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STEAM TURBINE PERFORMANCE

CONDITION MONITORING USING PLANT
INSTRUMENTATION: CASE STUDY
R Beebe
School of Applied Sciences and Engineering Monash University

Summary: The overall internal condition of a steam turbine can be evaluated using the Valves-
Wide-Open test. If steam temperatures and pressures along the turbine steam expansion path are
measured, an assessment is possible of the condition of blading sections between available
measuring points. The information available from such tests requires high accuracy in taking the
performance data, meaning special tests that are expensive. Permanent plant controls and
instrumentation systems have not been sufficiently refined to show the often relatively small
changes that nevertheless indicate significant changes in steam path condition. This paper shows a
case study that shows comparable results between high accuracy tests and the DCS on the unit.

Keywords: steam turbines, condition monitoring, performance monitoring

1 INTRODUCTION
Steam turbines continue to be the mainstay of baseload electric power production worldwide, whether supplied by fossil fired
boilers or nuclear reactors. Many machines that their designers thought would have been retired continue in service, often with
replacement of steam components with more recent designs of higher thermal efficiency. Long and reliable service is therefore
required, and major components may operate for many years between inspections. (Vetter and Schwiemler, 1989).
The use of a range of condition monitoring techniques can help owners gain assurance of satisfactory internal condition and
support maintenance decision-making (Roemer et al, 2000). Advanced off-line inspection methods, along with statistical
evaluation of fleet material properties, are also developing tools (Fujiyama et al, 2004).
Many of the same techniques can be used in troubleshooting when a problem is suspected or evident from normal operational
indications. Given the importance of these machines and the condition monitoring possibilities, relatively little has been
published over the years on this topic, although some must have been shared within industry associations and conferences.
The major text covering this topic is Cotton (1993). Sanders (2002) provides guidance on steam path audits: the evaluation
and justification of restoration once a machine is opened, while Lo and Abdullah (2001) describe modelling.
This paper describes an application of one of the many types of thermal performance analysis method (Beebe, 1994). The
principles described could well be adapted to other kinds of machine. The information should be useful to turbine owners in
general when interpreting results from condition monitoring tests. In the case described here, sections of the desuperheater
(temperature control device in the boiler steam piping) disintegrated, with metal pieces passing to the turbine. Fortuitously,
this unit’s first major outage for inspection, maintenance and modification works in its 9 years of operation had been scheduled
for soon after the changes were apparent. The effects on measured parameters are shown before and after the outage.
Useful consistency was obtained between the results from accurate tests and that from the plant’s instrumentation system,
suggesting that where systems allow, that regular tests using permanent systems should be conducted. Specialist services in
testing, monitoring, cycle modelling and performance analysis are available from at least one turbine manufacturer (Albert,
2000).
Internet-based monitoring and diagnostic systems have been applied in vibration analysis, and also developed using
performance analysis for steam turbines (Orsagh et al, 2000). An internet search will soon show the several vendors that
provide after-market on-line monitoring and evaluation systems.
Special pattern recognition software, such as described by Hansen and Oberdan, 1998, can be applied to detecting differences
in data logged by plant instruments, and such systems can be expected to grow in capability and application. SmartSignal,
AssetMAX are just two of those available. The case described here uses only the DCS provided with the plant.

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2 THE PLANT

The turbine of this case study is one of two 500MW Hitachi sets installed in the early to mid 1990s at Loy Yang B Power
Station in the Latrobe Valley of Victoria, Australia. This was the last station built by the then State Electricity Commission of
Victoria (SECV), and the first to be privatised, initially partly and later fully. At the time of this event, it was owned by Edison
Mission Energy. The boilers are of similar design to the four at the adjacent Loy Yang Power plant, and are tower type forced
circulation with a separator vessel. They are much larger than a black coal boiler of equivalent output as the lignite fuel
contains typically 63% water. The area has some 85 000Mt of such coal, near the surface, currently won in three open cut
mines with a yearly output totaling some 70Mt.
The turbine is of the two casing type, with a combined High Pressure-Intermediate Pressure casing and a single double-flow
Low Pressure casing. Blading is impulse, with the last stage blades 1016mm long. Steam conditions are the standard for the
time and still the most common: 538°C main and reheat steam temperature, with main inlet pressure of 16.4 MPa. Steam is
admitted through fine-holed strainers that are integral to the main stop valve assembly and intended to protect the blading from
damage from any metal parts carried into the turbine.
The DCS is a Bailey Infi90 with the array of screen-based data displays and controls now usual in such plants. Uniformance
PHD, Honeywell’s advanced process historian system for plant information, is used to record operating data at 2 second
intervals and enable interrogation in the office.
The units run on base load at a capacity factor of 90% plus.

