Optimization of Condition-Based Maintenance for Industrial Gas Turbines: Requirements and Results

Author(s):  
Markus Bohlin ◽  
Mathias Wa¨rja ◽  
Anders Holst ◽  
Pontus Slottner ◽  
Kivanc Doganay

In oil and gas applications, the careful planning and execution of preventive maintenance is important due to the high costs associated with shutdown of critical equipment. Optimization and lifetime management for equipment such as gas turbines is therefore crucial in order to achieve high availability and reliability. In this paper, a novel condition-based gas turbine maintenance strategy is described and evaluated. Using custom-made gas turbine maintenance planning software, maintenance is repeatedly reoptimized to fit into the time intervals where production losses are least costly and result in the lowest possible impact. The strategy focuses on accurate online lifetime estimates for gas turbine components, where algorithms predicting future maintenance requirements are used to produce maintenance deadlines. This ensures that the gas turbines are maintained in accordance with the conditions on site. To show the feasibility and economic effects of a customer-adapted maintenance planning process, the maintenance plan for a gas turbine used in a real-world scenario is optimized using a combinatorial optimization algorithm and input from gas turbine operation data, maintenance schedules and operator requirements. The approach was validated through the inspection of a reference gas turbine after a predetermined time interval. It is shown that savings may be substantial compared to a traditional preventive maintenance plan. In the evaluation, typical cost reductions range from 25 to 65%. The calculated availability increase in practice is estimated to range from 0.5 to 1%. In addition, downtime reductions of approximately 12% are expected, due solely to improved planning. This indicates significant improvements.

Author(s):  
Markus Bohlin ◽  
Mathias Wa¨rja

High levels of availability and reliability are essential in many industries where production is subject to high costs due to downtime. Examples where gas turbines are used include the mechanical drive in natural gas pipelines and power generation on oil platforms, where it is common to use redundant gas turbines to mitigate the effects of service outage. In this paper, component-level maintenance of parallel multi-unit systems is considered, allowing production at a reduced level when some of the units are not operational. Units are themselves assumed to be composed out of components in a serial configuration; maintenance of one component implies shutdown of the unit. Parallel installations allow maintenance to be performed on one or a few gas turbines without taking down the entire installation. This allows maintenance to be optimized even further than in a serial system. However, the maintenance optimization process is made more complicated, since there now exist both positive and negative grouping effects. The positive grouping effects come from shared setup activities and costs, and the negative effects come from resource limitations, in this case the limited number of gas turbines which can be maintained at the same time. In the approach presented in this paper, each component has its individual preventive maintenance schedule, which is updated at inspections, changes in production and when indicated using remote condition monitoring. A minimal repair model for noncritical routine inspections and service tasks is assumed, which does not affect component state. In addition, previously developed procedures for estimating and measuring residual component lifetime for individual components during operation are used. The procedures are based on a Retirement For Cause (RFC) approach where components are not replaced until a potential failure has been detected. To maximize revenues for an operator, the available information is evaluated using software where scenario analysis and optimization is performed. To show the possible economic effects, gas turbine operation data is used together with maintenance and operator requirements as input for optimization of a production line consisting of a natural-gas compressor station having three SGT-600 gas turbines. Savings can be substantial compared to a traditional preventive maintenance plan.


Author(s):  
Mathias Wa¨rja ◽  
Pontus Slottner ◽  
Markus Bohlin

Maintaining high levels of availability and reliability are essential objectives for many industries, especially those that are subject to high costs due to shutdowns of critical systems, e.g. gas turbines. To utilize these systems as effectively as possible, preventive maintenance must be optimized. Determining what is optimal is, however, a multi-variable task requiring detailed knowledge about the components in the system and their different damage mechanisms. These factors have always affected the condition of the gas turbine and maintenance actions, but only recently has it been possible to estimate and measure them correctly for individual components during operation. In the past, it was necessary to construct maintenance intervals from the most critical component (or components), requiring the highest maintenance frequency. An additional worst-case scenario margin was also necessary, taking into account factors such as possible load variation, differences in environment (affecting e.g. power turbine temperatures) and other sources of uncertainty. These uncertainties together have determined traditional maintenance planning, with maintenance packages each containing a set of maintenance activities for a set of components being predetermined and preplanned. With the new CAMP approach, the maintenance strategy is to reach a Retirement For Cause (RFC) strategy, where components are not replaced until a potential failure has been detected. This requires measurement techniques that can monitor how the gas turbine is operated, prognostics capabilities that foresee maintenance needs, and test methods that can determine the state of a component during maintenance events. One important part of CAMP is therefore a prognostic tool which tells us the condition, and therefore the maintenance needs, of individual components within the gas turbine. To handle this information and efficiently make a preventive maintenance plan, software for gas turbine maintenance optimization has been developed. The software can not only calculate the most efficient point in time for a maintenance action, it can also adjust the maintenance plan to any customer’s specific demands. This paper describes the model, gathering and processing of information, risk assessment performance and the result from an optimization which groups maintenance actions as a result of customer prioritized demands. It also describes the software layout and how it is used.


