SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR TURBOMACHINERY VANE PROGNOSTICS AND DIAGNOSTICS

• US 20160123238A1
• Filed: 10/31/2014
• Published: 05/05/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GE Infrastructure Technology, LLC (GE Vernova, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Maters, John Carver, Kay, Cyron Frank
• Granted Patent: US 10,443,509 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: F01D 17/04 responsive to load
• CPC Class Codes: F01D 17/085 to temperature
• CPC Class Codes: F01D 17/162 for axial flow, i.e. the vanes turning around axes which are essentially perpendicular to the rotor centre line F01D17/167 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: F01D 21/12 responsive to temperature
• CPC Class Codes: F01D 21/14 responsive to other specific conditions
• CPC Class Codes: F01D 9/041 using blades F01D5/148 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: F02C 9/20 by throttling; by adjusting vanes
• CPC Class Codes: F05D 2220/3216 for a special compressor stage
• CPC Class Codes: F05D 2260/80 Diagnostics
• CPC Class Codes: F05D 2270/11 to prolong engine life
• CPC Class Codes: F05D 2270/44 active, predictive, or anticipative
• CPC Class Codes: F05D 2270/54 by electronic means, e.g. electronic tubes, transistors or IC's within an electronic circuit
• CPC Class Codes: F05D 2270/62 Electrical actuators

Abstract

One embodiment includes a system including an actuation system of a gas turbine system including an actuator, a positioner including one or more sensors, a motor, and a controller communicably coupled to the positioner and the motor. The actuator is coupled to one or more inlet guide vanes (IGVs) or variable stator vanes (VSVs) and configured to move the IGVs or VSVs, the positioner is configured to position the actuator so that the actuator moves the IGVs or VSVs to a desired angle, the motor is configured to drive the actuator, and the controller is configured to establish one or more baselines for one or more types of data obtained by the sensors at initialization of the gas turbine system, derive a deviation from the baselines, and perform a preventative action if a deviation that meets or exceeds a threshold is derived.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

an actuation system of a gas turbine system comprising an actuator, a positioner including one or more sensors, a motor, and a controller system communicably coupled to the positioner and the motor, wherein the actuator is coupled to one or more inlet guide vanes (IGVs) or variable stator vanes (VSVs) and configured to move the IGVs or VSVs, the positioner is configured to position the actuator so that the actuator moves the IGVs or VSVs to a desired angle, the motor is configured to drive the actuator, and the controller system is configured to;

establish one or more baselines for one or more types of data obtained by the sensors at initialization of the gas turbine system;

derive a deviation from the baselines; and

perform a preventative action if a deviation that meets or exceeds a threshold is derived.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the controller system comprises a position controller and a gas turbine controller, wherein the gas turbine controller is communicatively coupled to the position controller, wherein the controller is configured to derive the deviation from the baselines by comparing data obtained by the sensors during operation of the gas turbine system and status information from the position controller with the baselines and determining whether the operation data deviates from the baselines by the threshold, and wherein the position controller is communicably coupled to the positioner and the motor and is configured to control the positioner and the motor based on communications with the gas turbine controller.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more baselines comprise a threshold baseline, a statistical baseline, a neural network, a genetic algorithm, a data mining cluster, or some combination thereof.

4. The system of claim 3, preventative action comprises generating a maintenance plan, triggering an alert, triggering an alarm, providing one or more failure operation modes, or some combination thereof.

5. The system of claim 1, the sensors comprise a position sensor, a current sensor, a voltage sensor, a thermal sensor, a force sensor, and a vibration sensor.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the deviation correlates to a state of degradation of a component.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the controller system is configured to derive the deviation from the baselines by comparing real time data and historical trending data obtained by the sensors to the baselines.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more baselines comprise data obtained during system development, programming, testing, commissioning, installation, or some combination thereof.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the controller system is configured to establish the one or more baselines by using data obtained via the sensors and status information provided by the position controller and the baselines are established at the unit level and at the fleet level.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the controller system is configured to update the one or more baselines from data received via the sensors on subsequent initializations of the gas turbine system if a deviation is not derived during the previous operation of the gas turbine system.

11. A method, comprising:

establishing, via a controller of a gas turbine system, one or more baselines for data obtained by one or more sensors included in a turbine vane actuation system configured to actuate inlet guide vanes (IGVs) or variable stator vanes (VSVs) of the gas turbine system when the gas turbine system is initialized;

deriving, via the controller, a deviation from the baselines during operation of the gas turbine system; and

performing, via the controller, a preventative action if a deviation is derived.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein deriving the deviation from the baselines comprises obtaining data from the sensors during operation of the gas turbine system, comparing the operation data to the respective baseline, and determining whether the operation data deviates from the respective baseline by a threshold amount.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the one or more baselines comprise a threshold baseline, a statistical baseline, a neural network, a genetic algorithm, a data mining cluster, or some combination thereof.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein performing a preventative action if a deviation is derived comprises shutting down the gas turbine system, generating a maintenance plan for a component associated with the deviation, triggering an alarm, triggering an alert, providing one or more failure operating mode options, or some combination thereof.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein deriving a deviation from the baselines comprises analyzing live and historical trending data obtained from the sensors to schedule maintenance on one or more components of the gas turbine system.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the sensors are included in two, redundant electric positioners of the actuation system and the sensors continuously monitor current, voltage, or some combination thereof, used by the positioners to position two actuators of the actuation system, an internal temperature of the two actuators, dynamic and static forces of the two actuators, or some combination thereof.

17. A non-transitory, computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon, wherein the instructions are configured to cause a processor to:

establish one or more baselines for data obtained by sensors included in a turbine vane actuation system configured to actuate inlet guide vanes (IGVs) and variable stator vanes (VSVs) of the gas turbine system when the gas turbine system is initialized;

derive a deviation from the baselines during operation of the gas turbine system; and

perform a preventative action if a deviation is derived.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the instructions are configured to derive the deviation from the baselines by utilizing one or more techniques comprising linearly fitting obtained data from the sensors during operation of the gas turbine system with the baseline, neural networks, genetic algorithms, artificial intelligence, fuzzy logic, mathematical techniques including statistics, data mining, filters, or some combination thereof.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the preventative action comprises shutting the gas turbine system down, generating a maintenance plan for a component associated with the deviation, triggering an alarm, triggering an alert, providing failure operating mode options, or some combination thereof.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the data utilized to establish the baseline comprises a force to drive dual actuators of the actuation system, a current utilized by dual positioners of the actuation system to position the actuators, a temperature of the actuators'"'"' assemblies, a controller, and motor drives, or some combination thereof.