Rotating blades monitoring using standard turbine instrumentation

Ensuring the reliability of the steam turbine is fundamental task for its proper operation. Early detection of any failure avoids material and financial losses. A very important task in turbomachinery diagnostics is monitoring of rotating blades vibration, especially in terms of the last stages of low-pressure turbine parts, where, in general, the vibration can reach the important level due the blades length. The commonly used methods are based on stress evaluation using strain gauges or on the non-contact measurement of blade tips – blade tip-timing (BTT) method. Rising demand for low-cost monitoring systems suitable for blade monitoring has led to development of a new approach based on signal processing of standard turbine instrumentation. The symptoms of blade vibration could be also visible in signals from relative shaft vibration (SV) sensors, which are standardly installed in turbine journal bearings. This paper illustrates the principles and possibilities of the approach based on processing of SV signals for monitoring of actual state of rotating blades. Finally, the comparison of parallel measurements using SV and BTT in operation of steam turbine reveals the properties and advantages of both methods.