Risk Management

Series
Thermal Power
 Risk Management Series Plant

Steam Turbines
Preface

Steam turbine is a device that converts heat energy from steam into rotational torque
and power. They are utilized extensively in industries to drive a variety of equipment
types of numerous sizes and speeds in every segment including power generation,
combined heat and power, pulp and paper, iron and steel, chemical, oil and gas
industries. Though there are wide differences in the design, complexity, application,
steam conditions, and sizes of steam turbines, conceptually they all are the same in
terms of their function, major components, control systems, and are subjected to the
same failure mechanisms. Steam turbines can range from being small and simple in
design/construction to large, highly complex designs/arrangements consisting of
multiple sections and multiple shafts.

Insurance companies expect insured to follow preventive maintenance best practices

to limit risk exposure. Effective preventive maintenance is also an essential tool in
keeping insurance rates down, also it avoids costly downtime and equipment failure.
This article discusses risks, failure mechanisms, the operating and maintenance
practices pertaining to steam turbine and loss prevention measures that any
insurance company expects to reduce their risk exposure. The article spans on lube
oil analysis, vibration monitoring turbine over speed testing and turbine overhauls
and the risk associated with improper boiler feed water quality.

We submit the study before you and hope that you will find it informative and useful.
We welcome your valuable feedback. We suppose the article is informative enough
and we look forward to your valuable feedback on the same.

Risk Managemenr Series – Steam Turbines 2

Steam Turbine Failure Mechanisms - Frequency vs Severity

There have been

numerous causes of
steam turbine
failures. The highest
frequency events
are loss of lube oil,
while the highest
severity events are
of overspeed.
Typically, higher
frequency and
higher severity
events have been
blade/bucket failures, particularly in the low pressure (LP) section of the turbine,
where the blading experiences a number of failure mechanisms (stress corrosion
cracking (SCC), erosion, foreign object damage (FOD) or the combination of them.
Hence from a breakdown point of view it is important to protect the steam turbine
from over speed, water induction, and loss of lube oil, corrosive steam that could
cause major damage to the turbine, shells and rotors (creep, erosion, corrosion,
fatigue, thermal fatigue, SCC)

Loss Incident: The incident occurred upon start-

up in a 600 MW Turbine/Generator. One of the
Low Pressure Blades (2m in length) broke off
while the turbine was turning at 3000 rpm. The
blade crashed through the casing (10 cm solid
steel), through the roof (20 meters higher up)
and

landed in the HIV yard. The blade that

broke took another 15 blades with it and

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the turbine went from 3000 rpm to standstill in a couple of seconds. The
turbine/generator shaft broke clean at two different places. The ensuing fire was so
hot that some of the roof's steel beams bent. The incident happened so quickly, that
the vibration monitoring equipment did not have a chance to pick anything up. The
existence of an environment that supports corrosion, notably the ‘wet’ nature of the
steam through phase transition in the LP turbine casing, coupled with stresses
encountered in blade aerofoil section changes and root fixings, can lead to the
initiation of stress corrosion cracking. Add to this, potential contamination from
condenser leaks, and the presence of oxygen during on start periods, and an even
more aggressive environment is formed.

Failures in terms of higher frequency and higher

severity are blade/bucket failures. Most of the blade
failures have been in the LP section of the turbine
where the blades have experienced stress corrosion
cracking or excessive erosion and FOD or combination
of erosion, corrosion, FOD eventually wear the part to
failure. Resonance issues/failures with steam turbine
blading cracks/ failures have occurred particularly with
the last stage blades. The rotors of steam turbines are
subject to life limitations due to creep and thermal
fatigue Creep, thermal fatigue, and additionally stress corrosion cracking can occur at
other stress concentrating features, such as balance holes and changes of section

Solid Particle & Water droplet erosion

Solid particles with high hardness

coming from inside of the main
steam inlet pipes with high steam
velocity will flow into the high
pressure stage of the flow path.
Steam paths of solid particles are
different from the steam stream
line due to inertia effects. These
particles can damage and erode
the trailing edges of the nozzle profile and leading/trailing edges of the blade profile.

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This profile damage then causes abnormal nozzle wake turbulence and excitation
forces which can increase during operation. In the worst case, blades may develop
cracks and may ultimately break off due to high cycle fatigue

At the Last several stages of the low pressure section of the turbine, located in the
wet zone, steam conditions are below the saturation line on a steam entropy-
enthalpy chart. In the process of steam expanding along the nozzle profile, steam
changes to water droplets and the size of these droplets becomes larger further into
the wet zone. These water droplets flow down stream and attack rotating blades.
Water droplets with relatively high velocity will generate high impact pressure on the
blade profile. The high impact pressure is especially damaging at the tip zone of the
blade due to the water droplet inertia effect combined with centrifugal forces This
high impact pressure can cause compression stress fatigue on the blade profile
surface and the leading edge of the blade profile can be eroded

In addition to steam or boiler water quality monitoring & control, special coating
which increases surface hardness is one of the effective countermeasures to prevent
solid particle erosion Special coatings such as boron diffusion heat treatment
(boronizing) and hybrid
coating of radical
notarization and Cr-N
have been applied
successfully to increase
hardness. In other cases,
Ion plating (ceramic PVD)
and PTA (plasma transfer
welding) have been
applied to consider a
better balance of
hardness and toughness.
As other newly developed coating technologies, Ni-P hybrid plating can be applied to
prevent deposits or to facilitate easy cleaning on the blade profile. In other cases,
radical notarization NI-P multilayer hybrid coating has been applied to prevent blade
corrosion fatigue failure

Loss incident: A 37MW captive power plant in North India in the year 2006
experienced loss due to lack of boiler water quality monitoring. Steam turbine during
operation experienced damage to one of the rotor blades. Root cause analysis
showed presence of similar cracks on other blades in the last stage of the turbine.

