SCC of low pressure rotor blade attachments
Stress corrosion cracking (SCC) of low-pressure steam turbine rotor blade attachments is an industry issue on older fossil and nuclear units.
Specify combined-cycle steam turbine’s rotors for daily start, stops
Combined cycles are expected to cycle on and off more frequently than conventional fossil-fired units.
Junk in and junk out
Torsional vibration resonance can result in significant turbine and generator damage and extended forced outages.
Establishing combustion turbine blade and vane refurbishment intervals
Combustion turbine blade maintenance and refurbishment intervals must take into account many design and operation specific factors
Guidelines to achieve successful gas turbine part refurbishment
Gas turbine hot-section hardware requires part refurbishment after a specified number of operating hours, unit stop-start cycles, or a combination of the two.
Steam Turbine and Generator Reduced Minimum Load Considerations
Background Reducing the minimum load at which a unit can reliably operate is one method to increase revenue potential during lower demand periods. For this reason, it is not unusual to see merchant plants operating at super minimum load levels well below 25% rated full load. However, these units are operating well outside the original […]
Torsional Vibration Failures of Large Steam Turbine Generators
Background In the early 1970’s, the industry experienced a number of unsolved low-pressure turbine blade failures. The most notable occurred at the Prairie Island Nuclear plant with repeated failures of the last few rotating rows. Exhaustive analysis and strain gauge testing revealed the blades were responding to steady torsional excitation from the generator created by […]
Stress Corrosion Cracking (SCC) of Low Pressure Rotor Blade Attachments
Background Stress corrosion cracking (SCC) of low-pressure steam turbine rotor blade attachments is an industry issue on older fossil and nuclear units. Many units have experienced forced outages and/or extended repairs due to direct or collateral damage. Cracks that initiate in rotor steeples can eventually propagate to failure resulting in blade loss and significant damage. […]
High temperature steam turbine rotors
New environmental regulations and the installation of renewable energy sources have resulted in many retirements of older legacy steam turbine generating units.
Design challenges of repowering steam turbine generator
Image Gallery Background Environmental pressures on conventional fossil fueled boilers has led to a large number of repowering projects utilizing gas turbine technology coupled with a heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) to provide steam to an existing turbine. The economics of utilizing the existing steam turbine generator can be a major factor in the rate […]
