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Abstract
The availability of a complex system, such as a gas turbine, is strongly associated with its parts reliability and
maintenance policy. That policy not only has influence on the parts’ repair time but also on the parts’ reliability
affecting the system degradation and availability. This study presents a method for reliability and availability
evaluation of gas turbines installed in an electric power station. The method is based on system reliability concepts,
such as functional tree development, application of failure mode and effects analysis to identify critical components
for improvement of system reliability, and reliability and maintainability evaluation based on a historical failure
database. The method also proposes the application of Reliability Centered Maintenance concepts to improve
complex system maintenance policies aimed at the reduction of unexpected failure occurrences in critical
components. The method is applied to the analysis of two F series gas turbines, each with an output of 150 MW,
installed in a 500 MW combined cycle power plant. The reliability and availability of the turbines are simulated
based on a five-year failure database. The availability analysis shows different results for each turbine, one
presenting 99% and the other 96% availability, indicating differences in their systems installation and operation.
1. Introduction expressed by the ratio of the mean time to failure to the sum
The use of combined cycle power stations has increased of the mean time to failure plus the mean time to repair.
in recent years due mainly to the development of high Those authors indicate that the mean time to failure,
nominal output gas turbines. The high temperature exhaust calculated from the failure records, can be improved
gas from the Brayton cycle is used as a heat source for the through the study of root-cause failure analysis and system
Rankine cycle, which increases the power plant global reliability analysis.
efficiency. The availability of a complex system, such as a gas
Reliable gas turbine operation can be considered critical turbine, is strongly associated with the parts reliability and
for the combined cycle operation. The gas turbine the maintenance policy. That policy not only influences the
transforms the thermal energy generated by fuel parts’ repair time but also the parts’ reliability affecting the
combustion into mechanical energy to rotate the electrical system degradation and availability.
generator’s shaft. The exhaust gas is used to produce steam Most of the maintenance tasks of power plant
in a steam generator that is part of the steam cycle. In case equipment are based on manufacturer’s recommendations.
of a gas turbine failure the power plant is fully shut down Those recommendations are not always based on real
since the Rankine cycle is dependent on the gas turbine experience data. Many manufacturers get very little
availability. Bearing in mind the great importance of the feedback from users of their equipment after the guarantee
gas turbine for plant operation, its availability should be period is over. Fear of product liability claims may perhaps
carefully evaluated in order to anticipate the performance – also influence the manufactures’ recommendations.
technical and economical - of the plant. In a large enterprise, such as a power plant, keeping
Availability measures are concerned with the fraction of asset reliability and availability, and reducing costs related
time a unit is capable of providing service. Most power to asset maintenance, repair, and ultimate replacement are
plants use the index proposed by IEEE std. 762 (1987) to at the top of management concerns. In response to these
define availability. That index represents the percentage of concerns, the Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM)
a given period of time, expressed in hours, that the unit is in concept was developed. RCM has been formally defined by
service (including reserve shutdown state). A reduction in Moubray (1997) as “a process used to determine what must
availability is caused by planned maintenance and be done to ensure that any physical asset continues to do
unplanned maintenance actions. The index, usually whatever its users want it to do in its present operating
evaluated monthly, is reported in a Generating Availability context”.
