System and method for detection of rotor eccentricity baseline shift

1. A method to determine eccentricity of a rotor in a turbine comprising:

collecting sensor data of rotor eccentricity for a plurality of startup operations;

establishing a baseline eccentricity value using the sensor data corresponding to a selected startup operation;

determining an eccentricity value using the filtered sensor data for each of a plurality of startup operations subsequent to the selected startup operation;

determining a rotor eccentricity difference between the baseline eccentricity value and each of the eccentricity values for the plurality of startup operations subsequent to the selected startup operation, and

reporting a rotor eccentricity condition based on the rotor eccentricity difference.

2. The method as in claim 1 further comprising filtering the sensor data to select sensor data corresponding to startup operations and using only the selected sensor data to determine the eccentricity values.

3. The method as in claim 1 wherein reporting the rotor eccentricity condition includes reporting a trend of the rotor eccentricity differences for a period of time of at least one year.

4. The method as in claim 1 further comprising excluding from the determination of the eccentricity value sensor data having a rate of change greater than a predetermined limit during a startup period.

5. The method as in claim 1 wherein determining the eccentricity value includes determining an average of the sensor data for a startup period, wherein the period corresponds to low speed rotor operation at startup.

6. The method as in claim 5 wherein the low speed rotor operation is below 100 revolutions per minute.

7. The method as in claim 1 wherein reporting the rotor eccentricity condition includes comparing a long term average of eccentricity values for a plurality of startup operations over a predetermined long period of time to a current average of eccentricity values for a predetermined number of most recent startup operations.

8. The method as in claim 1 wherein the turbine is a steam turbine.

9. The method as in claim 1 further comprising excluding from the determination of rotor eccentricity differences the eccentricity value for a startup operation during which startup operation a rate of change of rotor eccentricity exceeds a predetermined threshold rate of rotor eccentricity change.

10. The method as in claim 9 further comprising determining the rate of change of rotor eccentricity during one of said startup operation as a function of a plurality of rotor eccentricity values determined during the one of said startup operation.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein predetermined threshold rate of rotor eccentricity change is greater than 0.03 mils/min for 15 continuous minutes.

12. A method to determine eccentricity of a rotor in a turbine comprising:

collecting sensor data of rotor eccentricity for a time period corresponding to a variety of turbine operations;

filtering the sensor data to extract sensor data corresponding to turbine startup operations;

establishing a baseline eccentricity value using the filtered sensor data corresponding to a selected startup operation;

determining an eccentricity value using the filtered sensor data for each of a plurality of startup operations subsequent to the selected startup operation;

determining a rotor eccentricity difference between the baseline eccentricity value and each of the eccentricity values for the plurality of startup operations subsequent to the selected startup operation, and

reporting a rotor eccentricity condition based on the rotor eccentricity difference.

13. The method as in claim 12 wherein reporting the rotor eccentricity condition includes reporting a trend of the rotor eccentricity differences for a period of time of at least one year.

14. The method as in claim 12 wherein determining the eccentricity value includes determining an average of the sensor data for a startup period, wherein the period corresponds to low speed rotor operation at startup.

15. The method as in claim 14 wherein the low speed rotor operation is below 100 revolutions per minute.

16. The method as in claim 14 wherein reporting the rotor eccentricity condition includes comparing a long term average of eccentricity values for a plurality of startup operations over a predetermined long period of time to a current average of eccentricity values for a predetermined number of most recent startup operations.

17. The method as in claim 14 further comprising excluding from the determination of rotor eccentricity differences the eccentricity value for a startup operation during which startup operation a rate of change of rotor eccentricity exceeds a predetermined threshold rate of rotor eccentricity change.

18. The method as in claim 17 further comprising determining the rate of change of rotor eccentricity during one of said startup operation as a function of a plurality of rotor eccentricity values determined during the one of said startup operation.

19. A system to determine eccentricity of a rotor in a turbine comprising:

a rotor eccentricity sensor monitoring rotor eccentricity and generating rotor eccentricity data;

a computer system including:

a database storing the rotor eccentricity data for a period corresponding to a variety of turbine operations;

a data filter extracting rotor eccentricity data corresponding to turbine startup operations from the rotor eccentricity data and generating filtered sensor data;

an algorithm establishing a baseline eccentricity value using the filtered sensor data corresponding to a selected startup operation;

an algorithm establishing an eccentricity value using the filtered sensor data for each of a plurality of startup operations subsequent to the selected startup operation;

an algorithm determining a rotor eccentricity difference between the baseline eccentricity value and each of the eccentricity values for the plurality of startup operations subsequent to the selected startup operation, and

an report generator to issue reports of a rotor eccentricity condition based on the rotor eccentricity difference.

20. The system as in claim 19 wherein the rotor eccentricity sensor is a displacement sensor.