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FLIR APPLICATION
STORY
RWE Power International is a collabora-tion between "RWE
npower", which sup-plies gas and electricity to 6.2 million
cus-tomers in Britain, and RWE Powers con-sulting subsidiary RE
GmbH (the formerRheinraun Engineering). As an in-houseconsultancy,
RWE Power Internationalsupports npowers portfolio of low-costcoal,
oil and gas-fired power stations andrenewable energy production
with opera-tion and maintenance support. In addition,RWE Power
International offers its exten-sive support and consultancy
servicesto external customers operating power
plants across the world. With a 100,000
man-years project experience for over200 customers, the
organizations know-ledge spans every aspect of owning andoperating
fossil fuel, gas and renewableenergy power plants.
Inspection Management, Plant Life &IntegrityRWE Power
Internationals InspectionManagement group (IM), offers
NonDestructive Testing, Evaluation andExamination (NDE) services.
Its expertsnot only choose and determine the vali-dation
technologies needed to inspect
or assess plant condition but also advise
Predictive, Preventive, Reactive: RWE PowerInternational Applies
Thermal Imaging for Inspection
Solutions of its UK Power StationsRWE Power International is one
of the largest European power producers and
part of RWE, a leading European utility group providing services
in electricity,
gas and water. RWE Power International provides engineering
support to
power plant operators, extensively and creatively applying
infrared techno-
logy and utilizing FLIR Systems ThermaCAM S-series infrared
cameras for
non-destructive evaluation and examination (NDE)
applications.
Heating, self-combustion monitoring in power
station coal stock
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engineers on the application and capabi-lities of NDE methods
and techniques.
Infrared thermography is a key tool to
inspect and assess power plant conditi-on. Thermography
inspections are con-ducted to safeguard thermal efficiency ofvital
plant areas; from monitoring the coalstock on self-combustion to
complex appli-cations such as turbine assessment. Givenits
experience with plant and operationalregimes, IM consistently
develops andfine-tunes its thermography techniquesand applications.
Our approach is thatof an end user, not a manufacturer andthis
difference influences everything thatwe do for clients, says
Richard Day,
NDT Engineer with responsibility for ther-mographic applications
at the IM group.
Assessing Pipework SystemsA typical application would be the
moni-toring of a plants elaborate piping systemin general and the
high-energy pipeworksystems in particular. These pipes carrythe
superheated steam to the turbine. Ata typical wall thickness of 6
to 9 cm,they have to be able to withstand steamheated over 500 C at
a pressure of 158
bar. Regular thermography inspectionsare carried out to check
the insulation andidentify excessive temperature gradients.
Good pipework insulation not onlyimproves thermal insulation but
also sub-stantially reduces risks of thermal fatiguewhich can cause
cracks in the pipessays Richard Day.
Improving Turbine EfficiencyThe steam turbine/generator is at
theheart of electricity generation. It consistsof a combination of
high pressure, inter-mediate pressure and low pressure
rotorsdirectly coupled to a generator rotor. Therotating mass of
this arrangement canexceed 200 tonnes on large units whichrotate at
3000rpm. The generator rotorrotates within a fixed stator. The
statorcore is constructed of insulated thin steelplates to prevent
large circulating cur-rents/ core losses. If sufficient
accidentalcontacts between adjacent plates occurin service,
currents can start to flow,
which can cause potentially dangerouslocal hot spots within the
core.Coupling infrared technology with aninnovative and a sound
approach, RWEInternational has set up an efficient techni-que to
detect the integrity of the stator core
For further information please contact:
FLIR SYSTEMSAB
Uitbreidingsstraat 60 - 62B-2600 BerchemBelgiTel.: +32 (0)3 287
87 10Fax: +32 (0)3 287 87 29e-mail: [email protected]
plates. IM specialists constructeda 90 conical infrared
reflectorfrom polished stainless steel, ahighly infrared reflective
mate-rial, and placed it on a plasticguide tube positioned
centrallywithin the stator core to allow aperpendicular view of the
statorcore surfaces. The guide tubeis hollow to allow
energizingcables to pass through its core.
An insulated 16mm single corecable is then threaded throughthe
guide tube to achieve 12turns and the core energized upto 3.3 kV to
produce the rated
flux levels within the stator core.After a period of time, (to
allowany induced heating within thestator core to manifest itself
at thecore surface through conduction), the IRreflector is drawn
through the core. TheIR camera, a FLIR Systems ThermaCAMS60
infrared camera with an optical12 zoom lens, positioned on a
tripodapproximately 2.5m from the stator core,monitors the image of
the core diameterreflected onto the conical reflector. The
captured images are passed throughthe FLIR System ThermaCAM
ResearcherProcessing software and then submittedfor analysis to the
electrical engineeringstaff. This original stator core flux test
tech-nique can prove the integrity of the statorcore plates both at
the manufacturingstage and during its service life.
While pointing to the importance ofreporting in a professional
and respon-sible manner and conducting trial andvalidation tests,
Richard Day stresses the
need to engage in dialogue with custo-mers, explaining that they
can assist inthe right interpretation of the images dueto specific
knowledge of their plant andoperational processes. Its important
tolisten and recognize what the customerneeds, not what you think
he wants, hesays.
Only then infrared thermography canbecome a powerful and
efficient non-contact and non destructive inspection
tool able to provide a clear picture ofwhats happening thermally
to boilers,turbines and feed system componentsand allowing
engineering staff to makejudgments and corrective action
beforeequipment failure.
Generator stator core flux test; ThermaCAM S60 provesintegrity
of stator core plates
Richard Day, NDT Engineer resp. for thermographicapplications at
RWE Power International
