ISSN 10618309, Russian Journal of Nondestructive Testing, 2013, Vol. 49, No. 9, pp. 538542. Pleiades Publishing, Ltd.

., 2013.
Original Russian Text V.V. Artamonov, V.P. Artamonov, 2013, published in Defektoskopiya, 2013, Vol. 49, No. 9, pp. 5661.

GENERAL ASPECTS
OF NONDESTRUCTIVE INSPECTION

Diagnostics of the Causes of the Operational Destruction

of Rotor Blades of Gas Turbines
V. V. Artamonova and V. P. Artamonovb
a

Lenorgenergogas Specialized Agency, St. Petersburg, Russia

email: vaart@mail.ru
bToraigyrov Pavlodar State University, Pavlodar, Kazakhstan
email: 273_art@mail.ru
Received October 22, 2012

AbstractThe results of technical diagnosis of the destruction of renewed rotor blades of a stationary
gas turbine plant are described. Visual, fractographical, and metallographical inspection methods were
used to determine the causes of the destruction. The causes of the operational destruction were deter
mined. Practical recommendations for preventing similar destructions were formulated.
Keywords: compressor station, rotor blade, restoring repair, economic life, fatigue crack, operating
time
DOI: 10.1134/S1061830913090027

Gasmain pipelines are intended for transporting gas over large distances. It is necessary to create large
pressures in order that gas can move in pipes in a given direction. This pressure is created at compression
stations by gas turbine complexes consisting of a gasturbine plant and centrifugal pump gun.
The rotor blades of the gas turbine operate under very stringent conditions (high temperatures, inertial
and aerodynamic loads, and corrosion action of combustion products) and are crucial and expensive
assemblies of gas turbines. Among parts of the flowthrough section of the turbine, the rotor blades have
the shortest service lives. In this connection, one of the urgent lines of repair work by the gastransport
industry is the renewal of blades that have used up the manufacturers specified service life. The repair
work, including the removal of damaged thinnings, welding or weld deposition of new thinnings, thermal
treatment, finishing, and diagnostics by the gravimetric method, is performed at a repair depot. An addi
tional service life equal, as a rule, to the overhaul life of the turbine is assigned to the repaired blades. When
the turbine has used its economic lifetime, it is tested for industrial safety. In this case, an expert organi
zation has to solve the complex technical problem of evaluating the capabilities and optimizing the life
time of a turbine with rotor blades that had used up their service lives and were renewed. An important
source of technical information on the serviceability of repaired blades is the analysis of causes of their
damage.
In 2011 the emergency shut down of the TK104 gas turbine, whose operating time was 120000 h at
time of the breakdown, occurred at one of compressor stations of the UrengoiChelyabinskPetrovsk
1

main gas pipeline. The cause of the forced stop of the turbine was the breakdown of one of the rotor blades
(Fig. 1) of the highpressure turbine (HPT). The set of these blades was renewed after 40000 operating
hours at a repair enterprise and again installed on the turbine. The set of the renewed rotor blades had
operated for 900 h at the time of breakdown.
The breakdown of the HPT blade led to the deformation of the rotor and guiding blades (Fig. 2) of the
lowpressure turbine (LPT) and, due to the unbalance and beats of the HPT rotor, grinding of the blades
of the axialflow compressor with thinning wear (Fig. 3).
The fracture pattern of the HPT rotor blades has some special features. First, the breakaway of the
blade feather (see Fig. 1) took place at a height of 40 mm from the tail flange. The most probable crack
propagation zone is the blade base, since the inertial load and bending moment caused by the action of gas
dynamic forces are at maximum here. Secondly, 9 of the 89 survived blades of the renewed set had damage
1 The

name of the Line Production Agency (LPA), the serial number of the unit, and the company that renewed the blades are
not given due to considerations of confidentiality.

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DIAGNOSTICS OF THE CAUSES OF THE OPERATIONAL DESTRUCTION

Break zone

539

Breakdown center
Fatigue
failure zone

Fig. 1. The failure plane of an HPT rotor blade.

Fig. 2. Damage to LPT rotor blades.

in the form of a fatigue crack on the exit edge of the blade (Fig. 4). Like the plane of the fracture of the
failed rotor blade, the cracks are located at a height of 3040 mm from the tail flange of the blade.
The material of the HPT rotor blades is XH65BMT alloy. The outward appearance of the fracture
of the destroyed rotor blade has features that are related to the XH65BMT alloy oxidation mechanism
at an operating temperature of 670C.
Under the longterm temperature exposure in the longterm crack propagation zone, the fracture sur
face is covered by a compact fire scale of chromium and nickel oxides, which reflects light well and has
anthracite brilliance (in contrast to magnetite, which is formed on oxidable fractures of steel parts and has
a black color). Under shortterm temperature exposure, an oxide film is formed in the break zone, whose
thickness is comparable with the light wavelength (about 550 nm). This oxide film refracts the light that is
reflected by the metallic base. In shortterm crackgrowth stop zones, the fire scale thickness is equal to
1.52 light wavelengths and these zones can be observed as dark transverse strips (see Fig. 1). In addition,
the light longterm crack propagation zone has dulled (due to the thick fire scale) grains and the darkyel
low break zone has relief contrast grains. The crack nucleation center was located on the exit edge. The
fractographical picture of the failure plane (see Fig. 1) unambiguously indicates that the destruction prop
agated in accordance with the fatigue mechanism.
As the crack propagated, the effective (i.e., not yet failed) crosssection of the blade decreased. As the
increasing stress in the unfailed crosssection of the blade reached a certain value, the fatigue mechanism
changed to quasifragile and the breakage occurred.
The microstructure of the failed rotor blade is austenitic and the grain value is no. 4 according to the
GOST (State standard) 5639. Oxides (pollution by them corresponded to mark 4 of the GOST 1778 scale)
and carbonitrides were found in the metal microstructure. Micropores occurred in the body and at the
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V. V. ARTAMONOV, V. P. ARTAMONOV

Fig. 3. Damage to the rotor blades of the axialflow compressor.

