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LP Turbine Vibes (ICOMS02) PDF
LP Turbine Vibes (ICOMS02) PDF
LP Turbine Vibes (ICOMS02) PDF
INTRODUCTION
Vibration monitoring and analysis is well established for detecting and monitoring changes in the internal condition of
machinery to assist in or guide the need for maintenance and its extent. In power generation, the prime movers and
often also major auxiliary machines have permanently installed vibration monitoring equipment. The purpose of this is
basically for operator guidance and surveillance, but the recorded data can also be useful for condition monitoring, and
can also be used as screening to initiate more complex test measurements. Transducer arrangements are summarised
in Table I:
Type
1
Quantity measured
Vibration of the bearing cap
Comments
Output commonly converted to
displacement, sometimes assuming
that all the vibration is at 50Hz
The amplitude of shaft vibration in
most such machines is much greater
than that of the bearing cap.
The twin probes enable the shaft
centreline position to be monitored,
both during start-up and its orbit at
service speed and load conditions.
Gives absolute shaft vibration, relative
shaft vibration, and bearing cap
vibration. Less used than above
systems.
vibration component to be found. Dedicated computer monitoring is also used, where the vibration signals can be
analysed into their frequency content and continually sampled, analysed, and compared with historical data. Data can
also be taken during transients, such as start up and coast down, to provide further information on condition, and
relative phase is then particularly important.
Depending on the extent of permanent systems fitted, vibration data is also taken with manual collection and remote
processing, as is used in many industries where permanent or continuous monitoring is not considered justified.
With the simpler systems, analysis of incidents after the event is more difficult, and relies on manual correlation of the
available data. This paper describes such an incident, and also further related investigations into machine vibration.
2.
The large steam turbine generator in this case study is of the general layout shown in Figure I. It is a 3-casing machine,
with combined High Pressure/Intermediate Pressure casing, and two Low Pressure casings, all tandem-compound the
so-called TC4DF layout. The condensers are mounted rigidly on their foundations, with flexible connecting joints to
the turbine Low Pressure casings.
The machine had permanent vibration monitoring with velocity transducer mounted on shaft riders at each bearing, as
in Type 2 of Table I. Vibration trends were logged as displacement on a paper chart recorder in the control room,
along with selected temperatures and other data. Since commissioning, the normal amplitudes of vibration were very
low, indicating a good state of balance and alignment.
HP
P HP-IP
LP A
LP B
Generator
Journal bearings
Couplings
3.
Investigation of this disturbing incident was initiated the next day, and data was correlated from several chart recorders
and data logging output. Two recordings of the LP casing exhaust temperature were available on one chart, output on
another, and vibrations on another. The turbine exhaust pressure was not recorded, but the saturation temperature is
directly related to it.
Combining this data on the one plot gave the trends shown in Figure II. The effect on exhaust pressure (ie temperature)
of removing more of the air leakage is evident.
The vibration transducers were checked and found to be in calibration, so the recorded readings were confirmed as
correct.
with lower cooling water inlet temperature, which is a function of cooling tower or pond performance, which in
turn varies with the ambient weather. This remained unchanged during this incident.
higher cooling water flow, as shown in Figure III (but the flow is normally not changed).
Condenser
Pressure
Low flow eg
1 pump only
(kPa)
High flow
2 pumps
As the bearings are supported on the exhaust hood structure, it was deduced that the whole structure had been distorted
due to the very low internal pressure, sufficiently to affect the alignment of the rotor line. The result was the very high
vibrations. This hypothesis matched the known facts. If it had been possible to analyse the vibration during or after the
event, bearing instability due to unloading of a bearing may have been indicated. As these casings look strong and stiff,
with thick steel reinforcing ribs, etc. this was perhaps a surprising conclusion. It was therefore recommended that the
exhaust hood pressure not be allowed to get too low, by setting a lower operating temperature of 35C. An alarm was
arranged accordingly. As the return to service was without incident, it was deduced that no permanent damage had
occurred.
Bearing and
support
structure
Flexible connection
from turbine casing to
condenser
Concrete
foundation
4.
Higher noise levels had been reported in summer conditions when the exhaust pressure was higher than usual. Given
that the experience described above had revealed the need to decide an allowable lower limit on casing temperature
(albeit as an indicator of pressure), it was decided to use vibration analysis to investigate the effect of operation at
higher exhaust pressures.
Operating instruction limits were an alarm setting at an exhaust pressure of 16.6kPa (absolute), corresponding to a
temperature of 56C; a unit trip at a pressure of 24.8kPa (absolute) corresponding to 66C; and also a unit trip at an LP
hood temperature of 107C. Windage overheating could cause this latter temperature, even if the pressure was low, and
cooling sprays were provided to automatically turn on before this temperature was reached.
