All over the globe, gas turbines (GTs) play tremendous role in energy and power generation. Condition monitoring is also being used to obtain early warning of impending equipment failure to prevent costly downtime and damage to process equipment. Several scheduled visits were thus made to AFAM IV, GT 18, TYPE 13D plant located near Port Harcourt, in Rivers State of Nigeria. Continuous and periodic monitoring of the thermodynamics/performance parameters such as temperature, pressure, air pumping capability and fuel flow were carried out. These activities lasted for over a period of one year on hourly basis to examine the state of health of the engine compared with the data taken. The diagnostic method of trend performance monitoring was jointly used with multiple variable mathematical models (MVMMs), because they relate deterioration to consequences. A software code-named “THAPCOM” written in C++ programming language was used proactively monitor the engine based on this MVMMs. The values observed on the third month revealed that ηO was 27.0% and AL was 48MW. A significant variation in the results obtained shows that there is a deviation between the monitored data taken from the console and the reference data in the manufacturer’s manual. These are indications of impending failure or health uncertainty of the engine. This allowed maintenance to be scheduled, or other actions taken to avoid catastrophy.

The performance of thermal power plants, achievement of human comfort, preservation of groceries etc. are generally adversely affected by poor environmental conditions. In order to provide solutions to these challenges, an evaporative cooling system was developed and studied. The study was aimed at providing lower temperatures for the efficient performance of machineries and human comfort as well as lower temperature and higher relative humidity necessary for overcoming the above adverse condition. The performance of the cooler was evaluated in terms of temperature drop, cooler capacity, saturation efficiency and feasibility index. The results showed that evaporative cooling is achievable with feasibility index of F*≤ 10, when the difference between inlet dry bulb temperatures and wet bulb temperature are greater, T 1 -T w = 11.5°C and T 1 -T 2 = 25.22°C with F*=9; T 1 -T w = 12°C and T 1 -T 2 = 7.109°C with F*=10 respectively. The results also affirmed that cooler capacity and the saturation index are higher where the feasibility indexes are comparatively low.

Surge and stall are the two main types of instabilities that often occur on the compressor system of gas turbines. The effect of this instability often leads to excessive vibration due to the back pressure imposed to the system by this phenomenon. In this work, fouling was observed as the major cause of the compressor instability. A step to analyze how this phenomenon can be controlled with the continuous examination of the vibration amplitude using a computer approach led to the execution of this work. The forces resulting to vibration in the system is usually external to it. This external force is aerodynamic and the effect was modeled using force damped vibration analysis. A gas turbine plant on industrial duty for electricity generation was used to actualize this research. The data for amplitude of vibration varied between -15 and 15 mm/s while the given mass flow rate and pressure ratio were determined as falling between 6.1 to 6.8 kg/s and 9.3 to 9.6 respectively. A computer program named VICOMS written in C++ programming language was developed. The results show that the machine should not be run beyond 14.0 mm vibration amplitude in order to avoid surge, stall and other flow-induced catastrophic breakdown

“MICE” is an acronym for Misalignment, Imbalance, Crack and Eccentricity. These form the most catastrophic faults in rotor shafts of gas turbine engines that could lead to downtime. This paper therefore enunciates steps to early detection of these faults and how they could be solved. A method of computer application using Visual-Basic programming language is suggested. A software, MICE, is used for the analysis. Results obtained compare favorably with those of similar works in this area and show that the software can be extended to other rotating equipment when their characteristics are known.

The ability to predict the behaviour of a gas turbine engine and optimize its performance is critical in eco-nomic, thermal and condition monitoring studies. Having identified fouling as one of the major sources of compressor and therefore gas turbine deterioration, a computer-based engine model was developed to optimize the performance of gas turbines. The paper thus presents an analysis of compressor hand cleaning, on and offline compressor washing to actualize the technique using a computer program in Visual Basic programming language with data collected over a period of fifteen weeks for 2 gas turbine plants GT1 and GT2. The results of the data collected, when collated, shows that after washing, the overall operational efficiency changed from 39.2% to 46.25%. To optimize the performance of gas turbine engines, it is therefore recommended that operators should perform a combination of compressor hand cleaning, offline and online washing simultaneously