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Advanced diagnostic system for the monitoring of rotating machines in power systems

Country of Origin: Czech Republic
Reference Number: TOCZ20180830001
Publication Date: 31 August 2018

Summary

A Czech university research centre has developed a new diagnostic method for the monitoring of non-stationary events in rotating machines. The method enables to monitor the operation of rotating machines online and prevent their breakdown. The university is looking for manufacturers or operators of power systems or rotating machines interested in cooperation under a services or technical cooperation agreement.

Description

Rotating machines, especially steam turbines, are essential to electric power generation and their failure and subsequent outage can lead to significant losses. There are some non-stationary events such as undesirable contact between the rotor and the stator (rubbing), vibrations in rotating components (blades) that may occur during the operation of rotating machines and cause their breakdown. To prevent rotating machines' failures, it is necessary to monitor their operation.

Currently used diagnostic methods process vibration signals occurring in rotating machines and indicate long-term and relatively slow changes. This means that the methods cannot detect non-stationary events in real time. To eliminate this shortcoming, the Czech university research centre has developed an advanced method that enables real-time rubbing detection, its localisation, increased vibrations analysis etc. The method has been developed as a result of a long-term cooperation with industrial partners from the power engineering sector and is based on stochastic normalization of time-frequency spectrograms of the signals. Non-stationary events are monitored as follows:



•  Detection - deciding that a non-stationary event has occurred, triggering response and storing data before and after the event

•  Localisation - determining the location of the event through its physical properties

•  Specification - detailed description of other quantitative properties related to the non-stationary event (weight, momentum, energy, etc.)



The technology enables vibration diagnostics to be carried out both by measuring sensors placed in contact with the blades and by contactless monitoring of turbine input/output characteristics and properties in determining blades damage during the operation of steam turbines.



The research centre offers the following services in the area of advanced rotating machines diagnostics:

•  Measurement instrumentation, integration with existing third-party sensor and monitoring systems;

•  Adjusting in-house diagnostic HW to the needs of the customer and the application at hand;

•  SW-based assessment of equipment status (rubbing, tip-timing) relying on in-house-developed algorithms;

•  Extending diagnostic SW with additional modules specific to the given application and customer requirements.



Cooperation with manufactures or operators of power systems is envisaged on a services agreement basis. The research centre may also propose improvements regarding the operation of turbines under a technical cooperation agreement.

Advantages and Innovations

•  No special equipment needed for the application of the service - the service uses standardised inputs such as the existing sensor equipment, or, in case of non-contact measuring, the equipment without sensors is used

•  Non-invasive and complex diagnostics of non-stationary events in power systems

•  Safety of the technology and data processing have been tested by international energy giants

•  Preventive monitoring of the potential occurrence of non-stationary events

Stage Of Development

Already on the market

Requested partner

Partner sought: Manufacturers and operators of power systems and rotating machines who need to improve durability or decrease maintenance costs of their power systems/rotating machines.



The Czech university is offering complete diagnostic services cooperation in the field of non-stationary events (detection, evaluation) under a services agreement. Proposals for improvements regarding the operation of rotating machines may also be made by the research centre under a technical cooperation agreement.