Ger 3620 J

GER-3620J
GE Power Systems
Heavy-Duty Gas
Turbine Operating and
Maintenance
Considerations
Robert Hoeft, Jamison Janawitz, and Richard Keck

GE Energy Services
Atlanta, GA
Heavy-Duty Gas Turbine Operating and Maintenance Considerations
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Maintenance Planning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Gas Turbine Design Maintenance Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Borescope Inspections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Major Factors Influencing Maintenance and Equipment Life. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Starts and Hours Criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Service Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Fuel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Firing Temperatures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Steam/Water Injection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Cyclic Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Hot Gas Path Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Rotor Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Combustion Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Off Frequency Operation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Air Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Inlet Fogging. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Maintenance Inspections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Standby Inspections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Running Inspections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Load vs. Exhaust Temperature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Vibration Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Fuel Flow and Pressure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Exhaust Temperature and Spread Variation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Start-Up Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Coast-Down Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Combustion Inspection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Hot-Gas-Path Inspection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Major Inspection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Parts Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Inspection Intervals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Manpower Planning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
List of Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
GE Power Systems GER-3620J (01/03)

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Introduction Note: The operating and maintenance discus-

sions presented in this paper are generally
Maintenance costs and availability are two of
applicable to all GE heavy-duty gas turbines; i.e.,
the most important concerns to the equipment
MS3000, 5000, 6000, 7000 and 9000. For pur-
owner. A maintenance program that optimizes
poses of illustration, the MS7001EA was chosen.
the owner's costs and maximizes equipment
Specific questions on a given machine should
availability must be instituted. For a mainte-
be directed to the local GE Energy Services rep-
nance program to be effective, owners must
resentative.
develop a general understanding of the rela-
tionship between their operating plans and pri-
orities for the plant, the skill level of operating
Maintenance Planning
and maintenance personnel, and the manufac- Advance planning for maintenance is a necessi-
turer's recommendations regarding the num- ty for utility, industrial and cogeneration plants
ber and types of inspections, spare parts plan- in order to minimize downtime. Also the cor-
ning, and other major factors affecting compo- rect performance of planned maintenance and
nent life and proper operation of the equip- inspection provides direct benefits in reduced
ment. forced outages and increased starting reliability,
which in turn reduces unscheduled repair
In this paper, operating and maintenance prac-
downtime. The primary factors which affect the
tices will be reviewed, with emphasis placed on
maintenance planning process are shown in
types of inspections plus operating factors that
Figure 1 and the owners' operating mode will
influence maintenance schedules. A well-
determine how each factor is weighted.
planned maintenance program will result in
maximum equipment availability and optimal Parts unique to the gas turbine requiring the
maintenance costs. most careful attention are those associated with
Manufacturer’s Design Duty Cost of

Recommended Features Cycle Downtime
Maintenance
Program
Type of
Fuel
Diagnostics &
Expert Systems
Maintenance
Reliability
Planning Replacement
Parts
Need Availability/
Investment
On-Site
Maintenance Utilization Reserve
Environment
Capability Need Requirements
Figure 1. Key factors affecting maintenance planning

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the combustion process together with those It is apparent from the analysis of scheduled
exposed to high temperatures from the hot outages and forced outages (Figure 2) that the
gases discharged from the combustion system. primary maintenance effort is attributed to five
They are called the hot-gas-path parts and basic systems: controls and accessories, com-
include combustion liners, end caps, fuel noz- bustion, turbine, generator and balance-of-
zle assemblies, crossfire tubes, transition pieces, plant. The unavailability of controls and acces-
turbine nozzles, turbine stationary shrouds and sories is generally composed of short-duration
turbine buckets. outages, whereas conversely the other four sys-
The basic design and recommended mainte- tems are composed of fewer, but usually longer-
nance of GE heavy-duty gas turbines are orient- duration outages.
ed toward: The inspection and repair requirements, out-
■ Maximum periods of operation lined in the Maintenance and Instructions
between inspection and overhauls Manual provided to each owner, lend them-
selves to establishing a pattern of inspections. In
■ In-place, on-site inspection and
addition, supplementary information is provid-
maintenance
ed through a system of Technical Information
■ Use of local trade skills to disassemble, Letters. This updating of information, con-
inspect and re-assemble tained in the Maintenance and Instructions
In addition to maintenance of the basic gas tur- Manual, assures optimum installation, opera-
bine, the control devices, fuel metering equip- tion and maintenance of the turbine. Many of
ment, gas turbine auxiliaries, load package, and the Technical Information Letters contain advi-
other station auxiliaries also require periodic sory technical recommendations to resolve
servicing. issues and improve the operation, mainte-
Total S.C. Plant

Gas Turbine
– Turbine Section
– Combustion Section
– Compressor Section
– Bearings
Controls & Accessories
Generator
Balance of S.C. Plant
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
FOF = Forced Outage

SOF = Scheduled Outage
Figure 2. Plant level - top five systems contributions to downtime

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nance, safety, reliability or availability of the tur- shell lifted, each half of the first stage
bine. The recommendations contained in nozzle assembly can be removed for
Technical Information Letters should be inspection, repair or replacement
reviewed and factored into the overall mainte- without rotor removal. On some units,
nance planning program. upper-half, later-stage nozzle
For a maintenance program to be effective, assemblies are lifted with the turbine
from both a cost and turbine availability stand- shell, also allowing inspection and/or
point, owners must develop a general under- removal of the turbine buckets.
standing of the relationship between their oper- ■ All turbine buckets are moment-
ating plans and priorities for the plant and the weighed and computer charted in sets
manufacturer's recommendations regarding for rotor spool assembly so that they
the number and types of inspections, spare may be replaced without the need to
parts planning, and other major factors affect- remove or rebalance the rotor
ing the life and proper operation of the equip- assembly.
ment. Each of these issues will be discussed as ■ All bearing housings and liners are
follows in further detail. split on the horizontal centerline so
that they may be inspected and
Gas Turbine Design Maintenance replaced, when necessary. The lower
Features half of the bearing liner can be
The GE heavy-duty gas turbine is designed to removed without removing the rotor.
withstand severe duty and to be maintained ■ All seals and shaft packings are
onsite, with off-site repair required only on cer- separate from the main bearing
tain combustion components, hot-gas-path housings and casing structures and
parts and rotor assemblies needing specialized may be readily removed and replaced.
shop service. The following features are ■ On most designs, fuel nozzles,
designed into GE heavy-duty gas turbines to combustion liners and flow sleeves can
facilitate on-site maintenance: be removed for inspection,
■ All casings, shells and frames are split maintenance or replacement without
on machine horizontal centerline. lifting any casings.
Upper halves may be lifted individually ■ All major accessories, including filters
for access to internal parts. and coolers, are separate assemblies
■ With upper-half compressor casings that are readily accessible for
removed, all stator vanes can be slid inspection or maintenance. They may
circumferentially out of the casings for also be individually replaced as
inspection or replacement without necessary.
rotor removal. On most designs, the Inspection aid provisions have been built into
variable inlet guide vanes (VIGVs) can GE heavy-duty gas turbines to facilitate con-
be removed radially with upper half of ducting several special inspection procedures.
inlet casing removed. These special procedures provide for the visual
■ With the upper-half of the turbine inspection and clearance measurement of some

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of the critical internal turbine gas-path compo-

nents without removal of the gas turbine outer
casings and shells. These procedures include
gas-path borescope inspection and turbine noz-
zle axial clearance measurement.
Figure 4. Borescope inspection programming
Borescope Inspections
GE heavy-duty gas turbines incorporate provi- inspection intervals are based on average unit
sions in both compressor casings and turbine operating modes. Adjustment of these
shells for gas-path visual inspection of interme- borescope intervals may be made based on
diate compressor rotor stages, first, second and operating experience and the individual unit
third-stage turbine buckets and turbine nozzle mode of operation, the fuels used and the
partitions by means of the optical borescope. results of previous borescope inspections.
These provisions, consisting of radially aligned
The application of a monitoring program utiliz-
holes through the compressor casings, turbine
ing a borescope will allow scheduling outages
shell and internal stationary turbine shrouds,
and pre-planning of parts requirements, result-
are designed to allow the penetration of an opti-
ing in lower maintenance costs and higher avail-
cal borescope into the compressor or turbine
ability and reliability of the gas turbine.
flow path area, as shown in Figure 3.
An effective borescope inspection program can Major Factors Influencing
result in removing casings and shells from a tur- Maintenance and Equipment Life
bine unit only when it is necessary to repair or
There are many factors that can influence
replace parts. Figure 4 provides a recommended
equipment life and these must be understood
interval for a planned borescope inspection
and accounted for in the owner's maintenance
program following initial base line inspections.
planning. As indicated in Figure 5, starting cycle,
It should be recognized that these borescope
power setting, fuel and level of steam or water
injection are key factors in determining the
maintenance interval requirements as these fac-
tors directly influence the life of critical gas tur-
bine parts.
In the GE approach to maintenance planning,
a gas fuel unit operating continuous duty, with
no water or steam injection, is established as the
baseline condition which sets the maximum
recommended maintenance intervals. For oper-
ation that differs from the baseline, mainte-
nance factors are established that determine
the increased level of maintenance that is
required. For example, a maintenance factor of
two would indicate a maintenance interval that
Figure 3. MS7001E gas turbine borescope inspection
is half of the baseline interval.
access locations

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approach is shown in Figure 7. In this figure, the

• Cyclic Effects inspection interval recommendation is defined
by the rectangle established by the starts and
hours criteria. These recommendations for
• Firing Temperature inspection fall within the design life expecta-
tions and are selected such that components
• Fuel verified to be acceptable for continued use at
the inspection point will have low risk of failure
• Steam/Water Injection during the subsequent operating interval.
Figure 5. Maintenance cost and equipment life are An alternative to the GE approach, which is
influenced by key service factors sometimes employed by other manufacturers,
converts each start cycle to an equivalent num-
Starts and Hours Criteria ber of operating hours (EOH) with inspection
intervals based on the equivalent hours count.
Gas turbines wear in different ways for different
For the reasons stated above, GE does not agree
service-duties, as shown in Figure 6. Thermal
with this approach. This logic can create the
mechanical fatigue is the dominant limiter of
impression of longer intervals, while in reality
life for peaking machines, while creep, oxida-
tion, and corrosion are the dominant limiters of more frequent maintenance inspections are
life for continuous duty machines. Interactions required. Referring again to Figure 7, the starts
of these mechanisms are considered in the GE and hours inspection "rectangle" is reduced in
design criteria, but to a great extent are second half as defined by the diagonal line from the
order effects. For that reason, GE bases gas tur- starts limit at the upper left hand corner to the
bine maintenance requirements on independ- hours limit at the lower right hand corner.
ent counts of starts and hours. Whichever crite- Midrange duty applications, with hours per start
ria limit is first reached determines the mainte- ratios of 30-50, are particularly penalized by this
nance interval. A graphical display of the GE approach.
This is further illustrated in Figure 8 for the
example of an MS7001EA gas turbine operating
on gas fuel, at base load conditions with no
steam or water injection or trips from load. The
unit operates 4000 hours and 300 starts per
year. Following GE's recommendations, the
operator would perform the hot gas path
inspection after four years of operation, with
starts being the limiting condition. Performing
maintenance on this same unit based on an
equivalent hours criteria would require a hot
gas path inspection after 2.4 years. Similarly, for
a continuous duty application operating 8000
hours and 160 starts per year, the GE recom-
Figure 6. Causes of wear - Hot-Gas-Path components mendation would be to perform the hot gas

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Figure 7. GE bases gas turbine maintenance requirements on independent counts of starts and hours
path inspection after three years of operation Service Factors

with the operating hours being the limiting
While GE does not ascribe to the equivalency of
condition for this case. The equivalent hours
starts to hours, there are equivalencies within a
criteria would set the hot gas path inspection
wear mechanism that must be considered. As
after 2.1 years of operation for this application.
shown in Figure 9, influences such as fuel type
Figure 8. Hot-gas-path maintenance interval comparisons. GE method vs. EOH method

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and quality, firing temperature setting, and the

amount of steam or water injection are consid- Maintenance Factors Reduce Maintenance Interval
ered with regard to the hours-based criteria.
1,400
Startup rate and the number of trips are con-
1,200 Starts Factors
• Trips
• Fasts Starts
Typical Max Inspection Intervals (MS6B/MS7EA) 1,000
Hot Gas Path Inspection 24,000 hrs or 1200 starts 800
Starts
Major Inspection 48,000 hrs or 2400 starts
600
Criterion is Hours or Starts (Whichever Occurs First) Hours Factors
400 • Firing Temperature
Factors Impacting Maintenance • Steam/Water Injection
200 • Fuel Type
Hours Factors
0
• Fuel Gas 1
Distillate 1.5 0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28
Crude 2 to 3 Thousands of Fired Hours

