Combustion Inspection Elimination Kit
Turbine Services offers a high-tech process to eliminate the requirement for combustion inspection outages. Gas turbines can then be operated up to, and inspected at, 24Khrs for hot gas path and 48Khrs for major inspection intervals, thereby reducing gas turbine downtime and increasing availability.
The Problem
Stress, wear and creep growth are very common problems with the following consequences:
- Thermal stresses leading to cracking of critical components
- Excessive wear due to vibration caused by the combustion dynamics
- Creep growth in areas such as the transition piece picture frames, which leads to distortion and incorrect power distribution in the critical gas path.
The Solution
By the application of thermal barrier coatings, local “hot spotting” of the parent materials is reduced, as is the thermal stress, thus preventing cracking of critical components. By applying hard-face coatings and wear resistant materials, and by reducing clearances, wear due to vibration is minimised.
Nimonic material, which has better creep resistant characteristics in the area of the picture frame, is now used extensively – in fact complete transition pieces can be supplied in Nimonic material.
The Benefits
By employing the latest technology in this way:
- Availability is increased by reducing the number of overhauls
- Spare parts requirements are reduced
...all of which allow the owners and operators to achieve their objective of increasing the overall profitability of their plant.