Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 17941804

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Engineering Failure Analysis

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/engfailanal

Failure analysis of the 150 MW gas turbine blades

J. Kubiak a,*, G. Urquiza a, J.A. Rodriguez a, G. Gonzlez a, I. Rosales a, G. Castillo b, J. Nebradt b
a
State University of Morelos, Centro de Investigacin en Ingeniera y Ciencias Aplicadas, CIICAp, Av. Universidad 1001, Col. Chamilpa, C.P. 62209,
Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico
b
Comisin Federal de Electricidad, Av. Don Manuelito, Mexico

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A 150 MW gas turbine experienced a forced break down because of extremely high vibra-
Received 4 July 2008 tions and subsequent output power reduction down to almost zero. Before the break down,
Received in revised form 12 August 2008 the turbine was operated by approximately 1800 hours in intermittent mode, with a record
Accepted 12 August 2008
of 65 start-ups in total. When the turbine casing was opened it was found that all blades,
Available online 29 August 2008
stationary and moving ones, were in damaged status. Especially destroyed was the rst
row moving blades, with four missing blades. In contrast, no damage or excessive wearing
Keywords:
out was found neither in the combustion chamber nor in the transition pieces; even nor at
Blades failure
Micrography and fractography
the region of entry to the nozzles. The rst author was present during disassembly of the
Thermal stress turbine to watch the status. The aim of the diagnostic work was to nd out the main cause
of the blades failure. The results of further investigation lead to establish that the former
cause of the blade failure was low cycle fatigue that originated a crack in the securing
pin hole (stress raiser) located at the root of the blade and propagated.
2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

Analysis and visual inspection indicated that moving blades of the 1st row were rst destroyed (broken), which are
labeled as No. 2226 in Fig. 1. Other stationary and moving blades were observed with damage by solid objects and particles,
which originated from the destroyed blades of the 1st row.
Afterwards, the blades were dissembled and inspected revealing that cracks originated from the hole located below the
platform of the 1st stage moving blade root. To complete the analysis the following activities were carried out:

 Visual inspection.
 Review of the turbine operation data.
 Metallurgical examination to establish the metallurgical mode of failure.
 Blade root FEM analysis.
 Causes of the failure and conclusions.

2. Visual inspection of the gas turbine

2.1. Compressor, combustion chamber and transition ducts

The compressor blades were inspected after the operation, and shown no damage. Also, the combustion chamber, which
is connected to the transition piece, were inspected and observed with no damage. This result indicates that the gas turbine
failed and it did not start in these parts of the machine, considered as free of damage [1].

* Corresponding author. Tel./fax: +52 777 3 29 79 84.

E-mail address: janusz@uaem.mx (J. Kubiak).

1350-6307/$ - see front matter 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.engfailanal.2008.08.023
 J. Kubiak et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 17941804 1795

Nomenclature

Youngs modulus E Thermal expansion a

Density q Poisson ratio t
Conductivity K Pascal Pa

2.2. Turbine

After inspection of the blades, the nozzles condition at the rst stage of the gas turbine revealed as shown in Fig. 2. The
nozzle corresponds to the entrance section of the turbine. The nozzles showed a deep damage on its surface, caused by for-
eign bodies, probably coming from the deteriorated moving blades of the rst stage, located upstream.
Fig. 3 illustrates the diaphragms of the second turbine stage. This shows that the surfaces of the diaphragm blades present
severe damage, caused by foreign bodies (solid particles). It was found that no one of the blades present cracks, originated by
other cause, which proves that subsequent stages damages were caused as a result of disintegrated materials coming from
moving blades of the rst stage.
The moving blades of the rst and second stages are shown in Fig. 4, while the third and fourth stages are shown in Fig. 5.
It is clear that most of the damaged blades (some of them totally destroyed) correspond to the moving blades of the rst

Fig. 1. Destroyed moving blades of 1st row.

Fig. 2. General view of the damaged surface of the rst stage nozzles.
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Fig. 3. Damages by foreign objects to the second stage diaphragm.

