Low Cycle Fatigue Modelling of Steam Turbine Rotor Steel

• Materials in steam turbine rotors are subjected to cyclic loads at high temperature, causing cracks to initiate and grow. To allow for more flexible operation, accurate fatigue models for life prediction must not be overly conservative. In this study, fully reversed low cycle fatigue tests were performed on a turbine rotor steel called FB2. The tests were done isothermally, within temperature range of room temperature to 600 °C, under strain control with 0.8-1.2 % total strain range. Some tests included hold time to calibrate the short-time creep behaviour of the material. Different fatigue life models were constructed. The life curve in terms of stress amplitude was found unusable at 600 °C, while the life curve in terms of total strain or inelastic strain amplitudes displayed inconsistent behaviour at 500 °C. To construct better life model, the inelastic strain amplitudes were separated into plastic and creep components by modelling the deformation behaviour of the material, including creep. Based on strain range partitioning approach, the fatigue life depends on different damage mechanisms at different strain ranges. This allowed the formulation of life curves based on plasticity or creep domination, which showed creep domination at 600 °C, while at 500 °C, creep only dominates for higher strain range.

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Materialteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Materials Engineering (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Low cycle fatigue

Creep-fatigue intraction

Strain range partitioning

FB2

Creep-resistant steel

Rotor steel

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)