Vibration Behaviour of Hydraulic Turbines.

Application to Condition Monitoring

Eduard Egusquiza Center for Industrial Diagnostics CDIF Barcelona egusquiza@mf.upc.edu

INTRODUCTION
The ongoing trends are to operate hydropower units without personnel, to increase reliability and to reduce maintenance costs. In this situation an effective condition monitoring of the machinery is necessary. A progressive change from time-based (Preventive) to condition-based (Predictive) maintenance is intended. An increase of the time intervals between overhauls and the avoidance of unpredicted stops is possible. One of the most powerful tools is the vibration-based condition monitoring. Although vibration monitoring is present in many powerplants, they are generally used only for machinery protection and not for predictive maintenance.

ACTUAL VIBRATIONS OF HYDRO POWERPLANTS

Actual vibration behaviour of hydroelectric unit are quite complex. Vibration signatures measured in powerplants change a lot depending on the type of turbine, measuring locations, shaft and bearing lay-out, foundation characteristics and operating conditions (See Fig 1.). Of course when damage appears signatures change as well.

Fig. 1. Typical vibration signatures in different machines There are so many parameters that can influence the vibration behaviour that an analysis of it is quite complex. For an accurate diagnostics knowledge about the vibration behaviour of these machines is necessary as well as some statistics of field data (Fig. 2).

ANALYSIS OF THE VIBRATION GENERATION

The machine is a rotating structure supported by fluid film bearings which is excited in several positions by different phenomena. Therefore vibrations generated depend on the characteristics of the excitation forces and on the structural response.

In general the vibrations generated do not affect the excitations and forces do not depend on the structural motion. In this case we have forced vibrations. In some cases the structural motion can affect the fluid forces which, in this case, depend on the structural displacement. This happens when there is some periodic excitation in the flow in absence of structural motion and this excitation frequency coincides with a natural frequency of the system. Then resonance occurs and if the response amplitude becomes sufficiently large the structural displacement controls the fluid excitation. This is the case of vortex shedding lock-in. In a few occasions the periodicity in the flow depends on the structural motion (in the absence of structural motion there is not a significant flow excitation force). This is the case of self-excited vibrations. Other possibility is to have parametric excitation when one or more of the parameters of the oscillatory system vary, usually periodically, with time. In old designs the structures were very stiff and natural frequencies high, therefore no resonance used to occur and the structural displacement was small. At present structures are thinner and less stiff, therefore a decrease in natural frequencies and an increase in structural displacement made more prone to have resonance and fluid structure coupling.

TO IMPROVE THE PROCEDURE

THEORETICAL ANALYSIS OF VIBRATION BEHAVIOR

ANALYSIS OF VIBRATION SIGNATURES BEFORE AND AFTER REPAIR

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS

FRANCIS TURBINE. Upper gen. B. - 100% load

OVERALL LEVEL, mm/s

2,5 2 1,5 1 0,5 0 0 50 100 150

HEAD (m )

200

250

300

Fig. 2. Procedure used to improve diagnostics

EXCITATION FORCES
Forces of hydraulic origin, of mechanical origin and of electromagnetic origin take place when the machine is in operation. Each force has its own characteristics and frequencies (Fg.3 and 4). Periodic vibrations are generated by rotor-stator interaction and by hydraulic unbalance. Stochastic vibrations are generated by turbulence and cavitation. Some instabilities occur at off-design conditions like the draft tube cavitation vortex and other may appear under determined operating conditions.

excitations

mechanical

hydraulic

electromagnetic

hydraulic system response

Hydraulic forces on the system

Pipe vibration stay vane vibration

Hydraulic forces on the machine Impeller response Rotor response

Impeller vibration

Bearing vibration

Fig. 3. Excitation forces and system response scheme

GENERATED BY RUNNER ROTATION (Periodic) rotor-stator interaction hydraulic unbalance GENERATED BY THROUGH FLOW (Stochastic) Turbulence Cavitation GENERATED BY INSTABILITIES Draft tube vortex Vortex shedding (Von Karman) GENERATED DURING TRANSIENTS Start-up, coast-down Load changes GENERATED BY STRUCTURAL MOVEMENTS Self-excited vibrations

Fig. 4. Some forces of hydraulic origin

STRUCTURAL RESPONSE
The action of hydraulic forces generates vibrations on the runner and on the shaft which are transmitted to the bearings. For each type of machine the main hydraulic forces have to be estimated and applied to a model of the runner to determine the vibration and stresses (i.e. the rotor/stator interaction on a pump-turbine runner).

