Patent ID: 8344676
Filing Date: 2013-01-01
Classification: G01M,H02K

Abstract:
1. A system comprising: a casing for surrounding at least a portion of a rotor, and enclosing a volume of a cooling gas thereabout, the casing including a plurality of static seals; an end housing at each end of the casing, each end housing including a seal system through which the rotor extends, wherein a portion of the cooling gas escapes from the casing to at least one seal area within the end housing; a source of cooling gas fluidly coupled to the casing by a cooling gas regulator for delivering a flow of cooling gas to the casing to maintain a substantially constant pressure in the casing; a scavenging system coupled to each end housing for removing a gas mixture including a portion of escaping cooling gas; a purity sensor for determining a purity of the cooling gas in the casing; and a static seal leak detector that generates an alarm indicative of a leak in at least one of the plurality of static seals in response to at least one of: an increase in a cooling gas flow rate in the cooling gas regulator compared to a cooling gas flow rate threshold, an increase in a purity of the cooling gas in the casing compared to a respective purity threshold, and an increase in a gas mixture flow rate in the scavenging system compared to a gas mixture flow rate threshold.