TIA seed funding application

Sector: Energy

Activities:

• Initial proof of concept
• Refining and implementing designs
• Prototype development
• Conducting field studies

Concise description of the project

• Stel die doel en belangrikheid van turbomasjienerie
• Gee dalk ‘n voorbeeld van turbomasjiene.
• Turbinelemme is die sentrale onderdeel wat die werkverrigting van ‘n turbine betref. ‘n Turbinelem onttrek energie uit ‘n werkende vloeier uit en ‘n kompressorlem oefen krag uit op die werkende vloeier.
• Weens hierdie kragte wat die lemme ervaar/uitoefen, ervaar die lemme spanning. Onder sommige operasionele toestande binne-in die rotor kan hierdie spannings wat die lem ervaar baie groot wees, en dit kan op sy beurt weer lei tot die lem wat skade opdoen, of reeds bestaande skade wat voortplant.
• As die turbomasjien aanhou om onder hierdie skadelike toestande te verkeer, sal die skade voortplant tot op ‘n stadium wat die lemme eenvoudig nie die kragte kan dra nie. Die lem sal dan katastrofiese faling ondergaan en in twee gedeeltes losbreek.
• ‘n Faling van ‘n LP lem het enorme finansiële gevolge. Die koste van herstel is ongeveer R1 miljard en die bedryfsverliese kan maklik in die orde van R4 miljard wees.
• Daar is tans geen manier om vas te stel wanneer die bedryfskondisies binne-in ‘n turbomasjien skadelik is nie.
• Daar is dus ook geen manier om vas te stel of die lemme beskadig is of nie, en of die lemme beskadig word of nie, terwyl die turbomasjien hardloop nie.
• Hierdie kwessie word aangespreek deur om konserwatiewe onderbrekings-skedules te implementeer. Tipies elke 2-3 jaar word ‘n Intermediate Outage gedoen. Elke 6-10 jaar word ‘n General outage gedoen waar die turbine, sowel as die hele aanleg nagegaan word.
• Tydens hierdie onderbrekings word die lemme deur persone nagegaan vir krake en defekte. Dit is nie gewaarborg dat die eksperts wel ‘n defek sal optel nie. Indien ‘n defek gemis word en die turbine aangeskakel word gaan is die risiko van lemfaling voor die volgende keer ‘n moontlikheid.
• Dit is duidelik dat ‘n gebrek aan inligting aangaande die toestand en gedrag van die lemme tydens werking die volgende gevolge het:

• Onsekerheid aangaande die gesondheid van die lem
• Onsekerheid aangaande die veiligheid van die huidige operationele toestand.
• Konserwatiewe onderbrekingsperiodes weens die onsekerheid.applikasie
• Onnodige bedryfsverliese in gevalle wat die turbinelemme niks makeer nie.

• Hierdie TIA seed funding applikasieaansoek stel die gebruik van ‘n tegniek genaamd Blade Tip Timing (BTT) voor om inligting aangaande die lemme tydens operasie te bekom. Stel dit duidelik dat hierdie inligting nie beter, of meer gewens, as huidige inligting is nie. Daar is tans geen inligting aangaande die toestand van die lemme nie.
• Oor die afgelope 2.5 jare is daar navorsing in die Centre for Asset Integrity Management (C-AIM) gedoen aangaande BTT. Daar is in hierdie tyd verskeie toetse gedoen in BTT. Daar is onder andere nuwe(novel) algoritmes ontwikkel wat die gebruik van BTT meer betroubaar maak as met huidige, gepubliseerde metodes. Die terugvoering wat C-AIM van industrie spelers soos Eskom af gekry het is dat die navorsing baie belowend lyk en dat hulle angstig is om die tegnologie tot volwassenheid te sien kom, sodat hulle dit kan implementeer. Die algoritmes wat by C-AIM ontwikkel is en die teoretiese verstaan van BTT is tot so ‘n vlak gevorder dat dit gebruik kan word op regte turbomasjienerie. Ons kapasiteite skiet egter tekort in die hardeware wat ons gebruik. Dit is die grootste struikelblok tot die implementering van die stelsel.
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• Die doel van die projek soos uitgelê in hierdie aansoekvorm is om gepaste hardeware te bekom en dit te implementeer vir BTT.