Fig. 4. One of HPT rotor blades with the fatigue crack.

grain borders and the microdamage corresponds to mark 4 of the VTI scale. About 20% of austenite grains
had a fringe consisting of small sigmaphase subgrains (Fig. 5).
The above microstructure of the failed rotor blade gives grounds to state that it had operated signifi
cantly longer, but not 900 h. However, the microstructure state could not be the immediate cause of the
mass propagation of fatigue cracks, since micropores of creepage did not merge in chains on grain borders,
microcracks were not formed, the sigmaphase propagation is comparatively weak, and there are no
defects, such as intercrystalline corrosion in surface layers of the blade metal and, in significant quantities,
a gammadashphase. A blade with these microstructure could operate for several thousands of hours.
Hence, transformation of the blade material microstructure in the operation process could not be the
cause of the breakdown.
Judging by the microstructure, the restorative repair technology did not include reconstructive thermal
treatment, which would lead to the dissolution of secondary phases in austenite and in healing micropores.
The most probable cause of the damage is the existence of surface defects, which the blade had before
the operation started. In the process of repair or transportation defects such as scratches, hairlines, or so
called nicks could occur on the exit blade at a height of 3040 mm from the tail. These defects would act
as stress concentrators and decrease the endurance limit of the blades. However, we failed to detect such
defects on the failed blade and to document them, since they had a microscopic depth, which is compa
rable with thickness of the fire scale that propagated during use of the blades or these defects were masked
by propagated fatigue cracks.
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100 m

541

10 m

Fig. 5. Microstructure of a failed rotor blade.

(a)

(b)
Fig. 6. Scratches on the surface of a renewed blade.

This assumption was confirmed during the 2012 repair campaign, when another set of rotor blades,
which were renewed by a technology similar to the repair technology of the set that failed in 2011, was
checked at the same compressor station during an industrialsafety examination. One of blades of the set
had a number of welldefined scratches on the polished back and exit edge, the largest of which were
2

located at a height of 3040 mm from the tail flange (Fig. 6a).

The portion of the surface of the defective blade, which is marked in Fig. 6a by a dotted curve, is shown
in Fig. 6b with 100 amplification. The surface is polished up to a purity of Rz 1 m. There are transverse
scratches on the polished surface with depths of about 1020 m on the back of the blade feather and 20
50 m on the exit edge. The scratches were made by a comparatively coarse tool, such as an abrasive wheel
with granularity Rz 10 m at the grinding stage (one can see microtears, traces of scuffing and cutting on
the thin section), and then they were partially polished by a fine abrasive (transverse hairlines in Fig. 6b).
Thus, it is appropriate to state that causes for the destruction of the HPT rotor blade of the TK104
turbine were not distant abrasive scratches, which were made during the repair. The scratches acted as
stress concentrators. As a result, a deformation center arose on the exit edge of the blade, which trans
formed into a fatigue crack during the operation of the turbine, finally resulting in the operational destruc
tion of the blade. The above cause was the primary one. However, there is one more accompanying cause,
namely, a low production culture. Let us explain this thesis in detail.
As authors long experience during the inspection and technical diagnostics of power equipment has
shown [1, 2], drawbacks in organizationaltechnical events also often lead to the operational destruction
of equipment, in addition to clearly technical reasons. It would be natural to assume that the set of
renewed blades arrived from the repair enterprise at the compressor station and was accompanied by a
document, e.g., a quality certificate, which would state that the renewal of the blades was fulfilled quali
2 Scratch is a term in accordance with the GOST 2350579 Abrasive Machining. Terms and Definitions.

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tatively and that the repairing factory guaranteed troublefree blade operation within a specified operation
period. However, this document was not found at the compressor station. In any case, i.e., whether or not
such a document existed, the corresponding services of the LPA or the compressor station should perform
an incoming inspection of the set of renewed blades and execute this inspection results in the form of a
corresponding document, which would permit the installation of the set of renewed blades on the turbine.
However, this document was not found at the station either. If the incoming inspection would have been
performed, a visual inspection, i.e., one without recourse to any complex equipment and ultramodern
inspection methods, could detect blades with abrasive scratches and reject them, thus preventing the oper
ational destruction with the subsequent emergency shutdown of the equipment for an unscheduled
repair.
REFERENCES
1. Artamonov, V.V. and Artamonov, V.P., Optimizatsiya kontrolya i tekhnicheskoi diagnostiki teploenergeticheskogo
oborudovaniya (Optimization of Control and Technical Diagnostics of HeatandPower Engineering Equip
ment), St. Petersburg: Nauka, 2009.
2. Artamonov, V.V., Mikrostrukturnyi monitoring energooborudovaniya (Microstructure Monitoring of Energy
Equipment), St. Petersburg: Nauka, 2010.
Translated by N. Pakhomova

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