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Impact of Operating and Health Conditions On Aero Gas Turbine Hot Section Creep Life Using A Creep Factor Approach
Impact of Operating and Health Conditions On Aero Gas Turbine Hot Section Creep Life Using A Creep Factor Approach
Impact of Operating and Health Conditions On Aero Gas Turbine Hot Section Creep Life Using A Creep Factor Approach
GT2010
June 14-16, 2010, Glasgow, UK
Proceedings of ASME Turbo Expo 2010: Power for Land, Sea and Air
GT2010
REVISED June 14-18, 2010, Glasgow, UK
GT2010-22332
GT2010-
IMPACT OF OPERATING AND HEALTH CONDITIONS ON AERO GAS TURBINE
ABSTRACT shows that the Creep Factor is good indicator of creep life
consumption and provides a good technique to rank the
A thorough assessment of component life is very important to influencing factor according to the threat they imposed.
ensure both the safety and economics of gas turbine operation.
As a component’s life given by OEM is based on certain 1. INTRODUCTION
ambient and operating conditions, its actual life may vary
substantially when the ambient, operating and engine health Since the first jet engine was put into operation during the
conditions change. Therefore possessing knowledge on how 1930’s, technology has progressed significantly. Despite
those conditions affect actual component life will be valuable in remarkable achievements, the desire to always improve an
making informed maintenance decisions, maximising operation engine’s efficiency has led to a condition where the hot section
effectiveness and cutting down operating costs. In this paper, an components are exposed to extreme mechanical and thermal
impact analysis on component creep life due to different stress. This invites several modes of failure such as creep
operating and engine health conditions using an introduced especially at the high pressure turbine blades as these
Creep Factor is performed, which aims to provide useful components are likely to experience intense mechanical and
insights on the relationship between gas turbine performance thermal loading thus reducing the components’ service life
change and hot section component’s creep life. As the Creep Life assessment has always been a major concern to the
Factor is defined as the ratio between the actual creep life and a gas turbine user for both safety and economy reasons [1, 2].
reference creep life at a user-defined condition, the magnitude Overestimating the blades’ life could lead to catastrophic
of the impact can be quantified with the change of the Creep incidents and economic losses. On the other hand,
Factor. The developed creep life analysis approach was applied underestimating the blades’ life will cause the premature
to a model single spool turboshaft gas turbine engine operated removal of the components. The large safety margin imposed
at various operating and health conditions. A physics-based by the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), to ensure
model combined with the Creep Factor approach was then used safety, makes the blades’ life estimation too conservative
to estimate the creep life variation of the high pressure turbine leading to a waste of good product during maintenance [3, 4].
of the model engine. The results showed that for a clean engine, Moreover, as the life limits provided by the OEM are normally
the change in the rotational speed has given the highest impact calculated on the basis of a design envelope of expected base
on the creep life consumption. Also the presence of blade load, calculated mechanical and thermal stresses as a function
cooling and component degradation is seen to significantly of the operating condition and the capability of the materials
reduce the blade’s creep life and as the degradation effects are within those conditions, the guidelines do not always address
combined, the degree of reduction increases even more. It also
the centrifugal stress at each section ߪிௌ was calculated ܸ ܯܤୗୣୡ = (ܲܨௌ × ݀ீ௦) (7)
where ܣௌ is the cross section area of blade section i and ݊ is
the number of blade section.
In order to calculate the bending moment stress due to ܯ௫௫ = ൫ܲ ܯܤୱୣୡ + ܸ ܯܤ௦ (௫) ൯sin ߠ
(8)
static pressure difference(see Figure 2), the pressure force of + ܸ ܯܤ௦(௧) cos ߠ
each blade section, ܲܨௌ was calculated using Equation 4 [21]
before the pressure bending moment at each section, ܲ ܯܤ௦ ܯ௬௬ = ൫ܲ ܯܤୱୣୡ + ܸ ܯܤ௦(௫) ൯ܿߠݏ
(9)
was calculated using Equation 5 [21], − ܸ ܯܤ௦(௧) ߠ ݊݅ݏ
ܣௌ × ∆௩ௌ where ܯ௫௫ and ܯ௬௬ are the blade section resulting bending
ܲܨௌ = (4) moments about the x and y axis, and ߠ is the blade section
ܰ
stager angle. This was to calculate the bending moment stress at
three different locations which were at the leading edge (LE),
ܲ ܯܤୗୣୡ = (ܲܨௌ × ݀ீ௦) (5) trailing edge (TE), and the back of the blade section using
Equation 10 [21]
ܯ௫௫ ܯ௬௬
ߪெ = ܻ + ܺ (10)
where ܣௌ is the blade section annulus area, ο௩ௌ is the ܫ୫ ୧୬ ܫ୫ ୟ୶
average section static pressure difference, ܰ is the number of
blades, and ݀ீ௦ is the distance between the section CG to the where ܫ and ܫ ௫ are the maximum and minimum values of
respective section . the blade section moment of inertia, ܺ and ܻ are the distances
between the corresponding location to the blade’s section CG as
ܲܨୱୣୡ /ܸܨୱୣୡ illustrated in Figure 3.
The output of the stress model is the maximum stress at the
blade sections when both stresses (centrifugal loading and gas
bending moment) were added. It is important to note that the
location where the maximum stress occurs (either at LE, TE or
the blade back) largely depends on the operating condition and
ܲܨୱୣୡூூ / ܸܨୱୣୡூூ the geometry of the blade.
