Condition Monitoring of Power

Plant Equipment

Presented by
S Bhattacharya, K R Bairwa,
P Kukde
The Tata Power Co Ltd, Mumbai
CONTENT

ƒ Concept of Condition Monitoring

ƒ Condition Based Maintenance
Management System at Trombay
ƒ Case Studies
Need of Condition Monitoring

ƒ Safety of Man and Machine

ƒ Plant availability
ƒ Reliability
ƒ Operation at Best Efficiency
ƒ Minimization of Maintenance Cost
ƒ Health assessment & Minimizing the failures
ƒ Equipment Life Assessment
ƒ Input for developing Maintenance Strategy
 Safety of Man and Machine

ƒ Modern Power Plant Equipment are High Cost

Capital assets
ƒ Fire Hazards – Fuel, Lubricating Oils, Electrical, etc
 Reliability
ƒ High reliability
Electricity is life line of the modern civilization – Local
Trains, Hospitals, Industrial requirement, Domestic
requirements, sanitation, basic amenities, etc

ƒ Maximize reliability by performing planned

maintenance based on condition monitoring.

Machinery in large power plant is desired to have high reliability.

As maintenance has a large cost impact on the total operation, it
is however essential to only perform maintenance when it is
really required.
 Plant Availability

ƒ Shift form breakdown to condition based

maintenance
ƒ Machine health input for scheduling inspection &
maintenance

To guarantee the machine availability, avoid major breakdown &

to schedule inspection & maintenance, the condition of the
machines need to be monitored accurately, so that right
maintenance decisions can be taken
Objectives of Condition Monitoring

ƒ Protect machines against major breakdowns

ƒ Machine health assessment.
ƒ Maximize operation efficiency.
ƒ Troubleshooting
ƒ Minimize maintenance cost

This is the basis for formulating maintenance strategy

Machine Health Assessment
Parameter Identification
ƒ OEM guidelines
ƒ Operating Experience
ƒ Improved Diagnostic Analysis
Monitoring System
ƒ On line monitoring
ƒ Off line monitoring
ƒ Trends
ƒ Raw data monitoring
ƒ Data analysis and monitoring of derived parameters
ƒ Defined range of operation - Normal/Alarm/Trip value
Machine Health Assessment

Feed back from Machine Operating History

ƒ Machine operating characteristics
ƒ History of past problems and its remedy
ƒ Residual Life Analysis

Comprehensive Equipment Health Survey

ƒ Pre-overhaul survey
ƒ Input from OEM and other plants
ƒ Residual life study
Condition Based Maintenance Management
System at Trombay
ƒ Online monitoring of Critical Parameters
ƒ Periodic Data Collection and Trending
ƒ Analysis
ƒ Inputs from equipment history, pre-overhaul survey
and past experiences
ƒ RLA
Monitoring Parameters for Main Turbine

Mechanical Parameters
ƒ Vibration of Shaft and pedestal
ƒ Bearing metal temperature
ƒ Turbine Expansions
ƒ Axial shift,
ƒ Turbine metal temperature
Functional Parameters
ƒ Steam pressures and temperatures
ƒ Vacuum
ƒ Feed Water Parameters
Limit Values of Operating Parameters

ƒ OEM recommendation
ƒ Steady state running parameters
ƒ Revise limit values based on condition monitoring

This forms the basis for deciding alarm & trip values
Pre-overhaul survey of Main Turbine

Objective
• Ascertain present running behavior
• Identify problem areas
• Planning for high value insurance spares
• Define scope of Quality overhaul
• Planned preparation
• Focused approach to minimize outage duration
• Decision making for future overhauls
Pre-overhaul survey of Main Turbine
Studies to be conducted during Pre-Overhaul Survey
• Running hours
• Reports of all previous overhauls along with the
repairs carried out and spares consumed
• Discussions on Past / present problems
• RLA reports
• Present vibration behavior/scan
• Thermo-scan
• Study of past and present operating data
• Heat balance diagram and reports of periodic
enthalpy drop tests
Pre-overhaul survey of Main Turbine
Example:
High IP exhaust steam temperature in Unit 5
Possible causes:
ƒ Steam leak through parting plane.
ƒ Inlet steam passing into exhaust directly through
angle seal rings
ƒ Steam leakage through angle sealing rings of steam
extractions
ƒ Faulty RTD
Pre-overhaul survey of Main Turbine
Analysis and Action Taken:
ƒ Machine EOH > 1.5 Lakh hours.
Parting plane fasteners replacement planned.
ƒ No history of steam leak through angle seal rings.
During turbine fact finding inspection no sign of
leakage observed. Also clearances were within
design limits.
ƒ RTD
Problem identified with data acquisition and transfer.
Pre-overhaul survey of Main Turbine
Strategic decision based on past experience:

HP front shaft high vibration problem persisted for 4

years.

