Engine Systems Symposium

15-16-17 March 2011

Gas turbine usage monitoring

Stefano RIGOSIa
Cranfield University, Cranfield, Bedfordshire MK43 0AL, United Kingdom, s.rigosi@cranfield.ac.uk

Abstract

The growth of gas turbine application in recent decades has been mainly due to high levels of reliability and availability, both in
shaft power generation and aircraft. However, this perception is incorrect, since component degradation and wear occurr inevitably. The
engine operates in a combination of critical conditions and aggressive environments, leading to different mechanisms of failure. During
the development of this technology, several modes of breakdown have been observed. In particular turbine blades are considered the
main life-limiting parts of the engine and the most common mechanisms of damage are discussed and illustrated in this paper.

The health state is determined by a rigid control procedure carried out during periodic inspections. Several non-destructive testing
techniques are applied in order to avoid an excessive degree of deterioration and ensure that cracks are detected at the earliest stage.

Condition monitoring is therefore considered an important asset in usage and maintenance of gas turbines. Moreover, an adequate
maintenance management can be achieved by supporting preventive maintenance and on-condition monitoring, leading to cost savings
and high reliability. A comparison between different strategies is also carried out and the benefits of considerable reduction in in-service
failure and the cost associated are highlighted.

Keywords: Usage Monitoring; Non-Destructive Test; Preventive maintenance; Gas Turbine

Abbreviations
TET Turbine entry temperature
LCF Low cycle fatigue
TMF Thermo-mechanical fatigue
FOD Foreign object damage
HTHC High temperature hot corrosion
NDT Non-destructive test
LTHC Low temperature hot corrosion
LPI Liquid penetrant inspection
HCF High cycle fatigue
MPI Magnetic particles inspection
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1. INTRODUCTION hot section of the engine. The development of

technologies to prevent hot corrosion focused on high
corrosion strength materials and protective surface
The gas turbine’s industry main target is to maintain
coating. Moreover, the currently available technology
high efficiency and reliability during the whole cycle
involves the use of single-crystal superalloys, nickel-
gas turbine life. Considering the critical operating
based superalloys from directionally solidified or obtained
conditions and the complexity of the engine it is widely
by oxide dispersion strengthened.
accepted that a perfection system design cannot be
achieved. Therefore, gas turbines design is the result of As Professor Legrani showed [14], the key issues
a compromise between design requirements, economic driving the performance of gas turbine, in terms of fuel
and manufacturing issues, reliability, and maintenance. consumption, manufacturing cost and technology
In addition, gas turbines operate at a wide range of development, concern how a proportional increase in
power setting and jet engines in particular are subject efficiency is directly related to a rise in turbine entry
to rigid weight restrictions. temperature. Hence, the latter affects the material
improvement, thermal barrier coating development and all
For these reasons maintenance is considered a
the cooling technologies in today's products. Therefore
mandatory, complex and on-going process in order to
the importance of increasing temperature is emphasized,
ensure the proper behaviour of the system. Great
as shown in Figure 1, and its trend will asymptotically
efforts have been made to avoid damage mechanisms,
reach a stoichiometric limit (2850 K).
although in-service failure can sometimes occur during
the engine life. In the case of power generation engine,
site overhauls and downtime costs have been estimated
to be higher than the initial cost of installation. Indeed,
a sudden interruption of the process due to an
unexpected failure may cause a relevant increase in
energy production cost. In the case of aircraft, the
improvements in flight safety, availability, and
airworthiness are considered as key issues by all
worldwide companies.

