ECCC Creep Conference, 12–14 September 2005, London. etd@etd1.co.

uk

Industrial Application of Creep/Fatigue Crack

Initiation and Growth Procedures for Remaining Life
Analysis of Steam Turbine Components
Albert Bagaviev and Shilun Sheng, Siemens Power Generation, Muelheim/Ruhr, Germany

Abstract

Two principal high temperature steam turbine component material degradation mechanisms are fatigue and
creep damage. Accumulated over the operational time their combination can lead to crack initiation and
growth resulting in leakage or rupture. The methods of creep-fatigue damage assessment are, therefore,
important to prevent turbine failures and to quantify the remaining life of turbine components.
This paper demonstrates an industrial application example of the steam components assessment in the frame
of two criteria diagram (2CD) approach and FAD approach.

Keywords: steam turbine components, creep-fatigue damage, remaining life assessment, two-criteria diagram

1. Introduction

Steam turbine component remaining life assessment is usually conducted in the framework of crack initiation
and/or crack propagation approach. Therefore, the total service life can be represented as a sum of the crack
initiation and crack propagation time, Fig. 1, [1].

Cracksize
Crack sizetotocause
causefailure
failure
Crack size, a

aa0 0

titi tgtg

Incubation
Incubation Growth
Growth Time, t

Fig. 1: Schemata of component service life based on crack initiation and crack growth criterion [1]

Mainly, the crack initiation criteria is used in the component design phase. For example, for non-nuclear
rotors, the crack initiation at the rotor outer surface and at the central bore surface in the case of bored rotors
due to the thermal fatigue and creep damage is considered as one of the parameters defining approximately
the operational time until the first non-destructive testing/inspection (NDT/NDI).
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 A. Bagaviev and S. Sheng

The crack growth criteria is used in the both design and remaining life evaluation phase. The reason is the
presence of unavoidable manufacturing defects in the inner areas of the turbine components. Such areas can
be evaluated only by means of NDT/NDI technique like ultrasonic and/or X-ray testing. Therefore, the
inspection results obtained can be quantified only implicitly and based on the geometrically adequate
representation of the indication corresponding to the measurement physical principle. The indications found
are conservatively to be considered as sharp cracks (especially if the low cycle fatigue is one of the leading
failure mechanisms).

Further, an important role for the remaining life analysis plays the estimation of the properties of the in-
service exposed steam turbine materials. This material deterioration can be conservatively introduced into
the analysis for example by means of an actual local creep damage value ωc and fatigue damage value ωf .

The fraction of creep and fatigue damage accumulated up to time t in the uncracked ligament is given as
components of the Palmgren-Miner-Robinson life fraction rule:
N M N
∆t i
∑ ∑
j
ωc = and ω f = ,
i =1 t r i j=1 N r j
M
Nj
where ∑N
j =1 fj
is the cyclic portion of the life fraction, in which Nj is the number of cycles at a given strain

range of type j and Nf j is the cycle number to crack initiation at that strain range; time dependent fractional
N
∆t i
damage during each steady state operational time increment can be expressed as ∑
i =1 t r i
, where ∆ti is the

time at given stress and temperature during operational regime i and the tri is the time to rupture under
corresponding thermal and mechanical load conditions. The time to rupture tri can be calculated using the
Larson-Miller parameter
P = T ⋅(C + log (t )) ,
where P is a function of stress σ, C is a constant and t is the time to rupture at given temperature and under
the load σ.

2. Two-criteria diagram

The two-criteria diagram (2CD) belongs to methodologies allowing the failure assessment of components
based on the crack tip and far field characteristics [4]. These characteristics indicate material resistance in the
σ n0 K I id 0
form of dimensionless rations Rσ = and R K = , where σ n 0 is the nominal stress in the far-field,
Rm t KIi
R m t is the creep rupture strength, K I id 0 is the fictitious elastic stress intensity (at time zero) and K I i is the
time dependent creep crack initiation value of the material..
The 2CD for creep ductile materials (non-notch weakening) distinguishes between three damage modes by
means of the ratio line of Rσ/RK, Fig. 2:
R
− ligament damage with σ ≥ 2 ;
RK
R
− combined damage with 0.5 ≥ σ ≥ 2 ;
RK
R
− crack tip damage with 0.5 ≥ σ
RK

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 Industrial Application of Creep/Fatigue Crack Initiation and Growth Procedures

s
ism
n
Ligament damage

ha
ec
em
mag
da
d
ine
t
σn 0
Rm

mb
Co
Rσ =
Components
0.75 Components
with large
with large
Dimensions due
Dimensions due
to constraint

Far field ratio

to constraint
Rσ No crack
=2
RK initiation

Rσ
= 0.5
RK Crack tip damage

0.0 1.0
K I id 0
Crack tip ratio R K =
KIi

Fig. 2: Two-criteria-diagram for creep crack initiation

The position (RK ;Rσ) of the assessment point in the diagram field shows the failure mechanism to be
expected at the time considered. Outside of the boundary lines, the crack initiation will occur.

