Power output and fuel flow based probabilistic control in part load gas turbine tuning, related control systems, computer program products and methods

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9771877-B2
Application number	US-201414546520-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 18, 2014
Priority date	Nov 18, 2014
Publication date	Sep 26, 2017
Grant date	Sep 26, 2017

Abstract

Various embodiments include a system having: at least one computing device configured to tune a set of gas turbines (GTs) by performing actions including: commanding each GT in the set of GTs to a base load level, based upon a measured ambient condition for each GT; commanding each GT in the set of GTs to adjust a respective output to match a nominal mega-watt power output value, and subsequently measuring an actual fuel flow value for each GT; adjusting an operating condition of each GT in the set of GTs based upon a difference between the respective measured actual fuel flow value and a nominal fuel flow value at the ambient condition; commanding each GT in the set of GTs to a part load level, the part load level representing a fraction of the base load level, and subsequently measuring an actual fuel flow value for each GT at the part load level; and calibrating the set of GTs based upon a difference between the measured actual fuel flow value at the part load level and the measured actual fuel flow value after adjusting the output to match the nominal mega-watt power output value.

First claim

We claim:

1. A computing system comprising:
at least one computing device having at least one controller, the at least one computing device configured to tune each gas turbine in a set of a plurality of gas turbines based upon a power output parameter and a fuel flow parameter, wherein the at least one computing device is configured to:
command each gas turbine in the set to a respective base load level based upon a respective measured ambient condition;
command each gas turbine in the set to adjust a respective actual value of the power output parameter of each gas turbine in the set to match a nominal value of the power output parameter of the set, and subsequently measure a respective actual value of the fuel flow parameter for each gas turbine in the set;
perform an adjustment to a respective operating parameter of each gas turbine in the set based upon a difference between the respective actual value of the fuel flow parameter and a nominal value of the fuel flow parameter at the respective measured ambient condition for each gas turbine in the set,
wherein the adjustment to the respective operating parameter of each gas turbine in the set aligns each gas turbine in the set onto a first line in a graphical space plotting the power output parameter versus the fuel flow parameter,
wherein the first line is orthogonal to a characteristic line in the graphical space, wherein the characteristic line is a mean characteristic line of all of the plurality of gas turbines in the set, at the respective base load level of each gas turbine in the set, plotting the power output parameter versus the fuel flow parameter;
command each gas turbine in the set to a respective part load level less than the respective base load level, and subsequently measure an actual respective part load value of the fuel flow parameter for each gas turbine in the set at the respective part load level; and
calibrate at least one respective gas turbine of the set based upon a difference between the measured actual respective part load value of the fuel flow parameter of the respective gas turbine and the respective actual value of the fuel flow parameter of the respective gas turbine measured subsequent to the command to match the nominal value of the power output parameter of the set.

2. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the respective base load level is associated with a base load value of the power output parameter and a base load value of the fuel flow parameter for the respective measured ambient condition.

3. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein in response to the command of each gas turbine in the set to the respective base load level, each gas turbine in the set does not attain at least one of: the nominal value of the power output parameter of the set and the nominal value of the fuel flow parameter at the respective measured ambient condition.

4. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one computing device is further configured to convert the difference between the respective actual value of the fuel flow parameter and the nominal value of the fuel flow parameter at the respective measured ambient condition for each gas turbine in the set into a difference between a respective value of the power output parameter along the first line and the nominal value of the power output parameter of the set for each gas turbine in the set.

5. The computing system of claim 4 , wherein the adjustment to the respective operating parameter of each gas turbine in the set includes adjusting the respective operating parameter of each gas turbine in the set by a fraction of the difference between the respective value of the power output parameter along the first line and the nominal value of the power output parameter of the set, such that the power output parameter of each gas turbine in the set approaches and then reaches a respective nominal value of the power output parameter along the first line.

6. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the commanding of each gas turbine in the set to adjust the respective actual value of the power output parameter of each gas turbine in the set to match the nominal value of the power output parameter of the set moves the fuel flow parameter for each gas turbine in the set closer to the nominal value of the fuel flow parameter at the respective measured ambient condition without matching the nominal value of the fuel flow parameter at the respective measured ambient condition.

7. A computer program product comprising program code embodied in at least one non-transitory computer readable medium, which when executed by at least one computing device having at least one controller, causes the at least one computing device to tune each gas turbine in a set of a plurality of gas turbines based upon a power output parameter and a fuel flow parameter by:
commanding each gas turbine in the set to a respective base load level based upon a respective measured ambient condition;
commanding each gas turbine in the set to adjust a respective actual value of the power output parameter of each gas turbine in the set to match a nominal value of the power output parameter of the set, and subsequently measuring a respective actual value of the fuel flow parameter for each gas turbine in the set; and
adjusting a respective operating parameter of each gas turbine in the set based upon a difference between the respective actual value of the fuel flow parameter and a nominal value of the fuel flow parameter at the respective measured ambient condition for each gas turbine in the set,
wherein the adjusting of the respective operating parameter of each gas turbine in the set aligns each gas turbine in the set onto a first line in a graphical space plotting the power output parameter versus the fuel flow parameter,
wherein the first line is orthogonal to a characteristic line in the graphical space, wherein the characteristic line is a mean characteristic line of all of the plurality of gas turbines in the set, at the respective base load level of each gas turbine in the set, plotting the power output parameter versus the fuel flow parameter;
commanding each gas turbine in the set to a respective part load level less than the respective base load level, and subsequently measuring an actual respective part load value of the fuel flow parameter for each gas turbine in the set at the respective part load level; and
calibrating at least one respective gas turbine of the set based upon a difference between the measured actual respective part load value of the fuel flow parameter of the respective gas turbine and the respective actual value of the fuel flow parameter of the respective gas turbine measured subsequent to the commanding of each gas turbine in the set to match the nominal value of the power output parameter of the set.

8. The computer program product of claim 7 , wherein the respective base load level is associated with a base load value of the power output parameter and a base load value of the fuel flow parameter for the respective measured ambient condition.

9. The computer program product of claim 7 , wherein in response to the commanding of each gas turbine in the set to the respective base load level, each gas turbine in the set does not attain at least one of: the nominal value of the power output parameter of the set and the nominal value of the fuel flow parameter at the respective measured ambient condition.

10. The computer program product of claim 7 , which when executed, causes the at least one computing device to convert the difference between the respective actual value of the fuel flow parameter and the nominal value of the fuel flow parameter at the respective measured ambient condition for e

Assignees

• Gen Electric

Inventors

• Davis Jr Lewis Berkley
• Day Scott Arthur
• Fernandez Paul Robert
• Jordan Jr Harold Lamar
• Morgan Rex Allen

Classifications

• F05D2270/335

  Output power or torque · CPC title

• F02C9/42

  specially adapted for the control of two or more plants simultaneously · CPC title

• F02C9/48

  Control of fuel supply conjointly with another control of the plant (with nozzle section control F02K1/17) · CPC title

• F02C9/56 Primary

  with power transmission control · CPC title

• F05D2270/331

  Mechanical loads · CPC title