On the creep fatigue and creep rupture behaviours of 9–12% Cr steam turbine rotor

Abstract

This paper presents the study of creep-fatigue interaction damage and creep rupture limit for 9–12% Cr steam turbine rotor under coupled cyclic thermal-mechanical loadings that alter in phase and out of phase. The investigation is implemented using the Linear Matching Method (LMM) and based on the newly developed creep-fatigue and creep rupture evaluation procedures. Latest experimental creep data of FB2 which belongs to 9–12% Cr heat-resistant steel family is employed to calculate creep-related damage and creep rupture bearing capacity of steam turbine rotor. Various factors that affect creep and fatigue damage of steam turbine rotor are analyzed and discussed, including dwell period and rotating speed of rotor. From the parametric studies, the damage locations and cycles to failure induced by creep and fatigue mechanism are presented respectively. Moreover, through creep rupture analyses for varying desired fracture time, the novel creep rupture curves under multi-type double-cyclic-loading conditions are given and further compared with cyclic plasticity failure curve. These surrogate-model analyses offer a deep understanding of structural responses of steam turbine rotor under long-term high temperature operation and provide critical loading conditions to be referenced for smooth running.