Originally the 2CD has been developed for the assessment of crack initiation under static (creep) loading.
The results in the last years show that in the creep-fatigue range, where the creep damage process dominates,
the application of modified 2CD approach is still possible and useful [4]. For creep-fatigue loading with
fatigue frequencies f ≤ 10-5 Hz, the difference between creep fatigue and pure creep results are negligible, so
that in this case the direct application of 2CD for static (creep) loading is allowed. For the creep fatigue
loading with 10-5 Hz ≤ f ≤ 10-3 – 10-4 Hz, the 2CD could be used by reducing the creep crack initiation curve
KIi to about 60%.

3. Steady state analysis

Intermediate Pressure (IP) rotors belong to the most critical highly stressed components of the steam turbine.
The first stages of IP turbine rotors are operated in temperature range where the creep mechanisms under
steady state stressing (centrifugal load) are activated. Additionally the steam admission area of the rotors is
exposed to thermal cyclic stresses as a result of transient operations. These thermal stresses are responsible
for low cycle fatigue (LCF) of the rotor material.

The accumulated over operational time creep and fatigue damage are two principal degradation mechanisms
which eventually lead to crack initiation and growth in critical high temperature turbine components.

A non-destructive inspection of one IP-LP-rotor was conducted during a turbine outage after approximately
100,000 operational hours and 240 operational cycles. As a result of NDI, an indication with flat bottom hole
(FBH) diameter of 3 mm near the bore surface in the inlet area was reported. The failure assessment analysis
was done with the aim, to evaluate both the crack initiation and crack propagation times.

Fig. 3 shows the combined intermediate and low pressure rotor with central bore of the non-Siemens design
manufactured from 1%-Cr steel.

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 A. Bagaviev and S. Sheng

Location of the indication

Fig. 3: A combined IP-LP rotor and its FE model

Fig. 4 shows the temperature distribution at the stationary operational thermodynamics conditions.

Fig. 4: Temperature distribution under steady state operational conditions

The main creep activated zone is located in the inlet area.

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 Industrial Application of Creep/Fatigue Crack Initiation and Growth Procedures

The tangential stress distribution at 100% and 109% of the operational speed (under centrifugal load and at
stationary temperature conditions) are shown in Fig. 5.

Fig. 5: Tangential stress distribution (elastic and after approximately 100000 operational hours)

Fig. 6: Effective (von Mises) stress distribution- elastic & after approximately 100000 operation hrs)

The effective (von Mises) stress distribution at the service time beginning (elastic) and after 100000
operational hours are compared in Fig. 6. The Fig. 7 shows the distribution of the equivalent (von Mises)
creep strains after 100000 operating hours. In the inlet area, the mostly damaged region is the transition

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 A. Bagaviev and S. Sheng

region to the first blading row. The main damaged areas at the rotor bore surface are the zones under the
piston and under the first blading row, see Fig. 7.

Fig. 7: Creep strain distribution after approximately 100000 operational hours

4. Transient analysis

To analyse the damage contribution of low cycle fatigue, a typical cold start-up procedure was modelled
based on the transient power plant operational data.
The analysis was performed under the time-dependent reheat steam conditions (pressure and temperature)
and the corresponding time-dependent thermal transfer coefficients between steam and rotor surface. The
results of the analysis are summarized below.
The distribution of the maximum tangential stresses and corresponding time-dependency of the tangential
stresses at the material element at the bore surface experiencing maximum tangential stress is shown in Fig.
8.

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 Industrial Application of Creep/Fatigue Crack Initiation and Growth Procedures

Fig. 8: Transient tangential stress distribution at the bore surface during turbine start-up

Axial stress
Axial stress

Tangential stress Tangential stress

Fig. 9: Transient stress distributions at the rotor surface in the inlet area during turbine start-up

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 A. Bagaviev and S. Sheng

The surface area experiences compressive stresses. The axial and tangential stress distributions in the inlet
area in the radius transition zones are presented in Fig. 9.

5. Crack initiation assessment

The crack initiation assessment procedure for a component with a defect a0 after a given time in service t
consists of the following steps:
− Determination of the stress intensity KI id0 of the initial defect (the stress intensity solution for a buried
crack [6] is used)
− Determination of the nominal far-field stress (the non-linear thermo-mechanical analysis of the crack-
free rotor with FE-Code [7])
− Determination of the creep strength value for the time and temperature in service (experimental data
and inter- and extrapolation using for example Larsson-Miller parameter)
− Determination of the creep crack initiation value KI i for the time and temperature in service
(experiments and extrapolation)
− Determination of the assessment point coordinates (RK; Rσ) in the 2CD

The result for the analyzed component at service time of 100 000 h and 240 cycles is shown in Fig. 10. The
assessment point is located out of the safe region in the crack initiation area (combined crack tip and
ligament damage sector). Additionally, the points at 8000 and 23000 hours are shown. According to the
damage path, the crack initiation takes place at approximately 23000 h.
The creep-fatigue crack initiation took place and, therefore, further integrity assessment (above 100,000
hours) has to be done accounting for the crack growth due to creep and fatigue.