Overall project purpose

a.) Overall/core purpose of the project

Om die gepaste hardeware aan te skaf en die nodige konfugirering daarvan uit te voer wat ‘n werkende BTT sisteem op die toetsrotor tot gevolg sal hê.

b.) Identified problem
Die redes agter die gewenstheid van ‘n BTT sisteem is alreeds genoem in die inleiding. Hier gaan dus slegs op die probleem gefokus word wat deur hierdie projek aangespreek word:
Konteks:

• ‘n BTT sisteem bestaan uit drie gedeeltes:
  1. Sensors wat in die huls van die turbomasjien geïnstalleer is en ‘n sensor wat die posisie van die rotor monitor.
  2. Data-opname en aanlynprossiserings hardeware. Hierdie hardeware vervul twee doele. 1) Elke keer wat ‘n lem verby ‘n sekere sensor verbybeweeg moet veroorsaak dit ‘n ‘puls’ in die sensor se spanningsuitset. Hierdie puls kom natuurlik as ‘n analoog sein voor. In BTT stel mens belang om hierdie puls te analiseer en om ‘n tyd-van-aankoms te bereken wat die presiese tyd wat die lem by die sensor aankom, verteenwoordig. Om hierdie prosessering te doen is dit eerstens nodig om die sein van analoog na digitaal om te skakel. Sodra die sein omgeskakel is, moet dit dadelik geprosesseer word om hierdie verteenwoordigende tyd vas te stel. Elke keer wat ‘n verteenwoordeginde tyd bereken is, moet dit aan ‘n rekenaar gekommunikeer word.
  3. Die rekenaar ontvang dus al die ToA’s van al die lemme en sensors vanaf die data opname hardeware. Sodra hierdie inligting in die rekenaar se geheue ingelaai is, kan dit gebruik word om, onder andere, die volgende te bereken:
  • Of die lemme in ‘n skadelike toestand vibreer
  • Wat die frekwensie van vibrasie is of nie.
  • Wat die grootte van die lemvibrasie
    Hierdie inligting kan dan gebruik word deur die turbine operateur om meer insig te kry aangaande die toestand van die lemme en om die manier waarop die turbine bedryf word te verander indien hulle daartoe genoop word.

Binne die geïdentifiseerde raamwerk van BTT sisteem funksionaliteite identifiseer ons ‘n behoefte in die tweede stelling. Mens benodig ‘n data-opname stelsel wat:

1. Elke sensor sein vinnig genoeg kan opneem en na digitaal toe omskakel.
2. Hierdie digitale sein moet dan onmiddellik verwerk word om die aankomstyd van die lemme te bepaal en na die rekenaar deur te voer.

Huidiglik is ons kapasiteit om die bostaande te doen nie in plek nie. Ons het geen kapasiteit om item 2, die dadelike verwerking van die sein, te doen nie. Ons het ook glad nie die kapasiteit om vinnig genoeg te ‘sample’ vir ‘n werklike turbine nie.

Hierdie projek gaan dus oor die aanskaf van ‘n stelsel wat aan daardie twee vereistes voldoen. Ons het reeds ‘n kwotasie gekry vir so ‘n stelsel by National Instruments. Die kwotasie beloop in die orde van R350 000.

People who have this problem/need and are likely to pay to have it solved.

