Brittle Fracture of Turbine Rotor

in Nagasaki

MDB3023: Engineering Materials

Instructor : Dr.
Norlaili Bt Amir
Group Members (1F)
Mohd Asyraf Azim bin Mohd Azmi 22067
Areef Imran bin Azli 20878
Wan Kamil Muqri bin Wan Ahmad Nizam 23151
What Happened?
Performance and safety test of a new turbine was tested
Brittle fracture occurred when the turbine was increased to
3,540 rpm (118% of the maximum rotational speed).
Fractures started from the rotor bore and broke the rotor into
four pieces.
Occurred at Nagasaki Bay.
Claimed 4 lives and injured 61 people.
 Cause of Accident and Investigation Result
Failure of the turbine rotor caused by fractures initated from a flaw at the
rotor bore in the following manner :
1. The casting of the turbine rotor produced a microstructural flaw in the
rotor bore. Microporousity in the castings and columnar dendrite
accrross in the bore region of the rotor occurred because of air and die
lubricant were trapped in the cavity.
2. The casting process failed to eliminate the formation of microporousity.
3. The tangential stress increased in the region of the rotor because of the
larger rotor size.
4. Increased turbine speed applied a greater tangential stress to the bore
region. Ductile fracture was initiated at high stress points, resulting in
the breakup of the rotor.
 Solutions
Engineers implemented a new casting rechnology to manufacture the
rotor. The engineers used vacuum carbon deoxidation method for
producing ingots instead of vacuum silicon deoxidation.
Improvements were made to the heat treatment and ultrasonic flaw
detection methods.
A new spin rig was implemented to prevent recurrence of the accident
that resulted in shattering of fragments and casualties.
The test equipment and turbine was placed in a pit on the ground and
the rotor was covered robustly so that fractured fragments would not
scatter in the area.
What can we learn from the
accident
As engineer, it is important to understand all
manufacturing process and related
phenomena.
Material properties are not the same. Same
ingredients dont usually equal to same
properties.
It is essential to understand the mechanism
that leads to a failure.
References

http://www.sozogaku.com/fkd/en/cfen/CA100
0601.html