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US 10,731,568 B2Granted
Systems and methods for reducing airflow imbalances in turbines
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsChad Ernest Findlay, Ampili Kishore Kumar, Sal Albert Leone
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A turbine system may include several air lines that extend from a compressor to a turbine, and the air lines may have valves. Additionally, the turbine system may also include several sensors that are coupled to the valves, several actuators that are coupled to the valves, and a controller that can send a command to set a valve position of one of the valves based at least partially on a valve position of another valve.
Claims20
A turbine system comprising:
- a plurality of air lines extending from a compressor to a turbine, wherein the plurality of air lines comprises a plurality of valves, wherein the plurality of valves comprises a first valve and a second valve configured to control airflow via a first air line and a second air line of the plurality of air lines, respectively;
- a plurality of sensors configured to couple to the plurality of valves;
- a plurality of actuators configured to control the plurality of valves;
- and
- a controller configured to:
- determine a first target valve position of the first valve based on an airflow command;
- send a first command to a first actuator of the plurality of actuators, wherein the first command is configured to cause the first actuator to set a first valve position of the first valve to the first target valve position;
- determine whether the first valve position of the first valve is within a threshold of the first target valve position;
- send a second command to the first actuator to set the first valve to a fail-safe valve position when the first valve position of the first valve is not within the threshold, wherein the fail-safe valve position is stored on memory of the controller;
- determine whether the first valve position corresponds to the fail-safe valve position;
- determine a second target valve position of the second valve based on whether the first valve position corresponds to the fail-safe valve position;
- and
- send a third command to a second actuator of the plurality of actuators to set a second valve position of the second valve based on whether the first valve position corresponds to the fail-safe valve position.
10 more elements
A non-transitory machine readable medium, comprising computer executable instructions configured to cause a processor to:
- determine a first target valve position of a first valve and a second target valve position based on an airflow command associated with a turbine, wherein the first valve and a second valve are coupled to a first air line and a second air line, respectively, wherein the first air line and the second air line are configured to couple a compressor to the turbine;
- send a command to an actuator associated with the first valve to set a first valve position of the first valve to the first target valve position;
- determine whether the first valve position of the first valve is within a threshold of the first valve;
- send a second command to the actuator to set the first valve position of the first valve to a fail-safe valve position when the first valve position of the first valve is not within the threshold, wherein the fail-safe valve position is stored on the non-transitory machine readable medium;
- determine whether the first valve position corresponds to the fail-safe valve position;
- determine a second target valve position of the second valve based on whether the first valve position corresponds to the fail-safe valve position;
- and
- send a third command to set a second valve position of the second valve based on whether the first valve position corresponds to the fail-safe valve position.
5 more elements
A method, comprising:
- determining, via a processor, a first target valve position of a first valve of a plurality of valves associated with a plurality of air lines and a second target valve position of a second valve of the plurality of valves based on an airflow command, wherein the plurality of air lines is configured to couple a compressor section to a turbine section;
- sending, via the processor, a first command to a first actuator associated with the first valve to set the first valve to the first target valve position;
- receiving, via the processor, a first set of data from a sensor associated with the first valve regarding a first valve position of the first valve;
- determining, via the processor, whether the first valve position is within a threshold of the first target valve position;
- sending, via the processor, a second command to the first actuator to set the first valve to a fail-safe valve position when the first valve position is not within the threshold, wherein the fail-safe valve position is stored on memory communicatively coupled to the processor;
- determining, via the processor, whether the first valve position corresponds to the fail-safe valve position;
- determining, via the processor, a second target valve position of the second valve based on whether the first valve position corresponds to the fail-safe valve position;
- and
- sending, via the processor, a third command to a second actuator associated with the second valve to set the second valve to the fail-safe valve position when the first valve position corresponds to the fail-safe valve position.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.