Siemens Energy Research Articles

An Advanced Extreme-Environment Wireless Telemetry System for Turbine Blade Instrumentation

As advanced natural gas power generation systems evolve, the thrust for increased efficiencies and reduced emissions results in increasingly harsh conditions inside the turbine environment. These high temperatures, pressures, and corrosive atmospheres result in accelerated rates of degradation, leading to failure of turbine materials and components. Wolfspeed, A Cree Company, Siemens Energy, and Siemens Corporate Technology, in collaboration with the Department of Energy (DOE)'s National Energy Technology Laboratory, are developing a reliable and long-term monitoring capability in the turbine hot gas path in the form of novel ceramic-based thermocouples and wide bandgap instrumentation electronics that will contribute to the overall reliability of gas turbines. When equipped with better monitoring and controls, power plants can operate with increased fuel-burning efficiency, improved process dynamics and gas concentrations, and increased overall longevity of the power plant components. This will result in increased turbine availability and a reduction in outages and maintenance costs. The technology being developed in this program is based on advanced techniques and innovations in nearly every aspect of high-temperature electronics, including materials, semiconductor devices, subcomponents, electronic packaging, and system integration. The environment in which this wireless system must operate has continuous centrifugal loads with a gravitation force on the order of 16,000 times the force of gravity (16,000 g) and temperatures exceeding 400°C. This article will specifically discuss the background and motivation for the high-temperature instrumentation system and will explain the high-level electrical system, the construction of the instrumentation package, the techniques used for integration onto rotating components, as well as the wireless power and data transmission systems. In addition to the electrical and mechanical design, this article will also discuss results from laboratory bench testing as well as heated spin rig testing. Finally, this article will highlight the future direction of the instrumentation system evolution, with a final objective of insertion into Siemens natural gas turbine power plants.

An Advanced Extreme Environment Wireless Telemetry System for Turbine Blade Instrumentation

ABSTRACT As advanced natural gas power generation systems evolve, the thrust for increased efficiencies and reduced emissions results in increasingly harsh conditions inside the turbine environment. These high temperatures, pressures, and corrosive atmospheres result in accelerated rates of degradation, leading to failure of turbine materials and components. Wolfspeed, A Cree Company, Siemens Energy and Siemens Corporate Technology, in collaboration with the DoE's National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), are developing a reliable and long-term monitoring capability in the turbine hot gas path in the form of novel ceramic based thermocouples and wide band gap instrumentation electronics that will contribute to the overall reliability of gas turbines. When equipped with better monitoring and controls, power plants can operate with increased fuel-burning efficiency, improved process dynamics and gas concentrations, and increased overall longevity of the power plant components. This will result in increased turbine availability and a reduction in outages and maintenance costs. The technology being developed in this program is based upon advanced techniques and innovations in nearly every aspect of high temperature electronics, including materials, subcomponents, semiconductors, electronic packaging, and system integration. The environment in which this wireless system must operate has continuous g-loads on the order of 16,000g, and temperatures exceeding 400 °C. This paper will specifically discuss the background and motivation for the high temperature instrumentation system, and will explain the high-level electrical system, the construction of the instrumentation package, the techniques utilized for integration onto rotating components, as well as the wireless power and data transmission systems. In addition to the electrical and mechanical design, this paper will also discuss results from laboratory bench testing as well as heated spin rig testing. Finally, this paper will highlight the future direction of the instrumentation system evolution, with a final objective of insertion into Siemens natural gas turbine power plants.

Semantic access to streaming and static data at Siemens

We present a description and analysis of the data access challenge in Siemens Energy. We advocate Ontology Based Data Access (OBDA) as a suitable Semantic Web driven technology to address the challenge. We derive requirements for applying OBDA in Siemens, review existing OBDA systems and discuss their limitations with respect to the Siemens requirements. We then introduce the Optique platform as a suitable OBDA solution for Siemens. The platform is based on a number of novel techniques and components including a deployment module, BootOX for ontology and mapping bootstrapping, a query language STARQL that allows for a uniform querying of both streaming and static data, a highly optimised backend, ExaStream, for processing such data, and a query formulation interface, OptiqueVQS, that allows to formulate STARQL queries without prior knowledge of its formal syntax. Finally, we describe our installation and evaluation of the platform in Siemens.

