A gas turbine consists of an upstream compressor and a downstream turbine with a combustion chamber, and also the compressor and the turbine are generally coupled using a single shaft. Many casing bolts are used to assemble two horizontally separated casings, the gas turbine casing and the compressor casing, in both of axial and vertical directions. Because drilled holes for casing bolts in vertical direction are often too close to drilled holes for casing bolts in axial direction, one can observe cracks in the area frequently during operations of a gas turbine. In this study of the root cause analysis for the cracking initiating from the drilled holes of the casings of a gas turbine, the finite element analysis(FEA) was applied to evaluate the thermal and mechanical characteristics of the casings. By applying the field operation data recorded from combined cycle power plants for FEA, thermal and thermo-mechanical characteristics of a gas turbine are analyzed. The crack is initiated at the geometrical weak point, but it is found that the maximum stress is relieved when the same type of cracks is introduced on purpose during FEA. So, it is verified that the local fracture could be delayed by machining the same type of defects near the hole for casing flange bolts of the gas turbine, where the crack is initiated.