Residual 3 to 4
• Peak Load
• Water/Steam Injection Figure 10. GE maintenance interval for hot-gas inspections
Dry Control 1 (GTD-222)
Wet Control 1.9 (5% H2O GTD-222)
Starts Factors
in combustion hardware life, and frequently
• Trip from Full Load 8 contain corrosive elements such as sodium,
• Fast Load 2
• Emergency Start 20
potassium, vanadium and lead that can lead to
accelerated hot corrosion of turbine nozzles
Figure 9. Maintenance factors - hot-gas-path (buckets
and nozzles) and buckets. In addition, some elements in
these fuels can cause deposits either directly or
sidered with regard to the starts-based criteria. through compounds formed with inhibitors
In both cases, these influences may act to that are used to prevent corrosion. These
reduce the maintenance intervals. When these deposits impact performance and can lead to a
service or maintenance factors are involved in a need for more frequent maintenance.
unit's operating profile, the hot-gas-path main-
tenance "rectangle" that describes the specific Distillates, as refined, do not generally contain
maintenance criteria for this operation is high levels of these corrosive elements, but
reduced from the ideal case, as illustrated in harmful contaminants can be present in these
Figure 10. The following discussion will take a fuels when delivered to the site. Two common
closer look at the key operating factors and how ways of contaminating number two distillate
they can impact maintenance intervals as well as fuel oil are: salt water ballast mixing with the
parts refurbishment/replacement intervals. cargo during sea transport, and contamination
of the distillate fuel when transported to site in
Fuel tankers, tank trucks or pipelines that were pre-
Fuels burned in gas turbines range from clean viously used to transport contaminated fuel,
natural gas to residual oils and impact mainte- chemicals or leaded gasoline. From Figure 11, it
nance, as illustrated in Figure 11. Heavier hydro- can be seen that GE’s experience with distillate
carbon fuels have a maintenance factor ranging fuels indicates that the hot gas path mainte-
from three to four for residual fuel and two to nance factor can range from as low as one
three for crude oil fuels. These fuels generally (equivalent to natural gas) to as high as three.
release a higher amount of radiant thermal Unless operating experience suggests other-
energy, which results in a subsequent reduction wise, it is recommended that a hot gas path

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Figure 11. Estimated effect of fuel type on maintenance
maintenance factor of 1.5 be used for operation of superheat at the turbine gas control valve
on distillate oil. Note also that contaminants in connection.
liquid fuels can affect the life of gas turbine aux- The prevention of hot corrosion of the turbine
iliary components such as fuel pumps and flow buckets and nozzles is mainly under the control
dividers. of the owner. Undetected and untreated, a sin-
As shown in Figure 11, gas fuels, which meet GE gle shipment of contaminated fuel can cause
specifications, are considered the optimum fuel substantial damage to the gas turbine hot gas
with regard to turbine maintenance and are path components. Potentially high mainte-
assigned no negative impact. The importance nance costs and loss of availability can be mini-
of proper fuel quality has been amplified with mized or eliminated by:
Dry Low NOx (DLN) combustion systems.
Proper adherence to GE fuel specifications in ■ Placing a proper fuel specification on
GEI-41040 is required to allow proper combus- the fuel supplier. For liquid fuels, each
tion system operation, and to maintain applica- shipment should include a report that
ble warranties. Liquid hydrocarbon carryover identifies specific gravity, flash point,
can expose the hot-gas-path hardware to severe viscosity, sulfur content, pour point
overtemperature conditions and can result in and ash content of the fuel.
significant reductions in hot-gas-path parts lives ■ Providing a regular fuel quality
or repair intervals. Owners can control this sampling and analysis program. As
potential issue by using effective gas scrubber part of this program, an online water
systems and by superheating the gaseous fuel in fuel oil monitor is recommended,
prior to use to provide a nominal 50°F (28°C) as is a portable fuel analyzer that, as a

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minimum, reads vanadium, lead,

100
sodium, potassium, calcium and
magnesium.
Maintenance Factor
E Class
■ Providing proper maintenance of the
fuel treatment system when burning 10
6
heavier fuel oils and by providing
F Class E class
cleanup equipment for distillate fuels Peak Rating
life Factor 6x
when there is a potential for 1
contamination. 0 50 100 150
Delta Firing Temperature
In addition to their presence in the fuel, con-
taminants can also enter the turbine via the
Figure 12. Bucket life firing temperature effect
inlet air and from the steam or water injected
for NOx emission control or power augmenta-
tion. Carryover from evaporative coolers is increases parts lives. This provides an opportu-
another source of contaminants. In some cases, nity to balance the negative effects of peak load
these sources of contaminants have been found operation by periods of operation at part load.
to cause hot-gas-path degradation equal to that However, it is important to recognize that the
seen with fuel-related contaminants. GE specifi- nonlinear behavior described above will not
cations define limits for maximum concentra- result in a one for one balance for equal mag-
tions of contaminants for fuel, air and nitudes of over and under firing operation.
steam/water. Rather, it would take six hours of operation at
-100°F/56°C under base conditions to compen-
Firing Temperatures sate for one hour operation at +100°F/56°C
Significant operation at peak load, because of over base load conditions.
the higher operating temperatures, will require
It is also important to recognize that a reduc-
more frequent maintenance and replacement
tion in load does not always mean a reduction
of hot-gas-path components. For an MS7001EA
in firing temperature. In heat recovery applica-
turbine, each hour of operation at peak load fir-
tions, where steam generation drives overall
ing temperature (+100°F/56°C) is the same,
plant efficiency, load is first reduced by closing
from a bucket parts life standpoint, as six hours
variable inlet guide vanes to reduce inlet airflow
of operation at base load. This type of operation
while maintaining maximum exhaust tempera-
will result in a maintenance factor of six. ture. For these combined cycle applications, fir-
Figure 12 defines the parts life effect correspon- ing temperature does not decrease until load is
ding to changes in firing temperature. It reduced below approximately 80% of rated out-
should be noted that this is not a linear rela- put. Conversely, a turbine running in simple
tionship, as a +200°F/111°C increase in firing cycle mode maintains full open inlet guide
temperature would have an equivalency of six vanes during a load reduction to 80% and will
times six, or 36:1. experience over a 200°F/111°C reduction in fir-
Higher firing temperature reduces hot-gas-path ing temperature at this output level. The hot-
parts lives while lower firing temperature gas-path parts life effects for these different

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modes of operation are obviously quite differ-

ent. This turbine control effect is illustrated in
Figure 13. Similarly, turbines with DLN combus-
tion systems utilize inlet guide vane turndown as
well as inlet bleed heat to extend operation of
low NOx premix operation to part load condi-
tions.
Figure 14. Heavy fuel maintenance factors
relates to the effect of the added water on the

hot-gas transport properties. Higher gas con-
ductivity, in particular, increases the heat trans-
Figure 13. Firing temperature and load relationship - fer to the buckets and nozzles and can lead to
heat recovery vs. simple cycle operation higher metal temperature and reduced parts
lives as shown in Figure 15.
Firing temperature effects on hot gas path main-
tenance, as described above, relate to clean Parts life impact from steam or water injection
burning fuels, such as natural gas and light dis- is related to the way the turbine is controlled.
tillates, where creep rupture of hot gas path The control system on most base load applica-
components is the primary life limiter and is the tions reduces firing temperature as water or
mechanism that determines the hot gas path steam is injected. This counters the effect of the
maintenance interval impact. With ash-bearing higher heat transfer on the gas side and results
heavy fuels, corrosion and deposits are the pri-
mary influence and a different relationship with
firing temperature exists. Figure 14 illustrates the
sensitivity of hot gas path maintenance factor to
firing temperature for a heavy fuel operation. It
can be seen that while the sensitivity to firing
temperature is less, the maintenance factor itself
is higher due to issues relating to the corrosive
elements contained in these fuels.
Steam/Water Injection
Water (or steam) injection for emissions con-
trol or power augmentation can impact parts
lives and maintenance intervals even when the
water or steam meets GE specifications. This Figure 15. Steam/water injection and bucket nozzle life

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in no impact on bucket life. On some installa- one (for units equipped with GTD-222 second-
tions, however, the control system is designed to stage and third-stage nozzles) to a factor of 1.5
maintain firing temperature constant with for units equipped with FSX-414 nozzles and
water injection level. This results in additional injecting 5% water. For wet control curve oper-
unit output but it decreases parts life as previ- ation, the maintenance factor is approximately
ously described. Units controlled in this way are two at 5% water injection for GTD-222 and four
generally in peaking applications where annual for FSX-414.
operating hours are low or where operators
Cyclic Effects
have determined that reduced parts lives are
justified by the power advantage. GE describes In the previous discussion, operating factors
these two modes of operation as dry control that impact the hours-based maintenance crite-
curve operation and wet control curve opera- ria were described. For the starts-based mainte-
tion, respectively. Figure 16 illustrates the wet nance criteria, operating factors associated with
and dry control curve and the performance dif- the cyclic effects produced during startup, oper-
ferences that result from these two different ation and shutdown of the turbine must be con-
modes of control. sidered. Operating conditions other than the
standard startup and shutdown sequence can
potentially reduce the cyclic life of the hot gas
path components and rotors, and, if present,
will require more frequent maintenance and
parts refurbishment and/or replacement.
Hot Gas Path Parts

Figure 17 illustrates the firing temperature
changes occurring over a normal startup and
shutdown cycle. Light-off, acceleration, loading,
unloading and shutdown all produce gas tem-
Figure 16. Exhaust temperature control curve - dry vs. perature changes that produce corresponding
wet control MS7001EA
metal temperature changes. For rapid changes
in gas temperature, the edges of the bucket or
An additional factor associated with water or
steam injection relates to the higher aerody-
namic loading on the turbine components that
results from the injected water increasing the
cycle pressure ratio. This additional loading can
increase the downstream deflection rate of the
second- and third-stage nozzles, which would
reduce the repair interval for these compo-
nents. However, the introduction of GTD-222, a
new high creep strength stage two and three
nozzle alloy, has minimized this factor.
Maintenance factors relating to water injection Figure 17. Turbine start/stop cycle - firing temperature
for units operating on dry control range from changes

■ ■ 11
nozzle respond more quickly than the thicker er bulk section of the airfoil. At full load condi-
bulk section, as pictured in Figure 18. These gra- tions, the bucket reaches its maximum metal
dients, in turn, produce thermal stresses that, temperature and a compressive strain produced
when cycled, can eventually lead to cracking. from the normal steady state temperature gra-
Figure 19 describes the temperature strain histo- dients that exist in the cooled part. At shut-
ry of an MS7001EA stage 1 bucket during a nor- down, the conditions reverse where the faster
mal startup and shutdown cycle. Light-off and responding edges cool more quickly than the
acceleration produce transient compressive bulk section, which results in a tensile strain at
strains in the bucket as the fast responding lead- the leading edge.
ing edge heats up more quickly than the thick-
Thermal mechanical fatigue testing has found
that the number of cycles that a part can with-
stand before cracking occurs is strongly influ-
enced by the total strain range and the maxi-
mum metal temperature experienced. Any
operating condition that significantly increases
the strain range and/or the maximum metal
temperature over the normal cycle conditions
will act to reduce the fatigue life and increase
the starts-based maintenance factor. For exam-
ple, Figure 20 compares a normal operating
cycle with one that includes a trip from full
load. The significant increase in the strain
range for a trip cycle results in a life effect that
Figure 18. First stage bucket transient temperature equates to eight normal start/stop cycles, as
distribution shown. Trips from part load will have a reduced
Figure 19. Bucket low cycle fatigue (LCF)

■ ■ 12
Figure 20. Low cycle fatigue life sensitivities - first stage bucket
impact because of the lower metal temperatures 20 normal start cycles and a normal start with
at the initiation of the trip event. Figure 21 illus- fast loading will produce a maintenance factor
trates that while a trip from loads greater than of two.
80% has an 8:1 maintenance factor, a trip from
While the factors described above will decrease
full speed no load would have a maintenance
the starts-based maintenance interval, part load
factor of 2:1.
operating cycles would allow for an extension of
Similarly to trips from load, emergency starts the maintenance interval. Figure 22 is a guide-
and fast loading will impact the starts-based line that could be used in considering this type
maintenance interval. This again relates to the of operation. For example, two operating cycles
increased strain range that is associated with to maximum load levels of less than 60% would
these events. Emergency starts where units are equate to one start to a load greater than 60%
brought from standstill to full load in less than or, stated another way, would have a mainte-
five minutes will have a parts life effect equal to nance factor of .5.
10
Base
8
aT - Trip Severity Factor
F Class and E Class

units with Inlet
Bleed Heat
6
Units Without
Inlet Bleed Heat
Note:
2 For Trips During Start-up Accel
FSNL
Assume Trip Severity Factor = 2
0
0 20 40 60 80 100
% Load
Figure 22. Maintenance factor - effect of start cycle
Figure 21. Maintenance factor - trips from load maximum load level
GE Power Systems GER-3620J (01/03) ■ ■ 13