1982 ◽  
Vol 104 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. J. Anderson ◽  
M. A. Friedman ◽  
W. V. Krill ◽  
J. P. Kesselring

Catalytically supported thermal combustion can provide low NOx emissions with gaseous and distillate fuels while maintaining high combustion efficiency. For stationary gas turbines, catalytic combustion may be the only emerging technology that can cost effectively meet recent federal regulations for NOx emissions. Under EPA sponsorship, a small-scale, catalytic gas turbine combustor was developed to evaluate transient and steady state combustor performance. The combustor consisted of a multiple air-atomizing fuel injector, an opposed jet igniter, and a graded-cell monolithic reactor. System startup, including opposed jet ignition and catalyst stabilization, was achieved in 250 seconds. This time interval is comparable to conventional gas turbines. Steady state operation was performed at 0.505 MPa (5 atmospheres) pressure and 15.3 m/s (50 ft/s) reference velocities. Thermal NOx emissions were measured below 10 ppmv, while fuel NOx conversion ranged from 75 to 95 percent. At catalyst bed temperatures greater than 1422K (2100°F), total CO and UHC emissions were less than 50 ppmv indicating combustion efficiency greater than 99.9 percent. Compared with conventional gas turbine combustors, the catalytic reactor operates only within a relatively narrow range of fuel/air ratios. As a result, modified combustor air distribution or fuel staging will be required to achieve the wide turndown required in large stationary systems.


Author(s):  
John H. Preisel

The United States Navy has developed a facility to support full scale testing of gas turbine propulsion systems. The first site at this facility is based on the gas turbine propulsion system for the newest class of surface combatants, the USS Arleigh Burke (DDG 51). The plant consists of two LM 2500 gas turbines, combined with a newly designed reduction gear, and supported by a gas turbine generator for electrical power. This paper describes the design of the propulsion plant, and gives special emphasis to propulsion and electrical testing. The digital control system, and multiplexed communications system is described. Preliminary component, system and full scale integration test results are presented and discussed. The paper includes lessons learned from the installation of the propulsion train and the electrical systems. Finally, a brief description of the machinery control system software maintenance process, and our initial experiences with large scale software integration testing will be given. This paper reaffirms the value of full scale systems integration testing. It also points out the fundamental role that electronics, computers, and software play in marine gas turbine systems.


Author(s):  
Yongjun Zhao ◽  
Vitali Volovoi ◽  
Mark Waters ◽  
Dimitri Mavris

Traditionally the gas turbine power plant preventive maintenances are scheduled with constant maintenance intervals based on recommendations from the equipment suppliers. The preventive maintenances are based on fleet wide experiences, and they are scheduled in a one-size-fit-all fashion. However, in reality, the operating conditions for each gas turbine may vary from site to site, and from unit to unit. Furthermore, the gas turbine is a repairable deteriorating system, and preventive maintenance usually restores only part of its performance. This suggests the gas turbines need more frequent inspection and maintenance as it ages. A unit specific sequential preventive maintenance approach is therefore needed for gas turbine power plants preventive maintenance scheduling. Traditionally the optimization criteria for preventive maintenance scheduling is usually cost based. In the deregulated electric power market, a profit based optimization approach is expected to be more effective than the cost based approach. In such an approach, power plant performance, reliability, and the market dynamics are considered in a joint fashion. In this paper, a novel idea that economics drive maintenance expense and frequency to more frequent repairs and greater expense as the equipment and components age is introduced, and a profit based unit specific sequential preventive maintenance scheduling methodology is developed. To demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach, this methodology is implemented using a base load combined cycle power plant with single gas turbine unit.


