Foreign material exclusion (FME) failures of large turbo alternators.
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Date
2009
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Abstract
Synchronous turbo alternators form the basic building block of a generation scheme. Turbo
alternators are highly susceptible to foreign material ingress. In industry this phenomenon is
on the rise. We evaluated the effects of foreign materials on the generator and condition
monitoring equipment. The sources of foreign materials and methods to reduce ingress were
investigated. We further evaluated industry best-practices on foreign material exclusion.
Information is scarce, as no classic research material is available on foreign material
exclusion. We therefore used industry foreign material exclusion best-practices and expert
opinions were gathered. Eleven global incidents of foreign material exclusion failure were
investigated. The areas of interest were: types of foreign material, area of ingress, condition
monitoring response, component damage, root cause and prevention.
We point out that turbo alternators are vulnerable to foreign material ingress mainly due to
weak foreign material exclusion practices. We categorised the foreign materials and their
effects on the operational parts of the turbo generator. We found that the air gap was the
most susceptible to ingress. We identified the Generator Core Monitor as a possible solution
to minimising foreign material damage.
Description
Thesis (M.Sc.Eng.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.
Keywords
Turbogenerators., Theses--Electrical engineering.