Turbo Machinery

Towards the Future of Gas Turbine Asset and Performance Management

a report by

Toms Alvarez Tejedor

Head, Combined Cycle Technology and Maintenance Department, Endesa Generacin

The gas turbine industry must focus on several key factors that will make its future power generation technology successful in the electric power generation market sector. These factors are as follows: competitive economic performance (i.e. higher efficiency and optimised life-cycle cost); reliable operation under a cycle duty (repeated gas turbine startups and shutdowns); increased dependability of current and future plants (reliability, availability, maintenance and durability, or RAMD); the ability to meet regulatory emissions levels and achieve high thermal efficiencies; and reliable fuel-switching capability and fuel flexibility.

path components to achieve high thermal efficiencies with low nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions; and gas turbine life-cycle cost this is strongly affected by hot gas path cost and maintenance, which gives rise to maintenance practices and inspection techniques that in turn allow the improvement of gas turbine dependability, i.e. its RAMD. Background The blades and vanes in the turbine section will to a large extent determine the ultimate efficiency of the gas turbine. These parts have to work under extreme conditions, operating in high temperatures in an oxidising environment while being subjected to large thermal and mechanical stresses. In order to increase the durability of the blades and vanes in these extreme conditions, special metal superalloys have been developed. The high-quality technologies used in the manufacture of the turbine blades make them the most expensive parts of the gas turbine. In order to achieve higher thermal efficiencies, higher combustion temperatures are needed; however, higher combustion temperatures from around 1540C (2,800F) exacerbate NOx emissions. To combat excessive NOx emissions, oxygen is limited during the combustion process, but this can lead to unacceptably high levels of carbon monoxide and unburned hydrocarbon emissions. Further adding to these technological limitations, extremely high operating temperatures greater than 1,290C (2,350F) are beyond the material tolerances of the turbine blades and vanes. Therefore, the goal of achieving 60% efficiency while staying below 10ppm NOx emissions is constrained by the thermal, emission reduction and material limits of the gas turbine system. There are four main innovations that are critical in meeting this need for high efficiency and low emissions: closed-loop steam cooling; single-crystal superalloy casting; thermal barrier coating; and lean pre-mix dry lowNOx combustors. In order to optimise the life-cycle cost of gas turbines, special attention must be paid to the hot gas path components: typically, around 70% of the total maintenance cost corresponds to schedule, maintenance, parts and materials. This will lead to the establishment of mechanisms for risk mitigation, such as long-term service agreements (LTSAs), business interruption insurance, extended guarantees and part-cost guarantees. Apart from the above

Gas turbines will be one of the most important horizontal technologies and will play an essential role in meeting these requirements. It is considered a horizontal technology due to its capacity to be integrated into multiple power plant configurations, while running with different fuels (coal gas, natural gas, hydrogen, liquid fuels, etc.). The Spanish electricity utility Endesa is participating in the promotion of initiatives to improve gas turbine technology, in particular the European Turbine Network, which is dedicated to the application of highly efficient and environmentally friendly technologies. Following the 3rd International Conference on The Future of Gas Turbine Technology in Brussels, the following conclusion can be made: Gas turbine technology is one of the best available options today and in the years to come for power generation, however, they will continue to be affected or influenced by their users technology and development needs pending resolution. This statement is reinforced by the fact that, in a deregulated and increasingly competitive power generation market, power producers are continually asking themselves, How can we get the edge over our competitors? How can we improve our decision-making processes? How can we continually operate our plants in the most efficient and cost-effective way? How can we limit damage and improve availability? How can we reduce maintenance costs and extend service life? How can we know fixed asset remaining value throughout power plant life? The key issues are the development of gas turbine assets and performance management; these are the ways to achieve competitive advantages that will enable companies to get the edge over their competitors. The focus is therefore on gas turbine technology. The hot gas path of a gas turbine is the core of the engine, which includes the combustion chamber, the transition piece and the turbine section. The main drivers for improving hot gas path behaviour are: gas turbine performance this is highly dependant on the turbine entry temperature, which results in a greater need for the hot gas

Dr Toms Alvarez Tejedor is Head of the Endesa Combined Cycle Technology and Maintenance Department. He has been working in the Spanish electrical market for more than 15 years, covering R&D projects on advanced power generation systems, asset management and combined cycle power generation and gas turbine technology. Dr Alvarez obtained his BSc, PhD and MBA at the Polytechnic University of Madrid, his MSc in the Gas Turbine Engineering Group at Cranfield University, and his postgraduate specialisation on the Spanish electrical sector at Carlos III University.

