• Journal of Power System Engineering
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.57-63
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• 2008

The last stage blade of the low pressure steam turbine remarkably affects turbine plant performance and availability Turbine manufacturers are continuously developing the low pressure last stage blades using the latest technology in order to achieve higher reliability and improved efficiency. They tend to lengthen the last stage blade and apply shrouds at the blades to enhance turbine efficiency. The long blades increase the blade tip circumferential speed and water droplet erosion at shroud is anticipated. Parts of integral shrouds of the last stage 40 inch blades were cracked and liberated recently in a combined cycle power plant. In order to analyze the root cause of the last stage blades shroud cracks, we investigated operational history, heat balance diagram, damaged blades shape, fractured surface of damaged blades, microstructure examination and design data, etc. Root causes were analyzed as the improper material and design of the blade. Notches induced by erosion and blade shroud were failed eventually by high cycle fatigue. This paper describes the root cause analysis and countermeasures for the steam turbine last stage blade shroud cracks of the combined cycle power plant.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.738-744
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• 2011

The reliability of blade root fixing section is required to endure the centrifugal force and vibration stress for the last stage blade of steam turbine in thermal power plant. Most of the domestic steam turbine last stage blades have finger type roots. The finger type blade is very complex, so the inspection had been performed only on the exposed fixing pin cross-section area due to the difficulty of inspection. But the centrifugal force and vibration stress are also applied at the blade root finger and the crack generates, so the inspection method for finger section is necessary. For the inspection of root finger, inspection points were decided by simulating ultra-sonic path with 3D modeling, curve-shape probe and fixing jig were invented, and the characteristics analysis method of ultrasonic reflection signal and defect signal disposition method were invented. This invented method was actually executed at site and prevented the blade liberation failure by detecting the cracks at the fingers. Also, the same type blades of the other turbines were inspected periodically and the reliability of the turbine increased.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Technology Engineers
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.386-392
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• 2016

The sizes of last stage blades (LSB) in a low-pressure steam turbine have been getting larger for the development of high-capacity power plants. They are also larger than other blades in the same system. As a result, crack propagation in an LSB is caused by the large centrifugal force, low natural frequency, and repeated turbine startups. In this study, the critical crack length for a fracture and vibration characteristics, in accordance with crack propagation, were analyzed using a finite element method to calculate the stress intensity factor (SIF) and the natural frequency that was affected by the stress-stiffening effect. It was calculated that the frequency of the third and fifth modes passed the excited harmonic resonance (5X and 10X) and the observed calculated critical crack length matched that of the real fractured surface.

• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.08a
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• pp.291-294
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• 2006

Exhaust system of steam turbines consists of an annular diffuser and a collector and connects the last stage turbine and the condenser. The system is used to transfer the turbine leaving kinetic energy to potential energy while guiding the flow from turbine exit plane to the downstream condenser. In the steam turbine exhaust system, distorted pressure profile is arisen by the nonaxisymmetric collector structure at the diffuser outlet, and this distorted pressure is propagated to the last stage LP turbine exit plane through the diffuser, then the last stage LP turbine experiences asymmetric back pressure. It is known that the pressure recovery performance of diffuser is strongly influenced by diffuser inflow condition. In this study, the effect of exhaust system due to the changing of inlet flow condition is observed by using CFD, and the interaction of last stage LP turbine and exhaust system is investigated by using actuator disk model as modeling of turbine blade row of exhaust hood inlet.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.37 no.12
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• pp.1153-1157
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• 2013

A steam turbine blade is one of the core parts in a power plant. It transforms steam energy into mechanical energy. It is installed on the rim of a rotor disk. Many failure cases have been reported at the final stage blades of a low-pressure (LP) turbine that is cyclically loaded by centrifugal force because of the repeated startups of the turbine. Therefore, to ensure the safety of an LP steam turbine blade, it is necessary to investigate the fatigue strength and life. In this study, the low cycle fatigue life of an LP steam turbine blade is evaluated based on actual damage analysis. To determine the crack initiation life of the final stage of a steam turbine, Neuber's rule is applied to elastic stresses by the finite element method to calculate the true strain amplitude. It is observed that the expected life and actual number of starts/stops of the blade were well matched.

