Enhancement of Turbine Performance Using Root Cause Failure Analysis and LPDE Correction

摘要

Availability of electrical power round the clock and throughout the year is essential for industrial and economic growth of any country. The present era of fierce competition harnessed with financial constraints brought in the concepts of reliability and availability to necessitate continuity in power generation process. Reliability of a whole power plant depends upon the reliability of its individual equipments and machines. Turbine is the most important and complex equipment in a thermal power plant. A steam turbine extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft, which in turn is coupled with a generator to produce electricity. Though there are various modes of the imperfection in a turbine, undesirable LPDE (low-pressure differential expansion) is one of those. In this experimental work, the root cause failure analysis is done for the undesired LPDE of a turbine, to explore the various reasons of it. The necessary rectification has been made to eliminate higher LPDE, and the performance of the turbine has been enhanced.