Blade Damage in PowerGen Turbine Losses and Blade Health Monitoring

Losses of gas turbines and steam turbines in the power generation industry are often due to mechanical breakdowns associated with flow-path component damage, especially on rotating blades. Advanced condition monitoring technologies, such as Noncontact Blade Vibration Monitoring (NBVM), have been shown to effectively detect abnormal behaviors of blades during turbine operation, and thus help to mitigate the turbine loss. Following a brief review of the technology, this paper focuses on results of analyses performed using FM Global’s turbine loss data. Loss events were categorized according to different blade damage mechanisms, turbine types and damage locations; and analyzed in order to identify the realizable benefits through noncontact blade monitoring. Based on the results of the analysis, field applications of the technology for improvement of long-term turbine condition monitoring are discussed.