Proposals for the classification of damage to structural elements of steam turbines

An analysis of regulatory and technical documentation reveals that a unified industry classifier of structural element damage that could be used in the development of steam turbine diagnostic systems is currently lacking. This, in turn, may lead to a situation where diagnostic systems being developed and implemented at power plants lack uniform approaches to describing damage manifestations. The scope and methods of equipment diagnostics may also vary significantly. Therefore, the authors believe it is advisable to develop a classifier of damage to structural elements of steam turbines. An important task in creating the classifier is the selection of classification subsets that should contain information on damage, its manifestations during equipment operation, manifestations detected during equipment repair, detection (inspection) methods, causes of damage, the rate of damage development (sudden or gradual failure), the influence on the occurrence and development of other damage, and an assessment of the hazard (criticality) of the damage. Classification of damage by the types of causative impacts should cover possible types of impacts on turbine elements during operation (centrifugal forces, friction forces, vibratory impact, thermal impact, erosive impact, corrosive impact, impact loads, etc.). Classification of damage by diagnostic capabilities and methods should allow for the detection of defects during operation on running equipment (based on monitored parameters), on stopped equipment (e.g., using endoscopy methods), or during repair disassembly. Classification of damage by degree of danger should include an assessment of the damage's effect on the possibility of reliable operation of the equipment and serve as the basis for recommendations to operating personnel. The fundamental classification subset should be the classification by object, i.e., a list of damages correlated with the structural elements of the equipment.

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