Transient Stress Analysis and Fatigue Life Estimation of Turbine Blades

This paper is concerned with life estimation of a turbine blade taking into account the combined effects of centrifugal stresses, vibratory stresses and thermal stresses. The stresses are determined by accounting for the rotor acceleration. The blades are subjected to aerodynamic excitation force obtained from thin cambered aerofoil theory under incompressible flow. The thermo-elastic forces are obtained from the three-dimensional non-linear heat transfer equations using the finite element analysis. The fatigue life is estimated using two well known theories, from the number of cycles in various blocks during start-up and shut-down periods of the turbine operation when the stresses peak.