3 VALVES WIDE OPEN TEST

The overall internal condition of a steam turbine can be evaluated using the Valves-Wide-Open test (ASME 1985; Beebe,
2003). These tests do not require a test measurement of steam flow, which reduces the complexity and hence cost. The inlet
area for steam entry is set at a repeatable opening, with wide open control valves being the only certain setting. The steam
supply conditions and other operational settings are set as close as possible to nominated datum values for a steady run of
typically an hour.
It may be necessary to run such tests at lower than normal steam inlet pressure if the turbine’s steam swallowing capacity at
rated pressure is greater than the boiler can supply (Beebe, 2005). This is less necessary with recent turbine designs that tend
to have less excess capacity than older designs. Because of this excess capacity on older machines, changes in turbine
condition can go un-noticed as boiler output gradually increases to maintain the usual unit output.
The power output of the generator is measured accurately, and corrected to find what the output would have been if all
terminal conditions had been the datum values: resulting in the parameter of Corrected VWO Output. The corrections used are
the manufacturer’s data (“thermal kit”), or obtained from computer cycle modelling or specially conducted tests (Beebe, 2005).
The generator is therefore being used as a transducer of the mechanical output of the turbine.
If steam temperatures and pressures along the turbine steam expansion path are measured at available points, an assessment is
possible of the condition of blading sections between them. To be of most value, the information available from such tests
requires high accuracy in taking the performance data, and similar precautions as used for the plant acceptance tests are usual.
The accurate tests are too costly to be done frequently.
Permanent plant transducers can be sufficiently stable and the controls and instrumentation systems refined enough for
condition monitoring of such plant as boiler heat exchange surfaces. However to date they have not been refined enough to
show the often relatively small changes that nevertheless indicate significant changes in steam path condition (Beebe, 2003).
The case described in the paper is in a plant equipped with a modern DCS (Digital Control System), and shows that useful
results can be obtained by regularly conducting VWO tests using DCS data. Plant calibration of key instruments at intervals of
1 or 2 years has revealed little drift.
Recent developments look promising in transducers used for permanent installation (Eryurek and Warrior, 1997, Frerichs,
1999 and Szanyi et al, 2003) and in on-line calibration (Hines et al, 2001).
At this plant, accurate VWO tests are run each 2 years, and prior to a planned steam path inspection and afterwards. The tests
are conducted by the Process Engineering and Environment Section of a specialist company, HRL Technology Ltd, following
the same test procedures as used in the SECV days. These tests provide in-situ calibration of critical temperature and pressure
instruments. Output is measured by the Electrical Tests Group of SILCAR Ltd to acceptance level standards. On this unit,
acceptance tests were run in July 1993 to establish the unit’s heat rate.

4 OTHER USEFUL PARAMETERS OF CONDITION

From the available temperature and pressure tapping points, other useful parameters of stage condition can be obtained, even
though these points are in steam extraction lines and therefore not exactly indicative of stage exit conditions. Repeatability is
however usually sufficient. Along with the above, the main parameters relevant here and the 95% confidence limits applicable
to some as assessed by HRL Technology are:

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• VWO output: ±0.5% points

• Steam strainer pressure drop
• Enthalpy Drop efficiency of HP blading (ratio of actual enthalpy drop to that at constant entropy): ± 0.4% points
• Enthalpy Drop efficiency of IP blading: ± 0.2% points (not further discussed here)
• Pressure ratios between stages
• Heat Rate and main steam flow (not further discussed here).
On turbine designs such as these which have a combined HP-IP casing, leakage occurs from the HP inlet to the IP inlet through
the central gland: the so-called N2 packing. This leakage cannot be measured directly, but can be estimated repeatably by
running special tests. The value did not change significantly over the period following the acceptance tests.

5 TEST RESULTS
During the accurate tests, data is also collected via the DCS, and transferred into the plant’s PHD Historian database. The same
calculations are performed off line on the office computer, which also runs a steam tables package (from Chemicalogic
Corporation).

Figure I shows the VWO results from initial acceptance tests for both the accurate and DCS methods from acceptance tests
until after the machine outage where repairs were made. The data points are shown joined together, but the trend between tests
is not necessarily linear, and is certainly not so over the outage period.

A slight decline in performance from new was evident, and is not unusual (Kearney et al, 2004).

