1
Process parameters with their ranges and values at three levels.
Parameter designation

Process parameters

Range

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

A
B
C
D

Fuel type
Fuel moisture in %
Motor load in amps
Silo level in %

3 Types
4951
11.540
50100

B
49
11.5
50

B+C
50
25
75

B+C+P
51
40
100

Table 2
L9 orthogonal array.
RUN

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

1
1
1
2
2
2
3
3
3

1
2
3
1
2
3
1
2
3

1
2
3
2
3
1
3
1
2

1
2
3
3
1
2
2
3
1

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A. Mariajayaprakash, T. Senthilvelan / Engineering Failure Analysis 30 (2013) 1726

g is the S/N ratio, yi is the value of quality characteristic at ith setting, l is the mean, n is the total number of trial runs at ith
setting, and r is the standard deviation.
In this research work, smaller is better S/N ratio is selected to minimize the drum failures occurred during the cogeneration process.
5.4. Methodology
In this research work, observations were made in one of the leading sugar factory located in Tamil Nadu. Cogeneration is
adopted in the sugar mill. During the cogeneration process, it was found that the plant was frequently affected by failure of
drum and screw conveyor, which are the components of fuel feeding system. The signicant process parameters affecting the
drum failure were recorded in Table 1. The parameters at different levels are assigned in the selected orthogonal array and
that is shown in Table 3. The cogeneration plant was run on the basis of Table 3. It has nine trials. The plant was run three
times for the same set of parameters given in Table 3. Single randomization technique is employed. The observations were
made for every 1 h. The number of failures were noted and tabulated in Table 4.
The percentage of failures has been calculated by the formula given below:

Percentage of drum failure

No: of drum failures

Total no: of failures

Since the failures are lower the better type of quality characteristics the S/N ratio were calculated for each of nine trials
and the values are tabulated in Table 5.
For example, for trial no. 1, the S/N ratio is:

S=N ratio 10 log1=32:282 1:952 2:612  7:22

The mean response refers to the average value of the performance characteristic for each parameter at different levels.
The average values of the casting defects and S/N ratios for each parameter at different levels are calculated and are given
in Table 6. The average values of casting defects and S/N ratios for each parameter at different levels are plotted in Figs. 2 and
3, respectively.
5.5. Analysis of variance (ANOVA)
The purpose of ANOVA is to investigate which process parameters signicantly affect the quality characteristic [25]. The
total variation may be decomposed into many components. In this paper, the total variation present in the process is decomposed to the following components:
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)

Variation
Variation
Variation
Variation
Variation

due
due
due
due
due

to
to
to
to
to

factor
factor
factor
factor
error.

A.
B.
C.
D.

The total variation is calculated using the values given in Table 4.

Total variation SST SSA SSB SSC SSD SSe

Variation due to error SSe SST  SSA SSB SSC SSD

Table 3
Experimental L9 array.
Trial no.

A
Fuel type

B
Fuel moisture in %

C
Motor load in amps

D
Silo level in %

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

B
B
B
B+C
B+C
B+C
B+C+P
B+C+P
B+C+P

49
50
51
49
50
51
49
50
51

11.5
25
40
25
40
11.5
40
11.5
25

50
75
100
100
50
75
75
100
50

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A. Mariajayaprakash, T. Senthilvelan / Engineering Failure Analysis 30 (2013) 1726

Table 4
Number of failures occurred during the experiments.
Run

No. of failures

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

7
10
8
12
16
13
13
12
15

6
9
9
10
15
10
12
14
14

8
10
8
13
16
11
11
12
13

Table 5
Percentage of failure values and signal to noise (S/N) ratios against trail numbers.
Run

% of failures

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

2.28
3.26
2.61
3.91
5.21
4.23
4.23
3.91
4.89

1.95
2.93
2.93
3.26
4.89
3.26
3.91
4.56
4.56

2.61
3.26
2.61
4.23
5.21
3.58
3.58
3.91
4.23

Mean

S/N ratio

2.28
3.15
2.72
3.80
5.10
3.69
3.91
4.13
4.56

7.22
9.98
8.69
11.64
14.16
11.39
11.86
12.34
13.19

Table 6
Average values of drum failures and S/N ratios at different levels.

A
B
C
D

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

Drum failure

S/N ratios

Drum failure

S/N ratios

Drum failure

S/N ratios

2.71
3.33
3.37
3.98

8.63
10.24
10.32
11.52

4.20
4.13
3.83
3.58

12.40
12.16
11.61
11.07

4.20
3.66
3.90
3.55

12.46
11.09
11.57
10.89

4.4
4.2

% OF DEFECTS

Factors

4.0
3.8
3.6
3.4
3.2
3.0
2.8
2.6
A1 A2 A3 B1 B2 B3 C1 C2 C3 D1 D2 D3

Fig. 2. Average values of drum failures for each parameters at different levels.

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A. Mariajayaprakash, T. Senthilvelan / Engineering Failure Analysis 30 (2013) 1726

-8.5
-9.0

S/N Ratio

-9.5
-10.0
-10.5
-11.0
-11.5
-12.0
-12.5
-13.0

A1 A2 A3 B1 B2 B3 C1 C2 C3 D1 D2 D3

Fig. 3. Average values of S/N ratios for each parameter at different levels.