Rotor Parts determined for an application's duty cycle to

quantify the rotor life reductions associated
In addition to the hot gas path components, the
with different severity levels. The maintenance
rotor structure maintenance and refurbishment
factors so determined are used to adjust the
requirements are impacted by the cyclic effects
rotor component inspection, repair and
associated with startup, operation and shut-
replacement intervals that are appropriate to
down. Maintenance factors specific to an appli-
that particular duty cycle.
cation's operating profile and rotor design must
be determined and incorporated into the oper- Though the concept of rotor maintenance fac-
ators maintenance planning. Disassembly and tors is applicable to all gas turbine rotors, only
inspection of all rotor components is required MS7001/9001F and FA rotors will be discussed
when the accumulated rotor starts reach the in detail. The rotor maintenance factor for a
inspection limit. (See Figure 45 and Figure 46 in startup is a function of the downtime following
Inspection Intervals Section.) a previous period of operation. As downtime
increases, the rotor metal temperature
For the rotor, the thermal condition when the
approaches ambient conditions and thermal
start-up sequence is initiated is a major factor in
fatigue impact during a subsequent start-up
determining the rotor maintenance interval
increases. Since the most limiting location
and individual rotor component life. Rotors
determines the overall rotor impact, the rotor
that are cold when the startup commences
maintenance factor is determined from the
develop transient thermal stresses as the turbine
upper bound locus of the rotor maintenance
is brought on line. Large rotors with their
factors at these various features. For example,
longer thermal time constants develop higher
cold starts are assigned a rotor maintenance fac-
thermal stresses than smaller rotors undergoing
tor of two and hot starts a rotor maintenance
the same startup time sequence. High thermal
factor of less than one due to the lower thermal
stresses will reduce maintenance intervals and
stress under hot conditions.
thermal mechanical fatigue life.
Cold starts are not the only operating factor
The steam turbine industry recognized the that influences rotor maintenance intervals and
need to adjust startup times in the 1950 to 1970 component life. Fast starts and fast loading,
time period when power generation market where the turbine is ramped quickly to load,
growth led to larger and larger steam turbines increase thermal gradients and are more severe
operating at higher temperatures. Similar to duty for the rotor. Trips from load and particu-
the steam turbine rotor size increases of the larly trips followed by immediate restarts reduce
1950s and 1960s, gas turbine rotors have seen a the rotor maintenance interval as do hot
growth trend in the 1980s and 1990s as the tech- restarts within the first hour of a hot shutdown.
nology has advanced to meet the demand for Figure 23 lists recommended operating factors
combined cycle power plants with high power that should be used to determine the rotor's
density and thermal efficiency. overall maintenance factor for PG7241 and
With these larger rotors, lessons learned from PG9351 design rotors. The factors to be used
both the steam turbine experience and the for other models are determined by applicable
more recent gas turbine experience should be Technical Information Letters.
factored into the start-up control for the gas tur- The significance of each of these factors to the
bine and/or maintenance factors should be maintenance requirements of the rotor is

■ ■ 14
7241/9351* Design continuous duty units will be

determined by service hours rather
than starts.
Figure 24 lists operating profiles on the high end
of each of these three general categories of gas
turbine applications.
As can be seen in Figure 24, these duty cycles
have different combinations of hot, warm and
cold starts with each starting condition having a
different impact on rotor maintenance interval
as previously discussed. As a result, the starts
Figure 23. Operation-related maintenance factors based rotor maintenance interval will depend
on an applications specific duty cycle. In a later
section, a method will be described that allows
dependent on the type of operation that the the turbine operator to determine a mainte-
unit sees. There are three general categories of
operation that are typical of most gas turbine Peaking ~ Cyclic ~ Continuous
applications. These are peaking, cyclic and con-
tinuous duty as described below:
■ Peaking units have a relatively high
starting frequency and a low number
of hours per start. Operation follows a
seasonal demand. Peaking units will
generally see a high percentage of
cold starts.
■ Cyclic duty units start daily with
Figure 24. FA gas turbine typical operational profile
weekend shutdowns. Twelve to sixteen
hours per start is typical which results
nance factor that is specific to the operation's
in a warm rotor condition for a large
duty cycle. The application’s integrated mainte-
percentage of the starts. Cold starts are
nance factor uses the rotor maintenance factors
generally seen only following a startup
described above in combination with the actual
after a maintenance outage or
duty cycle of a specific application and can be
following a two day weekend outage.
used to determine rotor inspection intervals. In
■ Continuous duty applications see a this calculation, the reference duty cycle that
high number of hours per start and yields a starts based maintenance factor equal to
most starts are cold because outages one is defined in Figure 25. Duty cycles different
are generally maintenance driven. from the Figure 25 definition, in particular duty
While the percentage of cold starts is cycles with more cold starts, or a high number
high, the total number of starts is low. of trips, will have a maintenance factor greater
The rotor maintenance interval on than one.

■ ■ 15
factors is operating mode, which describes the

applied fueling pattern. The use of low load
operating modes at high loads can reduce the
maintenance interval significantly. An example
of this is the use of DLN1 extended lean-lean
mode at high loads, which can result in a main-
tenance factor of 10. Another factor that can
impact combustion system maintenance is
acoustic dynamics. Acoustic dynamics are pres-
sure oscillations generated by the combustion
system, which, if high enough in magnitude, can
lead to significant wear and cracking. GE prac-
Figure 25. Baseline for starts-based maintenance
tice is to tune the combustion system to levels of
factor definitions
acoustic dynamics low enough to ensure that
the maintenance practices described here are
Combustion Parts not compromised.
A typical combustion system contains transition Combustion maintenance is performed, if
pieces, combustion liners, flow sleeves, head-end required, following each combustion inspection
assemblies containing fuel nozzles and car- (or repair) interval. Inspection interval guide-
tridges, end caps and end covers, and assorted lines are included in Figure 42. It is expected
other hardware including cross-fire tubes, spark and recommended that intervals be modified
plugs and flame detectors. In addition, there based on specific experience. Replacement
can be various fuel and air delivery components intervals are usually defined by a recommended
such as purge or check valves and flex hoses. number of combustion (or repair) intervals and
GE provides several types of combustion systems are usually combustion component specific. In
including standard combustors, Multi-Nozzle general, the replacement interval as a function
Quiet Combustors (MNQC), IGCC combustors of the number of combustion inspection inter-
and Dry Low NOx (DLN) combustors. Each of vals is reduced if the combustion inspection
these combustion systems have unique operat- interval is extended. For example, a compo-
ing characteristics and modes of operation with nent having an 8,000 hour combustion inspec-
differing responses to operational variables tion (CI) interval and a 6(CI) or 48,000 hour
affecting maintenance and refurbishment replacement interval would have a replacement
requirements. interval of 4(CI) if the inspection interval was
The maintenance and refurbishment require- increased to 12,000 hours to maintain a 48,000
ments of combustion parts are impacted by hour replacement interval.
many of the same factors as hot gas path parts For combustion parts, the base line operating
including start cycle, trips, fuel type and quality, conditions that result in a maintenance factor of
firing temperature and use of steam or water unity are normal fired start-up and shut-down to
injection for either emissions control or power base load on natural gas fuel without steam or
augmentation. However, there are other factors water injection. Factors that increase the hours-
specific to combustion systems. One of these based maintenance factor include peaking duty,

■ ■ 16
distillate or heavy fuels, steam or water injection

with dry or wet control curves. Factors that 47 Frequency ~ Hz 49.5 50.5
increase starts-based maintenance factor include 100% of Active
Power Output
peaking duty, fuel type, steam or water injection,
trips, emergency starts and fast loading.
Off Frequency Operation

95% of Active
GE heavy-duty single shaft gas turbines are Power Output
designed to operate over a 95% to 105% speed
range. However, operation at other than rated Figure 26. The NGC requirement for output
speed has the potential to impact maintenance vs. frequency capability overall ambients
requirements. Depending on the industry less than 25°C (77°F)
code requirements, the specifics of the turbine
design and the turbine control philosophy With this specification, load must be maintained
employed, operating conditions can result that constant over a frequency range of +/- 1%
will accelerate life consumption of hot gas path (+/- 0.5Hz in a 50 Hz grid system) with a one
components. Where this is true, the mainte- percent load reduction allowed for every addi-
nance factor associated with this operation tional one percent frequency drop down to a
must be understood and these speed events minimum 94% speed. Requirements stipulate
analyzed and recorded so as to include in the that operation between 95% to 104% speed can
maintenance plan for this gas turbine installa- be continuous but operation between 94% and
tion. 95% is limited to 20 seconds for each event.
These conditions must be met up to a maximum
Generator drive turbines operating in a power
ambient temperature of 25°C (77°F).
system grid are sometimes required to meet
operational requirements that are aimed at Under-frequency operation impacts mainte-
maintaining grid stability under conditions of nance to the degree that nominally controlled
sudden load or capacity changes. Most codes turbine output must be exceeded in order to
require turbines to remain on line in the event meet the specification defined output require-
of a frequency disturbance. For under-frequen- ment. As speed decreases, the compressor air-
cy operation, the turbine output decrease that flow decreases, reducing turbine output. If this
will normally occur with a speed decrease is normal output fall-off with speed results in loads
allowed and the net impact on the turbine as less than the defined minimum, power augmen-
measured by a maintenance factor is minimal. tation must be applied. Turbine overfiring is the
In some grid systems, there are more stringent most obvious augmentation option but other
codes that require remaining on line while means such as utilizing gas turbine water wash
maintaining load on a defined schedule of load have some potential as an augmentation action.
versus grid frequency. One example of a more Ambient temperature can be a significant factor
stringent requirement is defined by the National in the level of power augmentation required.
Grid Company (NGC). In the NGC code, con- This relates to compressor operating margin
ditions under which frequency excursions must that may require inlet guide vane closure if com-
be tolerated and/or controlled are defined as pressor corrected speed reaches limiting condi-
shown in Figure 26. tions. For an FA class turbine, operation at 0°C

■ ■ 17
(32°F) would require no power augmentation to

Firing Tempe rature For NGC Compliance
meet NGC requirements while operation at Tamb = 25C (77F)
25°C (77°F) would fall below NGC requirements 300
without a substantial amount of power augmen- 250
Delta Firing Temperature ~ F

tation. As an example, Figure 27 illustrates the
200
output trend at 25°C (77°F) for an FA class gas Overfire To M eet NGC
150
turbine as grid system frequency changes and
Overfire
where no power augmentation is applied. 100
Waterwash on @49.5 Hz
50
Output versus Grid Frequency
Tamb = 25C (77F) 0
1.100
-50
46 47 48 49 50 51 52
NGC Requirement
Frequency
Normalized Output
1.000
Figure 28. NGC code compliance TF required —

Output
0.900 Shortfall Constant Tf FA class
Without
Overfiring Output Trend
be 3x as determined by Figure 12. It is important
0.800
to understand that operation at over-frequency
conditions will not trade one-for-one for periods
0.700
46 47 48 49 50 51 52
at under-frequency conditions. As was discussed
Frequency in the firing temperature section above, opera-
tion at peak firing conditions has a nonlinear log-
Figure 27. Turbine output at under-frequency operation
arithmic relationship with maintenance factor.
In Figure 27, the gas turbine output shortfall at As described above, the NGC code requires
the low frequency end (47.5Hz) of the NGC operation for up to 20 seconds per event at an
continuous operation compliance range would under-frequency condition between 94% to
require a 160°F increase over base load firing 95% speed. Grid events that expose the gas tur-
temperature to be in compliance. At this level of bine to frequencies below the minimum contin-
over-fire, a maintenance factor exceeding 100x uous speed of 95% introduce additional mainte-
would be applied to all time spent at these con- nance and parts replacement considerations.
ditions. Overfiring at this level would have Operation at speeds less than 95% requires
implications on combustion operability and increased over-fire to achieve compliance, but
emissions compliance as well as have major also introduces an additional concern that
impact on hot gas path parts life. An alternative relates to the potential exposure of the blading
power augmentation approach that has been to excitations that could result in blade resonant
utilized in FA gas turbines for NGC code com- response and reduced fatigue life. Considering
pliance utilizes water wash in combination with this potential, a starts-based maintenance factor
increased firing temperature. As shown in Figure of 60x is assigned to every 20-second excursion
28, with water wash on, 50°F overfiring is to grid frequencies less than 95% speed.
required to meet NGC code for operating con- Over-frequency or high speed operation can
ditions of 25°C (77°F) ambient temperature and also introduce conditions that impact turbine
grid frequency at 47.5 HZ. Under these condi- maintenance and part replacement intervals. If
tions, the hours-based maintenance factor would speed is increased above the nominal rated