݀ீ௦ூூ
ܲܨୱୣୡூ/ܸܨ௦ூ
Bending moment at root
When the gas traverses the blades, there exist forces acting
on the blades due to velocity difference between the inlet and
the outlet. These forces are produced by the momentum change
of the gases in both axial and tangential directions. In this
model, the blade section momentum forces for both axial and
tangential direction ܸܨௌ were computed using a general
equation expressed as [21] as shown in Figure 2:
݉ × ܣௌ × ∆ܸ௩ௌ Figure 3: Schematic diagram of the blade and gas flow
ܸܨௌ = (6)
ܰ directions
(5ܶூே − 2ܶ ௫) (12) where ܶே ீ is the NGV metal temperature, ߝሺே ீሻ is the NGV’s
A B C E F
It is important to note that for all the tests, the engine
D D G
relative rotational speed was chosen as a handle. Also the value
C of PCN 0.95 in Table 1 means that the rotational speed at that
point is 95% of its absolute design rotational speed. Three
indices which are the fouling index (FI), erosion index (EI), and
engine degradation index (EDI) are used in this study. These
A: Intake B: Compressor C: Burner D: Duct
E: Compressor Turbine F: Power Turbine G: Nozzle
indices were adopted from Naeem et al.’s work [15, 16, 17]
which are hypothetical parameters describing the magnitude of
Figure 4: Engine model configuration degradations:
(i) 1% of EI - 1% decrease in efficiency accompanied by
Based on the engine configuration, an engine performance a 0.5% increase in flow capacity
model was constructed using PYTHIA. For each of the (ii) 1% of FI - 1% decrease in efficiency accompanied by
changes in the performance parameters and the engine’s health a 0.5% reduction in flow capacity
conditions, gas path measurements such as mass flow rates, (iii) 1 % EDI - 1% FI and 1% of EI for both Case 1 and
pressures and temperatures were simulated and sent to the life Case 2. For Case 3 1 % EI of both HPT
estimation model to estimate the Creep Factor. and LPT.
In addition, the turbine stage data such as the number of In this study, a clean engine running at a PCN of 0.98, zero
blades, the stager angles, the heights of the tip and root at the altitude, with an ambient temperature of 36.1 C (21.1 T
leading and trailing edges, the cross sectional areas, blades’ from ISA sea level) is chosen as the reference operating point.
angles, cooling effectiveness and the blades’ material were
specified but for confidentiality reasons, those values are not 4. RESULTS AND DUSCUSSION
given in this paper.
This work focuses on studying the impacts of different In this section, the effects of the change in operating and
influencing factors listed in Table 1 on the creep life of HP health conditions on engine high pressure turbine blade creep
turbine blades. HP turbine blades are chosen due to the fact that life are discussed.
by comparison with other major gas turbine components, the
5
3 0
-5 0.94 0.95 0.96 0.97 0.98 0.99 1
2
-10
1 -15
0 -20
PCN
0.94 0.95 0.96 0.97 0.98 0.99 1 -25
PCN
Figure 7: Deviation of metal temperature and stress from
Figure 5: The effect of engine rotational speed on Creep reference value vs. engine speed
Factor
The figure also indicates that the Creep Factor varies In addition, the reduction in rotational speeds also reduces
exponentially with the engine rotational speed. A plot of a log the intake mass flow. As the mass flow reduces, the required
Creep Factor against speed (see Figure 6) shows an almost shaft power will reduce thus reducing the TET. As a result, the
linear relation between the log Creep Factor and the engine metal temperature will be brought down. Figure 7 also
rotational speed and such a plot provides a much clearer illustrates the relationship between the change in the metal
representation of the relationship. For example for this engine, temperature of HP turbine blades and the engine rotational
a 1% drop in rotational speed from its reference operating speed. In this figure the delta temperature represents the
condition will result in around a 0.2 to 0.3 rise on the value of difference between the temperature (ܶ ) at the current
the log Creep Factor and vice versa. operating condition and the metal temperature (ܶ ) at the
0.8 reference operating condition. As the rotational speed drops, a
negative slope is depicted indicating a lower metal temperature
0.6 due to the lower TET.
Log Creep Factor
0.4
0.2
0.0 4.2 EFFECT OF ALTITUDE
With the increase in altitude, the ambient static temperature
-0.20.94 0.95 0.96 0.97 0.98 0.99 1
falls linearly and so does the static pressure and air density,
-0.4 hence reducing the mass flow rate into the engine. Since in this
-0.6 PCN test the engine rotational speed is chosen as a handle, the
required shaft power will reduce in order to keep a constant
-0.8
shaft rotational speed. Therefore less energy input is required
and the TET drops as a result, thus reducing the metal
Figure 6: Log Creep Factor vs. engine speed temperature as shown in Figure 8.
The increase in the altitude also changes the blade stresses
The change in the Creep Factor is resulted from a because of the change in the gas bending moment due to
substantial change in both blade stresses and metal pressure and momentum change. Unfortunately, such change is
temperatures. Figure 7 illustrates the deviation of the blade
value
-6
-4 -8
Delta Temperature
-6 Delta Stress -10
-12
-8
-14 Delta Temperature
-10 -16 Delta stress
-12 -18
2.0
Creep Factor
2.00
1.5
1.50
1.0
1.00
0.5
0.50 0.0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22
Altitude (m)
Figure 9: Effect of altitude on Creep Factor Dev. In Ambient Temp from ISA
0.80
and 52% respectively. The values indicate that both HP turbine
0.60 erosion and compressor fouling provide the greatest ‘threat’ to
the blades’ creep life, although HP turbine erosion seems to
0.40 have a greater impact.
1.2
0.20
HPT erosion
0.00 1.0
LPT Erosion
0 2 4 6 Com Fouling
0.8
Cooling Effectiveness Degradation (%)
Creep Factor
1.2
-10.0
Case 1: Comp + HPT degrade
reference value
-15.0 1.0
Case 2: Comp + LPT degrade
-20.0 case 3: HPT + LPT degrade
0.8
Creep Factor
-25.0
-40.0 0.2