| ABSTRACT: | THE DEVELOPMENT OF CONDITION MONITORING TOOLS FOR THE POWER GENERATION
INDUSTRY
R.F. Lyon
The UK power industry is going through a difficult period, trying to balance the demand for electricity with
conforming to the new environmental regulations. Because of overcapacity, it is no longer an attractive
proposition to build a new power station but instead, it makes economical sense to keep older power stations
running beyond their design life.
The Objective of this work was to ascertain whether we could apply certain condition monitoring techniques, to
complex geometries, novel materials and extreme environments within the power industry; success would
enhance safe working conditions and compliment conventional NDT applications.
A Power Station contains a multiplicity of complex materials and geometries; some plant items are subjected to
extreme environmental conditions, whilst others rotate at high speed. Of the various condition monitoring
methods, Thermography and Acoustic Emission were considered most likely to succeed.
An analysis was conducted on conventional materials, such as ferritic steel and aluminum based claddings,
together with new materials, such as Glass Re-enforced Polymers. Trials were conducted under normal running
conditions; pressure 2000psi; temperature 500°C; structures were acoustically noisy.
The principle findings of this work were that: Thermography was instantly successful, relying on the difference
in temperature between the live steam and the outside surface of the boiler or pipework, whereas Acoustic
Emission struggled with operating conditions and extreme structural noise.
On the basis of these findings we consider that both Thermography and Acoustic Emission are worth further
investment and if successful would provide major advances in Structural Integrity Assessments.
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