GE 7FA gas turbine rotors weigh up to 33 tons (30 tonnes) each.

Rotors are highly critical components subjected to the greatest stress during operation. Properly assessing the rotors condition and replacing rotor components where necessary, will greatly affect rotor life.

ROTOR INSPECTIONS, ANALYSES CAN EXTEND GAS TURBINE LIFE

Plant Operators Should Consult a Life Extension Expert with Extensive Component Design Knowledge
By Eric Gebhardt

The rotor is the heart of a gas turbine, and just as with a human heart, a specialist should be consulted to inspect and analyze its condition. Typically weighing more than 20 tons (18 tonnes) and rotating at 3000 to 3600 rpm, the rotor contains the highest amount of energy in a gas turbine. Although robustly designed and manufactured, as rotors age, they require highly specialized inspection and analysis to assess their potential for reliable future operation. Just as a physician relies on critical testing and laboratory analysis to advise patients, a life extension expert also requires testing and analytical rigor to fully understand rotor condition and make sound recommendations. Though a highly qualified nondestructive examination (NDE) is critical to determining rotor health, the balance of the analysis can only be modeled. Creep damage is best understood through design life models developed with a thorough understanding of material properties, stress and temperaEric Gebhardt is the general manager of services engineering for GE Energy Services based in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A.
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ture for various features within a rotor and for various plant operating profiles. For these reasons, plant operators consult a life extension expert with in-depth design knowledge of their components. A rotor life management program, coupled with opportune upgrades, such as those conducted by GE Energy Services, can identify ways to extend plant life while recovering decreased output, increasing efficiency and improving emissions. First and foremost, plant operators should consult an expert with a solid understanding of the specific components. This knowledge is a prerequisite to perform the highly technical, design-specific evaluations needed to decide next steps. Rotor life analysis expertise including the ability to conduct the required transient analysis is also essential in fully evaluating how the rotor material has aged during its lifetime operation. Expert analysis coupled with an understanding of the rotors operational history will provide a power plant manager with the background needed in order to thoroughly evaluate all options when dealing with an aging rotor. GE Energy Services fo38

cuses on three particular areas during rotor health analysis: operational variables, material history and subcomponent condition. Operational Variables: This stage is about evaluating the impact of transient missions with respect to material design and application. Plant managers are asked to provide a profile of their machines operating history in order to determine where their rotor falls relative to its design life. The result can vary depending on how an engine has run and under what conditions. For instance, a small change in ambient temperature can have an impact on the overall rotor life. Other influential factors may include fast starts, unit trips, forced cooling and other variables that can contribute to rotor stress over time. GEs engineers consider how many factored hours the machine has run to properly complete an assessment. At this point, before even looking at the rotor, engineers can begin to see where the rotor falls when modeled relative to its creep design life and/or low-cycle fatigue. Initial recommendations may result from this review. Material history: This is a crucial evaluation in determining life management options. When a rotor is disassembled, GEs engineers often use the serial numbers on each wheel to research manufacturing history and quality inspection results collected during manufacturing. Before an individual rotor wheel forging is final machined, GEs manufacturing organization performs a series of quality NDE inspections. Those quality checks may contain critical detail needed to fully understand life extension options.

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flexibly to changing market conditions. By installing OpFlex, a typical GE 7FA customer operating at minimum load 9% of the time can reduce CO2 emissions by 4630 tons/yr (4200 tonnes/ yr) equivalent to the annual CO2 emissions of more than 800 cars on U.S. roads. Comprehensive upgrade programs like OpFlex have the potential to pay for themselves after just a few years of operation. Rotor life management is a complex issue and requires a thorough understanding of rotor design. A highly

qualified NDE program is only part of a complete program; analytical rigor based on operating variables coupled with material understanding, including manufacturing history, are keys to a comprehensive rotor life recommendation. Further, a life extension strategy coupled with opportune upgrades should result in benefits beyond just extending the life of the plant. All of this can help plant operators achieve more profitable production missions in a cleaner, smarter and more efficient manner. A

GE 7FA gas turbine half-shell. Components associated with the rotor must undergo detailed assessment as well as the rotor itself.

Subcomponent condition: After all of the unique operational variables and material history are modeled and analyzed respectively, a qualified physical inspection is required. The inspection program should be designed to look at highly specific features and critical locations throughout the rotor. This NDE program is best determined through deep understanding of the rotor design. Surface inspections are accomplished by eddy current and magnetic particle inspections. While it is nearly impossible to inspect an entire rotor volumetrically, inspection programs, like GEs Boresonic UT, are available for the bulk of wheel material. A subcomponent condition inspection may reveal cracking or fretting on individual components. Engineers may determine, for instance, that some parts are not suitable for continued operation, while others may be repaired for continued operation. Further, the service center involves the component designers in all steps of the refurbishment process to make sure all recommendations are consistent with modern design criteria. Once the rotor has been fully evaluated, the results are presented to the customer. This discussion may include options that not only extend rotor life but also can improve overall plant performance. For example, on a combinedcycle GE 7FA machine, output increases of more than 3% and heat rate improvements of more than 1% can be achieved through performance upgrades implemented in conjunction with rotor life extension. Additional system level upgrades reduce emissions, increase reliability and increase operating flexibility. A good example of this is the OpFlex suite of software enhancements, which gives plant operators the ability to respond
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