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Towards the Future of Gas Turbine Asset and Performance Management

considerations, it is also necessary to take into account current operational conditions in a deregulated electricity market. These conditions require more flexible operations with high efficiency and low emissions for the whole power range, high operational reliability and better maintainability. Hot Gas Path Management From the condition monitoring, instrumentation and control standpoint, many improvements can be made to hot gas path management. The ultimate goal is to manage the hot gas path section by knowing its condition (known as condition-based maintenance, or CBM) and its performance (known as performance monitoring). In order to get in-depth knowledge of the condition of the hot gas path components, it is necessary to combine both online and offline techniques: together, these will show the real status of the main components of the hot gas path section. In order to look at these subjects in more depth, we need to divide the process into different levels that allow us to set the needs assessment findings for each. Level 1: Sensor Level Typically, gas turbine units are equipped with minimal instrumentation. On the one hand, this means the supplied sensors are adequate to ensure safe operation and to monitor performance and emission requirements, but on the other hand these units are not equipped with any instrumentation that would provide the ability to: optimise performance; define the risk of extending operating periods; monitor component degradation; provide early warning of faults in the system; and monitor hot section environment and failure mechanisms. In terms of needs assessment findings, the following diagnostic instrumentation is required: combustion pressure pulsation; flame temperature sensors (semiconductor photodiode); fuel low-heating value (LHV) measurement (LHV sensor); turbine blade surface temperature (optical pyrometers); turbine blade vibration (optical probes); turbine blade tip deflection (blade tip clearance sensor); air inlet mass flow (ultrasonic sensor); turbine circumferential inlet temperature distribution (optical fibre thermometers, high-temperature research and technology development); and coating life degradation sensor (odometer, infrared sensor). Level 3: Condition Monitoring The primary function of the condition monitor is to compare features against expected values or operational limits and output enumerated condition indicators (e.g. level low, level normal, level high, etc.). The condition monitor may also generate alerts based on defined operational limits and, when appropriate data are available, may generate assessments of operational context (current operational state or Level 2: Control and Supervision Once the output from the instrumentation has been acquired, it can be input into the local units control station, which consists of a PC equipped with Original Equipment Manufacture (OEM) software. This provides the operator with a series of windows-based viewing screens that present measured and calculated data. Factored starts and hours are determined by empirical formulae provided by OEM. The power industry is not completely comfortable with this approach due to higher than desirable maintenance costs for gas turbines, and generally does not have confidence in OEMs stated hot gas path component life and replacement interval. The industry would prefer to have a more machine-specific, condition-based approach to determining the timing of maintenance. As a result, control systems play a critical role in data collection, conditioning and analysis within the automated CBM infrastructure. Advanced process control systems include analysis algorithms that enable them to diagnose and report malfunctions to the Online monitoring of component life would allow some assessment of when the next shutdown might occur. Online indication of component degradation could alert operators to failures that could propagate through the unit. For example, online monitoring of the combustor status or blade coating integrity would alleviate downstream consequences. Offline non-destructive evaluation (NDE) of component life would operational environment). Ultimately, this would lead to automatic assessment of the condition of the hot gas path section, thereby reducing human inspection tasks and the unnecessary maintenance that occurs in a traditional periodic maintenance scheme. System assessment would also provide valuable realtime decision support data for operational planning. In terms of needs assessment findings, one of the unmet needs at this level is component life monitoring, either through direct or indirect monitoring of component properties: Online data acquisition the data acquisition module provides system access to digitised sensor or transducer data. It may represent a specialised data acquisition module that receives analogue feeds from sensors, or it may collect and consolidate sensor signals from a data bus. Data processing and validation: signal-processing approach: signal correlation; high pass filtering; and correlation matrix and response statistics. correlation matrix and response statistics; statistical neural network; and fuzzy logic rule based. CBM system. This ultimately supports system-wide asset management. In terms of needs assessment findings, the following information technologies are required for data manipulation:

physics-based approach:

Data-fusion techniques a formal framework used to express convergence data from different sources and the means and tools for the alliance of these data. Data-mining tools these provide new insights into wear and failure mechanisms in engine components: neural nets; statistical analysis; and generic algorithms. predictive control algorithms for combustion instability; adaptative controller; closed-loop steam cooling control; active control technologies for enhanced performance, enhanced reliablity and reduced emissions; fault-tolerant engine control (smart sensors and actuators); and closed-loop optimisation.

