We are near the end of a major inspection / maintenance period for one of our

two GE frame 6 turbines. During this outage, GE has upgraded the honeycomb
seals at the third stage of the turbine.

This modification requires new temperature control curve setpoints. In the Mk

IV, we have two curves: TTK0 and TTK1. TTK0 is the Base curve, and TTK1
was added with a 'PEAK' operation modification sometime after comissioning,
but far before I arrived.

GE at first was unsure about what our TTK1 was for, I told them about the peak
modification. I verified this and sent our complete 1D list to GE. Here's what
were our control curve constants:

TTK0_C 135 psi

TTK0_I 1055 F
TTK0_K 72 %
TTK0_M 2.49 F/FSR
TTK0_S 2.02 F/psi

TTK1_C 139.1 psi

TTk1_I 1070 F
TTK1_K 72.1 %
TTK1_M 2.37 F/FSR
TTK1_S 1.62 F/psi

So, my understanding is that these 2 sets of 5 constants make up our Isothermal

(I), CPD BIAS (C and S), and FSR BIAS (K and M) curves for both BASE and
PEAK operation. Similar to what I have on Pages 1 and 6 of this pdf
( http://www.auto-ic.com/CURVES.pdf ).

I worked out the Y intercepts and came up with the following linear equations:

BASE

CPD BIAS -> Texh = -2.02 * CPD + 1327.7

FSR BIAS -> Texh = -2.49 * FSR + 1234.28

PEAK

CPD BIAS -> Texh = -1.62 * CPD + 1327.7

FSR BIAS -> Texh = -2.37 * FSR + 1234.28

This all seems pretty straight forward to me from a technician's perspective. But
then I was handed GE's proposed new constants (they even added an equation at
the top of each set of constants... presumably to help 'clarify things'):

CONSTANT NAME Description

Value Units

BASE Texh = -27.5676 * Xc + 1355.0956

TTK0_C Exhaust Temp Control curve #1 CPD

Ref Corner 134.2619 psi
TTK0_I Exhaust Temp Control curve #1 Tx Ref
isothermal 1055 deg F
TTK0_K Exhaust Temp Control curve #1 OFFSET
DW bias 65.8827 MW
TTK0_M Exhaust Temp Control curve #1 GAIN
DW bias 2.6605 F/MW
TTK0_S Exhaust Temp Control curve #1 CPD
Ref Slope 2.0270 F/psi

CONSTANT NAME Description

Value Units

PEAK Texh = -22.1296 * Xc + 1317.2271

TTK0_C Exhaust Temp Control curve #1 CPD

Ref Corner 138.151 psi
TTK0_I Exhaust Temp Control curve #1 Tx Ref
isothermal 1070 deg F
TTK0_K Exhaust Temp Control curve #1 OFFSET
DW bias 79.9542 MW
TTK0_M Exhaust Temp Control curve #1 GAIN
DW bias 1.7624 F/MW
TTK0_S Exhaust Temp Control curve #1 CPD
Ref Slope 1.6272 F/psi

First things first, I questioned GE's units on the K and M curve. That was
apparently an oversight; they meant to say FSR, not MW or DW.

My first real question in all of this is, what is Xc in GE's equations above? I had
to work out the CPD BIAS and FSR BIAS curves again with these new
numbers because their slope was so steep... and their Y-intercepts were so
close...

Here's what I got:

BASE

CPD BIAS -> Texh = -2.027 * CPD + 1327.15

FSR BIAS -> Texh = -2.6605 * FSR + 1230.28

PEAK

CPD BIAS -> Texh = -1.6272 * CPD + 1294.80

FSR BIAS -> Texh = -1.7624 * FSR + 1205.62

So the curves I work out from their points dont correspond to the equations that
they have given with either y intercept or slope. I just can't wrap my head
around what Xc represents. The intercept is *close* but not exact, and the
slopes are nowhere close.

The other thing that I can't work out is this. While the CPD curves do not
change much with this modification, the FSR curves do. The base load curves
move in a more conservative direction. As FSR increases, we are more limited
in temperature. That makes sense with better 3rd stage seals; more work is
being done --- for a constant exhaust temperature, combustion temperature
would have to be higher. Since we haven't done anything to allow higher
combustion temps, the exhaust limit would have to be lower to take this into
account. SO...

First, the exhaust temperature control "curves" represents

constant FIRING temperature, **NOT** constant exhaust
temperature. The temperature of the combustion gases leaving
the first stage nozzles is the firing temperature, not the exhaust
temperature. The negative slopes of the curves mean that as
CPD (or FSR) increases that for the same, constant, firing
temperature the exhaust temperature will decrease. This is
counter-intuitive, but it is the way it is.
The rating of the gas turbine is based on the firing
temperature, **NOT** the exhaust temperature.

'Exhaust temperature control' doesn't mean they are trying to

maintain a constant exhaust temperature. It means they are
measuring CPD (or FSR) and exhaust temperature, and they
know that there is a relationship between these parameters
and firing temperature and that firing temperature can be
held constant by varying exhaust temperature in response to
changes in CPD (or FSR).

