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Quality control in welding repair of Pelton runner

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DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2014.10.042

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 Renewable Energy 79 (2015) 96e102

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Renewable Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/renene

Quality control in welding repair of Pelton runner

Amod Panthee a, *, Bhola Thapa b, Hari Prasad Neopane b
a
Turbine Testing Lab, Department of Mechanical Engineering, School of Engineering, Kathmandu University, Dhulikhel, Nepal
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, School of Engineering, Kathmandu University, Dhulikhel, Nepal

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Turbine material is heavily eroded when operated in sediment-laden rivers. Erosion reduces the effi-
Received 9 May 2014 ciency and increases operational risk. Therefore, welding repair is chosen in Nepal due to low cost to
Accepted 16 October 2014 build up the eroded surface. Welding repair of hydraulic turbine does not impair the material property
Available online 8 November 2014
but, it can be catastrophic when carried out improperly. Such problem has been observed in Khimti
Hydro-Power (KHP) in Nepal. The Pelton runner at KHP had operated without any major defects for
Keywords:
22,000 h before repair. But, root cracks extending up to 110 mm deep was revealed during inspection of
Quality control
welding repaired runner after 11,000 h of operation. Therefore, quality control during repair of runner is
Welding repair
Sediment erosion
essential to achieve the desired properties and avoid catastrophic failures. Various factors like quality of
Pelton runner weld deposit, preheating and post weld heat treatment conditions, and design changes during repair
cause failure. The paper presents the possible causes of failure of Runner 1, 3 and 4 with reference to the
operation and maintenance history, and quality control measures used in repair of Runner 7 of KHP.
© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Hydropower plants are the economic source of sustainable en-
ergy with its operating duration of 50e100 years and turbine
design life of 20 years [1e3]. However, in extreme sediment erosive
environments, the runner material erodes which reduces the effi-
ciency and increases the risk of operation. The relation between the
sediment erosion, operational challenges and ultimate solution is
shown in Fig. 1. The sediment erosion in hydraulic turbines is
usually caused by sediments of size smaller than 0.2 mm, which
passes through the settling basins into the turbine units. Such
problems are observed in both the Francis turbine, installed in
Jhimruk Hydropower, and the Pelton turbine installed in Khimti
and Chilime Hydropower in Nepal [4e6].
Bucket is the most affected part of the Pelton runner. The
erosion in bucket causes change in flow direction and back hitting
which reduces the efficiency [4]. The erosion in the splitter de-
creases the efficiency by approximately 1% upon increase in splitter
thickness by 1% of bucket width [4]. Similarly, there is 1% efficiency
loss in Pelton turbine after operation for approximately 1150 h in
sediment-laden water [6].
Pelton turbines experience maximum amplitude of load at
single bucket during rotation in the turbine unit with one nozzle.
* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: amodpanthi@gmail.com, amodpanthi@ku.edu.np (A. Panthee).
The stress caused by the hydraulic load becomes catastrophic when
bucket size near root is heavily reduced [5]. The fracture of the
bucket from runner disc causes economic losses due to require-
ment for rehabilitation and plant shut down along with the in-
crease in risk of human life.
Regular inspection and repair is recommended to avoid such
catastrophic failure [5]. However, the ultimate solution to maintain
the efficiency and decrease the risk of operation is either replacement
with new runner or repair and operation. The cost of welding repair
of 12 MW Pelton runner with 1400 mm PCD in Nepal is approxi-
mately 45,000 USD while a new runner of same size costs approxi-
mately 310,000 USD. The welding repair does not impair the material
property if carried out properly [7]. Therefore, welding repair is
chosen as the best alternative in hydropower plants in Nepal.
2. Maintenance approach
The periodic inspection during operation to identify the pres-
ence of any defect is a preliminary activity carried out at hydro-
power stations to decide the requirements for maintenance of
hydraulic turbines operated in sediment erosive environment.
Usually, the runner is inspected using Non Destructive Test (NDT)
methods like Dye Penetrant Test (DPT) and Magnetic Particle Test
(MPT) at KHP after 2000 h of operation.
Depending upon the degree of erosion in the bucket and need of
correction of bucket profile to maintain the efficiency and to avoid
excessive wear in the eroded regions, the runner is grinded [8]. The