speed, the rotating components see an increase operating in grid frequency regulation mode. In
in mechanical stress proportional to the square frequency regulation mode, turbines are dis-
of the speed increase. If firing temperature is patched to operate at less than full load and
held constant at the overspeed condition, the stand ready to respond to a frequency distur-
life consumption rate of hot gas path rotating bance by rapidly picking up load. NGC require-
components will increase as illustrated in Figure ments for units in frequency regulation mode
29 where one hour of operation at 105% speed include being equipped with a fast-acting pro-
is equivalent to 2 hours at rated speed. If over- portional speed governor operating with an
speed operation represents a small fraction of a overall speed droop of 3-5%. With this control,
turbine’s operating profile, this effect on parts a gas turbine will provide a load increase that is
life can sometimes be ignored. However, if sig- proportional to the size of the grid frequency
nificant operation at overspeed is expected and change. For example, a turbine operating with
rated firing temperature is maintained, the five percent droop would pick up 20% load in
accumulated hours must be recorded and response to a .5 Hz (1%) grid frequency drop.
included in the calculation of the turbine’s over- The rate at which the turbine picks up load in
all maintenance factor and the maintenance response to an under-frequency condition is
schedule adjusted to reflect the overspeed oper- determined by the gas turbine design and the
ation. An option that mitigates this effect is to response of the fuel and compressor airflow con-
under fire to a level that balances the overspeed trol systems, but would typically yield a less than
parts life effect. Some mechanical drive appli- ten-second turbine response to a step change in
cations have employed that strategy to avoid a grid frequency. Any maintenance factor associ-
maintenance factor increase. ated with this operation depends on the magni-
The frequency-sensitive discussion above tude of the load change that occurs. A turbine
describes code requirements related to turbine dispatched at 50% load that responded to a 2%
output capability versus grid frequency, where frequency drop would have parts life and main-
maintenance factors within the continuous tenance impact on the hot gas path as well as the
operating speed range are hours-based. There rotor structure. More typically, however, tur-
are other considerations related to turbines bines are dispatched at closer to rated load
where maintenance factor effects may be less
Over Speed Operation severe. The NGC requires 10% plant output in
Constant Tfire
10 seconds in response to a .5Hz (1%) under
10.0 frequency condition. In a combined cycle instal-
Maintenance Factor
lation where the gas turbine alone must pick up

the transient loading, a load change of 15% in
(MF)
MF = 2 10 seconds would be required to meet that

requirement. Maintenance factor effects related
to this would be minimal for the hot gas path
1.0 but would impact the rotor maintenance factor.
1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05
For an FA class rotor, each frequency excursion
% Speed
would be counted as an additional factored start
Figure 29. Maintenance factor for overspeed in the numerator of the maintenance factor cal-
operation ~ constant TF culation described in Figure 45. A further

requirement for the rotor is that it must be in

hot running condition prior to being dispatched
in frequency regulation mode.
Air Quality
Maintenance and operating costs are also influ-
enced by the quality of the air that the turbine
consumes. In addition to the deleterious effects
of airborne contaminants on hot-gas-path com-
ponents, contaminants such as dust, salt and oil
can also cause compressor blade erosion, corro-
sion and fouling. Twenty-micron particles enter-
ing the compressor can cause significant blade
Figure 30. Deterioration of gas turbine performance
erosion. Fouling can be caused by submicron due to compressor blade fouling
dirt particles entering the compressor as well as
from ingestion of oil vapor, smoke, sea salt and coolers as well as periodic inspection and prompt
industrial vapors. repair of compressor blading.
Corrosion of compressor blading causes pitting There are also non-recoverable losses. In the
of the blade surface, which, in addition to compressor, these are typically caused by non-
increasing the surface roughness, also serves as deposit-related blade surface roughness, ero-
potential sites for fatigue crack initiation. These sion and blade tip rubs. In the turbine, nozzle
surface roughness and blade contour changes throat area changes, bucket tip clearance
will decrease compressor airflow and efficiency, increases and leakages are potential causes.
which in turn reduces the gas turbine output Some degree of unrecoverable performance
and overall thermal efficiency. degradation should be expected, even on a well-
Generally, axial flow compressor deterioration is maintained gas turbine.
the major cause of loss in gas turbine output and The owner, by regularly monitoring and record-
efficiency. Recoverable losses, attributable to com- ing unit performance parameters, has a very
pressor blade fouling, typically account for 70 to valuable tool for diagnosing possible compres-
85 of the performance losses seen. As Figure 30 sor deterioration.
illustrates, compressor fouling to the extent that
airflow is reduced by 5%, will reduce output by Inlet Fogging
13% and increase heat rate by 5.5%. Fortunately, One of the ways some users increase turbine
much can be done through proper operation output is through the use of inlet foggers.
and maintenance procedures to minimize foul- Foggers inject a large amount of moisture in the
ing type losses. On-line compressor wash systems inlet ducting, exposing the forward stages of
are available that are used to maintain compres- the compressor to a continuously moist envi-
sor efficiency by washing the compressor while at ronment. Operation of a compressor in such
load, before significant fouling has occurred. Off- an environment may lead to long-term degra-
line systems are used to clean heavily fouled com- dation of the compressor due to fouling, mate-
pressors. Other procedures include maintaining rial property degradation, corrosion and ero-
the inlet filtration system and inlet evaporative sion. Experience has shown that depending on

■ ■ 20
the quality of water used, the inlet silencer and tected sections of the blade. Because of this, the
ducting material, and the condition of the inlet GECC-1 coating was created to combine the
silencer, fouling of the compressor can be effects of an Al coating to prevent corrosion and
severe with inlet foggers. Evaporative cooler a ceramic topcoat to prevent erosion.
carryover and excessive water washing can pro- Water droplets, in excess of 25 microns in diam-
duce similar effects. Figure 31 shows the long- eter, will cause leading edge erosion on the first
term material property degradation resulting few stages of the compressor. This erosion, if
from operating the compressor in a wet envi- sufficiently developed, may lead to blade fail-
ronment. The water quality standard that ure. Additionally, the roughened leading edge
should be adhered to is found in GEK-101944B. surface lowers the compressor efficiency and
For turbines with 403SS compressor blades, the unit performance.
presence of moisture will reduce blade fatigue It is recommended to check for erosion and pit-
strength by as much as 30% as well as subject ting of the compressor blades after every 100
the blades to corrosion. Further reductions in hours of water wash. Utilization of inlet fogging
fatigue strength will result if the environment is or evaporative cooling may also introduce water
acidic and if pitting is present on the blade. carryover or water ingestion into the compres-
Pitting is corrosion-induced and blades with pit- sor, resulting in R0 erosion. Although the
ting can see material strength reduced to 40% design intent of evaporative coolers and inlet
of its virgin value. The presence of moisture foggers should be to fully vaporize all cooling
also increases the crack propagation rate in a water prior to its ingestion into the compressor,
blade if a flaw is present. evidence suggests that on some systems the
Uncoated GTD-450 material is relatively resistant water is not being fully vaporized (e.g., streak-
to corrosion while uncoated 403SS is quite sus- ing discoloration on the inlet duct or bell
ceptible. Relative susceptibility of various com- mouth). If this is the case, then the unit should
pressor blade materials and coatings is shown in be inspected every 100 hours of combined
Figure 32. As noted in GER-3569F, Al coatings are water wash, inlet fogger, and evaporative cooler
susceptible to erosion damage leading to unpro- operation.
CORROSION DUE TO ENVIRONMENT AGGRAVATES PROBLEM

• REDUCES VANE MATERIAL ENDURANCE STRENGTH
•PITTING PROVIDES LOCALIZED STRESS RISERS
GTD-450 Bare
FATIGUE SENSITIVITY TO ENVIRONMENT Al Slurry Coatings

SOUND BLADE RT
1.0 SOUND BLADE 200°F NiCd + Topcoats
0.9
ALTERNATING STRESS
0.8 WET STEAM RT

0.7 ACID H2O 180 °F AISI 403 Ceramic
0.6
RATIO
0.5 PITTED IN AIR NiCd

0.4
0.3
Bare
0.2
0.1
0.0 0 2 4 6 8 10
7
Worst Best
ESTIMATED FATIGUE STRENGTH (10 CYCLES) FOR AISI Relative Corrosion Resistance
403 BLADES
Figure 31. Long term material property degradation Figure 32. Relative susceptibility of compressor
in a wet environment blade materials and coatings

Maintenance Inspections essential part of the standby inspection.

Maintenance inspection types may be broadly The Maintenance and Instructions Manual, as
classified as standby, running and disassembly well as the Service Manual Instruction Books,
inspections. The standby inspection is performed contain information and drawings necessary to
during off-peak periods when the unit is not perform these periodic checks. Among the
operating and includes routine servicing of acces- most useful drawings in the Service Manual
sory systems and device calibration. The running Instruction Books for standby maintenance are
inspection is performed by observing key operat- the control specifications, piping schematic and
ing parameters while the turbine is running. The electrical elementaries. These drawings provide
disassembly inspection requires opening the tur- the calibrations, operating limits, operating
bine for inspection of internal components and is characteristics and sequencing of all control
performed in varying degrees. Disassembly devices. This information should be used regu-
inspections progress from the combustion inspec- larly by operating and maintenance personnel.
tion to the hot-gas-path inspection to the major Careful adherence to minor standby inspection
inspection as shown in Figure 33. Details of each of maintenance can have a significant effect on
these inspections are described below. reducing overall maintenance costs and main-
taining high turbine reliability. It is essential
Standby Inspections that a good record be kept of all inspections
Standby inspections are performed on all gas made and of the maintenance work performed
turbines but pertain particularly to gas turbines in order to ensure establishing a sound mainte-
used in peaking and intermittent-duty service nance program.
where starting reliability is of primary concern.
This inspection includes routinely servicing the Running Inspections
battery system, changing filters, checking oil and Running inspections consist of the general and
water levels, cleaning relays and checking device continued observations made while a unit is
calibrations. Servicing can be performed in off- operating. This starts by establishing baseline
peak periods without interrupting the availabili- operating data during initial startup of a new
ty of the turbine. A periodic startup test run is an unit and after any major disassembly work. This
Figure 33. MS7001EA heavy-duty gas turbine - shutdown inspection

■ ■ 22
baseline then serves as a reference from which exhaust temperature should be observed and
subsequent unit deterioration can be measured. compared to previous data. Ambient temperature
and barometric pressure will have some effect
Data should be taken to establish normal equip-
upon the absolute temperature level. High
ment start-up parameters as well as key steady
exhaust temperature can be an indicator of dete-
state operating parameters. Steady state is
rioration of internal parts, excessive leaks or a
defined as conditions at which no more than a
fouled air compressor. For mechanical drive appli-
5°F/3°C change in wheelspace temperature
cations, it may also be an indication of increased
occurs over a 15-minute time period. Data must
power required by the driven equipment.
be taken at regular intervals and should be
recorded to permit an evaluation of the turbine Vibration Level
performance and maintenance requirements as The vibration signature of the unit should be
a function of operating time. This operating observed and recorded. Minor changes will
inspection data, summarized in Figure 34, occur with changes in operating conditions.
includes: load versus exhaust temperature, However, large changes or a continuously
vibration, fuel flow and pressure, bearing metal increasing trend give indications of the need to
temperature, lube oil pressure, exhaust gas tem- apply corrective action.
peratures, exhaust temperature spread varia-
tion and startup time. This list is only a mini- Fuel Flow and Pressure
mum and other parameters should be used as The fuel system should be observed for the gen-
necessary. A graph of these parameters will help eral fuel flow versus load relationship. Fuel pres-
provide a basis for judging the conditions of the sures through the system should be observed.
system. Deviations from the norm help pinpoint Changes in fuel pressure can indicate the fuel
impending trouble, changes in calibration or nozzle passages are plugged, or that fuel meter-
damaged components. ing elements are damaged or out of calibration.
Load vs. Exhaust Temperature Exhaust Temperature and Spread Variation

The general relationship between load and The most important control function to be
• Speed • Pressures
• Load – Compressor Discharge
• Fired Starts – Lube Pump(s)
• Fired Hours – Bearing Header
• Site Barometric Reading – Cooling Water
• Temperatures – Fuel
– Inlet Ambient – Filters (Fuel, Lube, Inlet Air)
– Compressor Discharge • Vibration Data for Power Train
– Turbine Exhaust • Generator
– Turbine Wheelspace – Output Voltage – Field Voltage
– Lube Oil Header – Phase Current – Field Current
– Lube Oil Tank – VARS – Stator Temp.
– Bearing Metal – Load – Vibration
– Bearing Drains • Start-Up Time
– Exhaust • Coast-Down Time
Figure 34. Operating inspection data parameters

■ ■ 23
observed is the exhaust temperature fuel over- tors and combustor flow sleeves. This inspec-
ride system and the back-up over temperature tion concentrates on the combustion liners,
trip system. Routine verification of the opera- transition pieces, fuel nozzles and end caps
tion and calibration of these functions will min- which are recognized as being the first to
imize wear on the hot-gas-path parts. require replacement and repair in a good main-
The variations in turbine exhaust temperature tenance program. Proper inspection, mainte-
spread should be measured and monitored on nance and repair (Figure 35) of these items will
a regular basis. Large changes or a continuous- contribute to a longer life of the downstream
ly increasing trend in exhaust temperature parts, such as turbine nozzles and buckets.
spread indicate combustion system deteriora- Figure 33 illustrates the section of an MS7001EA
tion or fuel distribution problems. If the prob- unit that is disassembled for a combustion
lem is not corrected, the life of downstream hot- inspection. The combustion liners, transition
gas-path parts will be reduced. pieces and fuel nozzle assemblies should be
removed and replaced with new or repaired
Start-Up Time
components to minimize downtime. The
Start-up time is an excellent reference against removed liners, transition pieces and fuel noz-
which subsequent operating parameters can be zles can then be cleaned and repaired after the
compared and evaluated. A curve of the starting unit is returned to operation and be available
parameters of speed, fuel signal, exhaust tem- for the next combustion inspection interval.
perature and critical sequence bench marks ver- Typical combustion inspection requirements
sus time from the initial start signal will provide for MS6001B/7001EA/9001E machines are:
a good indication of the condition of the con-
■ Inspect and identify combustion
trol system. Deviations from normal conditions
chamber components.
help pinpoint impending trouble, changes in
calibration or damaged components. ■ Inspect and identify each crossfire
tube, retainer and combustion liner.
Coast-Down Time ■ Inspect combustion liner for TBC
Coast-down time is an excellent indicator of spallation, wear and cracks. Inspect
bearing alignment and bearing condition. The combustion system and discharge
time period from when the fuel is shut off on a casing for debris and foreign objects.
normal shutdown until the rotor comes to a
standstill can be compared and evaluated.
Close observation and monitoring of these
operating parameters will serve as the basis for
effectively planning maintenance work and
material requirements needed for subsequent
shutdown periods.
Combustion Inspection
The combustion inspection is a relatively short
disassembly shutdown inspection of fuel noz-
zles, liners, transition pieces, crossfire tubes and
retainers, spark plug assemblies, flame detec- Figure 35. Combustion inspection - key elements