stage. Fig. 4 shows the 5 blades fractured at their base platforms, which were considered the only blades fractured at their
base platforms. It is argued that one or two of these blades rst get fractured damaging subsequent blades of the turbine gas
path.
Analyzing the results of the visual inspection, it could be concluded that the moving blades of the rst stage fractured rst
and damage the blades of the following stages. Other damages were a direct consequence of the disintegration into small
fragile particles of the rst stage moving blades. That disintegration caused a stream of small foreign bodies and solid par-
ticles, which eroded some surfaces; it is more evident in the subsequent blades.
It is important to underline that one portion of the air from the compressor extraction point was used to heat the gas
lowering its temperature and then again feed to the cooling channels of the turbine rotor and blades. The condensate
(the power plant is located beside the sea) accumulated in the gas heater, especially during frequent shut downs, it could
enter to the blade-cooling channels lowering too much the blade temperature rising thermal stresses and causing crack ini-
tiation. The crack then was propagated at each start-up till devastating failure occurred but at the full load operation.
Fig. 6 shows the internal part of the air pipe of the rotor cooling system, where the rush of the water in the pipe were
observed, which probably entered the turbine during starting up. The internal surface of the pipe was corroded and depos-
ited by a slag with a thickness of one millimeter. The dust of the corroded metal could arrive until cooling ducts of the mo-
vable blades preventing mainly the air ow and depositing on the surfaces of cooling ducts, changing the heat transfer
coefcient, which consequently during normal operation brings out the crack by high thermal stresses.
On the other hand, during frequent shut downs of GT a condensate was accumulated in the gas heater (no condensate
automatic tramps were installed), it could be easily taken to the cooling channel of the blades rising the temperature differ-
ence hence thermal stresses and causing precipitated thermal fatigue.

Fig. 4. View of the rst and second stages moving blades.

 J. Kubiak et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 17941804 1797

Fig. 5. Moving blades of the third and fourth stages.

Fig. 6. Inner surface of the rotor air cooling pipe deposited with corrosion products.

2.3. Review of turbine operation data

The operation history of the turbine was carefully studied and revised. The turbine was operated by approximately
1860 hours during a period of 3-year time, with 65 times started up. The plant is located a short distance from the sea. After
analyzing the information no abnormalities in operation of the turbine were found.

3. Metallurgical examination to establish the metallurgical mode of failure

After the gas turbine was opened, all blades were dismantled from the turbine rotor. Several moving blades of the rst
stage were cracked. The cracks were located at the vicinity of the protecting pin hole. Two blades were selected to conduct
the metallurgical examination. The following activities were developed as part of a plan work [2]:

 Take several specimen to examine a microstructure in three different parts of the blades.
 Expose the cracks to the fractography of the cracked blades.
 Determine the metallurgical mode of the failure.

In Fig. 7 the cracked blade No. 65 is shown. Two cracks were identied in this blade; one from the securing pin hole up to
the blade base and the second one in the leading edge of the blade body, exactly at 1.5 cm from the blade base. The crack
initiated at the hole and propagated inside the blade body until reaching the cooling channel. It means that this part of
the blade was the weakest part.
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Fig. 7. First stage moving blade with a cracked platform.

3.1. Micrography and fractography of the blade

After inspection, the blade No. 65 was selected to carry out the metallurgical investigation; a set of micrographs obtained
through scanning electronic microscopy (SEM). The origin of the crack is marked with an arrow in the vicinity of air entrance
to the blade-cooling channel, Fig. 8. On the other hand Fig. 9a and b show a magnied view of the crack, which is a trans-
granular type. The propagation region of this crack is shown in the Fig. 10. There were some apparent propagation marks
which may indicate that the thermal stresses were involved in the process of fracture. A micrograph of the crack, Fig. 11,
shows the presence of a martensitic zone along the crack, which could be due only to a sudden cooling in this region, pro-
duced by the entrance of condensate from the accumulation in the gas heater. This microstructure is hard and brittle, and
leads to failures. A micro hardness prole along the blade; shown on Fig. 12, indicates that, in the fractured zone, where this
martensite was observed an increase in the hardness was present [3].

3.2. Microstructure examination of the blade material

The microstructure of the blade metal was examined in four zones: at the root of the blade, the hub, in the mid span and
in the tip of the blade. Because of the lowest temperature at the root of the blade, the microstructure should not indicate
overheating of the material. This microstructure was compared to other three zones. None of the zones was overheated.
In this zone, the carbides were distributed in discrete form and gamma prime phase appears in the form of circle/cubic with
a size between 0.5 and 1 lm, whereas the carbides, along the grain boundaries, were 10 lm long and the grains are nearly
100 lm in length. This type of microstructure indicates that the root material was not exposed to overheating. A similar
microstructure was found at the hub of the blade, which means that no high temperature was affecting this part of the blade
material as well.

Fig. 8. The micrograph that shows the location where the crack started.
 J. Kubiak et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 17941804 1799

Fig. 9. Crack amplication is a transgranular type.

Fig. 10. Arrow indicates apparent low frequency propagation marks.

The middle blade microstructure reveals that the size of the grains was smaller than 3 lm, and the carbides were around
10 lm long, decorating the grain boundaries, which marked the limit among the grains whose size was around 100 lm wide.
The microstructure was similar to that of the blade root and no damage to this microstructure eventually caused by high
temperature was visible. In other words the blade was not exposed to an excessive gas temperature [4].
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Fig. 11. Micrograph showing a transgranular crack and microstructure change to martensite along the crack.

Fig. 12. Micro hardness prole at the different parts of the blade.