Despite the further decline later, the other tests up to the fourth series do not show a large change given the confidence limits
above. Some decline could be due to deposits on blading in certain sections of base-loaded turbines, as these are common with
baseloaded turbines. They are often removed by forced steam cooling, as used on planned offloading to reduce the time to
when the machine can be brought to standstill to prevent damage (the oil system can be stopped when the inner metal
temperature reaches 185°C on these machines) and allow access (Beebe 1978).
After the initial decrease in 1999, operators noticed that the control valves needed to be fully opened to achieve 500MW output
and the DCS tests were run more often. Although the parameter values vary in magnitude from the accurate ones, and also
show some scatter, a consistent trend is apparent. With much condition monitoring, it is sufficient for the data to be repeatable,
rather than of absolute accuracy, and the DCS approach can be applied to both steam and gas turbines (Girbig, 2001).
Corrected VWO Output MW

530
520
510
500
490
480
470
460
31-Jan-93 28-Oct-95 24-Jul-98 19-Apr-01 14-Jan-04
Date of test

Figure I: VWO Output: upper points, accurate tests; lower points, DCS results. (Foreshortened vertical axis)

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6 OTHER PARAMETERS: PRESSURES

The pressure drop across the steam strainers was not measured directly, but calculated from the difference between the main
inlet pressure and the pressure after the control (i.e. governor) valves. The drop (in the order of 440kPa) is relatively small in
comparison with the line pressure, and a better method is to install a differential pressure transducer across points as near to the
strainers as available. The pressure drops here did not vary significantly during the period, although the strainers were found at
the outage to have significant blocking and damage (Figure II).

Figure II: Main steam strainer showing blockage from metal pieces carried over from boiler damage
The First Stage Pressure (FSP) is measured immediately after the inlet nozzlebox. When corrected to standard inlet pressure, it
is an indicator of changes downstream. It increased over the period, indicating increased restriction downstream. Figure III
shows the corrected values from the accurate tests, along with the corrected pressure after the control valves, which showed a
small increase of 0.37%.
FSP showed an overall decline of 5% from the acceptance tests. This also indicates a decrease in inlet steam flow. Figure IV
shows the blockage found in part of the first stage nozzles by metal pieces that had gone through the strainer.

16500
16000
Corrected pressures kPa(abs)

15500
15000
14500 Corr FSP
14000 Corr PAGVs

13500
13000
12500
12000
11-Jan-93 8-Oct-95 4-Jul-98 30-Mar-01
Date

Figure III: Corrected pressures after control valves and first stage. (Foreshortened vertical axis)

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Figure IV: Blockage found in nozzle box blading

Pressure drops that are relatively small compared to the line pressures are best measured with a differential pressure transducer.
Even one of commercial accuracy can give more accurate results than by taking the difference between two separate high
accuracy readings.
Corrected pressures all use the inlet steam pressure as their basis. If that reading is in error, all the corrected pressures will be
also in error, so the Pressure Ratios across sections are a useful cross-check. Here the Ratios from After Control Valves to
FSP, and FSP to HP exhaust were virtually unchanged throughout, which does not give confidence in the parameter!

7 OTHER PARAMETERS: ENTHALPY DROP EFFICIENCY

The Enthalpy Drop Efficiency can only readily be found in the superheated steam regions. It is the ratio of the actual enthalpy
drop between two points and the ideal (isentropic) drop, and a decrease indicates damage or deposits. Steam properties are
needed, using the measured temperature and pressure at a point. Figure V shows these parameters calculated from both the
accurate tests and DCS data at the same test. Different tables of steam properties were sued, which could account for some of
the difference (Kearney et al, 2004)
Although the ASME method requires inlet conditions to be taken at turbine inlet, some prefer to use the conditions at entry to
the blading (Kearney et al, 2004) particularly where blades have been retrofitted. The data here uses turbine inlet conditions.
A comparable trend is evident, except for the test prior to the repair outage. The inlet steam temperature shown by the DCS of
544°C must have been in error, as the accurate test value was 534°C. The error was confirmed further by the HP inner metal
temperature (DCS) that was close to the usual for previous tests at lower indicated DCS steam temperatures. This shows the
value of logging all data during tests, as useful correlations may be found, even with unknown calibration.

90

89
HP enthalpy drop efficiency %

88

87

86

85

84

83

82

81
31-Jan-93 15-Jun-94 28-Oct-95 11-Mar-97 24-Jul-98 06-Dec-99 19-Apr-01 01-Sep-02

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Figure V: Enthalpy Drop efficiency - HP section from turbine inlet. Upper points, DCS data; lower points, accurate
tests. Outage for repairs was between last two test points. (Foreshortened vertical axis)
Reported experience shows that there is a high degree of variability in calculated enthalpy drop efficiencies, particularly in HP
section efficiency (Milton and Dempsey, 1995). This is confirmed in Figure VI, which also gives the above data, with the
addition of the monthly DCS tests conducted following the repair outage. It is evident that the scatter is too wide to show up
anything but large changes.
91

90

89

88

87

86

85

84

83

82

81
31-Jan-93 15-Jun-94 28-Oct-95 11-Mar- 24-Jul-98 6-Dec-99 19-Apr- 1-Sep-02 14-Jan-04
97 01

Figure VI: Enthalpy Drop efficiency - HP section from turbine inlet. Upper points, DCS data; lower points, accurate
tests. Excessive scatter from DCS tests is shown.
The outage was extended to 57 days because of the unforeseen boiler and turbine repairs. The blading was fixed temporarily
to last four years until a planned HP-IP casing replacement.