■ ■ 24
■ Inspect flow sleeve welds for cracking. After the combustion inspection is complete
■ Inspect transition piece for wear and and the unit is returned to service, the removed
cracks. combustion liners and transition pieces can be
■ Inspect fuel nozzles for plugging at bench inspected and repaired, if necessary, by
tips, erosion of tip holes and safety either competent on-site personnel, or off-site
lock of tips. at a qualified GE Combustion Service Center.
The removed fuel nozzles can be cleaned on-
■ Inspect all fluid, air, and gas passages
in nozzle assembly for plugging, site and flow tested on-site, if suitable test facili-
erosion, burning, etc. ties are available. For F Class gas turbines it is
recommended that repairs and fuel nozzle flow
■ Inspect spark plug assembly for
testing be performed at qualified GE Service
freedom from binding, check
Centers.
condition of electrodes and
insulators.
Hot-Gas-Path Inspection
■ Replace all consumables and normal
wear-and-tear items such as seals, The purpose of a hot-gas-path inspection is to
lockplates, nuts, bolts, gaskets, etc. examine those parts exposed to high tempera-
■ Perform visual inspection of first-stage tures from the hot gases discharged from the
turbine nozzle partitions and combustion process. The hot-gas-path inspec-
borescope inspect (Figure 3) turbine tion outlined in Figure 36 includes the full scope
buckets to mark the progress of wear of the combustion inspection and, in addition,
and deterioration of these parts. This a detailed inspection of the turbine nozzles, sta-
inspection will help establish the tionary stator shrouds and turbine buckets. To
schedule for the hot-gas-path perform this inspection, the top half of the tur-
inspection. bine shell must be removed. Prior to shell
■ Perform borescope inspection of removal, proper machine centerline support
compressor. using mechanical jacks is necessary to assure
■ Enter the combustion wrapper and proper alignment of rotor to stator, obtain accu-
observe the condition of blading in rate half-shell clearances and prevent twisting of
the aft end of axial-flow compressor the stator casings. The MS7001EA jacking pro-
with a borescope. cedure is illustrated in Figure 37.
■ Visually inspect the compressor inlet For inspection of the hot-gas-path (Figure 33),
and turbine exhaust areas, checking all combustion transition pieces and the first-
condition of IGVs, IGV bushings, last- stage turbine nozzle assemblies must be
stage buckets and exhaust system removed. Removal of the second- and third-
components. stage turbine nozzle segment assemblies is
■ Verify proper operation of purge and optional, depending upon the results of visual
check valves. Confirm proper setting observations and clearance measurement. The
and calibration of the combustion buckets can usually be inspected in place. Also,
controls. it is usually worthwhile to fluorescent penetrant

■ ■ 25
Figure 36. Hot-gas-path inspection - key elements
inspect (FPI) the bucket vane sections to detect should be removed, follow bucket
any cracks. In addition, a complete set of inter- removal and condition recording
nal turbine radial and axial clearances (open- instructions. Buckets with protective
ing and closing) must be taken during any hot- coating should be evaluated for
gas-path inspection. Re-assembly must meet remaining coating life.
clearance diagram requirements to ensure ■ Inspect and record condition of first-,
against rubs and to maintain unit performance. second- and third-stage nozzles.
Typical hot gas-path inspection requirements
■ Inspect and record condition of
for all machines are:
later-stage nozzle diaphragm
■ Inspect and record condition of first-, packings.
second- and third-stage buckets. If it is ■ Check seals for rubs and deterioration
determined that the turbine buckets of clearance.
Figure 37. Stator tube jacking procedure - MS7001EA

■ ■ 26
■ Record the bucket tip clearances. may require refurbishment to re-establish the
■ Inspect bucket shank seals for proper axial clearances. Normally, turbine
clearance, rubs and deterioration. nozzles can be repaired several times to extend
life and it is generally repair cost versus
■ Check the turbine stationary shrouds
replacement cost that dictates the replacement
for clearance, cracking, erosion,
decision.
oxidation, rubbing and build-up.
Coatings play a critical role in protecting the
■ Check and replace any faulty
buckets operating at high metal temperatures
wheelspace thermocouples. to ensure that the full capability of the high
■ Enter compressor inlet plenum and strength superalloy is maintained and that the
observe the condition of the forward bucket rupture life meets design expectations.
section of the compressor. Pay specific This is particularly true of cooled bucket
attention to IGVs, looking for designs that operate above 1985°F (1085°C) fir-
corrosion, bushing wear evidenced by ing temperature. Significant exposure of the
excessive clearance and vane cracking. base metal to the environment will accelerate
the creep rate and can lead to premature
■ Enter the combustion wrapper and,
replacement through a combination of
with a borescope, observe the
increased temperature and stress and a reduc-
condition of the blading in the aft end
tion in material strength, as described in Figure
of the axial flow compressor.
38. This degradation process is driven by oxida-
■ Visually inspect the turbine exhaust tion of the unprotected base alloy. In the past,
area for any signs of cracking or on early generation uncooled designs, surface
deterioration. degradation due to corrosion or oxidation was
The first-stage turbine nozzle assembly is considered to be a performance issue and not a
exposed to the direct hot-gas discharge from factor in bucket life. This is no longer the case
the combustion process and is subjected to the at the higher firing temperatures of current
highest gas temperatures in the turbine section. generation designs.
Such conditions frequently cause nozzle crack- Given the importance of coatings, it must be
ing and oxidation and, in fact, this is expected. recognized that even the best coatings available
The second- and third-stage nozzles are will have a finite life and the condition of the
exposed to high gas bending loads which, in coating will play a major role in determining
combination with the operating temperatures, bucket replacement life. Refurbishment
can lead to downstream deflection and closure through stripping and recoating is an option
of critical axial clearances. To a degree, nozzle for extending bucket life, but if recoating is
distress can be tolerated and criteria have been selected, it should be done before the coating
established for determining when repair is has breached to expose base metal. Normally,
required. These limits are contained in the for turbines in the MS7001EA class, this means
Maintenance and Instruction Books previously that recoating will be required at the hot-gas-
described. However, as a general rule, first stage path inspection. If recoating is not performed
nozzles will require repair at the hot-gas path at the hot-gas-path inspection, the runout life of
inspection. The second- and third-stage nozzles the buckets would generally extend to the

■ ■ 27
Figure 38. Stage 1 bucket oxidation and bucket life
major inspection, at which point the buckets and hot-gas-path inspection. The work scope
would be replaced. For F class gas turbines shown in Figure 39 involves inspection of all of
recoating of the first stage buckets is recom- the major flange-to-flange components of the
mended at each hot gas path inspection. gas turbine which are subject to deterioration
during normal turbine operation. This inspec-
Visual and borescope examination of the hot
tion includes previous elements of the combus-
gas-path parts during the combustion inspec-
tion and hot-gas-path inspections, in addition to
tions as well as nozzle-deflection measurements
laying open the complete flange-to-flange gas
will allow the operator to monitor distress pat-
turbine to the horizontal joints, as shown in
terns and progression. This makes part-life pre-
Figure 40, with inspections being performed on
dictions more accurate and allows adequate
individual items.
time to plan for replacement or refurbishment
Prior to removing casings, shells and frames,
at the time of the hot-gas-path inspection. It is
the unit must be properly supported. Proper
important to recognize that to avoid extending
centerline support using mechanical jacks and
the hot-gas-path inspection, the necessary spare
jacking sequence procedures are necessary to
parts should be on site prior to taking the unit
assure proper alignment of rotor to stator,
out of service.
obtain accurate half shell clearances and to pre-
Major Inspection vent twisting of the casings while on the half
shell.
The purpose of the major inspection is to exam-
Typical major inspection requirements for all
ine all of the internal rotating and stationary
machines are:
components from the inlet of the machine
through the exhaust section of the machine. A ■ All radial and axial clearances are
major inspection should be scheduled in accor- checked against their original values
dance with the recommendations in the owner's (opening and closing).
Maintenance and Instructions Manual or as ■ Casings, shells and frames/ diffusers
modified by the results of previous borescope are inspected for cracks and erosion.

■ ■ 28
Major Inspection
Hot Gas Path Inspection Work Scope – Plus:
Figure 39. Gas turbine major inspection - key elements
Figure 40. Major inspection work scope
■ Compressor inlet and compressor flow- erosion, fretting or thermal

path are inspected for fouling, erosion, deterioration.
corrosion and leakage. The IGVs are ■ Turbine buckets are removed and a
inspected, looking for corrosion, non-destructive check of buckets
bushing wear and vane cracking. and wheel dovetails is performed
■ Rotor and stator compressor blades are (first stage bucket protective coating
checked for tip clearance, rubs, impact should be evaluated for remaining
damage, corrosion pitting, bowing and coating life). Buckets that were not
cracking. recoated at the hot-gas-path
■ Turbine stationary shrouds are inspection should be replaced.
checked for clearance, erosion, ■ Rotor inspections recommended in
rubbing, cracking, and build-up. the maintenance and inspection
■ Seals and hook fits of turbine nozzles manual or by Technical Information
and diaphragms are inspected for rubs, Letters should be performed.

■ ■ 29
■ Bearing liners and seals are inspected Additional benefits available from the renewal
for clearance and wear. parts catalog data system are the capability to
■ Inlet systems are inspected for prepare recommended spare parts lists for the
corrosion, cracked silencers and loose combustion, hot-gas-path and major inspec-
parts. tions as well as capital and operational spares.
■ Exhaust systems are inspected for Furthermore, interchangeability lists may be
cracks, broken silencer panels or prepared for multiple units. The information
insulation panels. contained in the Catalog Ordering Data
■ Check alignment - gas turbine to Manual can be provided as a computer print-
generator/gas turbine to accessory out, on microfiche or on a computer disc. As
gear. the size of the database grows, and as generic
illustrations are added, the usefulness of this
Comprehensive inspection and maintenance
tool will be continuously enhanced.
guidelines have been developed by GE and are
provided in the Maintenance and Instructions Typical expectations for estimated repair cycles
Manual to assist users in performing each of the for some of the major components are shown in
inspections previously described. Appendix D. These tables assume that operation
of the unit has been in accordance with all of the
Parts Planning manufacturer's specifications and instructions.
Lack of adequate on-site spares can have a Maintenance inspections and repairs are also
major effect on plant availability; therefore, assumed to be done in accordance with the
prior to a scheduled disassembly type of inspec- manufacturer's specifications and instructions.
tion, adequate spares should be on site. A The actual repair and replacement cycles for any
planned outage such as a combustion inspec- particular gas turbine should be based on the
tion, which should only take two to five days, user's operating procedures, experience, main-
could take weeks. GE will provide recommen- tenance practices and repair practices. The
dations regarding the types and quantities of maintenance factors previously described can
spare parts needed; however, it is up to the have a major impact on both the component
owner to purchase these spare parts on a repair interval and service life. For this reason,
planned basis allowing adequate lead times. the intervals given in Appendix D should only be
used as guidelines and not certainties for long
Early identification of spare parts requirements
range parts planning. Owners may want to
ensures their availability at the time the
include contingencies in their parts planning.
planned inspections are performed. There are
two documents which support the ordering of The expected repair and replacement cycle val-
gas turbine parts by catalog number. The first is ues reflect current production hardware. To
the Renewal Parts Catalog - Illustrations and achieve these lives, current production parts
Text. This document contains generic illustra- with design improvements and newer coatings
tions which are used for identifying parts. The are required. With earlier production hard-
second document, the Renewal Parts Catalog ware, some of these lives may not be achieved.
Ordering Data Manual, contains unit site-spe- Operating factors and experience gained dur-
cific catalog ordering data. ing the course of recommended inspection and

