Advanced Metrology Solutions for Power Generation

Advanced Metrology Solutions

Ensuring Turbine Stability in Power Generation

Abnormal movement in power generation components can have significant operational, maintenance, and safety implications, which is why monitoring and promptly addressing these issues is critical.

Darling Geomatics , an award-winning provider of precision and high-tech scanning and metrology solutions, undertook a confidential project within the power generation sector. Tasked with monitoring a turbine during shutdown and startup procedures at a US facility, our team employed cutting-edge monitoring techniques and equipment to capture precise sub-millimeter data.

For this project, our primary focus was to measure targets placed on a turbine to detect displacement during critical operational phases. Leveraging state-of-the-art technology, we deployed dual laser trackers with unparallelled sub-millimeter precision, ensuring the delivery of highly accurate, repeatable, and measurable change detection data to our client.

Project Facts

Project

Cold scan and survey of offline turbine at a power generation facility

Client

Confidential

Project Location

United States

Industry

Power Generation

Application

Detect sub-millimeter displacement

Technology Used

Ground-based laser trackers

Deliverable

Data report with change detection results

Accuracy

+/- 0.025 mm

Key Challenges

This power generation facility faced challenges in accurately determining the displacement of specific components on their turbine during critical startup and shutdown phases.

Abnormal movement in power generation components can have significant operational, maintenance and safety implications, which is why monitoring and promptly addressing these issues is critical.

Conventional measurement techniques proved inadequate in providing the precise dataset essential for a thorough analysis to determine whether displacement was affecting turbine performance.

Solution

For sub-millimeter precision, Darling Geomatics implemented state-of-the-art laser tracking technology, using laser trackers renowned for their accuracy and efficiency. To capture the highly precise survey data, we deployed two trackers and continuously measured four targets on the turbine for over 24 hours during the shutdown and startup processes.

We strategically positioned the laser trackers to capture movement with sub-millimeter precision, ensuring the detection of the slightest target displacement. All collected data was processed and presented to our client, providing detailed summaries into the movement of the targets — identifying the timing, direction, and magnitude of displacement.

Outcome

Darling Geomatics successfully employed advanced metrology techniques using cutting-edge laser trackers to deliver measurable, repeatable and accurate change detection data of specific turbine components. With sub-millimeter precision, the displacement data report provided the client valuable insights used to optimize the performance of its power generation equipment.

Additional Information

• Watch YouTube video on 3D Scanning for Power Generation and Distribution
• Read our Cutting-edge Metrology Sparks Innovation blog post
• Discover more about Metrology services or our work in the Renewable Energy / Power Gen industry
• Read our Digital Transformation of Energy Infrastructure Projects blog post