Determination of Stress Intensity Factors in Low Pressure Turbine Rotor Discs

An attention in this paper is focused on the stress analysis and the determination of fracture mechanics parameters in low pressure (LP) turbine rotor discs and on developing analytic expressions for stress intensity factors at the critical location of LP steam turbine disc. Critical locations such as keyway and dovetail area experienced stress concentration leading to crack initiation. Major concerns for the power industry are determining the critical locations with one side and fracture mechanics parameters with the other side. For determination of the critical locations in LP turbine rotor disc conventional finite elements are used here. For this initial crack length and during crack growth it is necessary to determine SIFs. In fatigue crack growth process it is necessary to have analytic formulas for the stress intensity factor. To determine analytic formula for stress intensity factor (SIF) of cracked turbine rotor disc special singular finite elements are used. Using discrete values of SIFs which correspond to various crack lengths analytic formula of SIF in polynomial forms is derived here. For determination of SIF in this paper, combined -integral approach and singular finite elements are used. The interaction of mechanical and thermal effects was correlated in terms of the fracture toughness.