• 한국태양에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.280-287
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• 2008

In case of low pressure steam turbine used in power plant, it was operated in wet steam and high stress condition. Therefore, it is possible that the corrosion damage of low pressure was induced by this condition. According to previous study, about 30% of total blade failure correspond to corrosion fatigue or SCC(stress corrosion cracking) in low pressure turbine. Especially, LSB(last stage bucket) of low pressure turbine has a higher hardness to prevent erosion damage due to water droplet however, generally this is more dangerous for SCC damage. Therefore, to improve reliability of turbine blade. various methods for SCC evaluation has been developed. In this study, the crack found in LSB during in-service inspection was evaluated using microstructure analysis and stress analysis. From the stress analysis, the optimum size of fillet to remove the crack was proposed. And also, the reliability was evaluated for modified LSB using GOODMAN diagram.

• Journal of Power System Engineering
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.5-15
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• 2007

In the recently released accident-investigation report on blade failure, almost 70% of blade failures was found at low pressure turbine blades, and it is well known that main cause is due to the vibration modes. This paper describes the systematic approach on the root cause of the blade failure at L 0 stage, 30MW single flow industrial steam turbine which had tripped by high vibration after ten-month commercial operation. A fracture was found at the only one damping wire hole of 59 blades, and crack was detected at three damping wire holes by NDT. According to the analysis result for the crack fracture surface and the chain of the sequential operational events, we come to the conclusion that a typical high cycle fatigue is the most dominant factor caused to the blade failure, the resonance frequency margin was narrowed by the cut damping wire and the high cycle vibration was amplified, and then the blade was broken at once by the centrifugal force when the crack reached the critical size.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.63-63
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• 2001

As a new approach to substitute for a hard alloy of stellite 6B containing Co which is radioactive in nuclear system, a hard-phase coating of CrN will be applicable to protect 12Cr steel from erosion at leading edge on steam turbine blade. The CrN coating was prepared by arc ion plating on 12 Cr steel and was undertaken in liquid impact test at the velocity of 35Om/sec, which simulate the environment in the last stage of blade. The erosion resistance of coating was evaluated by optical observation on damaged surface. The threshold number of impact was closely related with surface hardness. And thus, it was confirmed that surface hardening improves the life time of steam turbine blade.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.423-428
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• 2016

The last stage blades of a low pressure (LP) turbine get frequently fractured because of stress corrosion cracking. This is because they operate in a severe corrosive environment that is caused by the impurities dissolved in condensed steam and high stress due to high speed rotation. To improve the reliability of the blades under severe conditions, 12% Cr martensitic stainless steel, having excellent corrosion resistance and higher strength, is widely used as the blade material. This paper shows the result of root cause analysis on a blade which got fractured suddenly during normal operation. Testing of mechanical properties and microstructure examination were performed on the fractured blade and on a blade in sound condition. The results of testing of mechanical properties of the fractured blade showed that the hardness were higher but impact energy were lower, and were not meeting the criteria as per the material certificate specification. This result showed that the fractured blade became embrittled. The branch-type crack was found to have propagated through the grain boundary and components of chloride and sulfur were detected on the fractured surface. Based on these results, the root cause of fracture was confirmed to be stress corrosion cracking.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.19 no.11
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• pp.3022-3030
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• 1995

The irreversibility of condensation process in the supersonic flow of steam turbine cascade causes the entropy to increase and the total pressure loss to be generated. In the present study, in order to investigate the moist air flow in two dimensional steam turbine cascade made as the configuration of the last stage tip section of the actual steam turbine moving blade, the static and total pressures along suction side of the blade are measured by pressure taps and Pitot tube. The flow field is visualized by a Schlieren system. The effects of stagnation temperature and the degree of supersaturation on energy loss and entropy change in the flow are clearly identified.