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2014.10.042
0960-1481/© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 A. Panthee et al. / Renewable Energy 79 (2015) 96e102 97

carried out in the runner twice before repair after operating

Fig. 1. Sediment induced operation and maintenance challenge.
Table 1
Welding electrode composition.[9].
C Si Mn Cr Ni
wt% 0.035 0.3 0.5 12.2 4.5
measured average annual loss of thickness in the bucket of Pelton
runner of KHP due to erosion and grinding is 1 mme1.5 mm.
The runners are operated for approximately 35,000 h before
repair. 5 mme7 mm welding deposits is build up in each bucket
during repair. The runner material is 13Cr4Ni stainless steel and the
€
welding is carried out using the BOHLER FOX CN 13/4 electrodes
with composition shown in Table 1 which is similar to the
composition of base metal. A general maintenance approach in-
volves the activities like NDT's, balancing before and after repair,
preheating, grinding, profile correction using design templates, and
post-weld heat treatment, shown in Fig. 2. Grinding and NDT's are
carried out after each layer of welding. Bucket dimension mea-
surement is carried out to determine and control any distortion if
occurred in the runner after repair.
3. Operations and maintenance history
Maintenance history of Runner 1 of KHP shows that welding
was carried out after operating 22,000 h. Profile correction was
7562 h and 14,262 h. In addition, the runner was ground to remove
small pores and cracks revealed by NDT during inspection after
operating 765 h and 18,879 h. A small crack of length 3 mm was also
revealed in the runner after operating for 2223 h, which was
removed by grinding. Small pores were also observed on backside
of the bucket after operation for 9616 h and 12,014 h, which were
not repaired. The runner inspection history before welding repair is
shown in Fig. 3(a).
The runner was repaired by adding 80 kg weld deposit on
bucket surface after operating 22,144 h. The detail of runner in-
spection history after welding is shown in Fig. 3(b). Several po-
rosities on backside and groove was revealed after operating
Mo 1740 h and 3270 h. Root cracks indicated by bleeding of penetrant
0.5 shown in Fig. 4 were observed in the runner after operating
11,992 h. The crack excavation showed big cracks in 5 buckets with
maximum 110 mm in depth, 180 mm in length and 70 mm in
height, shown in Fig. 4(b).
4. Runner geometry after repair
The geometry of Runner 1 was not in accordance to the original
design. The fillet between the trailing edge of the splitter and
bucket root was modified in the repaired runner. Fig. 5(a) shows the
fillet at bucket root which was observed before welding repair of
the runner. However, the splitter has been extended directly to the
runner disc removing the fillet at bucket root as shown in Fig. 5(b).
The root of the Pelton turbine is the region of higher stress [10]. In
modern Pelton turbines, the splitter height is increased towards the
root to increase efficiency and the root radius is furbished to
minimize stress concentration [11]. However, extending the splitter
directly to the runner disc increases the stress in the root. The
operation of turbine at higher stress level reduces the fatigue life.
Therefore, the bucket geometry was checked with design templates
at different sections during repair of Runner 7. The design tem-
plates were provided by the manufacturer of the runner. Fig. 6(a)
and (b) shows the design templates used at splitter in notch section
and middle section of bucket respectively.

5. Welding repair

The runner was preheated in welding chamber and the root

temperature was maintained within the range of 50
Ce150
C
throughout the welding. The runner inside the welding chamber is
shown in Fig. 7. The welding deposits are added in circular pattern
shown by the markings in Fig. 7(a). The runner temperature is
continuously monitored with automated temperature controller.
Fig. 7(b) shows the thermocouple arrangement in bucket for
monitoring runner temperature. Preheating runner is carried out to
remove moisture from welding surface and reduce thermal
gradient. It also removes any undesirable contaminants that may
cause porosity, hydrogen embrittlement or cracks during welding.
The temperature at right and left side of the notch and the root
of Pelton bucket was logged during welding, shown in Fig. 8. The
temperature plot in Fig. 8(a) is comparatively better than in
Fig. 8(b). The temperature gradient is higher in Fig. 8(b) which
causes higher residual stress. Similar temperature profile was
observed in 11 buckets out of 22 buckets in the runner.
The carbon content in 13Cre4Ni stainless steel is lower which
increases the current requirements for welding, and heat input is
increased due to higher current requirement in the runner. How-
ever, it is necessary to avoid this increment since the runner ma-
terial has lower thermal conductivity and causes higher thermal
gradient and higher thermal stress in the weld zone which is not
Fig. 2. Maintenance approach. desired [7]. The heat input in the base metal during welding is
98 A. Panthee et al. / Renewable Energy 79 (2015) 96e102

Fig. 3. Inspection history of Runner 1.

