Gas Turbine Thermoelements Availability Analysis

Pollution linked to power generation is strictly connected to gas turbine control algorithms and efficiency performance. Parts life is affected by quality and type of combustion too. The control of the exhaust temperature is therefore a key parameter to indirectly monitor the effectiveness of the combustion in all the combustion chamber of a heavy duty gas turbine. Actually due to the high temperature and dynamics of the combustion chambers the performance measurement of the combustion is achieved through indirect pressure and temperature monitoring. Moreover, exhaust temperature monitoring may allow for the avoidance of dangerous situations connected and not limited to flame loss in combustion chamber and subsequent gas leak towards gas turbine high temperature zones. A reliable readout configuration of such sensors may improve the system overall safety. In this paper the authors discuss about the best thermoelements configurations in order to improve the availability and serviceability performance in gas turbine in order to increase the system efficiency during power generation. In this paper the authors starting from a theoretical approach compare three possible solutions (technical arrangement) for sensors exploitation considering to use the same sensor for all the configuration and therefore the same failure rate. In particular the focus will be on the availability comparison among the 4006, the 2006 + 3 consecutive failures and the 3006 + 2 consecutive failures solutions.