Temperature Estimation and Life Prediction of Turbine Blades Using Post-Service Oxidation Measurements

1997 ◽  
Vol 119 (4) ◽  
pp. 922-929 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. P. Swaminathan ◽  
J. M. Allen ◽  
G. L. Touchton

The depth of internal oxidation and nitridation from the surface of the 16 cooling holes in a first-stage turbine blade was measured by optical microscopy after 32,000 hours of service. Maximum depth of penetration was 15.5 mils (0.4 mm) at the trailing edge hole. An effort was made to predict hole surface metal temperatures based on these measurements using the Arrhenius relationship between time and temperature with depth of oxidation assumed to be parabolic with time. Reasonable correlations were obtained between finite element analysis results and temperature estimates based on the oxidation measurements. In the thickest part of the airfoil, where metal temperature is minimum, intergranular cracks up to 12.6 mils (0.32 mm) in depth were found at the surface of the cooling holes. Measurable oxidation attack was only one to two mils (0.025–0.050 mm). Based on an approximate elastic-relaxation-local inelastic stress analysis, it was calculated that inelastic local strains of over one percent occur at the points of cracking. No cracking was observed in the more heavily oxidized, lower stressed, hotter holes. However, cracking occurred in a trailing edge tip cooling hole when weld repair of the tip squealer was attempted, due to embrittlement and grain boundary oxidation from service exposure. Temperature estimates suitable for life assessment purposes using oxidation measurements appears to be a possible technique that should be further developed and validated.

Author(s):  
V. P. Swaminathan ◽  
J. M. Allen ◽  
G. L. Touchton

The depth of internal oxidation and nitridation from the surface of the 16 cooling holes in a first-stage turbine blade was measured by optical microscopy after 32,000 hours of service. Maximum depth of penetration was 15.5 mils (0.4 mm) at the trailing edge hole. An effort was made to predict hole surface metal temperatures based on these measurements using the Arrhenius relationship between time and temperature with depth of oxidation assumed to be parabolic with time. Reasonable correlations were obtained between finite element analysis results and temperature estimates based on the oxidation measurements. In the thickest part of the airfoil, where metal temperature is minimum, intergranular cracks up to 12.6 mils (0.32 mm) in depth were found at the surface of the cooling holes. Measurable oxidation attack was only one to two mils (0.025–0.050mm). Based on an approximate elastic-relaxation-local inelastic stress analysis, it was calculated that inelastic local strains of over one percent occur at the points of cracking. No cracking was observed in the more heavily oxidized, lower stressed, hotter holes. However, cracking occurred in a trailing edge tip cooling hole when weld repair of the tip squealer was attempted, due to embrittlement and grain boundary oxidation from service exposure. Temperature estimates suitable for life assessment purposes using oxidation measurements appears to be a possible technique that should be further developed and validated.


Processes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 622
Author(s):  
Yasser Elhenawy ◽  
Yasser Fouad ◽  
Haykel Marouani ◽  
Mohamed Bassyouni

This study aims to evaluate the effect of functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) on the performance of glass fiber (GF)-reinforced polypropylene (PP) for wind turbine blades. Support for theoretical blade movement of horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWTs), simulation, and analysis were performed with the Ansys computer package to gain insight into the durability of polypropylene-chopped E-glass for application in turbine blades under aerodynamic, gravitational, and centrifugal loads. Typically, polymer nanocomposites are used for small-scale wind turbine systems, such as for residential applications. Mechanical and physical properties of material composites including tensile and melt flow indices were determined. Surface morphology of polypropylene-chopped E-glass fiber and functionalized MWCNTs nanocomposites showed good distribution of dispersed phase. The effect of fiber loading on the mechanical properties of the PP nanocomposites was investigated in order to obtain the optimum composite composition and processing conditions for manufacturing wind turbine blades. The results show that adding MWCNTs to glass fiber-reinforced PP composites has a substantial influence on deflection reduction and adding them to chopped-polypropylene E-glass has a significant effect on reducing the bias estimated by finite element analysis.


Author(s):  
Michel Arnal ◽  
Christian Precht ◽  
Thomas Sprunk ◽  
Tobias Danninger ◽  
John Stokes

The present paper outlines a practical methodology for improved virtual prototyping, using as an example, the recently re-engineered, internally-cooled 1st stage blade of a 40 MW industrial gas turbine. Using the full 3-D CAD model of the blade, a CFD simulation that includes the hot gas flow around the blade, conjugate heat transfer from the fluid to the solid at the blade surface, heat conduction through the solid, and the coolant flow in the plenum is performed. The pressure losses through and heat transfer to the cooling channels inside the airfoil are captured with a 1-D code and the 1-D results are linked to the three-dimensional CFD analysis. The resultant three-dimensional temperature distribution through the blade provides the required thermal loading for the subsequent structural finite element analysis. The results of this analysis include the thermo-mechanical stress distribution, which is the basis for blade life assessment.


