Checking gas turbine performance through a window

If the concept of observation windows is new to you, we’ve put together a quick guide to what they are and how they can help you run an efficient, reliable gas turbine.

What are observation windows?

are physical, polycarbonate windows installed into the air inlet plenum of your gas turbine compressor, giving you a great view of what’s going on inside.

They are available in a rectangular or circular design and can be retrofitted to any thickness of the plenum wall.

What are they used for?

Without a window, the day-to-day workings of your compressor are a mystery.

Until scheduled maintenance or a catastrophic issue requiring investigation, you are unable to physically monitor its health or performance.

With an observation window, you are given unrivalled insight. Physically look into the compressor to:

• Check the turbine is running correctly
• Monitor cleaning ensuring correct blade wetting and spray patterns
• Ensure none of your cleaning nozzles are blocked
• Notice any sudden build-up of deposits or ice
• Notice the start of problems such as oil leakages
  

Why is insight important?

Being able to keep an eye on the internal workings of your helps keep costs down.

For starters, enabling employees to simply and quickly look for issues enables greater productivity.

The process of identifying problems is made significantly easier and your team can work proactively to prevent bigger, costly issues before they arise.

A great example of this is noticing if have become blocked. Looking through an observation window, you will be able to physically see if nozzles aren’t working properly and take immediate action.

Without the window, likely, you wouldn’t realise there was a problem until much later, once the cleaning process had been impacted and productivity dipped. 

How can you check gas turbine efficiency?

It is important to keep your gas turbine running efficiently to achieve the most profitable system possible. There are some tell-tale signs that efficiency has dropped including:

• A rise in temperature for a particular flow and speed (indicating total work input has increased)
• Increased power consumption to achieve the same output
• A drop in compressor capacity
  

How to increase gas turbine efficiency?

Turbine efficiency can be hugely impacted by inevitable compressor fouling. Tiny deposits can drastically increase friction and interrupt airflow.

If you are looking to improve gas turbine efficiency, an effective cleaning schedule is a great option.

A combination of regular on-line cleaning which can be carried out during normal operation, and less frequent off-line cleans will reduce fouling and restore the gas turbine’s efficiency.

Rochem equipment and are specially designed for this exact purpose and customers around the globe maintain reliable, efficient gas turbines due to our products. 

Alongside installing cleaning nozzles and the associated hardware, the addition of an observation window allows you to monitor the cleaning process and inner workings of your gas turbine compressor to keep your mind at rest that everything is running smoothly.

Find out more

to find out more about Rochem's observation windows.

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Our friendly, knowledgeable team are on hand to answer all your questions.