Second, the unit is only supposed to operate on EITHER

primary (CPD-biased) OR secondary (FSR, in your case) exhaust
temperature control. A primary- and secondary exhaust
temperature reference is being calculated at all times, but only
one exhaust temperature control reference (Primary or
Secondary) should be active at any time.

Without being able to examine the sequencing in the

Speedtronic at your site it very difficult to say when secondary
exhaust temperature control becomes active. Some older Mark
IV Speedtronic panels would not shift to secondary exhaust
temperature control unless there was a failure of the CPD
transducer(s). Most did a low-select of either the primary- or
the secondary exhaust temperature control reference (usually
signal names TTRXP and TTRXS, respectively) to decide which
value was going to be TTRX (the exhaust temperature control
reference).

The intent of the back-up, or secondary, exhaust temperature

control is that it would never come into control unless there
was a failure of the CPD transducers. AND, that if there was a
failure of the CPD transducers that the unit could continue to
run (while the CPD transducer problem was being quickly
resolved!) until control could be reverted to CPD-biased
(Primary) exhaust temperature control.
Third, for the primary exhaust temperature control curve (CPD-
biased), the x-axis is CPD. For the secondary exhaust
temperature control curve, the x-axis is FSR. It's very difficult to
super-impose the two with any degree of accuracy, so it's very
difficult to compare the two unless one knows precisely the
correlation between CPD and FSR.

The intent is that the back-up exhaust temperature control

curve should "mirror" the primary exhaust temperature control
curve and be slightly offset from it (to the right of the primary
exhaust temperature control curve) by a small amount, so that
if the CPD transducer(s) failed causing the primary exhaust
temperature control reference to be greater than the secondary
exhaust temperature control reference that the unit would be
able to continue to operate, albeit with a small increase in
power output (which also slightly increases firing temperature,
which negatively impacts hot gas path parts life--slightly, but
it's implied that the CPD transducer problem will be quickly
resolved).

The basic equation for exhaust temperature control is:

TTRXx = ISOTHERMAL -((BIAS - CORNER) * SLOPE)

where the lower-case 'x' is either P or S (Primary or Secondary).

TTKn_C = CORNER (PRIMARY). in PSIG

TTKn_I = ISOTHERMAL, in DEG F
TTKn_K = CORNER (SECONDARY), in % FSR
TTKN_M = SLOPE (SECONDARY), in DEG F/% FSR
TTKn_S = SLOPE (PRIMARY), in DEG F/PSIG

So, at all times, there are two calculations being made:

TTRXP = TTK0_I * ((CPD - TTK0_C) * TTK0_S))

TTRXS = TTK0_I * ((FSR - TTK0_K) * TTK0_M))
(The above is true when Base Load, the "0" array, is active at
your site. When the Peak Load, the "1" array, is active at your
site.)

I would say that the change in slope of the FSR curves

represents a more modest attempt to prevent "overfiring" if the
unit ever operated on secondary exhaust temperature control
(which it never should!). Overfiring occurs because the FSR-
biased, secondary exhaust temperature control curve is
supposed to be to the right of the CPD-biased, primary exhaust
temperature control curve. As the sloped line is shifted to the
right, the firing temperature increases; as it is shifted to the
left, the firing temperature decreases.

I hope it's clear that it's very difficult to have primary and
secondary exhaust temperature control curves based on two
different variables (CPD and FSR) be exactly equal to each
other at all times. So, that's why the two are slightly offset from
each other, with the secondary being slightly higher (to the
right) of the primary. Again, the unit should never operate on
the secondary exhaust temperature control curve, and if it
does, it should only do so for a short period of time (while the
CPD transducer problem is being resolved).

As for the Xc value, I've only recently seen this formula and
notation, and I've not been curious enough to investigate. I'm
not even going to hazard a guess, because I have no idea what
it means, nor how these values are determined, nor how they
are used to derive the TTKn_x array values. I would suggest you
ask your GE field service person to ask someone in GE
Engineering what Xc means, and how the values in the
formulae are determined. (My guess is that this formula isn't
supposed to be provided "to the field" and that it is considered
proprietary and so it will be difficult to get information about its
terms and usage. But, that's just my personal guess; I hope I'm
wrong, and that you can find out what Xc means, and then
explain it to all of us!)

Hope this helps! Again, the unit should only operate on Primary
(CPD-biased) exhaust temperature control. Secondary (FSR-
biased) exhaust temperature control should only be active in
the event that there is some problem with the CPD transducers,
and even then it should only be operated on secondary exhaust
temperature control while the CPD problem is resolved.

And, finally, it's very difficult (at least for those of us without
access to the data and computing horsepower that GE has!) to
closely correlate (cross-reference; super-impose) the two
graphs (CPD-biased and FSR-biased) on top of each other to
see how they might interact. The best thing I can say about this
is to monitor TTRXP and TTRXS when the unit is operating. And
that TTRXS should be slightly higher than TTRXP at all times
when operating on Base Load or Peak Load, so that the unit
only operates on Primary exhaust temperature control.

Which really translates to firing temperature control!