초록 ▼

Oxidation of turbine buckets may cause unexpected and expensive turbine failures. Turbine bucket oxidation condition may be estimated to predict remaining useful bucket life during operation of a turbine by processing time-varying temperature distributions measured with a pyrometer of at least one r

Oxidation of turbine buckets may cause unexpected and expensive turbine failures. Turbine bucket oxidation condition may be estimated to predict remaining useful bucket life during operation of a turbine by processing time-varying temperature distributions measured with a pyrometer of at least one rotating turbine bucket.

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1. A method of estimating turbine bucket oxidation condition comprising:(a) measuring, with a pyrometer, time-varying temperature distributions of at least one rotating turbine bucket; and(b) determining a condition index based on the measured time-varying temperature distributions including a diffe

1. A method of estimating turbine bucket oxidation condition comprising:(a) measuring, with a pyrometer, time-varying temperature distributions of at least one rotating turbine bucket; and(b) determining a condition index based on the measured time-varying temperature distributions including a difference between a peak temperature value and a mean temperature value of the at least one rotating turbine bucket, the condition index reflecting at least one of an overall condition of a bucket set or a specific condition of a single bucket. 2. A method according to claim 1, wherein step (b) is practiced by applying a diagnostic algorithm to selected data from the pyrometer. 3. A method according to claim 1, wherein step (b) is practiced according to CI k =SDD k −SDD k,ref , where k is a bucket number, SDD k is an output from smoothing, and SDD k,ref is a smoothing reference output. 4. A method according to claim 3, wherein SDD k is determining by applying a smoothing algorithm to DD k , which is determined according to DD k =D k −Mean Dk , where D k is a relative amount of difference between a peak temperature and mean of two stationary points, and Mean Dk is a mean of D k 's of all normal blades. 5. A method according to claim 4, wherein D k is determined according to D k =T k,2 −(T k,3 +T k,4 )/2, where T k,2 is a peak temperature value for blade k, and T k,3 and T k,4 are stationary points on a temperature distribution curve of blade k. 6. A method according to claim 1, further comprising (c) determining a bucket oxidation amount according to a comparison with known inspection data. 7. A method according to claim 6, wherein step (c) is practiced by establishing a feed-forward neural network and defining an oxidation level of a failed turbine bucket. 8. A method according to claim 7, further comprising determining remaining bucket life via the feed-forward neural network according to the bucket oxidation amount. 9. A method of estimating turbine bucket oxidation condition comprising:(a) measuring, with a pyrometer, time-varying temperature distributions of a plurality of rotating turbine buckets; and(b) determining a condition index based on the measured time-varying temperature distributions, the condition index reflecting at least one of an overall condition of a bucket set or a specific condition of a single bucket by calculating a ratio of a peak temperature value within each passage of one of the plurality of rotating turbine buckets to a mean temperature value of the time-varying temperature distributions of all of the plurality of rotating turbine buckets measured by the pyrometer for one revolution of the turbine. 10. A method of estimating turbine bucket oxidation condition and predicting remaining useful bucket life during operation of a turbine by processing time-varying temperature distributions measured with a pyrometer of at least one rotating turbine bucket, the time-varying temperature distributions including a difference between a peak temperature value and a mean temperature value of the at least one rotating turbine bucket. 11. A method according to claim 10, wherein the step of estimating turbine bucket oxidation is practiced by applying a diagnostic algorithm to selected data from the pyrometer. 12. A method according to claim 11, wherein the diagnostic algorithm is expressed as to CI k SDD k −SDD k,ref where k is a bucket number, CI is a condition index, SDD k is an output from smoothing, and SDD k,ref is a smoothing reference output. 13. A method according to claim 12, wherein SDD k is determining by applying a smoothing algorithm to DD k , which is determined according to DD k =D k −Mean Dk , where D k is a relative amount of difference between a peak temperature and mean of two stationary points, and Mean Dk is a mean of D k 's of all normal blades. 14. A method according to claim 13, wherein D k is determined according to D k =T k,2 −(T k,3 +T k,4 )/2, where T k,2 is a peak temperature value for blade k, and T k,3 and T k,4 are stationary points on a temperature distribution curve of blade k. 15. A method according to claim 10, wherein the step of estimating turbine bucket oxidation is practiced according to a comparison with known inspection data. 16. A method of estimating turbine bucket oxidation condition and predicting remaining useful bucket life during operation of a turbine by processing time-varying temperature distributions measured with a pyrometer of a plurality of rotating turbine buckets, wherein the step of estimating turbine bucket oxidation is practiced by calculating a ratio of a peak temperature value within each passage of one of the plurality of rotating turbine buckets to a mean temperature value of the time-varying temperature distributions of all of the plurality of rotating turbine buckets measured by the pyrometer for one revolution of the turbine. 17. A system for estimating turbine bucket oxidation condition comprising:a pyrometer that measures time-varying temperature distributions of at least one rotating turbine bucket; anda processor receiving output from the pyrometer, the processor determining a condition index based on the measured time-varying temperature distributions including a difference between a peak temperature value and a mean temperature value of the at least one rotating turbine bucket, wherein the condition index reflects at least one of an overall condition of a bucket set or a specific condition of a single bucket.