2. HYSTORY
Figure 1 - TET trend and bucket material capacity [8]
In 1980s the gas turbine engine could achieve turbine
entry temperature of 1300 K and provide power output
of 120 MW with thermal efficiency of approximately 3. FAILURES
32%. Since this high value of temperature inside the
cycle, the parameter that controlled the life of the
blades was the hot corrosion. After the introduction of Even if the gas turbine can be considered as high
protective coatings the situation changed and creep reliable engine, its components may suffer various
became the dominant factor on the component life. mechanism of damage. The most common failures are
The development of gas turbine in 1990s enabled to caused by a combination of several breakdown modes.
double the size (about 250 MW) and TET raised up to The figure below shows that failure modes are almost
1600 K with a maximum efficiency around 38%. For equally distributed and they might be expected to occur at
these generations of gas turbine the main issues were the same time.
faster heating and transient process in aircraft engines,
in particular for military application. Hence, the
thermo-mechanical fatigue led to failure of the rotor
blades. This type of damage had as results the
introduction of directional solidified and single-crystal
structure in the manufacturing process of blades. In
addition, the combination of critical conditions and
aggressive environment, which contains corrosive
elements, such as sodium, potassium, vanadium and
lead, led gas turbine to be limited by corrosion
processes. Even if the concentration of particles was
few parts per million, deterioration and wear from
continuous use caused very frequently failures in the
Figure 2 - Distribution of failure modes in jet engine [Fatigue and Fracture
2 course note, February 2011]
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Turbine blades in particular operate at the edge of

alloy resistance and they are usually affected by several
mechanical damages, such as creep, thermal stress and
fatigue. It is worth nothing that the rotor part of blade
is particularly exposed to both thermal and mechanical
stress cycle. This failure mechanism is often referred to
as thermo-mechanical fatigue. Moreover, the turbine
entry temperature has to be considered the major
parameter which determines the life of these
components and a prolonged overheating is the most
common cause of engine breakdown, as shown in
Figure 3. For this reason an adequate analysis of the
health state of the engine is strictly mandatory and a Figure 4 - The general creep curve [Mechanical Design of
general overview of the failure modes is described Turbomachinery course note, October 2010]
below.

As the temperature is higher than 0.4 of melting point

temperature, the phenomenon of creep becomes the
dominant damage and it can be expected either for
continuously exceeding of operating temperatures or for a
failure in inspection procedure. Furthermore, the creep
damage in turbine blades appears along the directionally
solidified material, as observed in Figure 5.

Figure 3 - Overheated turbine blade [15]

3.1. Creep

As the engine operates at high temperature the

strenght of components material is considerably
reduced due to a costant tensile load undergoing time-
dependet deformation. This failure, the so-called creep,
is usually a life-limiting process for turbine blades and
its mechanism is illustrated in a simple way in diagram
(see Figure 4).
Figure 5 - Creep observed during inspection [5]
3.2. Hot corrosion
Although the phenomenon of hot corrosion is well
known since 1990s, a corrosive attack in various
components is inevitable and many different parameters,
including alloy composition, thermo-mechanical stress
and atmospheric contaminants, will influence the surface
composition both in compressor and turbine blades. This
form of oxidation can consume the material with an
unpredictable corrosive velocity, reducing the loading
ability of the components and finally leading to a
breakdown of the engine. Hot corrosion process can be

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classified in two main categories depending on the

range of operating temperatures [3]:
• High temperature hot corrosion = 1100 – 1200 K
• Low temperature hot corrosion = 900 – 1100 K

It is well known that the hot corrosion must be

detected at the incipient stage to avoid severe damage.
As an example, a turbine blade failure was inspected
and an advanced hot corrosion attack was observed
through an optical micrograph (see Figure 6), with a
secondary crack propagating from the scale into the Figure 7 - Sulphuric corrosive attack [5]
base material.