The microstructure of the blade material at the blade tip showed the carbides and gamma prime phase. In this case, car-
bides were decorating the grain boundaries, the grain size was around 100 lm, whereas the size of the gamma prime phase
was less than 2 lm, which means that no evidence of the damage to the microstructure by eventual higher than normal tem-
perature was found.
Resuming, it could be said that the microstructure of the blade remained undamaged. Probably the crack initiated exces-
sive thermal stresses and propagated to the cooling air channel entrance and at the pin whole region below the platform,
probably due to a sudden cooling by the induction of condensate, inducing a martensitic, hard, brittle region, and it was
propagated to the body of the blade.

4. Blade root FEM analysis

It is important to determine the natural frequencies of the blade using modal analysis. These results were important to
validate the numerical model that was constructed using nite element method.
A numerical model of a gas turbine blade was constructed and meshed to get the FEM of a single blade as shown in Fig. 13.
Fig. 14 shows the rst modal form. The FEM had a structured mesh with solid70 elements to address thermal analyses and
change to solid90 for structural analyses.
Table 1 shows natural frequencies of the blade obtained with modal analysis.
This gas turbine blade was analyzed under two categories of stress. The centrifugal stress that act in the blade due to its
rotational speed and the thermal stress that arise due to the thermal gradients. Table 2 presents the mechanical properties of
the material MAR M246 [5], which was an alloy made from 61% Nickel, 15.8% Chromium, 9.5% Cobalt etc., Youngs modulus,
Poissons ratio, density, conductivity etc.
 J. Kubiak et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 17941804 1801

Fig. 13. Numerical model gas turbine blade.

Fig. 14. First modal form of gas blade and rst natural frequency.

Table 1
Calculated natural frequencies of the single gas turbine blade

Natural frequencies (Hz)

1st 1230.1
2nd 2584.7
3rd 3047.5
4th 4642.3
5th 6721.6

The nite element model used in this analysis allows the thermal analysis to be carried out rst and then the results were
automatically transferred to the structural model. The analysis was run assuming a uniform initial metal temperature of
303 K.
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Table 2
Physical and mechanical properties

E 211E9 Pa
q 8440 Kg/m3
K 16.8 W/m K
a 11.3e 6
t 0.289

Fig. 15 shows centrifugal stresses in the blade, it is observed that, maximum centrifugal stresses were 53.6 MPa.
Preliminary thermal analysis was performed on the blade; the temperature of 973 K was applied in of the blade and
1173 K on its surface. The results were automatically transferred to the structural model. The thermal stresses were obtained
from this analysis. Figs. 16 and 17 represent the Von Mises stresses distribution across the gas blade. The level of the stresses
is normal for this type of blade, for assumed temperature distribution in normal condition of operation.

5. Diagnostics of the failure

A careful review of the operating data of the gas turbine revealed no abnormalities. As mentioned before, the visual
inspection helped to deduce that moving blades of the 1st stage failed rst. The metallurgical analysis was decisive to char-
acterize the metallurgical mode of failure and to nd out the main cause of the failure of the blade. The cause was that cracks
originated and propagated by excessive thermal stress inside the body of the blades pointing out the failure of the air cooling
system and gas heater. The crack started from the pin hole below the blade platform this means that the fault was asso-
ciated with faults in the cooling system.
After the analysis of all the information discussed above it was recommended to change the design of the blade root. And
modify the gas heater and the rotor air cooling system to prevent accumulation of the condensate in the gas heater and avoid
corrosion of inner surfaces of the pipes applying different materials and/or coatings.

6. Recommendations

The following recommendations were made in order to avoid similar future failures:

 Verify the replacement blades and their installation.

 Verify the cooling air system (install the drains and adequate points- design and install a cooling air ventilation system
operated during start-ups).
 Check the gas heater/air cooler different materials and automatic condensate tramps.

Fig. 15. Centrifugal stresses in gas blade.

 J. Kubiak et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 17941804 1803

Fig. 16. Von Mises stress distribution (Pa).

Fig. 17. Thermal stress in blade.

 Check the turbine gas path.

 Inspect the turbine after 500 hours of operation.
 During operation put especial attention on the correct operation of the gas heater and cooling air/air systems.
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References

[1] Kubiak Janusz (in Spanish) Partial Report No. 144P/DM/CIICAp. Visual inspection of the Unit 7 gas turbine, December, 2006.
[2] Kubiak Janusz, Gonzles Gonzalo (in Spanish) Partial Report No. 145/DM/CIICAp. Metal graphic exam of the rotating blade Unit 7 gas turbine,
December, 2006.
[3] ASM Handbook. Powder metal technologies and applications, 9th ed., vol. 7. Materials Park, OH: ASM International; 1985.
[4] ASM Handbook. Metallography and microstructures, 9th ed., vol. 9. Materials Park, OH: ASM International; 1985.
[5] ASM Handbook. Properties and selection: stainless steels, tool materials and special purpose metals, 9th ed., vol. 3. Materials Park, OH: ASM
International; 1985.