Advanced control algorithms:

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Towards the Future of Gas Turbine Asset and Performance Management

help determine if component replacements are needed before the next scheduled shutdown: eddy current metallic coating life (aluminium depletion versus conductivity); and time-base corrector (TBC) integrity (NDE methods). physical condition of components referenced to baseline; cyclic fatigue status of components; and component coating wear and integrity status. NDE measurements and supporting analysis to determine: Level 6: Decision Support The primary function of the decision support module is to provide recommended actions and alternatives and to advise on the implications of each recommendation. Recommendations include maintenance action schedules, modifications to the operational configuration of equipment in order to accomplish mission objectives or modifications to mission profiles to allow mission completion. The decision support module needs to take into account operational history (including usage and maintenance), current and future mission profiles, high-level unit objectives and resource constraints. The needs assessment findings are as follows: Computer-based gas turbine condition- and health-monitoring predictive systems might offer the potential for providing decision support for the following items: Level 4: Performance and Health Assessment The primary function of the performance and health assessment level is to determine whether the health of a monitored system, subsystem or piece of equipment is degraded in terms of its thermodynamic and mechanical condition. If its health is degraded, this assessment level may generate a diagnostic record that proposes one or more possible fault conditions with an associated confidence. This level should take into account trends in the health history, operational status and loading and maintenance history of the system, subsystem or piece of equipment. The needs assessment findings are as follows: Combustion process diagnostic module automated assessment of exhaust gas temperature (EGT) spread, fuel flow manifold and supply pressure, vibration/dynamic pressure, emission data, etc. Hot gas path analysis determination of hot gas path condition based on the thermodynamic relationships that exist between the engine components and various gas path performance parameters. Hot section damage assessment automated trending and fault pattern classification and fusion. Aero-thermal performance-based module. More user-friendly human interfaces are required to supply actionable information to the operator and maintenance staff: Level 5: Prognostics The primary function of the prognostics level is to project the current health and performance state of equipment into the future, taking into account estimates of future usage profiles. The prognostics level may report health and performance status at a future time or may estimate the remaining useful life of an asset given its projected usage profile. Assessments of future health or remaining useful life may also include a diagnosis of the projected fault condition. Prognostics therefore allow us to predict the onset of hot gas path component failure to match its use or to enhance maintenance support. Prognostic capabilities expand support options and allow for cost-effective planning and management. The needs assessment findings are as follows: Life consumption tracking module of hot gas path components: assessment model for coating degradation; assessment model for creep fatigue damage; and assessment model for thermal mechanic fatigue. A longer version of this article, containing graphics, can be found in the Reference Section on the website supporting this briefing (www.touchbriefings.com). Conclusion Future advanced thermal power plants will need to be highly complex in order to fulfil the requirements of a global society that is increasingly sensitive to environmental issues. Gas turbine technology will play a key role as the core technology for different plant configurations. Gas turbine asset and performance management will allow the industry to develop the competitive skills required for the new power generation arena, with the aim of optimising life-cycle cost by improving both gas turbine dependability and performance. actionable information provides users with the necessary details for effective decision-making; and actionable information should be in the form of what happened, where, when, how bad is it and what should be done about it?. reduced nuisance shutdowns and unplanned outages; optimum engine operation; continuous realtime maintenance scheduling; extended time between overhauls based upon determination of remaining component life; protection against catastrophic failure via realtime fault assessment; and estimating operations and maintenance (O&M) cost based on condition monitoring. Automated logistics for advanced scheduling and co-ordination of maintenance actions. Advanced triggering of logistics support improves system availability and utilisation of resources. Level 7: Human Interface Typically, high-level status reports (health assessments, prognostic assessments or decision support recommendations) and alerts would be displayed at this level, with the ability to access information from lower levels when anomalies are reported. In many cases, the human interface level will include multiple layers of access depending on the information needs of the user. The needs assessment findings are: path components.

Online assessment of the risks of extending the outage schedule would also be useful to determine whether it is possible to operate for extended periods.

Sensors that map the blades and vanes for integrity. For example, a temperature profile of the blades and vanes could indicate blocked cooling passages or coating failures.

Online monitoring of exhaust gases for metal particles. In situ repair technologies (TBC repair).

Hot gas path components life-cycle prognostics. What if analysis for the performance and health of the hot gas

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