| dc.description.abstract | Operating and maintaining key rotating equipment in a petrochemical service and tight economic constraints requires an indepth evaluation in performance deterioration of key gas turbines and axial flow compressor parameters. By upgrading the required instrumentation on a gas turbine and an axial flow compressor, and indepth performance simulation and evaluation can be made in order to determine the overall thermodynamic performance and mechanical deterioration of the train. With the proper instrumentation, critical parameters in the gas turbine such as component efficiencies, power, head, turbine firing temperature, heat rate, and heat balance can be computed. On the axial flow compressor, section efficiencies, head, power, flow, and head coefficients can be computed. By understanding all the performance parameters and obtaining a good running history on these parameters, one can easily determine the condition of the rotating equipment at any given time. Based on these results, operation and maintenance techniques can be instituted. Major rotating equipment overhaul intervals can be identified by closely monitoring the performed deterioration parameters of any gas turbine or axial flow compressor. This enables the unit to be operated with confidence through a planned major overhaul. On a separate occasion, a costly emergency shutdown was avoided by constantly monitoring the mechanical and thermodynamic performance of the compressor train until operations created an outage time. The outage time was based on preparation to minimize the downtime, as well as take into consideration product delivery schedules. Detail analysis of the gas turbine and axial flow compressor train computer simulation is presented to enable the reader to fully evaluate their own compressor train under various operating parameters such as molecular weight, speed, and varying inlet conditions, both process as well as ambient. | en |
