Monitoring system for a gas turbine engine

• US 9,625,901 B2
• Filed: 09/02/2015
• Issued: 04/18/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/04/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Solar Turbines Incorporated (Caterpillar Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Solar Turbines Incorporated (Caterpillar Incorporated)
• Inventors: De Stefano, Alessio, Cameron, Paul F, McElhinney, IV, Joseph Stinson, Estupinan, Miguel J, Schiff, Garrett Linn, Pham, Thompson Hoang An, Murgia, Fabrice Mario, Watkins, Neal, Sadasivan, Vijaya Shankar, Vasamsetty, Ramanath, Tiwari, Pankaj Yogendra, Kemp, Frances Julia, Sanjeevi, Anbarasu, Monti, Andrea, Gilbert, James Anthony, Leon, Marco Ezra, Canchi, Venkatesh
• Primary Examiner(s): TRIEU, VAN THANH
• Application Number:
  US14/843,446
• Publication Number:
  US 20170039836A1
• Time in Patent Office: 594 Days
• CPC Class Codes: F01D 21/003 Arrangements for testing or measuring for measuring vibrations G01H
• CPC Class Codes: F01D 21/14 responsive to other specific conditions
• CPC Class Codes: F05D 2260/80 Diagnostics
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/00 Testing or monitoring of control systems or parts thereof monitoring of programme-control systems G05B19/048, G05B19/406
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0213 Modular or universal configuration of the monitoring system, e.g. monitoring system having modules that may be combined to build monitoring program; monitoring system that can be applied to legacy systems; adaptable monitoring system; using different communication protocols
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0237 based on parallel systems, e.g. comparing signals produced at the same time by same type systems and detect faulty ones by noticing differences among their responses
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0272 Presentation of monitored results, e.g. selection of status reports to be displayed; Filtering information to the user

Abstract

A method of monitoring a plurality of turbomachines is disclosed herein. In embodiments, the method includes a fleet data system receiving first event data from a first monitoring connection system and second event data from a second monitoring connection system. The method also includes the fleet data system determining from the first event data and the second event data whether an event has occurred. The method further includes the fleet data system issuing an alert when the fleet data system has determined that the event has occurred, the alert including an event name, an event status, and a timestamp related to when the event occurred.

Claims

1. A method of monitoring a plurality of turbomachines, the method comprising:

a first monitoring connection system periodically receiving first event data from a first control system for a first turbomachine of the plurality of turbomachines;

a second monitoring connection system periodically receiving second event data from a second control system for a second turbomachine of the plurality of turbomachines;

a fleet data system receiving the first event data from the first monitoring connection system and associating one or more tags with the first event data and receiving the second event data from the second monitoring connection system and associating one or more tags with the second event data;

the fleet data system determining from the first event data and the second event data whether an event has occurred including comparing the event status for each tag associated with each event type in the most recently received of the first event data and the second event data with the event status for each tag in the first event data and the second event data received in the period prior to the most recently received of the first event data and the second event data and

wherein the event status is a Boolean value and comparing the event status for each of the tags in the first event data and the second event data includes checking for Boolean values in the tags that change from a first value that represents an inactive state to a second value that represents an active state; and

the fleet data system issuing an alert when the fleet data system has determined that the event has occurred, the alert including an event name, an event status, and a timestamp related to when the event occurred.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the fleet data system sends the alert to a monitoring device using a push notification.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the fleet data system sends the alert to a monitoring device via a short message service.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the fleet data system sends the alert to a monitoring device using a push notification and via a short message service.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first monitoring connection system periodically receiving the first event data from the first control system includes passing the first event data through a read only firewall to prevent remote access to the first turbomachine.

6. A method of monitoring a plurality of turbomachinery systems, each including a controller connected to a control system, the method comprising:

a fleet data system receiving event data periodically from the monitoring connection system of each turbomachinery system of the plurality of turbomachinery systems, the event data comprises a tag for each event type, each tag including a tag name and an event status;

the fleet data system storing the event data for a predetermined period;

the fleet data system determining from the event data received for each turbomachinery system whether an event has occurred by comparing the event status for each of the tags of the most recently received event data with the event status for each of the tags of the event data received in the period prior to the most recently received event data, wherein the event status is a Boolean value and comparing the event status for each tag in the event data includes checking for Boolean values in the tags that change from a first value that represents an inactive state to a second value that represents an active state; and

the fleet data system issuing an alert when the fleet data system determines that the event has occurred, the alert including an event name, an event status, and a timestamp related to when the event occurred.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the fleet data system sends the alert to a monitoring device using a push notification.

8. The method of claim 6, the fleet data system sends the alert to a monitoring device via a short message service.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the fleet data system sends the alert to a monitoring device using a push notification and via a short message service.

10. A system for monitoring a plurality of turbomachinery systems, each including a controller that periodically provides information to a control system, the system comprising:

a first monitoring connection system that periodically receives first event data from a first control system;

a second monitoring connection system that periodically receives second event data from a second control system;

wherein the first event data and the second event data include a tag for each event type, each tag including a tag name and an event status; and

a fleet data system that receives the first event data over a network from the first monitoring connection system and the second event data over the network from the second monitoring connection system, the fleet data system including

a network notification module that determines from the first event data and the second event data whether an event has occurred by comparing the event status of the tags for the most recently received first event data and second event data with the event status of the tags for the first event data and the second event data received in the period prior to the most recently received event data for each of the tags in the first event data and the second event data and issues an alert to a monitoring device when the fleet data system has determined that the event has occurred, the alert including an event name, an event status, and a timestamp related to when the event occurred,

wherein the event status is a Boolean value and the network notification module checks for Boolean values in the tags that change from a value that represents an inactive state to a value that represents an active state to compare the event status for each of the tags.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the network notification module sends the alert to the monitoring device using a push notification.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the network notification module sends the alert to the monitoring device via a short message service.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the network notification module sends the alert to the monitoring device using a push notification and a short message service.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the monitoring device includes a device notification module that instructs the network notification module on how to send the alert to the monitoring device.