Contribution of High Mechanical Fatigue to Gas Turbine Blade Lifetime during Steady-State Operation

Abstract

In this study, the contribution of high thermomechanical fatigue to the gas turbine lifetime during a steady-state operation is evaluated for the first time. An evolution of the roughness on the surface between the thermal barrier coating and bond coating is addressed to elucidate the correlation between operating conditions and the degradation of a gas turbine. Specifically, three factors affecting coating failure are characterized, namely isothermal operation, low-cycle fatigue, and high thermomechanical fatigue, using laboratory experiments and actual service-exposed blades in a power plant. The results indicate that, although isothermal heat exposure during a steady-state operation contributes to creep, it does not contribute to failure caused by coating fatigue. Low-cycle fatigue during a transient operation cannot fully describe the evolution of the roughness between the thermal barrier coating and the bond coating of the gas turbine. High thermomechanical fatigue during a steady-state operation plays a critical role in coating failure because the temperature of hot gas pass components fluctuates up to 140 degrees C at high operating temperatures. Hence, high thermomechanical fatigue must be accounted for to accurately predict the remaining useful lifetime of a gas turbine because the current method of predicting the remaining useful lifetime only accounts for creep during a steady-state operation and for low-cycle fatigue during a transient operation.