Development of a procedure for substantiating replacement terms for the condenser tubes of steam turbine installations

Abstract

Results obtained from elaboration of a procedure for estimating replacement terms for the condenser tube systems of steam turbine installations are presented. Censored data processing methods are used in performing statistical assessment of replacement terms. The service life of condenser tubes blanked off in the course of turbine operation is assumed to be known (complete operation time), and that for tubes blanked off during the turbine repair process is assumed to be undetermined (censored operation time). The criterion for estimating the replacement term for a condenser tube system is defined as the ratio between the number of tubes blanked off during a repair and in the course of turbine operation. The procedure is validated by the results from a study on analyzing the damageability of tubes made of different materials for the condensers of 11 turbines with capacities ranging from 25 to 500 MW. © 2013 Pleiades Publishing, Ltd.