Identification of new sensors for turbine valves that may provide additional benefit to condition monitoring methods

Abstract

Turbine valve condition checking systems have serious issues, such as poor fault detection, high costs to maintain, and a lack of real-time monitoring. This article provides an in-depth review of emerging sensors and measurement technologies capable of improving turbine valve condition monitoring systems in power plants. The research examines wireless sensor networks, strain-based measurement systems, mixed measurement approaches and acoustic leak detection. The primary findings shows that the application of permanently mounted wireless sensors can reduce installation costs by 60% while improving fault detection accuracy through real-time data acquisition. The review further establishes the application of mixed measurement approaches using heterogeneous sensor types can improve detection of issues by 40–50% over single-parameter monitoring, which typically detects only 25–35%. Advanced signal processing techniques and 16-bit analog-to-digital conversion systems provide sufficient detail to identify subtle changes in valve performance. The application of these advanced monitoring techniques has the potential to significantly improve turbine valve reliability, improve overall power plant efficiency and reduce unplanned maintenance. This technology can be used to facilitate more cost-effective implementation of existing diagnostic test system technology through permanently installed sensors, the ability to acquire data remotely and physically and electrically separate sensor data to parallel existing online data.