Anti-vibration solutions for India’s power plant building boom

Getzner minimises vibrations and increases safety in power plants. Recently the innovative solutions have been installed in a GMR Chhattisgarh Energy Limited, 1370 MW power plant in Raipur, Chhattisgarh.

India has big power generation plans: Recent headlines include the plan to build the world’s largest solar power station, the world’s biggest thermal power plant and more than 20 nuclear power plants. With this construction boom come higher requirements for quality, efficiency and safety. The experts from the Austrian company Getzner developed high-tech materials to effectively minimize vibrations and structure-borne noise of machines, turbines and generators – a solution highly demanded in the Indian market.

As the Indian economy keeps growing and developing, the country’s hunger for energy remains gigantic: Currently, six nuclear power plants are under construction in India, plans for approximately 20 more are in the drawer. India has around 41 GW of installed hydropower capacity while an additional 13 GW is under construction. In January 2015, the Indian government significantly expanded its solar plans, targeting US$ 100 billion of investment and 100 GW of solar capacity by 2022. “These impressive figures demonstrate the huge potential of the Indian energy market”, states Sanjay Risbood, CEO of Getzner India Pvt. Ltd.

Getzner Werkstoffe provides innovative, proven solutions to reduce vibrations transfer of machines, pumps, turbines and generators. “Vibrations cause noise and damage. This is not only harmful to the immediate surrounding area, but also negatively affects manufacturing and quality processes in the vicinity and disrupt the neighbourhood and environment”, explains Mr. Risbood.

The high-tech materials Sylomer® and Sylodyn®, developed in-house by the Getzner engineers, are used for vibration isolation in railway, construction and industry applications. Mr. Risbood: “There are many benefits: Elastically mounted devices are more cost-effective and efficient in the long term. Vibration protection increases the value of office space, production processes and adjoining residential buildings. Last but not least, optimum vibration solutions usually account for less than 1% of the initial cost, whereas solutions that are added later are expensive and less effective.” The Getzner bearings are easy to install, maintenance-free and consistently effective throughout the service life of the machine. “As the bedding is individually calculated and adapted, it is possible to achieve a low natural frequency and greater effectiveness”, adds Sanjay Risbood.

Successfully installed all over India

From Bihar and Rajasthan to Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh: Getzner has provided its innovative solutions in numerous power plant projects throughout India. Among others, the Austrian vibration isolation experts installed their innovative solutions at two thermal power plants by Essar Power in Salaya/Gujarat and Mahan/Madhya Pradesh.Three years ago, Getzner started its work for a thermal power plant with the capacity of 2x685 MW, built by India’s GMR Group. In the facility in Raipur, Getzner isolated 14 machine foundations having machines like pumps (Motor Driven Boiler Feed Pumps) and fans (Forced Draft fan, Primary Air fan etc.). Sanjay Risbood: “The basic need for our vibration isolation systems was to restrict the flow of vibrations to nearby structures and to bring down the size of the foundation as the subsoil shear modulus was very high.”

Convincing results worldwide

The Getzner solutions Sylomer® and Sylodyn® have proven themselves in numerous power plant projects around the world. A very interesting project was carried out in the Austrian Alps: Getzner was responsible to minimize vibrations at the hydroelectric power station in Rettenbach, Sölden, which is in the vicinity of a primary and secondary school as well as a kindergarten and a luxury hotel. “The complex surrounding conditions placed particular demands. The geographical situation made the project even more challenging, because the power station uses water from two rivers and two turbines had to be installed. That means that two sets of vibrations needed to be isolated”, reports Sanjay Risbood. The Getzner engineers calculated the optimum natural frequency for the elastic mounting of the power station building on the basis of the disruptive frequency data from the turbine manufacturer. The tailor-made concept included the decoupling of the whole building from its surroundings with Sylomer® mats and large-scale side installations in the direction of the school building. Extensive vibration and acoustic measurements demonstrated the effectiveness of the Getzner solution: “Both in the school rooms and outdoors, the vibration values lie far below the human perception threshold.”