Diagnosis Verein Deutscher Ingenieure of Germany evaluated diagnosis and maintenance support for large steam turbines, one of the main elements in power plants. GmbH in Germany has developed a diagnostic expert system for turbine vibra- tions. When all necessary values such as rotation speed are entered, the system starts inference during plant operation and shows possible steps toward trouble correction. The system, for example, determines whether a turbine blade is missing, or whether a bearing is defective.
Permanent monitoring allows the direct detection of problem sources.
Another advantage of early error identification is the prevention of significant secondary damage. The inference mechanism employs a constraint propagation sytem, which is suitable for diagnosis.