■ ■ 30
maintenance procedures will be a more accu- parts within a parts set can have variations. The
rate predictor of the actual intervals. repair versus replacement economics shown in
Appendix D shows expected repair and replace- Figure 41 may lead to a certain percentage of
ment intervals based on the recommended "fallout", or scrap, of parts being repaired.
inspection intervals shown in Figure 42. The Those parts that fallout during the repair
process will need to be replaced by new parts.
application of inspection (or repair) intervals
The amount of fallout of parts depends on the
other than those shown in Figure 42 can result in
unit operating environment history, the specific
different replacement intervals (as a function of
part design, and the current state-of-the-art for
the number of repair intervals) than those
repair technology.
shown in Appendix D. See your GE representa-
tive for details on a specific system. Inspection Intervals
It should be recognized that, in some cases, the Figure 42 lists the recommended combustion,
service life of a component is reached when it is hot-gas-path and major inspection intervals for
no longer economical to repair any deteriora- current production GE turbines operating
tion as opposed to replacing at a fixed interval. under ideal conditions of gas fuel, base load,
This is illustrated in Figure 41 for a first stage and no water or steam injection. Considering
nozzle, where repairs continue until either the the maintenance factors discussed previously, an
nozzle cannot be restored to minimum accept- adjustment from these maximum intervals may
ance standards or the repair cost exceeds or be necessary, based on the specific operating
approaches the replacement cost. In other conditions of a given application. Initially, this
cases, such as first-stage buckets, repair options determination is based on the expected opera-
are limited by factors such as irreversible mate- tion of a turbine installation, but this should be
rial damage. In both cases, users should follow reviewed and adjusted as actual operating and
GE recommendations regarding replacement maintenance data are accumulated. While
or repair of these components. reductions in the maximum intervals will result
While the parts lives shown in Appendix D are from the factors described previously, increases
guidelines, the life consumption of individual in the maximum interval can also be considered
Figure 41. First-stage nozzle wear-preventive maintenance gas fired - continuous duty - base load

■ ■ 31
Factored Hours / Factored Starts

Type of Combustion MS5001PA /
Inspection System MS3002K MS5002C,D MS6B MS7E/EA MS9E MS6FA MS7F/FA/FA+ MS7FA+e MS9F/FA/FA+ MS9FA+e MS7FB
Non-DLN 24,000/400 12,000/800* 12,000/1,200** 8,000/900 8,000/900 - - - - - -
Combustion
DLN - 8,000/400 12,000/450 12,000/450 12,000/450 8,000/450 8,000/450 12,000/450 8,000/450 8,000/450 8,000/450***
Hot Gas Path 24,000/1,200 Eliminated/1,200 24,000/1,200 24,000/1,200 24,000/900 24,000/900 24,000/900 24,000/900 24,000/900 24,000/900 24,000/900
Major 48,000/2,400 48,000/2,400 48,000/2,400 48,000/2,400 48,000/2,400 48,000/2,400 48,000/2,400 48,000/2,400 48,000/2,400 48,000/2,400 48,000/2,400
Factors That Can Reduce Maintenance Intervals

• Fuel • Trips
• Load Setting • Start Cycle
• Steam/Water Injection • Hardware Design
• Peak Load TF Operation
* Units with Lean Head End liners have a 400 starts combustion inspection interval.
** Machines with 6581 and 6BeV combustion hardware have a 12,000/600 combustion inspection interval.
*** The goal is to increase the Combustion Inspection Interval from 8,000/450 to 12,000/450. This will
be accomplished with new hardware designs.
Note: Hours/Starts intervals include an allowance for nominal trip maintenance factor effects.
Figure 42. Base line recommended inspection intervals: base load - gas fuel - dry
where operating experience has been favorable. The starts-based hot-gas-path criterion is deter-
The condition of the hot-gas-path parts provides mined from the equation given in Figure 44. As
a good basis for customizing a program of with the hours-based criteria, an application
inspection and maintenance. specific starts-based hot gas path inspection
interval is calculated from a maintenance factor
GE can assist operators in determining the
that is determined from the number of trips
appropriate maintenance intervals for their par-
typically being experienced, the load level and
ticular application. Equations have been devel-
loading rate.
oped that account for the factors described ear-
As previously described, the hours and starts
lier and can be used to determine application
operating spectrum for the application is evalu-
specific hot-gas-path and major inspection
ated against the recommended hot gas path
intervals. The hours-based hot-gas-path criteri-
on is determined from the equation given in
Figure 43. With this equation, a maintenance
factor is determined that is the ratio of factored
operating hours and actual operating hours.
The factored hours consider the specifics of the
duty cycle relating to fuel type, load setting and
steam or water injection. Maintenance factors
greater than one reduce the hot gas path
inspection interval from the 24,000 hour ideal
case for continuous base load, gas fuel and no
steam or water injection. To determine the
application specific maintenance interval, the
maintenance factor is divided into 24,000, as
shown in Figure 43. Figure 43. Hot gas path inspection: hours-based criterion

■ ■ 32
MS6001/7001/9001
Maintenance Interval = S
(Starts) Maintenance Factor
Where:
Factored Starts
Maintenance Factor = η
Actual Starts
Factored Starts = (0.5 NA + NB + 1.3NP + 20E + 2F + Σ aTI TI)
Actual Starts = (NA + NB + NP + E + F + T) i-1
S = Maximum Starts-Based Maintenance Interval (Model Size Dependent)

NA = Annual Number of Part Load Start/Stop Cycles (<60% Load)
NB = Annual Number of Normal Base Load Start/Stop Cycles
NP = Annual Number of Peak Load Start/Stop Cycles
E = Annual Number of Emergency Starts
F = Annual Number of Fast Load Starts
T = Annual Number of Trips
aT = Trip Severity Factor = f (Load) (See Figure 21)
η = Number of Trip Categories (i.e., Full Load, Part Load, etc.)
Model Series S Model Series S

MS6B/MS7EA 1,200 MS9E 900
MS6FA 900 MS7F/7FA/9F/9FA 900
Figure 44. Hot gas path inspection starts-based condition
intervals for starts and for hours. The limiting factors that are less than one are not con-
criterion (hours or starts) determines the main- sidered.
tenance interval. An example of the use of these
Figure 46 describes the procedure to determine
equations for the hot gas path is contained in
the hours-based maintenance criterion. Peak
the appendix.
load operation is the primary maintenance fac-
The starts-based rotor maintenance interval is tor for the Frame MS7001/9001F and FA class
determined from the equation given in Figure rotors and will act to increase the hours-based
45. Adjustments to the rotor maintenance inter- maintenance factor and to reduce the rotor
val are determined from rotor-based operating maintenance interval. Hours on turning gear
factors as were described previously. In the cal- are also considered as an equivalent hours
culation for the starts-based rotor maintenance adder as noted in Figure 46.
interval, equivalent starts are determined for
cold, warm, and hot starts over a defined time When the rotor reaches the limiting inspection
period by multiplying the appropriate cold, interval determined from the equations
warm and hot start operating factor times and described in Figures 45 and 46, a disassembly of
number of cold, warm and hot starts respective- the rotor is required so that a complete inspec-
ly. In this calculation, the type of start must be tion of the rotor components in both the com-
considered. Additionally, equivalent starts for pressor and turbine can be performed. It
trips from load are added. The equivalent start should be expected that some rotor compo-
total is divided by the actual number of starts to nents will require replacement at this inspec-
yield the maintenance factor. The rotor starts- tion point, and depending on the extent of
based maintenance interval for a specific appli- refurbishment and part replacement, subse-
cation is determined by dividing the baseline quent inspections may be required at a reduced
rotor maintenance interval of 5000 starts by the interval. In cyclic applications where time on
calculated maintenance factor. As indicated in turning gear can be significant, the hours based
Figure 45, the rotor maximum maintenance inspection requirement (Figure 46) should be
interval is 5000 starts. Calculated maintenance interpreted to require a careful inspection of

■ ■ 33
Figure 45. Rotor maintenance factor for starts-based criterion
tions represent a generic set of maintenance

factors that provide general guidance on main-
tenance planning. As such, these equations do
not represent the specific capability of any given
combustion system. They do provide, however,
a generalization of combustion system experi-
ence. See your GE representative for mainte-
nance factors and limitations of specific com-
bustion systems. For combustion parts, the base
line operating conditions that result in a main-
tenance factor of unity are normal fired start-up
and shut-down (no trip) to base load on natural
Figure 46. Rotor maintenance factor for hours-based
criterion gas fuel without steam or water injection.
Application of the ExtendorTM Combustion
the turbine rotor dovetails for conditions of System Wear Kit has the potential to significant-
wear, galling or fretting. ly increase maintenance intervals.
For rotors other than Frame MS7001/9001F An hours-based combustion maintenance fac-
and FA, rotor maintenance should be per- tor can be determined from the equations given
formed at intervals recommended by GE in Figure 47 as the ratio of factored-hours to
through issued Technical Information Letters. actual operating hours. Factored-hours consid-
Where no recommendations have been made, ers the effects of fuel type, load setting and
rotor inspection should be performed at 5,000 steam or water injection. Maintenance factors
starts or 200,000 hours. greater than one reduce recommended com-
Equations have been developed that account bustion inspection intervals from those shown
for the earlier mentioned factors affecting com- in Figure 42 representing baseline operating
bustion maintenance intervals. These equa- conditions. To obtain a recommended inspec-

■ ■ 34
Figure 47. Combustion inspection hours-based maintenance factors
Figure 48. Combustion inspection starts-based maintenance factors
tion interval for a specific application, the Appendix B shows six example maintenance fac-
maintenance factor is divided into the recom- tor calculations using the above hours and starts
mended base line inspection interval. maintenance factors equations.
A starts-based combustion maintenance factor
Manpower Planning
can be determined from the equations given in
Figure 48 and considers the effect of fuel type, It is essential that advanced manpower plan-
load setting, emergency starts, fast loading ning be conducted prior to an outage. It should
rates, trips and steam or water injection. An be understood that a wide range of experience,
application specific recommended inspection productivity and working conditions exist
interval can be determined from the baseline around the world. However, based upon main-
inspection interval in Figure 42 and the mainte- tenance inspection man-hour assumptions,
nance factor from Figure 48. such as the use of an average crew of workers in

■ ■ 35
the United States with trade skill (but not nec- Planning techniques can be used to reduce
essarily direct gas turbine experience), with all maintenance cost by optimizing lifting equip-
needed tools and replacement parts (no repair ment schedules and manpower requirements.
time) available, an estimate can be made. These Precise estimates of the outage duration,
estimated craft labor man-hours should include resource requirements, critical-path schedul-
controls and accessories and the generator. In ing, recommended replacement parts, and
addition to the craft labor, additional resources costs associated with the inspection of a specific
are needed for technical direction of the craft installation may be obtained from the local GE
labor force, specialized tooling, engineering field services office.
reports, and site mobilization/de-mobilization.
Inspection frequencies and the amount of Conclusion
downtime varies within the gas turbine fleet due GE heavy-duty gas turbines are designed to have
to different duty cycles and the economic need
an inherently high availability. To achieve maxi-
for a unit to be in a state of operational readi-
mum gas turbine availability, an owner must
ness. It can be demonstrated that an 8000-hour
understand not only the equipment, but the
interval for a combustion inspection with mini-
factors affecting it. This includes the training of
mum downtime can be achievable based on the
operating and maintenance personnel, follow-
above factors. Contact your local GE Energy
ing the manufacturer's recommendations, reg-
Services representative for the specific man-
ular periodic inspections and the stocking of
hours and recommended crew size for your spe-
spare parts for immediate replacement. The
cific unit.
recording of operating data, and analysis of
Depending upon the extent of work to be done these data, are essential to preventative and
during each maintenance task, a cooldown peri- planned maintenance. A key factor in achieving
od of 4 to 24 hours may be required. This time this goal is a commitment by the owner to pro-
can be utilized productively for job move-in, vide effective outage management and full uti-
correct tagging and locking equipment out-of-
lization of published instructions and the avail-
service and general work preparations. At the
able service support facilities.
conclusion of the maintenance work and sys-
tems check out, a turning gear time of two to It should be recognized that, while the manu-
eight hours is normally allocated prior to start- facturer provides general maintenance recom-
ing the unit. This time can be used for job mendations, it is the equipment user who has
clean-up and arranging for any repairs required the major impact upon the proper maintenance
on removed parts. and operation of equipment. Inspection inter-
Local GE field service representatives are avail- vals for optimum turbine service are not fixed
able to help plan your maintenance work to for every installation, but rather are developed
reduce downtime and labor costs. This planned through an interactive process by each user,
approach will outline the renewal parts that based on past experience and trends indicated
may be needed and the projected work scope, by key turbine factors. In addition, through
showing which tasks can be accomplished in application of a Contractual Service Agreement
parallel and which tasks must be sequential. to a particular turbine, GE can work with a user

■ ■ 36
to establish a maintenance program that may mizes both maintenance cost and availability is
differ from general recommendations but will vital to the user. A rigorous maintenance pro-
be consistent with contractual responsibilities. gram will minimize overall costs, keep outage
The level and quality of a rigorous mainte- downtimes to a minimum, improve starting
nance program have a direct impact on equip- and running reliability and provide increased
ment reliability and availability. Therefore, a availability and revenue earning ability for GE
rigorous maintenance program which opti- gas turbine users.
References
Jarvis, G., “Maintenance of Industrial Gas Turbines,” GE Gas Turbine State of the Art Engineering
Seminar, paper SOA-24-72, June 1972.
Patterson, J. R., “Heavy-Duty Gas Turbine Maintenance Practices,” GE Gas Turbine Reference
Library, GER 2498, June 1977.
Moore, W. J., Patterson, J.R, and Reeves, E.F., “Heavy-Duty Gas Turbine Maintenance Planning and
Scheduling,” GE Gas Turbine Reference Library, GER 2498; June 1977, GER 2498A, June 1979.
Carlstrom, L. A., et al., “The Operation and Maintenance of General Electric Gas Turbines,”
numerous maintenance articles/authors reprinted from Power Engineering magazine, General
Electric Publication, GER 3148; December 1978.
Knorr, R. H., and Reeves, E. F., “Heavy-Duty Gas Turbine Maintenance Practices,” GE Gas Turbine
Reference Library, GER 3412; October 1983; GER 3412A, September 1984; and GER 3412B,
December 1985.
Freeman, Alan, “Gas Turbine Advance Maintenance Planning,” paper presented at Frontiers of
Power, conference, Oklahoma State University, October 1987.
Hopkins, J. P, and Osswald, R. F., “Evolution of the Design, Maintenance and Availability of a Large
Heavy-Duty Gas Turbine,” GE Gas Turbine Reference Library, GER 3544, February 1988 (never
printed).
Freeman, M. A., and Walsh, E. J., “Heavy-Duty Gas Turbine Operating and Maintenance
Considerations,” GE Gas Turbine Reference Library, GER 3620A.
GEI-41040E, “Fuel Gases for Combustion in Heavy-Duty Gas Turbines.”
GEK-101944B, “Requirements for Water/Steam Purity in Gas Turbines.”
GER-3569F, “Advanced Gas Turbine Materials and Coatings.”
Acknowledgments
The efforts of Thomas Farrell, Kevin Spengler, Mark Duer, Roointon Pavri, and Keith Belsom to
contribute to the development of this document are very much appreciated.