2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (suppl. 2) ◽  
pp. 343-354 ◽  
Author(s):  
Milana Gutesa ◽  
Branka Gvozdenac-Urosevic ◽  
Vojin Grkovic

This paper presents the performance and economic analysis of the gas turbine with co-firing gas from corn cob gasification and natural gas. Adiabatic and non-adiabatic expansion in the turbine is considered. The analysis is performed parametrically with corn cob gasification gas and natural gas ratio. The volumetric energy content of fuels with different share of gas from the corn cob gasification therefore, with different calorific values, is compared by means of the Wobbe Index. In energy and economic analyses, the following configurations are dealt with: single manifold, dual manifold and separate gas systems.


Author(s):  
A.A. Filimonova ◽  
◽  
N.D. Chichirova ◽  
A.A. Chichirov ◽  
A.A. Batalova ◽  
...  

The article provides an overview of modern high-performance combined-cycle plants and gas turbine plants with waste heat boilers. The forecast for the introduction of gas turbine equipment at TPPs in the world and in Russia is presented. The classification of gas turbines according to the degree of energy efficiency and operational characteristics is given. Waste heat boilers are characterized in terms of design and associated performance and efficiency. To achieve high operating parameters of gas turbine and boiler equipment, it is necessary to use, among other things, modern water treatment equipment. The article discusses modern effective technologies, the leading place among which is occupied by membrane, and especially baromembrane methods of preparing feed water-waste heat boilers. At the same time, the ion exchange technology remains one of the most demanded at TPPs in the Russian Federation.


Author(s):  
Hafiz M Hassan ◽  
Adeel Javed ◽  
Asif H Khoja ◽  
Majid Ali ◽  
Muhammad B Sajid

A clear understanding of the flow characteristics in the older generation of industrial gas turbines operating with silo combustors is important for potential upgrades. Non-uniformities in the form of circumferential and radial variations in internal flow properties can have a significant impact on the gas turbine stage performance and durability. This paper presents a comprehensive study of the underlying internal flow features involved in the advent of non-uniformities from twin-silo combustors and their propagation through a single axial turbine stage of the Siemens v94.2 industrial gas turbine. Results indicate the formation of strong vortical structures alongside large temperature, pressure, velocity, and flow angle deviations that are mostly located in the top and bottom sections of the turbine stage caused by the excessive flow turning in the upstream tandem silo combustors. A favorable validation of the simulated exhaust gas temperature (EGT) profile is also achieved via comparison with the measured data. A drop in isentropic efficiency and power output equivalent to 2.28% points and 2.1 MW, respectively is observed at baseload compared to an ideal straight hot gas path reference case. Furthermore, the analysis of internal flow topography identifies the underperforming turbine blading due to the upstream non-uniformities. The findings not only have implications for the turbine aerothermodynamic design, but also the combustor layout from a repowering perspective.


Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (15) ◽  
pp. 4214
Author(s):  
Kranthi Kumar Maniam ◽  
Shiladitya Paul

The increased demand for high performance gas turbine engines has resulted in a continuous search for new base materials and coatings. With the significant developments in nickel-based superalloys, the quest for developments related to thermal barrier coating (TBC) systems is increasing rapidly and is considered a key area of research. Of key importance are the processing routes that can provide the required coating properties when applied on engine components with complex shapes, such as turbine vanes, blades, etc. Despite significant research and development in the coating systems, the scope of electrodeposition as a potential alternative to the conventional methods of producing bond coats has only been realised to a limited extent. Additionally, their effectiveness in prolonging the alloys’ lifetime is not well understood. This review summarises the work on electrodeposition as a coating development method for application in high temperature alloys for gas turbine engines and discusses the progress in the coatings that combine electrodeposition and other processes to achieve desired bond coats. The overall aim of this review is to emphasise the role of electrodeposition as a potential cost-effective alternative to produce bond coats. Besides, the developments in the electrodeposition of aluminium from ionic liquids for potential applications in gas turbines and the nuclear sector, as well as cost considerations and future challenges, are reviewed with the crucial raw materials’ current and future savings scenarios in mind.


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