Gas turbine alignment systems and methods

#The subject matter disclosed herein relates to gas turbine systems, and more particularly to systems and methods for aligning and/or leveling gas turbine system components.

#Gas turbines generally include a compressor, a combustor, and a turbine. Each of these components may be coupled to a shaft that will rotate during operation of the gas turbine. The shaft of the turbine may be coupled to a shaft of a load. The load may be any suitable device that may generate power via rotation of the shaft. For example, a gas turbine may be coupled to a generator to generate power for an electrical power grid. In some cases, the gas turbine may be aligned with the generator manually, such as by adjusting fixators that are then cemented into place after alignment has been achieved.

#Certain embodiments commensurate in scope with the originally claimed subject matter are summarized below. These embodiments are not intended to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter, but rather these embodiments are intended only to provide a brief summary of possible forms of the subject matter. Indeed, the subject matter may encompass a variety of forms that may be similar to or different from the embodiments set forth below.

#These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present disclosure will become better understood when the following detailed description is read with reference to the accompanying drawings in which like characters represent like parts throughout the drawings, wherein:

#FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a gas turbine system having an alignment system, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;

#FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of the alignment system of FIG. 1, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;

#One or more specific embodiments of the present disclosure will be described below. In an effort to provide a concise description of these embodiments, all features of an actual implementation may not be described in the specification. It should be appreciated that in the development of any such actual implementation, as in any engineering or design project, numerous implementation-specific decisions must be made to achieve the developers' specific goals, such as compliance with system-related and business-related constraints, which may vary from one implementation to another. Moreover, it should be appreciated that such a development effort might be complex and time consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking of design, fabrication, and manufacture for those of ordinary skill having the benefit of this disclosure.

#When introducing elements of various embodiments of the present disclosure, the articles “a,” “an,” “the,” and “said” are intended to mean that there are one or more of the elements. The terms “comprising,” “including,” and “having” are intended to be inclusive and mean that there may be additional elements other than the listed elements.

#As discussed in detail below, the disclosed embodiments provide systems and methods for aligning and/or leveling components of a gas turbine system, such as a turbine and a generator of the gas turbine system. The disclosed embodiments include an alignment system that may help reduce misalignment between the turbine and the generator, thereby enabling an increase in efficiency of the gas turbine system and/or enabling a decrease in wear of components, such as the shafts of the turbine and generator. In certain embodiments, the alignment system may include a number of bladders (e.g., industrial bladders, pneumatic bladders, hydraulic bladders, expandable bags, expandable fluid containers, or flexible containers) coupled to a fluid source and a control system configured to adjust the expansion of the bladders, thereby adjusting the position of the gas turbine system components. In certain embodiments, the control system for the alignment system may include various sensors, and may enable automatic alignment of the components. Further, the alignment system may be removable after alignment, which may enable the alignment system to be reusable and/or to be utilized with a number of gas turbine systems.