THE EFFECTS OF DESIGN PARAMETERS AND OPERATING CONDITIONS ON THE CREEP LIFE OF HIGH PRESSURE TURBINE (HPT) BLADE-INDUSTRIAL GAS TURBINE ENGINE

Abstract

Peak load operation requires gas turbines to operate at high firing temperature, which consequently reduces the useful lives of components. This paper studies the quantitative relationship between gas turbine power setting and the hot gas-path components’ life consumption. To achieve this purpose, a 165MW gas turbine engine was modelled and investigated in this study. A comparative lifing model, which performs stress and thermal analyses, estimates the minimum creep life of components using the parametric Larson Miller method. This lifing model was integrated with in-house performance simulation software to simulate the engine performances at design point and off-design conditions. The results showed that the combined effect of the operating environment and power demand could have significant impact on blade creep life. Predicting this impact will aid gas turbine users in the decision-making processes associated with gas turbine operation.