In South Africa:

• Eskom (most promising prospective client)
• Sasol
• Denel
• SAAF
• SAA
• SA Navy
• Paramound

Wordwide:

• Any power generation company.
• Original Equipment manufacturers (OEM)’s like Alstom, General Electric, Siemens etc.

d. Similar offerings

In Eskom, other condition monitoring tasks are performed by Rotek, also a State Owned Company (SOC) and considered a part of Eskom. Other than them, there are very few companies in South Africa that offer condition monitoring services to the power generation industry. One such company is WearCheck. WearCheck specializes in condition monitoring of industrial machines by oil analysis. They do perform some vibration analysis however.
There are currently no companies situated in South Africa (and the African continent for that matter) that provide BTT services. The top three companies providing BTT services are:
1 Hood Technologies (USA)
2 Rolls Royce (Britain)
3 Agilis (USA)
Most Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) do research in BTT. However, it seems as if they do not yet install and provide commercial BTT systems for customers. They use it for research purposes in the development of new turbine technologies. We are in a process of getting into communications with some of the OEMs in the country to identify their BTT activity and possibly need.

e. Comparative advantage

As communicated before, there is currently no method whatsoever to obtain information as to the operating state of the turbine blades and the condition of the turbine blades during turbine operation. The biggest comparative advantage to the status quo in South Africa is therefore that this information will be available if our system is implemented.

With regards to other BTT suppliers, the comparative advantage we have our algorithms. A novel algorithm has been developed to determine the vibration frequency, amplitude and phase when the BTT information is available (after data acquisition and processing).

Our algorithm has been tested against the other suppliers of BTT’s algorithms and have been found to be more accurate. If one can accurately determine the vibration frequency, one can make better decisions based on this data one can have more confidence in these decisions.

Section 2

2.1 IP Position
We are currently submitting an invention disclosure for the the University of Pretoria’s patent division to start the process of patenting the method of determining the vibration frequency, amplitude and phase using the novel algorithm developed.

There is a string likelihood that more patentable methods will be developed when continuing with the development towards a commercial BTT system.

Section 3

a.) Project and budget:

Procurement of the hardware, 2 weeks after funding is available. Be in physical possession of the hardware.
Configuring of hardware, 3 Months, A working data acquisition and processing system, R0
Additional hardware procurement and configuration,Additional hardware, R150 000

In the above project plan, provision is made for additional hardware. These additional hardware could be signal conditioners, operational amplifiers etc. to alter the sensor signals to the appropriate. It might also be required to purchase a dedicated computer to receive the signals after processing of the data acquisition hardware.

After the project as stipulated above have been completed, the next step would be to find an industry partner that will allow us to install our system on a large industrial turbomachine for field testing. This step is however the next step and will not be a deliverable of this sub-project.

b.) Information on prior funding received for this project

No prior funding was received for this project

c.) Potential business partners approached for funding.
No business partners have been approached for funding.

Section 4: Project risks

4.1 Risk mitigation plan
a.) Technical and/or commercial risks pertaining to the project and state how these risks will be mitigated

The technical risks for this plan is that the hardware we are to procure will not be able to process the data at the speed that we require. This situation is very unlikely conclusive calculations have not been made. A way to mitigate this is to increase the processing power of the data acquisition and processing unit by adding another processing (FPGA card in this case), or to build in a large memory that can store the raw data for a certain time and finish processing the data, and then start acquiring new data and repeat the process.

Section 5: National benefits

5.1 Describe the potential national benefit

The national benefit of this project cannot be overstated. Eskom is currently under a lot of pressure to produce enough electricity for the country’s demand. Conservative maintenance routines caused by uncertainty regarding the turbine blade’s condition reduces the availability of these turbines for power generation, and can thus lead to a deficiency in the amount of electricity produced for the country, which in turn has a massive effect on the economy of the country.

In addition to the above remark, Eskom’s power generation fleet is quite old. The youngest coal power plant used by the country is about 20 years old (Medupi and Kusile are not fully online yet). Because of the old age of the coal fleet, the reliability of the whole plant needs to be managed increasingly well as the likelihood of failure increase with time. BTT is a method to obtain valuable information about turbine blade operating condition to insure that maintenance discussions are made optimally and turbines have as high a reliability rating as possible.