Semantic Access to Streaming and Static Data at Siemens

We present a description and analysis of the data access challenge in Siemens Energy. We advocate Ontology Based Data Access (OBDA) as a suitable Semantic Web driven technology to address the challenge. We derive requirements for applying OBDA in Siemens, review existing OBDA systems and discuss their limitations with respect to the Siemens requirements. We then introduce the Optique platform as a suitable OBDA solution for Siemens. The platform is based on a number of novel techniques and components including a deployment module, BootOX for ontology and mapping bootstrapping, a query language STARQL that allows for a uniform querying of both streaming and static data, a highly optimised backend, ExaStream, for processing such data, and a query formulation interface, OptiqueVQS, that allows to formulate STARQL queries without prior knowledge of its formal syntax. Finally, we describe our installation and evaluation of the platform in Siemens.

Natural Language Access to Enterprise Data

This paper describes USI Answers — a natural language question answering system for enterprise data. We report on the progress towards the goal of offering easy access to enterprise data to a large number of business users, most of whom are not familiar with the specific syntax or semantics of the underlying data sources. Additional complications come from the nature of the data, which comes both as structured and unstructured. The proposed solution allows users to express questions in natural language, makes apparent the system's interpretation of the query, and allows easy query adjustment and reformulation. The application is in use by more than 1500 users from Siemens Energy. We evaluate our approach on a data set consisting of fleet data.

Barrier seal improves UK gas grid compressor reliability

This case study provides details of compressor shaft sealing technology developed by EagleBurgmann Germany GmbH & Co Kg in conjunction with the UK's National Grid and Germany's Siemens Energy Service. It involves the use of a conventional dry gas seal in tandem with a newly designed coaxial-barrier-type seal, substituted for the existing carbon ring seal used in previous designs and considered the industry standard.

Experimental and Computational Analysis of a Multistage Axial Compressor Including Stall Prediction by Steady and Transient CFD Methods

Siemens Energy has commissioned an extensive multiyear experimental and numerical (computational fluid dynamics (CFD)) project to improve its ability to design for and predict compressor stall. The experimental test rig is a half scale six stage axial compressor. The goal of this work is to provide insight into how best to predict the compressor performance map and in particular the stall point by applying state-of-the-art multiple blade row CFD simulation tools. A preliminary CFD analysis quantified numerical, model, and systematic error on the first stage of the compressor. Subsequent steady (mixing plane) and transient (time transformation) CFD simulations of the entire six stage compressor are compared to each other and to experimental data. Both the steady and transient simulations are shown to be computationally efficient and in very good agreement with the experimental data across the full performance map, up to stall inception on multiple speedlines. Physical explanations of the key flow features observed in the experiment, as well as of the differences between the predictions and experimental data, are given.

USI Answers: Natural Language Question Answering Over (Semi-) Structured Industry Data

This paper describes USI Answers a natural language question answering system for semi-structured industry data. The paper reports on the progress towards the goal of offering easy access to enterprise data to a large number of business users, most of whom are not familiar with the specific syntax or semantics of the underlying data sources. Additional complications come from the nature of the data, which comes both as structured and unstructured. The proposed solution allows users to express questions in natural language, makes apparent the system’s interpretation of the query, and allows easy query adjustment and reformulation. The application is in use by more than 1500 users from Siemens Energy. We evaluate our approach on a data set consisting of fleet data.

CONTRIBUTION TO CHARACTERISATION OF INSECT-PROOF SCREENS: EXPERIMENTAL MEASUREMENTS IN WIND TUNNEL AND CFD SIMULATION

CONTRIBUTION TO CHARACTERISATION OF INSECT-PROOF SCREENS: EXPERIMENTAL MEASUREMENTS IN WIND TUNNEL AND CFD SIMULATION

SEMMS: A meter readout system with an open architecture and open standards communications, installed by the electricity utility interelectra

The principle task of an electricity meter is to measure the quantity of energy which is imported or exported, and to make the measured values available for billing purposes. The structural changes taking place in the electric utility industries require that such a meter provide an enlarged scope of performance and a wider range of functionality. These meters will become part of a unified system which is necessary to competitively satisfy measurement, reading, billing and service requirements. Growth through service will call for the provision of new functions, for example ones which permit optimum energy use by the consumer. A key function in energy metering and demand side management systems is therefore the ability to communicate two-way via the public supply network or any other existing or preferred communications network. To be commercially successful, such a system must be economical and technically characterised above all by open communications, open architecture and reliability. The areas of application must cover all segments of the energy supply industries. This paper describes the Siemens energy meter and management system (SEMMS) and how it is being implemented by the Interelectra electric utility (Belgium), which is planning to set up a “meter-read out” system capable of managing over 3000 energy consumers and generating their monthly energy bills. (5 pages)