Assessing Useful Life Of Turbomachinery Components.

Abstract

The last four of five decades have seen considerable advancements in the life assessment methods of mechanical components. These methods have been shown to be equally suitable for new as well as used components and even with components with discontinuities. Assessment of life of turbomachinery components has been done with the help of these methods. It will be demonstrated how one can use these methods to determine maintenance schedules. The same concepts also help to facilitate in repair or retire decisions of used components. This tutorial discusses the utility of available and established techniques to perform life assessment of mechanical components. This will include the life assessment on the following basis: Deterministic type of assessment and probabilistic type of estimation. Presentation is arranged on the following topics: Discussion of common damage mechanisms; An overview of the concepts and the methods of life estimation, and; Discussion of case histories extended to include the probabilistic aspect. Examples include components from steam turbines, gas turbines, fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) expanders, and centrifugal compressors mostly taken from the literature where available.