■ ■ 37
Appendix For this particular unit, the second and third-

stage nozzles are FSX-414 material. The unit
A) Example—Maintenance Interval
operates on “dry control curve.”
Calculation
From Figure 43, at a steam injection rate of
An MS7001EA user has accumulated operating
2.4%, the value of “M” is .18, and “K” is .6.
data since the last hot gas path inspection and
would like to estimate when the next one From the hours-based criteria, the mainte-
should be scheduled. The user is aware from nance factor is determined from Figure 43.
GE publications that the normal HGP interval is [.6 + .18(2.4)] x [3200 + 1.5(350) +6(120)]
MF =
24,000 hours if operating on natural gas, no (3200 + 350 + 120)
water or steam injection, base load. Also, there MF = 1.25
is a 1200 start interval, based on normal start-
The hours-based adjusted inspection interval is
ups, no trips, no emergency starts. The actual
therefore,
operation of the unit since the last hot gas path
inspection is much different from the GE “base- H = 24,000/1.25
line case.” H = 19,200 hours [Note, since total annual
Annual hours on natural gas, base load operating hours is 3670,
= G = 3200 hr/yr the estimated time to
Annual hours on light distillate reach 19,200 hours is 5.24
= D = 350 hr/yr years (19,200/3670).]
Annual hours on peak load From the starts-based criteria, the maintenance
= P = 120 hr/yr factor is determined from Figure 43.
Steam injection rate [100 + .5(40) + 20(2) + 2(5) + 8(20)]
= I = 2.4% MF =
(100 + 40 + 2 + 5 + 20)
Also, since the last hot gas path inspection, MF = 2.0
The annual number of normal starts is The adjusted inspection interval based on
= NB = 100/yr starts is,
The annual number of peak load starts S = 1200/2.0
= NP = 0/yr
S = 600 starts [Note, since the total annual
The annual number of part load starts number of starts is 167, the
= NA = 40/yr estimated time to reach 600
The annual number of emergency starts starts is 600/167 = 3.6 years.]
= E = 2/yr In this case, the starts-based maintenance fac-
The annual number of fast load starts tor is greater than the hours maintenance fac-
= F = 5/yr tor and therefore the inspection interval is set
The annual number of trips from load (aT = 8) by starts. The hot gas path inspection interval
= T = 20/yr is 600 starts (or 3.6 years).

■ ■ 38
B) Combustion Maintenance Interval Calculations
7EA DLN-1 Peaking Duty with Power Augmentation 7EA Standard Combustor Baseload on Crude Oil
+50F Tfire Increase Gas Fuel No Tfire Increase Crude Oil Fuel
3.5% Steam Augmentation 6 Hours/Start 1.0 Water/Fuel Ratio 220 Hours/Start
Start with Fast Load Wet Control Curve Normal Start and Load Dry Control Curve
Normal Shut Down (No Trip) Normal Shut Down (No Trip)
Factored Hours = Ki * Afi * Api * ti = 34.5 Hours Factored Hours = Ki * Afi * Api * ti = 788.3 Hours
Hours Maintenance Factor = (34.5/6) 5.8 Hours Maintenance Factor = (788.3/220) 3.6
Where Ki = 2.34 Max(1.0, exp(0.34(3.50-1.00))) Wet Where Ki = 1.43 Max(1.0, exp(1.80(1.00-0.80))) Dry
Afi = 1.00 Gas Fuel Afi = 2.50 Crude Oil, Std (Non-DLN)
Api = 2.46 exp(0.018(50)) Peaking Api = 1.00 Baseload
ti = 6.0 Hours/Start ti = 220.0 Hours/Start
Factored Starts = Ki * Afi * Ati * Api * Asi * Ni = 5.2 Starts Factored Starts = Ki * Afi * Ati * Api * Asi * Ni = 5.9 Starts
Starts Maintenance Factor = (5.2/1) 5.2 Starts Maintenance Factor = (5.9/1) 5.9
Where Ki = 2.77 Max(1.0, exp(0.34(3.50-0.50))) Wet Where Ki = 2.94 Max(1.0, exp(1.80(1.00-0.40))) Dry
Afi = 1.00 Gas Fuel Afi = 2.00 Crude Oil, Std (Non-DLN)
Ati = 1.00 No Trip at Load Ati = 1.00 No Trip at Load
Api = 1.57 exp(0.009(50)) Peaking Api = 1.00 Baseload
Asi = 1.20 Start with Fast Load Asi = 1.00 Normal Start
Ni 1.0 Considering Each Start Ni 1.0 Considering Each Start
7FA+e DLN 2.6 Baseload on Distillate 7FA+e DLN 2.6 Baseload on Gas with Trip @ Load
No Tfire Increase Distillate Fuel No Tfire Increase Gas Fuel
1.1 Water/Fuel Ratio 220 Hours/Start No Steam/Water Injection 168 Hours/Start
Normal Start Dry Control Curve Normal Start and Load Dry Control Curve
Normal Shut Down (No Trip) Trip @ 60% Load
Where Ki = 1.72 Max(1.0, exp(1.80(1.10-0.80))) Dry Where Ki = 1.00 No Injection
Afi = 2.50 Distillate Fuel, DLN Afi = 1.00 Gas Fuel
Api = 1.00 Baseload Api = 1.00 Baseload
Where Ki = 3.53 Max(1.0, exp(1.80(1.10-0.40))) Dry Where Ki = 1.00 No Injection
Ati = 1.00 No Trip at Load Ati = 2.62 0.5+exp(0.0125*60) for Trip
Api = 1.00 Baseload Api = 1.00 Baseload
Asi = 1.00 Normal Start Asi = 1.00 Normal Start
7EA DLN 1 Combustor Baseload on Distillate 7FA+e DLN 2.6 Peak Load on Gas with Emergency Starts
No Tfire Increase Distillate Fuel +35F Tfire Increase Gas Fuel
0.9 Water/Fuel Ratio 500 Hours/Start 3.5% Steam Augmentation 4 Hours/Start
Normal Start Dry Control Curve Emergency Starts Dry Control Curve
Normal Shut Down (No Trip) Normal Shut Down (No Trip)
Where Ki = 1.20 Max(1.0, exp(1.80(0.90-0.80))) Dry Where Ki = 1.67 Max(1.0, exp(0.34(3.50-2.00))) Dry
Api = 1.00 Part Load Api = 1.88 exp(0.018(35)) Peaking
Where Ki = 2.46 Max(1.0, exp(1.80(0.90-0.40))) Dry Where Ki = 2.34 Max(1.0, exp(0.34(3.50-1.00))) Dry
Ati = 1.00 No Trip at Load Ati = 1.00 No Trip at Load
Api = 1.00 Part Load Api = 1.37 exp(0.009(35)) Peaking
Asi = 1.00 Normal Start Asi = 3.00 Emergency Start
Figure B-1. Combustion maintenance interval calculations
C) Definitions ing to start normalized by period hours

Reliability: Probability of not being forced out (PH)—units are %.
of service when the unit is needed—includes Reliability = (1-FOH/PH) (100)
forced outage hours (FOH) while in service, FOH = total forced outage hours
while on reserve shutdown and while attempt- PH = period hours

■ ■ 39
Availability: Probability of being available, Equivalent Availability =

independent of whether the unit is needed—
[1 –[GT PH ( )]
GT UH HRSG UH ST UH
includes all unavailable hours (UH) – normal-
+B
GT PH
+
ST PH
x 100 ]
ized by period hours (PH) – units are %: GT UH = Gas Turbine Unavailable
Availability = (1-UH/PH) (100) Hours
UH = total unavailable hours (forced out- GT PH = Gas Turbine Period Hours
age, failure to start, scheduled main- HRSG UH = HRSG Total Unavailable
tenance hours, unscheduled mainte- Hours
nance hours) ST UH = Steam Turbine Unavailable
PH = period hours Hours
ST PH = Steam Turbine Forced Outage
Equivalent Reliability: Probability of a multi-
Hours
shaft combined-cycle power plant not being
B = Steam Cycle MW Output
totally forced out of service when the unit is
Contribution (normally 0.30)
required includes the effect of the gas and
steam cycle MW output contribution to plant MTBF–Mean Time Between Failure: Measure of
output — units are %. probability of completing the current run.
Equivalent Reliability = Failure events are restricted to forced outages
(FO) while in service — units are service hours.
[1 –[ GT PH ( )]
GT FOH HRSG FOH ST FOH
+B
B PH
+
ST PH
x 100]
MTBF = SH/FO
GT FOH = Gas Turbine Forced Outage SH = Service Hours
Hours
FO = Forced Outage Events from a
GT PH = Gas Turbine Period Hours Running (On-line) Condition
HRSG FOH = HRSG Forced Outage Hours
B PH = HRSG Period Hours Service Factor: Measure of operational use, usu-
ST FOH = Steam Turbine Forced Outage ally expressed on an annual basis — units are %.
Hours SF = SH/PH x 100
ST PH = Steam Turbine Period Hours SH = Service Hours on an annual basis
B = Steam Cycle MW Output PH = Period Hours (8760 hours per year)
Contribution (normally 0.30)
Equivalent Availability: Probability of a multi- Operating Duty Definition:
shaft combined-cycle power plant being avail- Fired
able for power generation—independent of Duty Service Factor Hours/Start
whether the unit is needed—includes all Stand-by < 1% 1 to 4
unavailable hours—includes the effect of the Peaking 1% - 17% 3 to 10
gas and steam cycle MW output contribution Cycling 17% - 50% 10 to 50
to plant output; units are %. Continuous > 90% >> 50

■ ■ 40
D) Repair and Replacement Cycles

MS3002K Parts
Repair Interval Replace Interval (Hours) Replace Interval (Starts)
Combustion Liners CI 2 (CI) 4 (CI)
Transition Pieces CI / HGPI 2 (CI) 2 (HGPI)
Stage 1 Nozzles HGPI 2 (HGPI) 2 (HGPI)
Stage 2 Nozzles MI 2 (MI) 2 (MI)
Stage 1 Shrouds MI 2 (MI) 2 (MI)
(1)
Stage 1 Bucket - 1 (MI) 3 (HGPI)
CI = Combustion Inspection Interval

HGPI = Hot Gas Path Inspection Interval
MI = Major Inspection Interval
(1) GE approved repair at 24,000 hours will extend life to 72,000 hours.
Figure D-1. Estimated repair and replacement cycles
MS5001PA / MS5002C,D Parts

(1)
Combustion Liners CI 4 (CI) 3 (CI) / 4 (CI)
(2)
Transition Pieces CI / HGPI 4 (CI) 2 (HGPI)
Stage 1 Nozzles HGPI / MI 2 (MI) 2 (HGPI)
(3)
Stage 2 Nozzles HGPI / MI 2 (MI) 2 (HGPI) / 2 (MI)
Stage 2 Shrouds - 2 (MI) 2 (MI)
(4)

MI = Major Inspection Interval
(1) 3 (CI) for non-DLN units / (4) CI for DLN units
(2) Repair interval is every 2 (CI).
(3) 2 (HGPI) for MS5001PA / 2 (MI) for MS5002C,D
(4) GE approved repair at 24,000 hours will extend life to 72,000 hours.