3.3. High cycle and low cycle fatigue

The fatigue failure can be conveniently divided into two

Figure 6 – LTHC investigation with optical micrograph [6]
Military aircrafts are designed to operate in the most
corrosive conditions and need to refuel anywhere. Thus
fuel range available for this engine is considerably
wide and usually with higher harmful ingredients. In
order to prevent hot corrosion failures the turbine
buckets are always protected with sophisticated
coatings and the situation is monitored by frequently
inspections.
Ground-based engine commonly operate in
environments where the atmospheric contaminants are
extremely aggressive. The turbine blade are exposed to
strongly oxidation due to marine environments,
pollution from industry and combustion products,
leading to high corrosive attack by means of active
elements, such as sulphur and sodium, as shown in
Figure 7.
different categories: high cycle fatigue and low cycle
fatigue. The former type occurs when a large number of
strain or stress cycles are required to cause breakdown in
gas turbine. HCF is usually detected and overcome at the
design stage. LCF is related to low number of cycles
leading to fatigue failure and it occurs any time the engine
is accelerating or decelerating. It is well known that LCF
is the most limiting factor on the whole engine life, since
the heavy rotating parts, such as shaft and disc,
experience large changes in load and hence much higher
stress cycle.
Nowadays the main efforts are concentrated in material
development. The introduction of directional solidified
alloy enables to increase the high-temperature resistance
of components, by controlling the orientation of grains. A
further improvement is offered by single-crystal alloy due
to the presence of a single-crystal structure. Thus the
associated grain boundary stress is reduced and the
melting point temperature rises, compared to equiaxed or
directionally solidified structures. A considerable benefit
in LCF life can therefore be achieved using the new alloys
(see Figure 8).

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Figure 9 - Losses of material near the leading edge and a detail of propagating
crack into the material [6]

Figure 8 - LCF life in different bucket alloy [8]

An example of turbine blade failure due to HCF is

illustrated in Figure 9. After a macroscopic inspection
loss of material was found near the leading edge and a
crack propagated from this region into the material. Figure 10 – Fretting fatigue in industrial gas turbine [7]
The breakdown of turbine blade may result from a low
stress fatigue, such as vibrations.
3.5. Mechanical damage

The gas turbine engine ingests a huge amount of air and

3.4. Fretting fatigue
Turbomachinery engine are rotating at elevated
velocity in presence of high relative surface motion
between rotary and stationary parts, like blade root and
disk, and hence they are more prone to fretting failure.
Since the surface wear is induced by slight contact,
loud noise and vibration can be produced, leading
eventually to an unexpected breakdown.
A 32 MW ground-power engine was analysed as an
example of fretting fatigue due to a severe failure
occurred after 70000 hours. When the engine was shut
down the shaft vibration increased suddenly near the
second natural frequency and it caused a high degree of
damage at the last stages of compressor. As shown in
Figure 10, the compressor blades were almost broken
in stages 14-18 and they were twisted in the earlier
stages. Moreover, the compressor disks were deformed
in shape similar to a horseshoe as the result of failure.
any material entered inside the engine with the air will
affect the compressor life, limiting the integrity of its
components. In some applications, high-strength alloy is
introduced in the first row of compressor blade in order to
reduce Foreign Object Damage. However, this system
seems to be inefficient, since the ingested sand during
landing or taking off is the most common mechanical
damage. The deterioration of blade airfoil occurs by
material erosion or abrasive debris deposit (Figure 11).
Analysing a high-bypass ratio turbofan engine the core
stream tends to experience low FOD, since the fan throws
out the foreign material, whereas the fan blade are
exposed higher damage by abrasive wear.
Furthermore, in jet engine other ingested materials have
to be taken into account at higher altitude, including ice
particles, volcanic ashes and birds.

