Esprit and IA Ltd - gas turbine monitoring In Peak Condition Given the critical nature of gas turbines in most industrial plants, their availability is of prime importance. This general exposure to the needs and requirements of the manufacturing and process industries alerted the company to the opportunities for applying knowledge-based techniques to gas turbine condition monitoring.
Gas turbines are delicate and expensive machines.
IA realised that users' requirements to maintain optimum efficiency and reduce downtime could only be achieved by constant monitoring. It needed to interpret the available data as well as the best expert would, and provide a concise, simple to understand assessment of the situation and a diagnosis. Although convinced of the market potential for a dynamic condition monitoring system, IA recognised that the technical requirements were beyond the company's capabilities on its own. During the project a demonstration system was installed at Exxon's ethylene production plant in Fife, Scotland, where it is still used to monitor gas turbine performance. This makes it possible to identify faults at a very early stage of development, and also to capture short-term or transient problems so that their cause and implications can be further analysed.