PG6581B / 6BeV Parts
(1)
Combustion Liners CI 4 (CI) 4 (CI) / 5 (CI)
Caps CI 4 (CI) 5 (CI)
(1)
Transition Pieces CI 4 (CI) 4 (CI) / 5 (CI)
(2)
Fuel Nozzles CI 2 (CI) 2 (CI) / 3 (CI)
(2)
Crossfire Tubes CI 2 (CI) 2 (CI) / 3 (CI)
Flow Divider (Distillate) CI 3 (CI) 3 (CI)
Fuel Pump (Distillate) CI 3 (CI) 3 (CI)
Stage 1 Shrouds HGPI 2 (HGPI) 2 (HGPI)
(3) (4)
Stage 1 Bucket HGPI 2 (HGPI) / 3 (HGPI) 3 (HGPI)
(5)
Stage 3 Bucket HGPI 3 (HGPI) 4 (HGPI)

(1) 4 (CI) for non-DLN / 5 (CI) for DLN
(2) 2 (CI) for non-DLN / 3 (CI) for DLN
(3) When recoating, perform after one hours-based Hot Gas Path Interval
(4) 3 HGPI for 6581 / 2 HGPI for 6BeV; Assumes strip, HIP, heat treat and recoat at HGPI
(5) 1 HGPI for 6581 / 2 HGPI for 6BeV

■ ■ 41
PG7001(EA) / PG9001(E) Parts

(1)
Combustion Liners CI 3 (CI) / 5 (CI) 5 (CI)
(2)
Transition Pieces CI 4 (CI) / 6 (CI) 6 (CI)
(3)
Fuel Nozzles CI 2 (CI) / 3 (CI) 3 (CI)
(3)
Crossfire Tubes CI 2 (CI) / 3 (CI) 3 (CI)
Flow Divider (Distillate) CI 3 (CI) 3 (CI)
Fuel Pump (Distillate) CI 3 (CI) 3 (CI)
(4) (5)

(1) 3 (CI) for DLN / 5 (CI) for non-DLN
(4) When recoating, perform after one hours-based Hot Gas Path Interval
(5) 2 Hot Gas Path Intervals without strip, HIP, heat treat and recoat;
3 Hot Gas Path Intervals with strip, HIP, heat treat and recoat
PG6101(FA) Parts
(1)
(1)
(1)
Transition Pieces CI 5 (CI) 5 (CI)
Fuel Nozzles CI 3 (CI) 3 (CI)
(2) (2)
Crossfire Tubes CI 2 (CI) 2 (CI)
(1)
End Covers 6 (CI) 3 (CI)
Exhaust Diffuser HGPI
(3)
Stage 2 Bucket HGPI 1 (HGPI) 3 (HGPI) (4)
Stage 3 Bucket HGPI 3 (HGPI) (4) 3 (HGPI) (4)

(1) Decision will be made based on fleet leader experience.
(2) The goal is to increase this interval.
(3) GE approved repair operations may be needed to meet expected life. Consult your Energy
Services representative for details.
(4) With welded hardface on shroud, recoating at 1st HGPI is required to achieve
replacement life.

■ ■ 42
PG7191(F) / PG9301(F) Parts

(1)
(1)
(1)
(2) (2)
Crossfire Tubes CI 1 (CI) / 2 (CI) 1 (CI) / 2 (CI)
(1)
(3) (3)
(3) (3)

(2) 2 (CI) for 7191 / 1 (CI) for 9301. The goal is to increase this interval.
(3) With welded hardface on shroud, recoating at 1st HGPI may be required to achieve
replacement life.
PG7221(FA) / PG9311(FA) Parts

Combustion Liners CI 5 (CI) (1) 5 (CI)
Caps CI 5 (CI) (1) 5 (CI)
Transition Pieces CI 5 (CI) (1) 5 (CI)
(2) (2)
Crossfire Tubes CI 1 (CI) / 2 (CI) 1 (CI) / 2 (CI)
(1)
(3)
(4)
(5) (5)
Cl = Combustion Inspection Interval

(2) 2 (Cl) for 7211 / 1 (Cl) for 9311. The goal is to increase this interval.
(4) 2 (HGPI) for 7211 / 3 (HGPI) for 9311
(5) With welded hardface on shroud, recoating at 1st HGPI may be required to achieve
replacement life.

■ ■ 43
PG7231FA Parts
(1)
(1)
(1)
(2) (2)
(1)
(3)
(4) (5)

(4) Interval can be increased to 2 (HGPI) by performing a repair operation. Consult your
Energy Services representative for details.
(5) Recoating at 1st HGPI may be required to achieve 3 HGPI replacement life.

PG7241FA Parts
Combustion Liners Cl 2 (Cl)(1)(2) 5 (Cl)(2)
Caps Cl 3 (Cl)(2) 5 (Cl)(2)
Transition Pieces Cl 3 (Cl)(2) 5 (Cl)(2)
Fuel Nozzles Cl 3 (Cl)(2) 3 (Cl)(2)
Crossfire Tubes Cl 2 (Cl)(1)(2) 2 (Cl)(1)(2)
End Covers 4 (Cl)(2) 3 (Cl)(2)
Stage 1 Nozzles HGPI 2 (HGPI)(3) 2 (HGPI)(3)
Stage 1 Shrouds HGPI 2 (HGPI)(3) 2 (HGPI)(3)
Stage 2 Bucket HGPI 1 (HGPI)(4) 2 (HGPI)(5)
Stage 3 Bucket HGPI 3 (HGPI)(6) 3 (HGPI)
(3) The goal is to increase to 3 (HGPI). Decision will be made based on fleet leader
experience.
(4) Interval can be increased to 2 (HGPI) by performing a repair operation. Consult
your Energy Services representative for details.
(5) Interval can be increased to 3 (HGPI) by performing a repair operation.
Recoating at 1st HGPI may be required to achieve 3 (HGPI) replacement life.
Consult your Energy Services representative for details.
(6) GE approved repair procedure at 2nd HGPI is required to meet 3 (HGPI)
replacement life.

■ ■ 44
PG9351FA Parts
Combustion Liners Cl 5 (Cl)(1) 5 (Cl)
Caps Cl 5 (Cl)(1) 5 (Cl)
Transition Pieces Cl 5 (Cl)(1) 5 (Cl)
Fuel Nozzles Cl 3 (Cl) 3 (Cl)
Crossfire Tubes Cl 1 (Cl)(2) 1 (Cl)(2)
End Covers 6 (Cl)(1) 3 (Cl)
Stage 2 Bucket HGPI 1 (HGPI) 2 (HGPI)(4)
(2) The goal is to increase this interval to 2 (Cl).
(3) The goal is to increase to 3 (HGPI). Decision will be made based on fleet leader experi-
ence.
(4) Recoating at 1st HGPI may be required to achieve 3 HGPI replacement life.
(5) GE approved repair procedure at 1 (HGPI) is required to meet 2 (HGPI) replacement
life.
PG7251FB Parts
(1) (1)
(1) (1)
(1) (1)
(1) (1)
(1) (1)
(1) (1)
(2) (2)
(2) (2)
(2) (2)

(1) The goal is to increase to 4 (CI).

■ ■ 45
List of Figures
Figure 1. Key factors affecting maintenance planning
Figure 2. Plant level – top five systems contribution to downtime
Figure 3. MS7001E gas turbine borescope inspection access locations
Figure 4. Borescope inspection programming
Figure 5. Maintenance cost and equipment life are influenced by key service factors
Figure 6. Causes of wear – hot-gas-path components
Figure 7. GE bases gas turbine maintenance requirements on independent counts
of starts and hours
Figure 8. Hot-gas-path maintenance interval comparisons. GE method vs. EOH method
Figure 9. Maintenance factors – hot gas path (buckets and nozzles)
Figure 10. GE maintenance interval for hot-gas inspections
Figure 11. Estimated effect of fuel type on maintenance
Figure 12. Bucket life firing temperature effect
Figure 13. Firing temperature and load relationship – heat recovery vs. simple cycle operation
Figure 14. Heavy fuel maintenance factors
Figure 15. Steam/water injection and bucket/nozzle life
Figure 16. Exhaust temperature control curve – dry vs. wet control MS7001EA
Figure 17. Turbine start/stop cycle – firing temperature changes
Figure 18. First stage bucket transient temperature distribution
Figure 19. Bucket low cycle fatigue (LCF)
Figure 20. Low cycle fatigue life sensitivities – first stage bucket
Figure 21. Maintenance factor – trips from load
Figure 22. Maintenance factor – effect of start cycle maximum load level
Figure 23. Operation-related maintenance factors
Figure 24. FA gas turbine typical operational profile
Figure 25. Baseline for starts-based maintenance factor definition
Figure 26. The NGC requirement for output versus frequency capability over all ambients less
than 25°C (77°F)
Figure 27. Turbine output at under-frequency conditions
Figure 28. NGC code compliance TF required – FA class
Figure 29. Maintenance factor for overspeed operation ~constant TF

■ ■ 46
Figure 30. Deterioration of gas turbine performance due to compressor blade fouling
Figure 31. Long term material property degradation in a wet environment
Figure 32. Susceptibility of compressor blade materials and coatings
Figure 33. MS7001EA heavy-duty gas turbine – shutdown inspections
Figure 34. Operating inspection data parameters
Figure 35. Combustion inspection – key elements
Figure 36. Hot-gas-path inspection – key elements
Figure 37. Stator tube jacking procedure – MS7001EA
Figure 38. Stage 1 bucket oxidation and bucket life
Figure 39. Gas turbine major inspection – key elements
Figure 40. Major inspection work scope
Figure 41. First-stage nozzle wear-preventive maintenance gas fired – continuous dry – base load
Figure 42. Base line recommended inspection intervals: base load—gas fuel—dry
Figure 43. Hot gas path inspection: hours-based criterion,
Figure 44. Hot gas path inspection starts-based condition
Figure 45. Rotor maintenance factor for starts-based criterion
Figure 46. Rotor maintenance factor for hours-based criterion
Figure 47. Combustion inspection hours-based maintenance factors
Figure 48. Combustion inspection starts-based maintenance factors
Figure B-1. Combustion maintenance interval calculations

■ ■ 47

■ ■ 48

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GER-3620J

Robert Hoeft, Jamison Janawitz, and Richard Keck

GE Power Systems GER-3620J (01/03)

Introduction Note: The operating and maintenance discus-

Manufacturer’s Design Duty Cost of

Figure 1. Key factors affecting maintenance planning

GE Power Systems GER-3620J (01/03)

Total S.C. Plant

FOF = Forced Outage

Figure 2. Plant level - top five systems contributions to downtime

GE Power Systems GER-3620J (01/03)

GE Power Systems GER-3620J (01/03)

of the critical internal turbine gas-path compo-

GE Power Systems GER-3620J (01/03)

approach is shown in Figure 7. In this figure, the

GE Power Systems GER-3620J (01/03)

path inspection after three years of operation Service Factors

Figure 8. Hot-gas-path maintenance interval comparisons. GE method vs. EOH method

GE Power Systems GER-3620J (01/03)

and quality, firing temperature setting, and the

Crude 2 to 3 Thousands of Fired Hours

GE Power Systems GER-3620J (01/03)

Figure 11. Estimated effect of fuel type on maintenance

GE Power Systems GER-3620J (01/03)

minimum, reads vanadium, lead,

GE Power Systems GER-3620J (01/03)

modes of operation are obviously quite differ-

Figure 14. Heavy fuel maintenance factors

relates to the effect of the added water on the

GE Power Systems GER-3620J (01/03)

Hot Gas Path Parts

GE Power Systems GER-3620J (01/03)

Figure 19. Bucket low cycle fatigue (LCF)

GE Power Systems GER-3620J (01/03)

F Class and E Class

GE Power Systems GER-3620J (01/03) ■ ■ 13

Rotor Parts determined for an application's duty cycle to

GE Power Systems GER-3620J (01/03)

7241/9351* Design continuous duty units will be

GE Power Systems GER-3620J (01/03)

factors is operating mode, which describes the

GE Power Systems GER-3620J (01/03)

distillate or heavy fuels, steam or water injection

Off Frequency Operation

GE Power Systems GER-3620J (01/03)

(32°F) would require no power augmentation to

25°C (77°F) would fall below NGC requirements 300

without a substantial amount of power augmen- 250

Delta Firing Temperature ~ F

Figure 28. NGC code compliance TF required —

GE Power Systems GER-3620J (01/03) ■ ■ 18

lation where the gas turbine alone must pick up

MF = 2 10 seconds would be required to meet that

GE Power Systems GER-3620J (01/03) ■ ■ 19

requirement for the rotor is that it must be in

GE Power Systems GER-3620J (01/03)

CORROSION DUE TO ENVIRONMENT AGGRAVATES PROBLEM

FATIGUE SENSITIVITY TO ENVIRONMENT Al Slurry Coatings

0.8 WET STEAM RT

0.5 PITTED IN AIR NiCd

GE Power Systems GER-3620J (01/03) ■ ■ 21

Maintenance Inspections essential part of the standby inspection.

Figure 33. MS7001EA heavy-duty gas turbine - shutdown inspection