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a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history:
Received 13 April 2011
Received in revised form 30 August 2011
Accepted 19 May 2012
Available online 7 June 2012
Keywords:
Blade failures
High cycle fatigue
Finite element analysis
Vibration
Stress analysis
a b s t r a c t
There has been a statistically increased rate of a common failure in the rst stage compressor blades of frame-type gas turbines installed in a seaside power plant. A root cause analysis was performed for these failures. This paper presents the results of an experimental
and numerical analysis of the effects of natural frequencies on these failures. Fractography
analysis showed striations on the fractured surfaces of the blades, which are a common
result of high cycle fatigue (HCF). Therefore, the focus of this study is determining the
modes of vibration and the corresponding resonant frequencies. To this end, a 3-D model
of the blade and its disk under static and dynamic forces was analyzed with ANSYS
software. The simulation results showed that high stresses occurred in the areas where
the cracks initiated under both dynamic and static forces. Furthermore, from a Campbell
diagram it was concluded that the resonance of the blades under the rst and second
natural frequency modes is the primary reason for the fatigue fractures of these blades.
2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
An axial compressor is one of the main components of a gas turbine engine. The principal function of the compressor is to
compress the air that is used in the combustion process. The moving blades and discs of the compressor operate at various
temperatures and are subjected to high rotational velocities. High speeds cause large centrifugal forces in the disc and
blades. During the start and stop phases of the engine, the rst components that can be damaged are the compressor blades
because of vibrational forces. The problem of fatigue fracture of the compressor blades was described by Loureno et al. [1],
Kermanpur et al. [2], Silveira et al. [3] and Poznanska et al. [4].
Numerous reports of fractures of the rst stage moving compressor blades in frame-type gas turbines, such as at plants in
Pakistan, China, Korea, USA (New Jersey & Newark Bay) [5] and recently in Iran, show that similar fractures are due to compressor design errors. The result is that the premature, unexpected and unpredicted fracture of one of the blades and the
impaction of the fractured part on other blades cause failure of whole compressor blades. Due to the importance of this
problem, conferences have been dedicated to examining the issues with frame-type compressors [6].
The problem of premature fracture of a compressor blade occurred in four gas turbines at a seaside renery; fractures
occurred after about 26,780 h of operation for the turbine named GTG-A (30-September-2005), 31,599 h for GTG-B (31-October-2006), 30,895 h for GTG-D (02-March-2008) and 18,000 h of operation for GTG-C (20-October-2010). As shown in Fig. 1,
all of the fractures occurred in the rst stage moving blades.
According to previous investigations of the fractured surfaces of broken blades, the cracks initiated at the leading edge
and/or the pressure side of the blades, and the fractures were caused by HCF. These results were in good agreement with
Corresponding author. Address: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Zanjan, P.O. Box: 45195-313, Zanjan, Iran. Mobile: +98 912
2133496; fax: +98 26 34467231.
E-mail addresses: epsaeidi@gmail.com, epsaeidi@znu.ac.ir (E. Poursaeidi).
1350-6307/$ - see front matter 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.engfailanal.2012.05.013
305
the results of an Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) investigation from 2004 that showed that HCF is the most common
cause of failure in Frame-6 gas turbine compressor blades [6]. This paper presents the results of experimental and numerical
investigations of the effects of natural frequencies on these blade fractures.
2. Fractography
An investigation of the fractured blades in the four compressors mentioned above showed that in three of them the cracks
initiated from the platform; in the other compressor the crack initiated from the middle part of the pressure surface. Fig. 2a
shows a top view of the GTG-C fractured blade, which shows the crack origin zone near the leading edge, propagation of the
Fig. 2. (a) Fractured blade with a crack origin at leading edge; (b) Fractured blade with a crack origin at middle height on pressure surface.
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crack, and the nal fracture areas. Fig. 2b shows the GTG-D fractured blade, where the average height of the fracture surface
is located in the inner third-span of the blade, approximately 62 mm above the platform. The crack propagation area and the
nal fracture with a 45-degree shear stress area are obvious in the gure.
A scanning electron microscope (SEM) was employed to observe the microstructure in order to ascertain the quality of the
surface in the fractured zones. Fig. 3 shows the existence of striations in the crack propagation area of the GTG-D fractured
blade. The existence of striations proves that the fracture is due to HCF. Fig. 4 shows a cracked blade, which was detected
with dye penetrant tests during the overhaul investigations.