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6 Gas turbine usage monitoring – Stefano RIGOSI
Figure 11 - FOD on the leading edge of compressor bade [5]
4. NON-DESTRUCTIVE TESTING
TECHNIQUES
In the last few decades, numerous techniques have
been developed both for maintenance and condition
monitoring and they can be divided into two groups:
non-destructive test, focused on undamaged component
inspections, and destructive test, based on broken
products. In particular, non-destructive testing is
relevant in the inspection of gas turbine engine, in
order to avoid excessive degree of deterioration before
a maintenance activity. The most common types of
NDT techniques are analysed below.
4.1. Visual inspection
The visual inspection was the original NDT and can
be the first step of non-destructive examination,
although this method should be neglected in an
accurate evaluation of the engine reliability.
4.2. Liquid penetrant inspection
Liquid penetrant inspection is largely applied to
detect surface defects, such as cracks, porosity and
laps, and it is accepted as a low cost inspection. This
method is usually performed through the following
steps [10]:
• Cleaning of the surface;
• Application of coloured liquid penetrant;
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Compressor Fouling – Bob MARLEY
• Removing the excess of penetrant, after application;
• Application of developer;
• Inspection.
There are several types of liquid penetrants available in
the market and the cost of dye is proportional to its
sensitivity. They are divided into different categories
depending on whether they can be removed by water
washing (water washable), by application of special
solvent (solvent removable) or by using a special
emulsifier (post-emulsification). As an example of LPI,
Figure 12 illustrates a series of parallel cracks on the
airfoil of a turbine blade, without any indication of severe
coating deterioration.
Figure 12 - Blade crack revealed under ultraviolet light after LPI [2]
4.3. Magnetic particle inspection
In magnetic particle inspection, a magnetic field is
applied in order to detect any defects on the surface of the
ferromagnetic material. During the test, the particles are
attracted by the magnetic field and the breaking crack
shows up as a distortion of the magnetic flux (see Figure
13). This non-destructive testing provides a careful
visualization of the crack and it is one of the most
extensively applied electromagnetic methods in industry
due to its low cost and instrumentation portability. The
main drawback of MPI is that this method cannot be
applied to non-magnetic materials, for example
Aluminium. Besides, the magnetic particle inspection is
strictly limited to the inspection of surface flaws and its
accuracy is related to many factors, such as the magnetic
properties of the materials or the orientation and the size
of cracks.
Nowadays the magnetic particle inspection is often
employed in gas turbine engine. However, it can be used
only for small components, typically blade and disc,
otherwise it would be very expensive.
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Figure 13 - Magnetic field and magnetic particles in the vicinity of

the crank [10]

4.4. Ultrasonic testing

The ultrasonic testing method uses the transmission
of high frequency sound waves into or through
inspected object. The process is described as follow:

• Transmitting unit is placed in contact with the

surface; Figure 14 - Ultrasonic pulse echo system [10]
• The receiving unit can be the same transducer or a
different one,
• The sound wave propagates inside the component 4.5. X-Ray Diffraction analysis
and its reflection from the far surface is measured
by the receiver (backwall echo); The X-ray diffraction analysis is performed to detect
• If there is an internal flaw the signal is reflected the subsurface defects and to measure the degree of
back to the receiver, known as flaw echo. corrosion in the engine. The component is exposed to a
radiation source, the unabsorbed rays go trough the
thickness of material and they are impressed on the
Cracks can be accurately inspected by means of opposite side by a photographic film, as shown in Figure
differences in time and amplitude between flaw echo 15.
and backwall echo (Figure 14). This method
investigates the internal defects without damaging the
components. Thus ultrasonic testing is largely applied
in gas turbine inspection either in quality control or in
preventive maintenance. In case of condition
monitoring, the cracks can be detected before a
catastrophic failure occurs and a scheduled
maintenance is frequently employed.