Author(s):  
M. Yaras ◽  
S. A. Sjolander

The paper presents detailed measurements of the tip-leakage flow emerging from a planar cascade of turbine blades. Four clearances of from 1.5 to 5.5 percent of the blade chord are considered. Measurements were made at the trailing edge plane, and at two main planes 1.0 and 1.56 axial chord lengths downstream of the cascade. The results give insight into several aspects of the leakage flow including: the size and strength of the leakage vortex in relation to the size of the tip gap and the bound circulation of the blade; and the evolution of the components of vorticity as the vortex diffuses laterally downstream of the blade row. The vortex was found to have largely completed its roll-up into a nearly axisymmetric structure even at the trailing edge of the cascade. As a result, it was found that the vortex could be modelled surprisingly well with a simple model based on the diffusion of a line vortex.


Author(s):  
P. J. Bryanston-Cross ◽  
J. J. Camus

A simple technique has been developed which samples the dynamic image plane information of a schlieren system using a digital correlator. Measurements have been made in the passages and in the wakes of transonic turbine blades in a linear cascade. The wind tunnel runs continuously and has independently variable Reynolds and Mach number. As expected, strongly correlated vortices were found in the wake and trailing edge region at 50 KHz. Although these are strongly coherent we show that there is only limited cross-correlation from wake to wake over a Mach no. range M = 0.5 to 1.25 and variation of Reynolds number from 3 × 105 to 106. The trailing edge fluctuation cross correlations were extended both upstream and downstream and preliminary measurements indicate that this technique can be used to obtain information on wake velocity. The vortex frequency has also been measured over the same Mach number range for two different cascades. The results have been compared with high speed schlieren photographs.


2005 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 89-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niels Troldborg

A comprehensive computational study, in both steady and unsteady flow conditions, has been carried out to investigate the aerodynamic characteristics of the Risø-B1-18 airfoil equipped with variable trailing edge geometry as produced by a hinged flap. The function of such flaps should be to decrease fatigue-inducing oscillations on the blades. The computations were conducted using a 2D incompressible RANS solver with a k-w turbulence model under the assumption of a fully developed turbulent flow. The investigations were conducted at a Reynolds number of Re = 1.6 · 106. Calculations conducted on the baseline airfoil showed excellent agreement with measurements on the same airfoil with the same specified conditions. Furthermore, a more widespread comparison with an advanced potential theory code is presented. The influence of various key parameters, such as flap shape, flap size and oscillating frequencies, was investigated so that an optimum design can be suggested for application with wind turbine blades. It is concluded that a moderately curved flap with flap chord to airfoil curve ratio between 0.05 and 0.10 would be an optimum choice.


Author(s):  
K. J. Standish ◽  
C. P. van Dam

The adoption of blunt trailing edge airfoils for the inner regions of large wind turbine blades has been proposed. Blunt trailing edge airfoils would not only provide increased structural volume, but have also been found to improve the lift characteristics of airfoils and therefore allow for section shapes with a greater maximum thickness. Limited experimental data makes it difficult for wind turbine designers to consider and conduct tradeoff studies using these section shapes. This lack of experimental data precipitated the present analysis of blunt trailing edge airfoils using computational fluid dynamics. Several computational techniques are applied including a viscous/inviscid interaction method and several Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes methods.


Author(s):  
D. Corriveau ◽  
S. A. Sjolander

Experimental results concerning the performance of three high-pressure (HP) transonic turbine blades having fore-, aft- and mid-loadings have been presented previously by Corriveau and Sjolander [1]. Results from that study indicated that by shifting the loading towards the rear of the airfoil, improvements in loss performance of the order of 20% could be obtained near the design Mach number. In order to gain a better understanding of the underlying reasons for the improved loss performance of the aft-loaded blade, additional measurements were performed on the three cascades. Furthermore, 2-D numerical simulations of the cascade flow were performed in order to help in the interpretation of the experimental results. Based on the analysis of additional wake traverse data and base pressure measurements combined with the numerical results, it was found that the poorer loss performance of the baseline mid-loaded profile compared to the aft-loaded blade could be traced back to the former’s higher rear suction side curvature. The presence of higher rear suction surface curvature resulted in higher flow velocity in that region. Higher flow velocity at the trailing edge in turn contributed to reducing the base pressure. The lower base pressure at the trailing edge resulted in a stronger trailing edge shock system for the mid-loaded blade. This shock system increased the losses for the mid-loaded baseline profile when compared to the aft-loaded profile.


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