Problem resolved by carrying out slow speed dynamic

balancing at site.

This practice is being followed for all rigid rotors at

Trombay. All rotors balanced till date have had
substantial mass imbalance.
 Vibration analysis

Vibration is one of the most significant parameter for

interpreting machine-health and indication for problems
at incipient stage.

For machine health monitoring, the simplest method of

detecting any abnormality with the machine is to look for
the change in vibration pattern and level.
Guidelines for Vibration Analysis
ƒ Gradual rise in vibration are due to:
¾Bearing deterioration/ wear
¾Deterioration of base frame/ grouting
¾Wear, corrosion, deposition on rotating
components
¾Settling of foundations
¾Deterioration in alignment
Guidelines for Vibration Analysis
ƒ Abrupt change in vibration could be due to:
¾Change in operating parameters like flow,
pressure, temperature, etc
¾Modification / maintenance deficiency ( e,g
bearing misalignment) if it increases just after
maintenance.
¾Operating shocks resulting in machine
deterioration / damage
¾Hot misalignment
¾Bearing lubrication problem
Guidelines for Vibration Analysis
ƒ Very high vibrations can be attributed to:
¾Resonance
¾Imbalance of rotating parts
¾Expansion restrictions/ Piping strains
¾Foundation problem/ Foundation loading
¾Loading of bearings
¾Lubrication problems
¾Improper dimensional tolerances
¾Machine performance does not meet with
required performance, hydraulic forces,
aerodynamic forces-design problem.
¾Equipment damage – e.g rubbing, rotor bent,
gear mismatch, etc
Guidelines for Vibration Analysis
ƒ Vibration spectrums analysis indicative of the
following problems:
¾Unbalance
¾Bent shaft
¾Misalignment of couplings, bearings and gears
¾Looseness
¾Rubbing
¾Eccentricity of rotating components
¾Resonance
¾Journal bearing problems – oil whip, oil whirl
Guidelines for Vibration Analysis
Salient Points for vibration analysis:
¾ Shaft is the source of energy in rotating machinery.
¾ Shaft could get its energy from: process medium, imbalance, restrictions,
variation of design settings, expansion problem, rubbing, electrical problem,
inconsistency of oil film, etc
¾ Energy of shaft shows through bearing, casing, foundation, pipe, etc
¾ Acceptable energy/ vibration of shaft may show unacceptable vibration in
bearing due to problem in bearing, foundation, casing , pipe pulls, etc
¾ Latent design defects/deficiencies surfacing at a later date can be source of
vibrations. e.g foundation, pipe pull, resonance, etc.
¾ Recognize the focal point of vibrations
¾ Look for temperature effect on vibrations
¾ Look for effect on vibration behavior due to loading of machine
¾ Study the recent maintenance carried out if any.
¾ Look for change in operating parameters if any
¾ Look into the history of vibrations of the machine
¾ Look for abrupt change/ trend of vibration
¾ Look for change in running parameters of the machine like bearing
temperatures, etc.
¾ Look for change in lubrication, oil quality, etc
 Case Study 1

Main Turbine Unit # 5 – LP free

standing blade failure.
Main Turbine Unit # 5 – LP free standing blade failure.

Background
LP turbine free standing blade failure occured on running machine,
which lead to catastrophic failure of the machine. Being the first incident
of this nature and our unit being the oldest 500MW unit in India, the
study of blade failure detection was undertaken in collaboration with
BARC, Mumbai.
Observations and analysis:
Blade vibrations were recorded twice, before & after shutdown.

