Thermo-Structural Analysis of First Stage Gas Turbine Rotor Blade Materials for Optimum Service Performance

Year 2018, Volume: 10 Issue: 2, 118 - 130, 15.08.2018

Aniekan Ikpe , Oghenefejiro Efe-ononeme Godfrey Ariavie

https://doi.org/10.24107/ijeas.447650

Cited By: 6

Abstract

During gas
turbine operation, the vibration that occurs at high speed, hot gases entering
the combustion chamber and other operational factors affect the longevity of
gas turbine blade. This paper is focused on the
selection of suitable materials that can withstand the severe working condition
and thermo-structural
analysis using Finite Element method (FEM) to determine the behaviour of each material under service
condition. Cambridge Engineering Software (CES) was employed in the material
selection process where GTD111, U500 and IN 738 were identified prior to
analyzing U500 and IN 738 due to desired mechanical properties over GTD111.
Employing ANSYS R15.0 in the steady
state thermal analysis, maximum service temperature of 736.49^oC
and maximum Total heat
flux of 4.345x10⁵ W/m² was obtained for IN 738 material while maximum service
temperature of 728.29^oC and maximum Total heat flux of 4.1746x10⁵ W/m²
was obtained for U500 blade
material. For structural static analysis, maximum von-mises stress of 454 MPa
and total deformation of 0.16221 obtained for IN 738 while maximum von-mises
stress of 416 MPa and total deformation of 0.12125 was obtained for U500 blade material. While the FEA
analytical results for both materials exhibited less variations between each
other, IN 738 displayed better thermal characteristics, whereas, U500 presented
satisfactory structural static results and above all, von-mises stresses
obtained for both materials was below their yield strength and melting
temperature. Hence, gas turbine blade materials should be assessed thoroughly
for structural and thermal conditions before manufacturing.

Keywords

Gas turbine, Turbine blade, Temperature, Material properties, Stress

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