Vibrations in runner
Excitation

Impeller response

Impeller vibration

EXCITATION

Fig. 5. Dynamic behaviour of runner

Runner response
The runner response has some uncertainties because it depends on the mechanical structure but also on the added mass and damping generated by water, seals and on the mechanical constraints (shaft coupling). Simulation and experiment are necessary to built up a consistent model.

Fig. 6. Reduction in the natural frequencies due to added mass of water

ROTOR RESPONSE
To determine the rotor response is rather difficult in a power plant that is up and working. Some theoretical models can be used to calculate the natural frequencies although some parameters necessary for an exact calculation are not available. These are the overall stiffness of the bearings (oil film + pedestal + structure), the effect of

seals, magnetic pull, etc. As in the former case it is convenient to adapt the model with experimental results.

Fig. 7. Simplified rotor model

CONDITION MONITORING
The models and the statistical analysis provide good information about what can be better detected in each measuring position. In general turbine guide bearing and thrust bearing were the best locations to detect excitations (damage) of hydraulic origin and the upper generator bearing to detect excitations of electromagnetic and mechanical origin although this depends on the type of machine, bearing distribution and stiffness. Because overall vibration levels are not sensitive enough to incipient damage, spectral band analysis is used. The spectrum is broken up into several individual bands (Figure 8). The amplitude of each band is compared with some reference levels (alarm levels) and trended.

DAMAGE ALARM

Fig. 8. Spectral band selection

AIGU - AIGUAMOIX GRUP 1 H07021-10 -11 1.8 1.6 AVISO RMS Velocidad en mm/Sg 1.4 FALLA --Lnea base-Valor: 1.036 1.0 Fecha: 23-NOV-98 COIX. TURBINA RADIAL Grf.tendencia de 1xff

1.2

AIGU - AIGUAMOIX GRUP 1 H07021-10 -11 COIX. TURBINA RADIAL

0.8

H07021-10 Max Amp 1.18 RMS Velocidad en mm/Sg 0 0.6 H07021-10 H07021-10 0.4 H07021-10 H07021-10 H07021-100 H07021-10 H07021-10 H07021-10 H07021-10 H07021-10 H07021-10 H07021-10 H07021-10 H07021-10 H07021-10 H07021-10 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 Frec: Ordr: Sp 1: 10.00 1.000 .453 H07021-10 12-JUL-94 08:43:35 RPM= 600.0
600 1200 0.2

ALERTA

Fech: 1800 2400 3000 Hora: Ampl: Das: 12-JUL-94 To 04-FEB-02

08-MAY-01 08:56:29 1.209

Frecuencia Hz

Fig. 9. Band and spectral trending For an effective monitoring, spectral bands have to be well selected. There is a considerable variation in the vibration behaviour of machines but some common trends can be extracted form statistics. In Fig 9, an example of band trending is shown In reference to vibration amplitudes there is also limited information and the selection of the alarm levels is another essential point for a good monitoring. Although some standards for rotating machinery are available (ISO 2372, etc.) they only indicate a general value for the overall levels. Again statistical analysis of vibration amplitudes collected during a long time is necessary.

CONCLUSIONS
Vibration analysis of hydro powerplants is a difficult topic due to the complexity of the excitation forces that change with the operating conditions and due to the complexity of the structural response that is affected by fluid interaction and by rotordynamic effects. This analysis is convenient for effective vibration diagnostics. Theoretical models are necessary as well as experimental results to determine the induced vibrations and the best locations for monitoring as well as the sensitivity of the measuring positions to typical types of damage. A statistical analysis of field data is also necessary to improve the knowledge given by the models. With this expertise incipient damage can be detected improving the availability of machines and reducing the maintenance costs.

REFRENCES
Q. Liang, C. Rodriguez, E. Egusquiza, X. Escaler, M. Farhat, F. Avellan Numerical Simulation of Fluid Added Mass Effect on a Francis Turbine Runner Computers and Fluids, Volume 36, issue 6 (2007), pp 1106-1118 C. Rodriguez, E. Egusquiza, X. Escaler, Q. Liang, F. Avellan Experimental investigation of added mass effects on a Francis turbine runner in still water Journal of Fluids and Structures, 22 (2006) pp 699-712.

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