Design considerations for reduction of fatigue failure in gas turbines casing

S Shanmugama K Venkatesh Rajaa K Manikandanb

a VSA Educational & Charitable Trust’s Group of Institutions, Salem – 636 010.
b Alagappa Chettiyar College of Engineering & Technology, Karaikudi

Abstract

Gas turbines casings are very vulnerable to involve cracking in locations where there is
a sudden change in cross section, holes and sharp edges as stress concentration is
locally great at these critical points because the casing experiences both thermal and
structural cyclic loads inside it during in its regular operation. The failure of the casing
due to cracking is considered as fatigue failure. Most of the research work carried out till
now on the gas turbine casing is either in consideration of thermal loads or structural
loads acting on the casing with features such as holes or sharp edges. None of them
included the consideration of pre tension effect of casing due to bolt pre tensioner while
calculating the fatigue failure and its fatigue life.
Keywords :Gas turbine Casing,creo 2.0,Ansys workbench 15.0,Fatigue Analysis
Introduction
An important issue for thermal power plants is the maintenance of reliability and safety
under operating conditions that include frequent start-ups and load changes. Unstable
states arising during startups, shutdowns, and load changes give rise to an unsteady
temperature distribution with respect to time in steam turbine components.
Thermal stresses caused by rapid increase in temperature render the components
susceptible to failure and reduce their operating life. The internal stationary and rotating
components of the turbine in such power plants are encased in massive steel-cast
casings. These high- and intermediate-pressure casings are susceptible to frequent
cracking due to thermo mechanical low-cycle fatigue (LCF) at the nozzle fit corner
radius or other stress concentration shapes, Cracking of the casings can lead to steam
leaks and, in extreme cases, bursting of the casing itself.
This approach is to predict the fatigue life of the detected crack on the edge of eccentric
pin hole of a heavy duty gas turbine casing, which is one of the most probable positions
for crack initiation and propagation. The crack position and direction was determined, by
using non-destructive test (ref1). The particular, high-pressure and intermediate-
pressure casing components are susceptible to frequent cracking due to thermo-
mechanical low-cycle fatigue at the nozzle fit corner radius and other stress
concentration shapes. Thus, for effective maintenance, it is necessary to have accurate
knowledge of transient thermal stresses at critical positions that are susceptible to
failure. In this paper, thermal stress concentration factors for the inner surface of the
casing and valve are defined to account for variations in the geometry using three-
dimensional finite element analysis.(ref2)The gas turbine operation history shows that
the most fractures occur at the beginning of the cold seasons which may corroborate
the probability that the compressor casing distortion due to the non-uniform temperature
distribution, can lead to touch the blades tip section with the casing and their failures.
Results show that the temperature distribution on the compressors casing is non-
uniform at the cold season and this causes distortion on the casing(ref3).The factors
affecting crack on turbine casing arising from temperature gradients. Hence, making
determinations of temperature distribution on gasturbine casing is the first step in stress
analysis(ref4). An Analysis showed that multiple cracks had been initiated in the
interfaceof the disks and shaft by the fretting fatigue mechanism and had been
propagated by fatiguemechanism. Finally, unexpected and/or excessive forces or
impact loads had led to thefinal brittle fracture of the disks. Some recommendations are
proposed for preventingsimilar failures in the future(ref5)

TURBINE CASING
The red colour shown in parts of the turbine parts then that casing parts to be draft from
the creo 2.0 with the specification of casing taken from the gas turbine power plant and
then analysed for various load and stress for whole body of casing and bolt & nut from
ansys work bench 15.0 software after that calculate the fatigue life to the casing to
prevent the fatigue failure

Modelling of the turbine casing

The real size of the casing is simplified further by the advantage of symmetry in order to
reduce the computation time in Ansys. Only the portion near the flange with the bolt and
nut assembly alone is taken for the analysis.
Simplified Casing Model to reduce computation time
Casing Material – A395 Ductile Cast Iron

Static Structural Analysis of the turbine casing

Ansys Workbench – Static Structural Analysis steps

Step 1 - The material properties were entered into the Ansys engineering database to
define casing material in the analysis part.
Step 2 – the material of the casing is assigned for the upper and lower casing
Step 3 – Contact between the bolt and nut, upper casing and bolt and lower casing with
nut was established
Step 4 - The imported simplified geometry of the casing is Meshed with elements 6774
and nodes 12259 as shown in figure,
In the figure with bolt & nut. This is meshing of find the fatigue life from various load and
stresses from under various load condition operation during the power plant when
producing the power shows that the meshing of whole body of casing
Results of Case1 case 2
load – bolt tension only load-pressure only
Case 3
Load - Pressure and Bolt Tension

Redesigned Casing
In order to improve the strength of the casing, the existing design of the casing is
redesigned as shown in the figure. The conceptual idea is reinforcement of ribs to the
structure and reducing the surface area of contact between the flange interfaces.
RESULTS OF REDESIGNED CASING UNDER COMBINED LOADING

Equivalent Stress
Redesigned Casing
In order to improve the strength of the casing, the existing design of the casing is
redesigned as shown in the figure. The conceptual idea is reinforcement of ribs to the
structure and reducing the surface area of contact between the flange interfaces.

Redesigned casing
RESULTS OF REDESIGNED CASING UNDER COMBINED LOADING

Equivalent Stress at flange surface Enlarged view of Equivalent Stress

Inference from the static structural analysis
It is evident from the results from the static analysis that the portion of the casing flange
near the bolt are subjected to minimum stress without pretension and the same is
subjected to higher stress when pretension is applied along with the pressure. Though
the difference in the stress magnitude is marginally small, it makes a big difference If
analysis is carried out for high pretension and pressure values.
In the redesigned casing the stress in the flange of the casing is less than the existing
casing model subjected to static loads.
FATIGUE ANALYSIS
Results of Redesigned casing – a] Fatigue life Redesigned casing – b] Fatigue Stress
Results of Existing casing – a] Fatigue life Existing casing – b] Fatigue Stress

From the fatigue analysis it was found that the fatigue life of the redesigned is higher
than the existing casing model. For the same loading conditions, the redesigned casing
still survives for the fatigue life of 16533 cycles but the existing casing almost failed.i.e.,
fatigue life is zero cycles
RESULT COMPARISION
COMPARISON OF THE STRESS RESULT
LOADING AREAS EXISTING REDESIGNED MODEL
DESIGN
Bolt Tension Only 12.625 9.25
Load Pressure Only 268.97 180.65
Load Pressure And Bolt Tension 271.3 113.12

COMPARISON OF THE FATIGUE ANALYSIS

FATIGUE ANALYSIS EXISTING REDESIGNED MODEL
DESIGN
Fatigue Life 9.9661 9.9591
Fatigue Stress 226.23 5444
CONCLUSION
In the present study, the stress distribution was calculated by performing static
structural analysis in Ansys software for the existing and the redesigned casing. it is
concluded from the results that the redesigned casing offers high strength than the
existing one under all the three loading cases. Also by performing fatigue analysis,
fatigue life of the existing and the redesigned casing was found out and the results show
that the fatigue life of the redesigned casing is improved under the same loading
conditions.
REFERENCES
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engineering (2014)35-42.
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Masoumi Khalil Abad,S. Parsad, M. Motakefpoor, Engineering Failure Analysis
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