Fig. 4. Root cracks in Runner 1 after repair.

Fig. 5. Geometry of Runner 1 before and after repair.

Fig. 6. Design templates used during repair of Runner 7.

 A. Panthee et al. / Renewable Energy 79 (2015) 96e102
Fig. 7. Welding deposits and temperature control.
controlled by controlling the speed of the weld pass which is
calculated by (1) [12]. The maximum heat input was limited to
15 kJ/cm during repair of Runner 7.
Voltage ðVÞ  Current ðAÞ
Heat Input ¼   (1)
Weld Speed cm  1000
s
The left and right half of the bucket in Fig. 9 shows excessive
weld deposit in bucket and profile correction by grinding respec-
tively. The measured excessive weld deposit was up to 4 mm which
was removed by grinding. The total weight of the welding deposit
before and after final polishing was measured 340 kg and 130 kg
respectively. Excessive welding deposit increases both the welding
stress and cost and fatigue failure of the runner occurs if welding
residual stress is not removed. Therefore, the welding stress was
removed by post weld heat treatment.
The wet part of Pelton bucket can be divided into 5 different
sections in general, shown in Fig. 10. The visual inspection of the
Pelton runner of Khimti hydropower shows excessive erosion in
Section S2 and S4. The root section of the runner Section S3 shows
lower erosion. This is supported by Ref. [13] which shows relatively
higher pressure distribution in Section S2 and the peak pressure
represents the location of maximum erosion damage in the bucket.
Besides, the visual inspection in Pelton runner of KHP also shows
excessive erosion in Section S4 which is numerically identified as
the region of low-pressure peaks in Ref. [13]. The requirements of
number of layers of welding deposit in Pelton bucket should be
increased in order S3 < S1 < S5 < S4 < S2. This will minimize both the
stress induced by welding in the bucket and the cost.
Fig. 8. Logged temperature during welding in Runner 7.
99
6. Post weld heat treatment
Welding deposits, which is in molten state at high temperature
and expanded form, is applied to the cooler base metal with which
it is bonded. Weld material is rapidly cooled and it attempts to
shrink. However, the bonded weld and base material resists the
shrinkage phenomenon and residual tensile stresses is induced.
The stress level in the weld zone after cooling can be as high as yield
strength of the base material and these stress may exceed the
design stress when combined with the normal stress during
operation which causes failure. Metal shows volatile nature at
higher temperature and residual stresses caused by welding are
able to relieve themselves. A higher temperature and longer
holding time helps in relieving higher residual stress. Therefore, it
is necessary to relieve the residual stresses due to welding by
PWHT. In addition, hydrogen present in the weld zone are diffused
at higher temperature during PWHT which reduces the risk of
corrosion cracking and hydrogen induced cracking.
The operation and maintenance history of Runner 3 and Runner
4 of KHP also showed root cracks after repair despite maintaining
the design geometry with fillet between the trailing edge of splitter
and bucket root. NDT's revealed first surface crack in Runner 3 and
Runner 4 after operating 2038 h and 383 h respectively. Several
porosities were also present in the runner which indicate poor
welding quality or PWHT.
The temperature of the Runner 7 was logged during PWHT at
four different locations. The average temperature plot of heat
treatment of the runner and prescribed heat treatment conditions
is shown in Fig. 11. In general heating rate is not much important.
100 A. Panthee et al. / Renewable Energy 79 (2015) 96e102
Fig. 9. Weld deposits in Runner 7.
However, great care should be taken during heat treatment to
maintain the soaking time and cooling rate.
The soaking time provides homogeneous material property at
elevated temperature and cooling rate determines the material
property at room temperature. The recommended heating and
cooling rate for heat treatment of Pelton runner of KHP is 50
C/hr
and 30
C/hr. Fig. 10 shows relatively higher heating rate, appro-
priate holding time and slow cooling rate near room temperature.
Soaking time during post weld heat treatment of Runner 1 was
2 h and that of Runner 3 and Runner 4 was 4 h. The root cracks in
these runners could be possibly due to inadequate soaking time.
The minimum required soaking time for the Pelton runner of KHP
calculated using (2) is 5.6 h. This requirement was maintained
during repair of Runner 7.
hours
soak time ¼ 0:2  max: thickness in cm þ 2 hours
cm
In addition, Ref. [14,15], also claims that the cooling rate should
be rapid before reaching the martensite formation temperature.
Fig. 10. Bucket sections.
Fig. 11. Post weld heat treatment of Runner 7.
The rapid cooling helps to avoid the formation of chromium carbide