8 CONCLUSION
Useful steam turbine condition information can be obtained from Valves Wide Open tests on plants equipped with a DCS, but
should be supplemented with regular accurate tests. As at this plant, DCS tests are conducted each month, and it is suggested
that other plants could well try. The use of plant instruments for other parameters should be tried, but wide scatter should be
expected.

9 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The ready co-operation of management and staff of International Power Mitsui’s Loy Yang B Power Station is acknowledged,
in particular Wayne Smith of the plant performance section.

10 REFERENCES
1. Albert, P (2000) Steam turbine thermal evaluation and assessment GE Power Systems paper GER-4190 (from
www.ge.com)
2. ASME (1985) Simplified procedures for routine performance tests of steam turbines ANSI PTC 6S report 1974,
reaffirmed 1985
3. Beebe, R (1978) Recent Experience with Condition Monitoring of Steam Turbines by Performance Analysis IEAust
Mechanical Engineering Transactions, pp 42 – 49
4. Beebe, R (1994) Predictive maintenance by condition monitoring using performance analysis Proceedings of
International Conference of Maintenance Societies (ICOMS94) Sydney, May (also published in IEAust Transactions
of Mechanical Engineering Vol ME19 No 3 1994 pp 91 - 96)
5. Beebe, R (2000) Case studies in condition monitoring of low pressure steam turbines by performance analysis
Proceedings of COMADEM2000 Houston USA Dec
6. Beebe, R (2003) Condition monitoring of steam turbines by performance analysis Journal of Quality in Maintenance
Engineering Vol 9 No 2 April, Page: 102 – 112

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7. Beebe, R (2005) Submitted for publication in Journal of Quality in Maintenance engineering Derivation of
performance correction factors by test for condition monitoring of steam turbines
8. Cotton, K C (1993) Evaluating and improving steam turbine performance Cotton Fact Inc ISBN 0 963 995502
9. Eryurek, E and Warrior, J (1997) Smart field devices improve process anomaly detection Rosemount Inc technical
paper
10. Frerichs, DK (1999) Predictive maintenance now available for controls and instrumentation Proceedings 1999
American Power Conference
11. Fujiyama. K; Nagai, S; Akikuni, Y; Fujiwara, T; Furuya, K; Matsumoto, S; Takagi, K; Kawabata, T (2004) Risk-based
inspection and maintenance systems for steam turbines International Journal of Pressure Vessels and Piping (81) pp
825-835
12. Girbig, P (2001) Thermodynamic diagnosis at steam turbines Proceedings of COMADEM2001, Manchester.
13. Hansen, E and Oberdan, S (1998) Reducing Fossil Generation Costs Using Pattern Recognition to Predict Mechanical
and Operational Failures 1998 Power-Gen International Conference
14. Hines, JW; Gribok, A and Rasmussen, B (2001) On-line sensor calibration verification: a survey Proceedings of 14th
International Congress of COMADEM, Elsevier
15. Kearney, PJ; Hogg, SI; Brown, RD (2004) Performance guarantee and testing of steam turbine retrofits Proceedings of
ASME POWER 2004
16. Lo, KL and Abdullah, H (2001) Condition monitoring of turbines for power plants Universities Power Engineering
Conference, Swansea
17. Milton, JW and Dempsey, TC (1995) Uncertainty analysis of enthalpy drop testing PWR-Vol 28, Joint Power
Generation Conference, ASME
18. Orsagh R; Roemer, MJ and Atkinson, B (2000) An Internet–based Machinery Health Monitoring System, Proceedings
of the MFPT Conference, Virginia Beach.
19. Roemer, MJ; Orsagh, R and Hesler, S (2000) Turbine-generator asset management using EPRI’s Turbo-X Program
EPRI Welding Conference, May 2000 (demo can be downloaded from www.impact-tek.com)
20. Sanders, W P (2002) Turbine Steam Path Maintenance and Repair Vol I and II, PennWell, Tulsa
21. Vetter, H and Schwiemler, G (1989) First turbine inspection after a 15-year operating period VGB
KRAFTWERKSTECHNIK 69. No 10, October, pp835-845

11 BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Bloch, H P (1996) A practical guide to steam turbine technology, McGraw Hill, New York
2. Bloch, H P and Geitner, F K (1997) Practical Machinery Management for Process Plants, Volume 4: Major Process
Equipment Maintenance and Repair Elsevier Gulf

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