Figure 15 - X-ray inspection [10]

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8 Gas turbine usage monitoring – Stefano RIGOSI
The radiography analysis can be performed in two
different ways:
• Ex situ, for a post oxidation detection;
• In situ, during oxidation process.
The in situ inspection is often applied for the hot
corrosion investigations in gas turbine, giving
information about the oxide scale as a variation of grey
level and measuring velocity of each oxidation process.
The main advantage is the possibility to determine the
behaviour of any corrosion process after a certain
period of time. This method provides also visual
information and it allows to generates a 3-D imagine of
the internal structure. Thus it is largely used for flaws
and defects inspection of turbine blade. The main
drawback is that the production of radiation is time-
consuming and costly, limiting applications and
portability.
4.6. Vibration analysis
Gas turbine is a turbomachinery engine producing a
large amount of vibration due to the high rotational
speed. Any change from the health state is
accompanied by an increase in noise and vibration and
thus the engine can be monitored instantaneously by
means of a meter. In addition, the variations of
vibration can be analyses in terms of frequency and
amplitude and the latter parameter is usually measured
in three different ways (displacement, velocity and
accelerator), depending on the magnitude of vibration.
Furthermore this inspection allows to determine the
origin of vibrations, such as unbalance, defective
bearings or misalignment, and it enables to repair the
components before a breakdown occurs.
4.7. Oil analysis
This inspection analyses the oil from the lubrication
system of gas turbine. By monitoring the amount of
wear per unit oil it is possible to determine the risk of
engine failure. An increase in contaminants in the fluid
causes a rapid degradation of all mechanical
components, leading to a faster wear in the system.
The inspection consists in two parts. Firstly, the
average amount and the size are measured by means of
a particle counter and sizer. Secondly, a
spectrochemical analysis is carried out in order to
determine if the contaminants are dirt, wear material or
particular additive and hence from which components
the particles originate.
5. MAINTENANCE
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Compressor Fouling – Bob MARLEY
The gas turbines are considered as a complex device
where both a high degree of technology and a high level
of reliability are achieved. The development of a more
efficient engine always brought to an increase in pressure
and temperature. Since the operating conditions have
become more and more critical, the maintenance cost
during the lifetime may exceed the manufacturing cost
(see Figure 16). It is therefore accepted that an adequate
health monitoring is required to ensure that the engine has
not only high level of reliability and long life but also it
operates at maximum efficiency. In addition, engine
monitoring is an important asset in usage, maintenance
and overhaul of all the components, because their lifetime
is dependent on a variety of operational factors that
cannot be controlled entirely, such as ambient conditions,
type of fuel and loading.
Figure 16 - Life cycle cost for industrial gas turbine [3]
5.1. Preventive maintenance
As Kinnison reported [12], the general meaning of
maintenance is “the process of ensuring that a system
continually performs its intended function at its designed-
in level of reliability and safety”. This definition includes
all the procedures and efforts, such as inspection,
replacement and overhaul, carried out in order to ensure
the proper behaviour of the system or equipment.
However, the company can follow various strategies and
techniques to determine when the overhaul should be
performed and this will affect significantly the operating
and maintenance costs. The maintenance types can be
categorized in three different groups: corrective,
preventive and predictive.
Corrective maintenance is essentially required when a
component has already failed. It is worth nothing the high
risk of damaging other components and the downtime in
production related to the application of this technique.
Preventive maintenance tends to evaluate the health state
of the engine by performing periodically inspections and
preventive actions. The main advantage of preventive
maintenance is that any unsafe condition can be detected
9 Gas turbine usage monitoring – Stefano RIGOSI
in time to prevent a failure. This technique is emerging
as the most widespread maintenance technique with a
large reduction in maintenance costs, as shown in
histogram below.
According to Electric Power Research Institute [3],
predictive maintenance may become more cost-
effective than a traditional preventive maintenance.
Even though the introduction of this strategy is
particularly difficult, the benefits in terms of operation
and maintenance costs are considerably high.
Figure 17 - Comparison between various maintenance techniques [3]
Preventive maintenance it is usually adopted for a
health state monitoring. This strategy includes also
scheduled maintenance, which consists in periodic
inspections once the schedule has been set. In addition,