that induces corrosion, and root cracks which occur due to corro-
sion fatigue. The cooling rate should be slowed after reaching the
martensite formation temperature. The temperature difference at
different sections in the runner should not exceed 42
C during heat
treatment [16]. The plot of maximum temperature difference,
shown in Fig. 12, measured at four different locations in Runner 7
shows that the condition has been achieved.
7. Non Destructive Test (NDT)
Non Destructive Test (NDT) methods employed during repair of
Pelton turbine are MPT and DPT. The acceptance criteria for welding
is adopted from Ref. [17]. Both DPT and MPT was carried out after
each layer of weld deposit. MPT was carried out by magnetizing the
runner with 1000 A current to identify and rectify welding defects.
Indications with major dimensions greater than 1.6 mm are
considered relevant and rectified during repair. The conditions for
unacceptable welding defects is shown in Fig. 13. Any rounded
indications greater than 4.8 mm, and four or more rounded in-
dications in a line separated by 1.6 mm or less edge-to-edge are also
considered unacceptable [17]. Such indications were observed
during repair and removed by grinding to sound metal. The runner
(2)
was then preheated and welded.
8. Balancing of runner
Weight unbalance is most common source of vibration. It is
caused due to several factors such as machining and assembly
tolerances, material non-uniformities and a finite accuracy of
balancing by the manufacturer [18]. In sediment eroded Pelton
runner, unbalance is also caused by non-uniformity of erosion in all
buckets. The welding repaired Pelton runner is also unbalanced due
to non-homogeneous distribution of weld deposits.
The unbalance causes the center of gravity offset relative to the
axis of rotation. As a result, an unbalanced centrifugal force is
Fig. 12. Maximum temperature difference.
 A. Panthee et al. / Renewable Energy 79 (2015) 96e102
Fig. 13. Relevant indications of weld defects revealed by NDT.
Table 2
Balancing weight added in Runner 7.
Period Location and weight added (kg)
Before repair Between bucket 14 & 15 (M1) 1.4
At bucket 20 (M2) 1.3
After repair Between bucket 3 & 4 (M3) 1.068
created in the component when the runner is rotating. Similar
forces are created in other parts of the rotor. As the forces rotate
with the rotor, they cause it to vibrate at the frequency of rotation.
Due to high rotational speed of the turbine, e.g. 600 RPM in Pelton
runner of KHP, even a small weight produces large vibration. The
vibrating turbine generates high cyclic stresses and fatigue failure
occurs when high cyclic stress has been exerted for a sufficient
number of time. Therefore, static balancing is carried out in Pelton
runner of KHP.
The static balancing of runner was performed both before and
after repair, shown in Table 2. Fig. 14 shows the location of mass
added in the runner. The balancing mass added in the runner was
2.7 kg and 1.068 kg before and after repair respectively.
9. Conclusion
Sediment erosion reduces the efficiency and increases the risk of
operation. These problems are overcome by welding repair. In
Fig. 14. Location of balancing weight.
101
addition, welding repair could be advantageous due to lower cost
and material strength will be as of the base metal. However, the
Total (kg) welding repair of Pelton runner of Khimti Hydropower did not
2.7
show satisfactory operational life in the past. Therefore, the need of
repair by welding is a Sediment Induced Major Challenge.
1.068 The quality control measures should be followed strictly during
repair and further improvements in maintenance techniques are
required. The preheating of the runner, weld speed and post weld
heat treatment should be carried out properly during repair.
Soaking time during heat treatment should be adequate and cool-
ing rate should be controlled precisely to achieve desired me-
chanical property at room temperature. In addition, the runner
geometry after repair should be checked with design templates to
avoid increased operating stress at bucket root. The welding de-
posits in the bucket should be as minimal as possible to reduce both
the welding stress and the welding cost. NDT's and balancing
should be performed and defects should be rectified during repair.
Application of well-planned quality control measures helps in
ensuring longer turbine life.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge Himal Power Limited
(HPL), Nepal for supporting the research at Turbine Testing Lab,
Kathmandu University, Nepal. The authors would also like to
acknowledge Prof. Young-Ho Lee, Korea Maritime and Ocean Uni-
versity (KMOU) for his support to present the paper in 3rd Asia-
Pacific Forum on Renewable Energy (AFORE 2013) held at Korea
on November 2013.
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