1. During vacuum drop many peaks of vibration corresponding to

natural frequency of LP – II & LP – III observed. These were
not seen during normal steady state operation.
Observations and analysis:
2. Drastic variation in amplitude is seen in BPF component of LP –
II & LP – III during excitation. Normally, the amplitude are
steady unless the blades are disturbed and set into vibration.
Observations and analysis:
3. Side band harmonics are seen on both sides of the BPF. The
harmonics are 20 Hz on either side of the BPF. The presence of
the side bands indicates problem with the blades. These
harmonics vanished after replacement of the cracked blades.
Observations and analysis:
4. The Amplitude of the BPF have drastically reduced after
replacement of the cracked blades.

This technique of detecting cracks in freestanding blades may be very

useful for monitoring the health of the machine and thereby detecting
blade cracks at the incipient stage.
 Case Study 2

Control Fluid Pump – Current

Hunting
Pump Specification

ƒ Make : KSB, Germany

ƒ Type : WKVM – 100/2+3
ƒ LP Discharge : From 2nd Stage
ƒ HP Discharge : From 5th stage
ƒ Rated Pressure : LP - 13.6 Bar
HP - 40 Bar
Pump Layout

LP Circuit

HP Circuit
NRV

Pump 2 Pump 1
Problem

ƒ Motor Current of CF Pump 2 hunting from 152 – 192

Amps.
ƒ No pressure hunting in LP Circuit.
ƒ HP circuit pressure hunting around 1 bar
(CF system is provided with accumulators to take
care of pressure fluctuations)
 Cause Effect Diagram
Operational Hydraulic

Pump flow variation Loss of suction

System fluctuations Obstruction at suction
Load / Freq variation Blockage
Accumulators Detached suction pipe
Bladder failure Fluid foaming
Isolation from circuit change in air release property
Control system contamination
Governor hunting air ingress
Fluid properties
Viscosity / Temperature
Contamination

Internal clearances
Increase in clearances beyond limits Damage to internals
Wear Impeller / Diffuser
Rubbing
Axial float setting
Setting during assembly Pump charecteristics
Pump operating in unstable zone Rotor fault
Interstage leakages Design
Gasket failure Change due to internal damage Measurement error
Looseness

Mechanical Electrical
Possible Causes

Electrical fault
Rotor fault
z Motor of pump #2 swapped with motor of pump #1

Measurement error
z RPM measurements carried out

z Power measurements carried out

Possible Causes
Hydraulic problems
z Obstruction in pump suction

During unit outage the Control Fluid was transferred

to another tank for tank inspection and no
abnormality found
z Fluid foaming

No foaming observed and CF sample tested OK

z Change in fluid viscosity

Operating temperature normal and no contamination

of fluid
Possible Causes

Operational Problem
- Pump flow variation
No System fluctuation , accumulators found
healthy, and no hunting in governing system.
 Possible Causes
Mechanical Problems
- Increase in internal clearances
- Problem with Axial float setting
- Damage to internals
Pump overhauled and performance tested at OEM
facility (partial test with LP stage blocked).
No damage observed on internals, gasket failure or
looseness in the pump
Possible Causes
Mechanical Problems
- Pump characteristics
In-situ pump flow measurements carried out. Flow
hunting observed in HP circuit.

Pump LP Flow HP Flow Current

(m3/hr) (m3/hr) (Amp)

1 41 24.5 – 25 167 -172

2 39-41 10 – 15 152-192
 Pump Characteristics
400

350

300

250
Head(m)

200

150

100

50

0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140

Flow

Unit 6 CF Pump 2 Char Modified hyd char

Corrective action

HP Impeller modification
ƒ It was observed that the pump operating point is in
unstable zone
ƒ Diameter increased by 10 mm to change the pump
hydraulics
Pump behavior after modification

Pump 1 2

LP Pressure 13.6 13.5

(Bar)
HP Pressure 39.6 40.5
(Bar)
Current 170 174
(Amps)
 Operational Hydraulic

Pump flow variation Loss of suction

System fluctuations Obstruction at suction
Load / Freq variation Blockage
Accumulators Detached suction pipe
Bladder failure Fluid foaming
Isolation from circuit change in air release property
Control system contamination
Governor hunting air ingress
Fluid properties
Viscosity / Temperature
Contamination

Internal clearances
Increase in clearances beyond limits Damage to internals
Wear Impeller / Diffuser
Rubbing
Axial float setting
Setting during assembly Pump charecteristics
Pump operating in unstable zone Rotor fault
Interstage leakages Design
Gasket failure Change due to internal damage Measurement error
Looseness

Mechanical Electrical
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