Table 7
ANOVA for drum failures and S/N ratios.
Source

Sum of squares

Degrees of freedom

Variance

F ratio

Drum failure

S/N ratio

Drum failure

S/N ratio

Drum failure

S/N ratio

Drum failure

S/N ratio

A
B
C
D
Error

13.21
2.88
1.56
1.05
2.12

28.86
5.50
3.20
0.60
0.11

2
2
2
2
18

2
2
2

6.61
1.44
0.78
0.52
0.12

14.43
2.75
1.60

56.06
12.24
6.64
4.44
1.00

257.98
49.19
28.61

Total

20.83

38.28

26

Total degrees of freedom

0.06

1.00

4.78

mT mA mB mC mD me
me mT  mA mB mC mD 26  2 2 2 2 18

The results of analysis of variance (ANOVA) are shown in Table 7. In Table 7, it is clear that the parameters A, B, C and D
signicantly affect both mean and variation in the drum failures.
6. Results and discussion
6.1. Percent contribution
Percent contribution is the function of the sum of squares of each signicant item. Percent contribution to the total sum of
square can be used to evaluate the importance of a change in the process parameter on these quality characteristics [26,27].
It is calculated using the formulae given below:

Percent contributionP SS0A =SST  100

SS0A SSA  memA
V A V 0A V error
where V 0A is the expected amount of variation due solely to factor A given below:

V A SSA=mA
V 0A SS0A=mA
The percentage of contribution of fuel type, fuel moisture and motor load is shown in Table 8 and Table 9.
6.2. Estimating the mean
From Table 8, it is clear that factor D has the least effect on the quality characteristic. The estimation of mean for drum
failure is calculated by the following equation [28]:

l T A1  T B1  T C1  T D3  T

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A. Mariajayaprakash, T. Senthilvelan / Engineering Failure Analysis 30 (2013) 1726

Table 8
ANOVA drum failures, including percent contribution.
Source

Sum of squares

Degrees of freedom

Variance

F ratio

Expected SS0

Percent contribution (P)

A
B
C
D
Error (pooled)

13.21
2.88
1.56
1.05
2.12

2
2
2
2
18

6.61
1.44
0.78
0.52
0.12

56.06
12.24
6.64
4.44
1.00

12.43
2.71
1.47
0.98
3.22

59.70
13.03
7.07
4.72
15.47

Total

20.83

26

20.83

100.00

Table 9
S/N ratios drum failures, including percent contribution.
Source

Sum of squares

Degrees of freedom

Variance

F ratio

Expected SS0

Percent contribution (P)

A
B
C
D
Error (pooled)

28.86
5.50
3.20
0.60
0.11

2
2
2

14.43
2.75
1.60

257.98
49.19
28.61

0.06

1.00

28.05
5.35
3.11
0.60
1.16

73.29
13.98
8.13
1.57
3.04

Total

38.28

4.78

38.28

100.00

where T is the average values of drum failure at different levels.

The mean for a selected trial condition for parameters at (A1, B1, C1, D3) is 0.49.
6.3. Condence Interval around the estimated mean
An important step in Taguchis optimization technique is to conduct conrmation experiments for validating the predicted values. Thus a 95% condence interval (CI) for the predicted mean of optimum quality characteristic on a conrmation
test is estimated using the following two equations [29].

CI3 F a; 1; meVe1=geff 1=r1=2

geff N=1 total DOF associated in the estimate of mean

where a is the level of risk, Ve is the error variance, me is the degrees of freedom for the error, geff is the effective number of
replications and r is number of test trials.
Using the values in Table 5, the CI was calculated as follows:

geff N=1 total DOF associated in the estimate of mean 27=1 2 9

a 1  confidence limits 95% 0:05
F ratio 1; 0:05; 18 4:41tabulated
Condence Interval CI3 = 1.86.
The 95% condence interval of the predicted optimum of the drum failure during the process is: 1.37 < 1.86 < 2.35.
6.4. Conrmation experiments
Three conrmation experiments were conducted at the optimum setting of the process parameters. The fuel type, was set
at the rst level (A1), fuel moisture was at the rst level (B1), motor load was at the rst level (C1) and silo level was kept at
the third level (D3). The average of the respondents failures in each experiment is found to be 0.65%; the result was within
the CI of the protected optimum of the drum failures. The conrming experiments results gave 0.65% < 2.35% (maximum of
CI). Therefore, the selected parameters as well as their appropriate levels are signicant enough to obtain the desired result.
7. Result of the analysis
The Boiler drum failure observations were made during the cogeneration process, ANOVA was carried out using the results of observations and then the interpretation methods were used to obtain the percent contribution of each parameter
and optimum levels of each parameter:

A. Mariajayaprakash, T. Senthilvelan / Engineering Failure Analysis 30 (2013) 1726

25

Table 10
Optimum parameters under economic considerations.
Parameter designation

Parameter

Optimum levels

Optimum value

A
B
C
D

Fuel type
Fuel moisture in %
Motor load in amps
Silo level in %

1
1
1
3

B
49
11.5
100

(1) The percent contribution of each parameter to the variation of drum failure and optimum parameter (under economic
condition) are shown in Table 8.
(2) The optimum levels of various parameters for minimum drum failure of boiler were shown in Table 10.
(3) The predicted range of optimum painting defects is 1.37 < 1.86 < 2.35.
8. Conclusion
In this study, Taguchi method has been employed for optimizing the process parameters of drum feeder of boiler and the
following conclusions are drawn:
 It is proved that, the quality of drum feeder during the process is improved by Taguchis method at the lowest possible
cost.
 Ishikawa diagram or cause and effect diagram is very effective to sort out all the possible causes affecting the quality of
drum feeder during the process.
 The most signicant parameters affecting the quality of the drum feeder during the process are identied by using the
FMEA tool.
 The parameter fuel is signicantly affect the quality of drum feeder during the process.
 The optimum levels of fuel type, fuel moisture, motor load and silo level are estimated.
 The predicted range of optimum of the drum failure during the process is 1.37 < 1.86 < 2.35.

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