recurring checks are carried out providing a continuous
‘not-exceed-limit maintenance’ in terms of time limits
or detectable wear of engine parts. Thus, a reduction in
traditional scheduled inspections is obtained as a result
of a progressive introduction of very close monitoring,
leading to high efficient and reliable maintenance. The
total maintenance system is performed by means of
composite condition monitoring systems, which are a
combination of mechanical properties, corrosion
monitoring and performance analysis. Finally, a
considerable effort has been made in preventive
maintenance optimization leading to a significant
reduction in expected total cost. Although this strategy
offers a considerable reduction in failure and its
associated cost, any unnecessary inspection will result
in higher maintenance cost. Since overhaul and
replacement restore fully the engine reliability, a
scheduled detection next to the repair has been
considered unsuitable (see Figure 18). As an example,
turbine blades of an aircraft engine usually require
inspection before 2000 hours and overhaul before 5000
hours to avoid in-service failure. Moreover, for ground
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Compressor Fouling – Bob MARLEY
power and marine application a longer period before the
first inspection may be expected [6].
5.2. Usage monitoring
The major benefit of a performance-based usage
monitoring is recognized as diminishing maintenance cost
in both in ground and aircraft engine. On the one hand the
objective of industrial gas turbine is to operate with minor
disruption of the power plant and avoid non-schedule
maintenance due to unforeseen faults. The engine is
always monitored in order to reduce excessive downtime
and maintain high availability. On the other hand the
aircrafts are performed to operate with safety and
airworthiness in any circumstance and to avoid flame out
and component failure during the flight. An effective
monitoring can also be successful in extending life,
increasing time between inspections and diagnosing
problems.
A performance monitoring requires an improvement in
instrumentations and sensors quality for the measurement
of the main parameters, such as power or thrust, TET,
rotational speed oil pressure and vibrations. Furthermore
gas turbine should be routinely monitored and the real-
time data gathered are used to a close assessment and
evaluation of the mechanical properties and
thermodynamic cycle. Additionally, engine monitoring
requires an accurate investigation of component
deterioration with non-destructive test techniques. An
implementation of the data acquired is performed within
advanced degradation models.
The maintenance program currently in use in gas
turbine industry consists in three different techniques:
hard time, on-condition and condition monitoring.
Firstly, Hard time process requires the component to be
removed from the engine and overhauled, restored or
discarded, depending on the degradation. This procedure
is usually applied to those components that fail after a
certain amount of time of operation and affect safety and
reliability of engine without any possibility of
maintenance check. As shown in Figure 19, engine intake,
fuel filter and replacement of life-limited components are
controlled by hard time.
Figure 18 – Inspections reschedule [1]
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Secondly, On-condition method requires the engine
parts to be periodically inspected by means of an
appropriate parameter (wear or degradation) in order to
detect whether or not the component has to be restored.
This process is restricted to system where the measure
of reliability can be done without a downtime
inspection. This process consists in a priori evaluation
of the deterioration and a prediction of imminent
failure by means of specific data acquisition (i.e. oil
and fuel consumption) and a comparison with the
standard values of a clean engine. The on-condition
process is employed by many aircraft company
because it allows to achieve close to a maximum
lifetime of each component. However, it requires ad
hoc investigation of components and up-to-date
knowledge of engine health state in real time.
Figure 19 - Typical maintenance schedule for an aircraft [15]
Finally the condition monitoring process consists in
the monitoring of the failure rates of the individual
component when neither lifetime limits nor detectable
wear can be introduced to evaluate the life expectancy.
This process is based on the detection of any engine
deterioration at earliest stage. In particular, to ensure
continue airworthiness in aircraft system, the data
acquisition is related to in flight deck indicators and
recorders and ground indicators.
To sum up, the total performance monitoring system
is used in order to achieve the following targets:
• Maintaining high availability;
• Reducing maintenance costs;
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Gas turbine usage monitoring – Stefano RIGOSI
Compressor Fouling – Bob MARLEY
• Minimizing degradation of components;
• Maintaining operation condition near design
point;
• Diagnosing problems, and avoiding catastrophic
failure;
• Extending time between inspections.
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