Combustor Hardware Damage Detection via Acoustic Tone Analysis
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional systems for monitoring gas turbine combustor hardware are not proactive in detecting damage, leading to late alarms and potential major damage to the combustion system and gas turbine.
Innovation Solution
A system and method that uses sensors to measure acoustic vibrations from combustor cans, identifies a dominant tone frequency, and determines degradation status by analyzing changes in this frequency over time intervals, enabling early detection of hardware damage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If conventional monitoring systems are used, then system simplicity is maintained, but damage detection timing is delayed
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary analysis by continuously monitoring acoustic vibrations and identifying dominant tones before damage occurs. By establishing baseline frequency characteristics and detecting deviations in real-time, the system enables early warning of potential hardware issues, allowing preventive maintenance before actual damage happens.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces conventional mechanical or physical inspection methods with acoustic vibration analysis. By using sensors to capture and analyze sound frequencies from combustor cans, the system substitutes direct mechanical monitoring with acoustic field measurement, enabling non-intrusive, continuous, and more precise damage detection.
2Reliability
If continuous monitoring is implemented, then reliability is improved, but energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements periodic monitoring at predefined time intervals rather than continuous uninterrupted analysis. The processor determines the dominant tone frequency at specific intervals, analyzing acoustic vibrations periodically to detect degradation trends while allowing energy conservation during intervals between measurements.
Solution Approach 2:
The system applies partial monitoring by focusing analysis only on the dominant tone frequency rather than analyzing the entire acoustic spectrum. By concentrating computational resources on identifying and tracking the most significant frequency component, the system achieves effective damage detection with reduced energy consumption compared to full-spectrum continuous analysis.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach allows for proactive identification of combustor hardware damage, reducing the risk of unplanned outages and collateral damage by providing timely alerts and warnings.
Implementation Method 1
one or more sensors configured to measure acoustic vibrations from the plurality of combustor cans
Data Source
AI summary
A power generation plant including a plurality of combustor cans, one or more sensors configured to measure acoustic vibrations from the plurality of combustor cans, and a controller that includes a processor. The processor is programmed to identify a dominant tone of the measured acoustic vibrations, the dominant tone being a frequency where a highest amount of energy lies, determine, for each of the plurality of combustor cans, a frequency of the dominant tone at predefined time intervals, and determine a degradation status of at least one of the plurality of combustor cans based on the frequency of the dominant tone at each of the predefine time intervals for the at least one of the plurality of combustor cans.