Gas Turbine Hot and Cold Section Assessment and Life Management

ERA Technology's two and a half day course has been specially designed to help gas turbine owners and operators better understand the key life limiting issues relating to these important and valuable assets.

Case studies are taken from field experience and will demonstrate the benefits of taking a more proactive approach towards life management of hot section components. In each case the technical problem and its assessment are placed within the context of their effect on the operation and maintenance of the machine. This course will focus on the limitation of hot section component durability, hot section component assessment, the technical engineering basis for components degradation and the scope (and limitation) of available repair technology. The course opens with an in depth study of the materials used in the construction of gas turbines starting with the mechanical properties and the behaviour of the superalloys and their coatings used in the hot section. Compressor materials are also reviewed. This information is then translated into a design life looking mostly at the hot section blading, which has the shortest life and is expensive to replace. Disc lifting is also reviewed as the design approach is different due to critical loading and safety considerations. Component condition assessment is examined in the context of differing assessment frameworks i.e. routine, destructive, analytical and more advanced non-destructive examinations and the importance of monitoring is expanded upon.

The final module on day two considers repair and refurbishment methods for blades and vanes, such as cleaning and stripping, welding, vacuum brazing, coating and recoating, and the requirements for quality assessments of these techniques. The half day session on day three is dedicated to compressors their materials, design, degredation and the problems that are likely to occur.