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Graph 1. Normal stress due to centrifugal force at the blade vs. the normalized blade length.
F c m b r p x2 ;
mb rp x2
;
S
and
rc
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Ideal gas, stable and unstable ows for full and part load operating conditions.
CFD boundary conditions:
Mass ow rate, inlet pressure and temperature were xed at the inlet section;
All the solid boundaries were xed as insulated;
Following the solutions until convergence when the sum of the normalized residuals for each control equation was on the
order of 1 106.
All the models and procedures that are used in the Fluent software to solve various uid mechanics and heat transfer
problems are clearly explained in the Fluent 6.3.26 user manual [10].
The results of the CFD simulation show the magnitudes and effective locations of the axial and tangential forces and torque acting on the rst row blades; under full load operating conditions the results are as follows:
F a 325:7 N; Ra 0:535 m
F t 430:4 N; Rt 0:533 m
s 116:6 N m; Rs 0:539 m
Division of the vector summation of the tangential and axial forces by the area of the pressure surface of the blade, A, gives
the equilibrium pressure, which was applied as a pressure boundary condition in the FEM analysis of the blade. The equation
for calculating the pressure is as follows:
q
F 2t F 2a
A
q
325:72 430:42
0:02599
20767:4 Pa
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Fig. 6. Freefree vibration test instrument and location of probes on the blade.
Graph 2. Spectrum of response function to the frequency that shows the natural frequencies of the blade.
p
2
f1 760 Hz &
A760
2
f2 1852 Hz &
Hz
p
2
A1852
2
90:5 ! BW760
Hz
Hz
9:56 Hz ! n1
298:4 ! BW1852
Hz
BW
0:0063:
2f 1
12:69 Hz ! n2
BW
0:0034:
2f 2
The calculated damping ratios of the blade were used in the FEM analysis.
4.2. Finite Element Modeling (FEM)
The bladed disc is a cyclic-symmetric structure consisting of 32 blades. The blades are inserted into the grooves on the
disc via straight, axial, dovetail-shaped roots. However, to simplify the analysis of the FE model, an assembly of a single blade
on a small portion of the disc was created using the SolidWorks software package. The study then used the ANSYS nite element code. Fig. 7 shows the meshed model. First, the model was covered with different meshes, and a parametric analysis
was performed to conrm that the numerical results were grid-independent. It was determined that the optimum mesh consisted of 8291 solid elements for the blade and 1692 for the disk. 10-Node quadratic tetrahedron (solid 187) elements were
used to mesh the blade and the disk. In addition, to model the mechanical interface of the adjacent surfaces between the disk
section and the root of the blade, a high-order surface-to-surface contact element was dened.
Because the blades are under both static and dynamic loads, two distinct procedures, static and dynamic analysis, were
selected for analyzing the blades.
4.2.1. Static stress analysis
The mechanical properties of the blade material, C450, such as the Elasticity modulus, Poissons ratio and the density
were set to 200 GPa, 0.29 and 7750 kg/m3, respectively. Because the model is circularly symmetric, the lowest surface of
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Fig. 7. Model of blade covered by meshes and contact boundary between blade and its base.
the disc portion was selected to x the model radially at a cylindrical coordinate. Centrifugal force was simulated by dening
a rotating condition with a constant speed equal to 5163 rpm around the center axis of the previously dened cylindrical
support. In addition, the calculated aerodynamic equilibrium pressure was dened on the blade pressure surface. Also,
the calculated aerodynamic torque (s) was applied to the blade tangential surface at the height of Rs. A stress analysis
was then performed, and the distribution of the Von Mises stress on the suction side of the blade is shown in Fig. 8.
As shown in Fig. 8, the maximum stress occurs at a small area on the blade hub llet region, which is due to the non-uniform distribution of the stress eld in this area. The non-uniform stress distribution at the lleted area of the suction side is
due to the existence of a high magnitude torque resulting from the centrifugal and aerodynamic forces; the torque causes
Fig. 8. Distribution of von-misses stress at the suction side of the blade under static loads.
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Fig. 9. Von-misses stress distribution at the pressure surface of the blade under static loads.
maximum stress at the maximum thickness of the blade airfoil. As shown in Fig. 8, the value of the maximum stress at the
blade is 416 MPa, which is statistically in a safe margin in comparison with the ultimate strength of 814 MPa.