There had been some design concerns expressed as to increased blade loading when the same mass flow of steam
resulted in increased velocity at the lower density. It was felt that vibration measurements might help quantify the
effects of operating limits and perhaps minimise any output reductions made to comply with them.
A sound level meter was set up at a constant position. A vibration transducer was mounted at an arbitrary point on the
casing. Vibration levels and also spectra up to 1000Hz were obtained at three increasing casing temperatures. These
were arranged by reducing the cooling water flow.
The results of the noise measurements and vibration analysis at significant frequencies are shown in Table II:
Casing
temperature C
40
45
50
Noise level
dBA
93.5
94.5
96
Overall
vibration
mm/s
4.8
6.2
9
100Hz
Datum level
5% increase
30% increase
200Hz
220% increase
320% increase
5.
These machines are aligned cold with a large vertical offset at the generator coupling to allow for thermal growth, and
the investigation described above led to study of alignment changes as the machine reached its normal operating
temperatures. The bearings are equipped with high pressure jacking oil tappings at bottom dead centre to reduce bearing
friction at starting up. On some machines, once the jacking oil is shut down, the local pressure gauges then indicate the
wedge pressure in the bearing, which is directly related to the loading exerted by the shaft on the bearing. This is a
rule of thumb used by commissioning engineers in checking alignment.
This machine required minor piping modifications to enable the pressures to be read using test transducers. The
alignment was expected to show some change with the machine at normal service speed and load from the cold to hot
condition. No changes were observed in the wedge pressures. The bearings are of the tilting pad type, and may show
different behaviour from the elliptical clearance types where the initial experience was gained. Given the smooth
running of these machines, the investigation was not taken further.
6.
Another design of large steam turbine generator unit had an overhaul where an LP rotor had been removed. When half
full output was reached during the return to service, the vibration on the bearing between the two LP rotors reached the
alarm level. Placing a test vibration instrument adjacent to it checked the service transducer. The permanent system was
found to be reading correctly. Frequency analysis showed that the largest vibration component was at 300Hz, or 6
rotor service speed.
On some types of turbines, the bearing shell has a retaining keep with metal-to-metal contact to the outside, which is the
part seen and accessible for taking vibration measurement. On some other designs, such as both types featured in this
paper, there is a gap of some 50mm between the cover and a direct metal-metal path to the bearing. To the observer
from outside the machine, both of these arrangements look similar.
Figure V shows how the permanent velocity
transducer was mounted, and clearly labelled Bearing 5 Vibration, with this designation carried through to the control
room monitoring system (Figure V). Installed adjacent was one proximity transducer arranged to indicate the absolute
shaft vibration.
Top of bearing
Figure VI: Cross-section of bearing showing air gap between cover and bearing
In this assessment, the shaft absolute vibration measurement was available, but it was not possible to check this locally.
Experience with assessing shaft vibration severity is less well established, and standards such as Ref (5), (6) were not
available on site at the time of this investigation (which was approaching midnight on a weekend). Ref (7) is the start
of a series of ISO Standards, and further developments may result from the current ISO/TC108/SC5 activities.
This example shows the importance of being sure of the location and mounting arrangement of permanent transducers,
or for that matter, of vibration transducers used for routine manual monitoring . There are no established standards for
bearing cover vibration!
7.
CONCLUSIONS
The results of investigations into some disturbing vibration and noise incidents on large steam turbines showed that
the techniques used for condition monitoring are useful also for investigation,
the full details of machine construction are needed before established severity standards can be used,
overall vibration levels are useful, but more refined diagnosis would be useful.
The results should be of interest to those who perform condition monitoring using vibration analysis on such
turbomachines.
8.
REFERENCES
(1)
Bigret, R Vibrations and noises of low pressure casing turbines Transactions of the American Nuclear
Society Vol 46 Supplement #1, pp 35-36 (1984)
(2)
AS2625, Part 3 -1983 Rotating and reciprocating machinery mechanical vibration Measurement and
evaluation of vibration severity of large machines in situ
(3)
ISO 10816-1:1995 Evaluation of machine vibration by measurements on non-rotating parts Part 1: General
guidelines
(4)
ISO 10816-2:2001 Evaluation of machine vibration by measurements on non-rotating parts Part 2: Landbased steam turbines and generators in excess of 50MW with normal operating speeds of 1500 r/min, 1800 r/min, 3000
r/min, and 3600 r/min.
(5)
VDI 2059 Part 2 June 1990 Shaft vibrations for steam turbosets for power stations Measurement and
evaluation
(6)
(7)
ISO10817-1:1998 Rotating shaft vibration measuring systems Part 1: Relative and absolute sensing of radial
vibration