Data System (GADS) and can be used for comparison The RCM methodology is completely described by the
between different generating systems. following four features:
That index is deterministic and can only be used for
i) Preserve functions;
maintenance efficiency management. In order to improve
ii) Identify failure modes that can defeat the functions;
maintenance efficiency and to reduce maintenance costs,
iii) Prioritize function need;
Eti et al. (2007) proposed the use of reliability and
maintainability concepts to define an availability index
That value allows identification of the alert level, operational condition and a vibration monitoring system
providing information to schedule maintenance tasks before can be used to check the pump performance. The trends in
functional failure occurs. The analysis is the basis for the those registers can be used to support on condition
implementation of the predictive maintenance policy maintenance tasks planning avoiding any degradation in the
recommended by RCM philosophy. Moreover, most of the bearings performance;
critical components of the gas turbine can be assisted with vi) The lubrication oil refrigeration system must be also
predictive maintenance tasks although, according to considered in the predictive maintenance planning since its
manufactures’ recommendation, other critical components performance degradation has consequences on the turbine
are assisted with preventive maintenance tasks. bearings operational condition. The cooling water pumps
For some critical components the authors detected that should be monitored with vibration gauges and some flow
there is no monitoring system that could indicate the meters can be used to check the water flow in the oil /water
evolution of a given failure mode. For those components heat exchange system.
the authors suggest the following measures aiming at the The use of monitoring systems allows the evaluation of
reduction of their failure probability: failure development only for mechanical components.
i) The pressure and temperature magnitude in the Nevertheless, to allow any trend evaluation, one needs to
combustion chamber are monitored allowing the on-line define the signature pattern representing the component
diagnosis of the combustion process. As a consequence, operational performance in the normal condition defined in
corrections in the turbine operational conditions can be the design specifications. A recorded signature pattern
rapidly implemented; associated with each monitored component is compared to
ii) Regarding the sliding bearing systems (radial and the trends presented by the signal registered by the sensors
thrust), the lubrication oil pressure and temperature are allowing the maintenance tasks planning before the
monitored at the bearing inlet. Based on the trends of the equipment functional failure.
sensors registers the lube oil system operational condition
can be monitored but not the bearing material degradation. 3.4 Reliability and Availability Analysis
For that analysis the authors recommend that periodically Reliability can be defined as the probability that a
an oil sample should be analyzed in order to detect the system will perform properly for a specified period of time
presence of metallic particles in the fluid. The time history under a given set of operating conditions. Implied in this
of those particles’ volume and chemical composition can be definition is a clear-cut criterion for failure, from which one
used as indicators of bearing material degradation allowing may judge at what point the system is no longer functioning
the planning of maintenance actions before the bearing properly. For the gas turbine the failure criterion is any
failure; component failure that causes incapacity of generating the
iii) Only the thrust bearing has an axial vibration nominal power output.
monitoring system. Although the trend in the thrust bearing The reliability analysis is performed for each of the two
vibration pattern can be used to characterize a potential gas turbines installed in the power plant, submitted to the
failure development in the sliding bearings, the monitoring same commissioning process and starting to operate at the
system could be improved through the use of vibration same time. The reliability analysis is based on the time to
sensors in the radial sliding bearing. With that improvement failure data analysis.
more information about the rotating parts of the gas turbine Probably the single most used parameter to characterize
should be recorded supporting preventive or predictive reliability is the mean time to failure (MTTF). It is just the
maintenance tasks planning; expected or mean value of the failure time, expressed as:
iv) The filtering systems installed in the air inlet and in ∞
MTTF = ∫ R(t )dt
the lubrication oil circuit are monitored through the use of
(1)
differential pressure gauges. Any change in the differential
0
pressure trend can be used as an indication of the presence
of solid particles in the filter cartridge. The authors where:
recommend that the solid particles removed during the
cartridge cleaning operation could be analyzed to check if R(t) reliability at time t
there are metallic materials in the particles that can be used T time period [h]
as an indication of turbine parts deterioration; Random failures (represented by the exponential
v) The sliding and thrust bearings lubrication oil pumps probability function) constitute the most widely used model
do not have any monitoring system. As any degradation in for describing reliability phenomena. They are defined by
those pumps’ performance can affect the bearings the assumption that the rate of failure of a system is
operational condition that could even cause the turbine to independent of its age and other characteristics of its
trip, the authors recommend the use of non-destructive operating history. In that case the use of mean time to
techniques to check their performance. The thermograph failure to describe reliability can be acceptable once the
technique can be used to check the pump electric motor