Fig. 9 shows the Von Mises stress distribution at the pressure surface of the blade. As shown in Fig. 9, there is a local stress
concentration zone at a height of 75 mm above the platform on the pressure surface of the blade. The position of this local
stress concentration on the pressure surface of the blade demonstrates a very good agreement between the predicted stress
distribution and the crack origin.
Fig. 10. Von-misses stress distribution under the three rst natural mode shapes of blade.
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Fig. 11. Stress concentration point at the leading edge near the platform of the blade under the second natural mode shape.
Fig. 12. Normal stress distribution (at the z direction) under the frequency equal to 323.8 Hz at the pressure side of the blade.
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Fig. 13. Normal stress distribution (at the z direction) under the frequency equal to 323.8 Hz at the suction side of the blade.
As shown in Fig. 12, a comparison of the higher stress area from the harmonic analysis with the crack location shows good
agreement. The maximum dynamic stress is approximately 58 MPa at a height of 45 mm above the blade platform.
Fig. 13 shows the compressive stress distribution contours on the blade suction side. The locations of higher stress occurred in the inner third-span of the blade. This type of dynamic stress distribution in conjunction with the magnitude
and location of the maximum static stress on the blade resulting from the centrifugal force causes fatigue to occur in the
blade.
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5. Conclusions
Because of the existence of striations and separate regions at the fractured surfaces, it was concluded that blade fractures
were due to HCF. Therefore, these studies focused on determining the vibrational characteristics of the blades. To this end, a
nite element analysis of the blades was performed using two separate methods: static and dynamic analysis. The results of
both the static and dynamic FEM analyses of the blade showed good agreement between the areas where the cracks occurred
and the stress concentration areas. According to the results of the FEM harmonic analysis, the fractured area at a height of
62 mm above the platform is subject to a dynamic stress equal to 58 MPa at the rst natural frequency mode shape. Additionally, there is a stress concentration area near the leading edge just above the platform at the second natural frequency
mode shape that agrees well with the fractured zones near the platform.
The Campbell diagram shows that the 11th order rotor harmonic coincides with the second natural frequency of the
blade, which causes resonance in the blade at the nominal rotor speed. Furthermore, there is a coincidence of the 4th order
rotor harmonic and the rst natural frequency of the blade at a rotor speed equal to 4750 rpm. According to the calculated
stresses at the blade, which indicate a high probability of fracture due to rst natural frequency mode resonance, the speed of
4750 rpm was concluded to be a critical condition that should be avoided.
6. Recommendations
The moving blades of an axial compressor are an inherently vibrational element that can be resonated by exciting the
mass (blade feather) or base (blade root). To avoid blade resonance, the excitation factor should be eliminated. Exact dynamical rotor balancing is thus a very effective method for eliminating blade root excitation factors. An optimized weight
arrangement of the blades on the disk can effectively improve the vibrational stability of the blade. According to compressor
design problems and the high sensitivity of the rst row moving blades as well as the results of our CFD simulations, to avoid
any aerodynamic excitation of the blade feather, such as ow turbulence, ow wakes and blade stall, it is recommended that
a gas turbine not be operated at low loads (very far from the engine design point) for long periods. An important factor in the
creation of ow turbulence around the blade airfoil is compressor fouling. The compressor should be washed regularly (in
315
advance, off-line washing) to remove the precipitated particles on the surfaces of the compressor blades. It is expected that
the engine harmonic orders would be suppressed by the above considerations.
According to GEs recommendation for the Frame-7 gas turbine eet, the users must reinspect the R0 blades after every
1600 h of operation on base-load units and after 48 red starts on cycling units, depending on the number of operating hours
per start. GE also recommends that regular blade polishing during frequent inspections will mitigate any erosion of the
leading edge. This recommendation can be effectively applied to Frame-6 engines.
A similar investigation of Frame-7 engines by the EPRI showed that replacing the C450 material with a titanium alloy (a
lighter and more erosion-resistant material) that has a lower density and weight reduces the stress in the critical leading
edge [14]. For the major problems with R0 compressor blades, EPRI investigators also recommend laser shock peening to
offset mean stress and improve durability [15].
Acknowledgments
This work was performed at the Iranian South Pars Gas Co. The nancial support of the project with this company is gratefully acknowledged. Thanks are also due to managers and engineers of the company for their helps during the project.
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