2·a

1 L0

0.75
Rm t
σn 0

100,000 hr
Far field ratio R σ =

23,000 hr

0.5 8,000 hr

0.25

0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
K I id 0
Crack tip ratio RK =
KI i

Fig. 10: 2CD crack initiation assessment after 8000, 23000 and 100000 operational hours and 240 cycles

6. Crack propagation assessment

The failure assessment diagram [1] characterizes fracture in terms of two parameters Kr and Lr:
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 Industrial Application of Creep/Fatigue Crack Initiation and Growth Procedures

KI σ
Kr = and L r = ,
K mat σL

where KI is the elastic stress intensity factor, Kmat is the material fracture resistance, σ represents the
magnitude of the applied load and σL is the corresponding magnitude at plastic collapse for yield stress σY.

Having calculated the two parameters Kr and Lr, the failure is avoided if the point (Kr; Lr) lies within the area
bounded by a proper failure assessment curve.

The position of the initially detected crack after 100000 operational hours is shown in Fig. 11. The blue box
and black circle correspond to the limit load as a yield strength and as a creep rupture strength respectively.

The creep and fatigue accumulated over operational time can be quantified using a linear cumulative law:
∆t steady state
da
= C ⋅ (∆K I ) + ∫ a (C*) ⋅ dt ,
n

dN 0

where the first term accounts for the crack propagation rate under cyclic loading conditions by a low fatigue
mechanism and is expressed as a function of stress intensity range ∆KI by the Paris-Erdogan equation with
the material parameter C and n;
the second term describes creep crack growth during steady state operations and can be determined with the
crack driving force in the creep range C* with experimentally determined material parameter D and φ in the
form of:
da
dt
= D ⋅ C∗
φ
( )
The crack tip parameter C* can be estimated for example using [1]:
2
⎛ K ⎞
C∗ = σ ref ⋅ ε cref ⋅ ⎜⎜ I ⎟⎟
⎝ σ ref ⎠

An estimation of the material deterioration can be conservatively introduced into the analysis by means of an
actual local creep damage value ωc and fatigue damage value ωf , calculated as shown in Introduction.

The low cycle fatigue and creep crack growth after additional 50,000 operational hours and approximately
300 operational cycles leads to the position shown in Fig. 11. The blue box and black circle correspond to
the limit load as a yield strength and as a creep rupture strength respectively.

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 A. Bagaviev and S. Sheng

1
Failure assessment curve

0.8

Crack after additional

0.6 50,000 hr and 300 cycles

Kr
0.4

0.2
Detected crack

0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2

Lr

Fig. 11: Failure assessment diagram

The diagram shows that the failure and its development is controlled by the crack tip load as a result of
relatively high loaded inlet area of the rotor. Due to the small ratio of short critical/allowable crack size to
the rotor radius in this area, the limit load solution is rather insensible of the crack growth under operational
conditions. Graphically this independence is represented by the shift of the assessment points along the Lr
axis in Fig. 11 caused by the choice of the design parameter for the limit load in form of the yield strength
(blue boxes) or creep rupture strength (black circles).

7. Summary

Two principal high temperature steam turbine component material degradation mechanisms are fatigue and
creep damage. Accumulated over the operational time their combination can lead to crack initiation and
growth resulting in leakage or rupture. The methods of creep-fatigue damage assessment are, therefore,
important to prevent turbine failures and to quantify the remaining life of turbine components.

The paper demonstrates an industrial application example of the assessment of an indication found during
ultrasonic non-destructive inspection of the combined intermediate-low pressure turbine rotor.
The crack initiation was analysed in the frame of two criteria diagram (2CD) approach. The results show that
after the first design time the crack was initiated and the remaining service time has to be assessed using
crack growth criterion.

The failure assessment diagram (FAD) approach was used to analyse the integrity of the rotor under service
conditions.

References
[1] Webster, G.A.; Nikbin, K.M.; Chorlton, M.R.; Celard, N.J.C.; Ober, M.: A comparison of high
temperature defect assessment methods, Mater High Temp, 15, 1998
[2] British Standards PD 7910, 1999
[3] Webster, G.A.; Ainsworth, R.A.: High temperature component life assessment. London:
Chapman&Hall, 1994
[4] Ewald, J.; Keienburg, K.: A two criteria diagram for creep crack initiation, International Conference
on Creep, Tokyo, April 14-18, 1986
[5] Ewald, J.; Sheng, S.; Klenk, A.; Schellenberg, G.: Engineering guide to assessment of creep crack
initiation on components by Two-Criteria-Diagram, 2nd HIDA-Conference 2000, S5-2-1
[6] Brandt, D.E.: The development of a turbine wheel design criterion based upon fracture mechanics,
Transactions of the ASME, Paper No. 71-GT-10, October 1971
[7] ABAQUS/Standard, Version 6.3.1, HKS.

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