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Minimum and maximum deflections noticed on the blades were very high (up to
0.12mm and 0.55mm respectively). The presence of CO2 and silica in condensate
were very high which was the main cause for this fatigue type of damage. Repairer
suggested replacing all the blades because of minor to major cracks in the same.
Precautions suggested were to control of chloride ions or sulfides in the steam, and
by monitoring steam purity on a continuous basis and monitor the concentrations in
the steam entering the turbine

Hydraulic & Lubricating oil systems

The steam turbine generator being rotating equipment generally has a heavy, large
diameter shaft. The shaft therefore requires not only supports but also has to be kept
in position while running. To minimise the frictional resistance to the rotation, the
shaft has number of bearings. The bearing shells, in which the shaft rotates, are lined
with a low friction material like Babbitt metal. Oil lubrication is provided to further
reduce the friction between shaft and bearing surface and to limit the heat
generated.

Oil is utilized to lubricate and cool turbine bearings (and gearbox gears and bearings,
if present) and actuate major turbine valves. For smooth operation of the machine
there should have a reliable lubrication system supplying clean, cool lube oil to the
turbine bearings.

Condition Monitoring through Lube Oil Analysis

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Oil analysis is a vital predictive and preventive maintenance tool. Periodic turbine oil
analysis is to be performed monthly or quarterly. Presence of contaminants in the oil,
such as wear metals like copper, chrome, aluminum, iron, nickel, lead and tin is the
indicator for component wear and
degradation resulting in most
bearing or gear failures and ensuing
damages

Quarterly sampling can provide a

more subtle indication of oil or
component deterioration, or the
slow beginning of oil contamination.
Long-term monitoring of oil
condition (over several months or
quarters) can reveal improper repair or maintenance practices, such as the failure to
conduct effective system flushes after repairs, or the improper handling of lubricants,
which can introduce dirt or even water to the oil.Loss Incident: A Coal Fired Power
Station in Poland in the year Jan 2004 due to failure in oil system resulted in large
material damage and consequence loss. Oil fire followed by an explosion led to the
powerhouse roof collapsing. A turbine, the generator, and the building itself were
severely damaged.

Coal fired power station, having four generation units each comprising a steam
turbine and a generator was running smoothly when the instruments recorded a
pressure drop in the lubricating oil system of one unit. Affected unit was
automatically shutdown. Within few minutes, the working personnel noticed a fire
below the turbine region. They tried to extinguish the fire and immediately called fire
service. The fire service arrived within 10min, but while it was preparing to start the
fire fighting, there was an explosion and the roof (made up mainly of steel) collapsed.
It took more than 20 hours to control the fire.

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Damaged area of turbine floor (Collapsed roof)

Remaining area of the same floor (due to good construction)

Investigations brought out the fact that one of the two oil filters was not closed
properly. Out of 16 screws, 10 were missing, and one was loose. Oil drained out and
caught fire on hot surface. The escaping oil made the fire spread very quickly. Due to
extreme heat, some hydrogen cylinders nearby exploded and this lead to leakage of
hydrogen gas from generators hydrogen cooling system. Hydrogen rose to the roof
level, where dangerous mixture of hydrogen and air ignited causing explosion and
bringing down the entire roof.

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Another Loss Incident is Fire in steam turbine section of a combined cycle power plant
in Central India reported in the Year August 2008

Leakage of oil from the governor’s servo motor pipeline / flange coming in contact
with hot turbine part appears to have ignited and caught up by the insulation shield /
cables. Oil being under a pressure of nearly 6 bar, continued to leak lead to spread of
fire as a result entire control room was caught up in fire besides main TG set, controls
and instrumentation. The loss reported was to the tune of 10 Cr INR material damage
and 25 Cr INR business interruptions

Vibration Monitoring & Cause Analysis

Vibration monitoring is an important condition monitoring tool. Bearing vibrations can

be monitored using one of several methods. Displacement probes are usually used on

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turbines and generators that have a high rotor-to-casing weight ratio, or on turbine
generators greater than 100 MW

Overspeed Trip Testing

Overspeed trips protections guards against catastrophic failure from an uncontrolled

overspeed by a steam turbine and its driven equipment.

With overhaul intervals and the time between routine boiler outages increasing,
scheduling the steam turbine’s overspeed test may be extended or overlooked
causing added risks. Specific concerns with the mechanical integrity of the turbine or
generator field may also engender reluctance to conduct the test.

Many uncontrolled overspeed events are the result of valves failing to close, even
when the overspeed trip device operates. Further, nearly all uncontrolled overspeed
failures are catastrophic, resulting in blade failures, shaft breakage and retaining ring
bursts.

Overspeed protection should be a combination of the following:

 Proper functioning of mechanical or electronic overspeed trip mechanisms and

system

 Positive closing of the main steam and control valves

 Positive closing of the reheat inlet valves

 Proper functioning of the extraction system

non-return valves

 Proper functioning of the reverse power trip

on the generator

A Loss Incident in a 600MW turbine generator in

Japan in the year 1972 is an example of over
speeding. The 600MW turbine generator was
under pre-operation testing that included over-
speed testing (110% of rated speed 3600rpm).
Two months into the test period, a vibration was
noted and was adjusted. A functional test was in
progress when a fire broke out simultaneously with the abnormal vibration. The
turbine generator was completely destroyed.

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The cause of the abnormal vibration was believed to be failure of the exciter bearing
caused by over-speed in excess of 100% rated speed. This changed the critical speed
of the shaft leading to abnormal vibrations. The fire destroyed the turbine hall
extensively resulting in huge BI loss to the tune of 150million USD as against MB loss
of 40million USD

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