Lifing issues in hot gas path components of heavy-duty gas turbines

Abstract

Gas turbine hot-gas-path components, which include combustion liners, transition pieces, turbine nozzles and turbine buckets, are exposed to hot gases discharged from combustion systems and suffer from severe materials degradation and damage even in the early stage of operation. The severity of the damage and degradation increases with increasing inlet temperature and size of the gas turbines, which also increase the maintenance cost. ‘Lifing’ of components is, therefore, becoming a very critical issue. This paper describes several kinds of component damage and material degradation occurring in the 1,100°C- and 1,300°C-class heavy-duty gas turbines and then shows how we revised those component lives from the original design ones. Analytical-based assessment methods associated with condition-based assessment ones, some examples of assessment results, and component life extension technologies are also described.