Turbine Blade Materials and

Mechanism of Failure of Turbine blade

Guided by
Prof KN Pandey
MED MNNIT
Allahabad

Submitted by
Sudhanshu
Balodi
2015DN02

Turbine Blade Materials

Brief about turbine blade
Material used for the turbine blade
Why Nickel based Superalloys are Preferred for
high temperature application.
Microstructure of Ni based Superalloy
Strengthening Mechanism

Manufacturing technique used for the

turbine blade.
Current Examples
Gas Turbine blade failure example.

Brief about Turbine Blade

Gas turbine engines are widely used for power
Generation and aircraft engines etc. turbine blade
is one of the most important component of the
engine. It is subjected to the very severe working
conditions at high temperature with centrifugal
stress.
To survive in this difficult environment, turbine
blades often usesuperalloysand many different
methods of cooling, such as internal air
channels,boundary layercooling, andthermal
barrier coatings.

 The blades are responsible for extracting energy from

the high temperature, high pressure gas produced by
thecombustor. The turbine blades are often the
limiting component of gas turbines.
Gas turbine blades and rotor components account for
28 percent of primary causes of gas turbine failures,
with turbine nozzles and stationary part account for
only 18 percent.

Turbine blade

Cooling Method Of Turbine Blade

Superalloys are based on Group VIIIBelementsand

usually consist of various combinations of Fe, Ni, Co,
and Cr, as well as lesser amounts of W, Mo, Ta, Nb,
Ti, and Al. The three major classes of superalloys
are
Nickel-iron based
Cobalt-based
Ni basedalloys.

Why nickel superalloy are used in

turbine blades
First, nickel displays the FCC crystal structure and is thus
both tough and ductile, due to a considerable cohesive
energy arising from the bonding provided by the outer d
electrons.
furthermore, nickel is stable in the FCC form from room
temperature to its melting point, so that there are no
phase transformations to cause expansions and
contractions which might complicate its use for hightemperature components. Other metals in the transition
metal series which display this crystal structure, i.e. the
platinum group metals (PGMs), are dense and very
expensive.

Microstructure of the nickel

superalloy
The microstructure of a typical nickel superalloy consists of
following different phases :
Gamma phase()
The gamma phase This exhibits the FCC structure, and in nearly all
cases it forms a continuous, matrix phase in which the other phases
reside. It contains significant concentrations of elements such as
cobalt, chromium, molybdenum, ruthenium and rhenium .
Gamma prime precipitate()
This forms as a precipitate phase, which is often coherent with the
matrix and have an L12 crystal structure based on the Ni3Al ordered
compound , and rich in elements such as aluminium, titanium and
tantalum.

 Carbides and borides -Carbon, often present at

concentrations up to 0.2 wt%, combines with reactive
elements such as titanium, tantalum and hafnium to form
MC carbides .
Topologically closed packed phases These are
generally undesirable, brittle phases that can form
during heat treatment or service . TCPs are potentially
damaging for two reasons:
They tie up and ' strengthening elements in a nonuseful form, thus reducing creep strength, and they can
act as crack initiators because of their brittle nature.

Microstructures of Ni
superalloy

Strengthening Mechanism
strengthening mechanism used in
Ni superalloy are :
Solid solution strengthening
Cr,Mo,Al,Nb,Ti and others
Coherent precipitate hardening
Mostly due to Al and Ti
Ni3(Ti,Al),gamma prime

Carbide phase in the grain

boundaries
M23C6,M6C or MC

Material for the turbine

blade

List Of Material For Blade Based On

Manufacturing Technique

Process to manufacture the turbine

blade

Investment Casting
Powder Metallurgy
Directional Solidification
Single crystal

Single Crystal Turbine blade

The single crystal turbine blade can withstand creep
at higher temperature than the crystalline turbine
blade due to lack of grain boundaries present. The
single crystal blades do not have the grain boundaries
along the direction of the axial stress which crystalline
turbine blade have.

Evolution Of high Temperature

Capability of the superalloys over
60 year period

Current Examples
SpaceX is using INCONEL alloy 718 for its new
Super Draco engine for the Dragon V2 crewcarrying space capsule.
INCONEL alloy X-750 was used for the F-1 rocket
engine used in the first stage of the Saturn V
booster.
GE uses Ceramic Matrix Composite for its Gas
turbine engines. Enters into service in 2016 for
Airbus A320neo and 2017 for the Boeing 737max.

Alloys and coatings used in hot sections

of various Industrial gas turbines

Coating Material used in gas turbine

blade

Gas turbine blade failure

Boeing
737 powered by two
example
General Electric CFM56 turbofan
engines, which, on 13 October
2000, experienced an in-flight
engine failure that resulted in
the engine being shut down and
the aircraft returning safely to
Hobart airport in Tasmania,
Australia.
After disassembly and inspection
of the engine, failure was
attributed to the loss of a 15 mm
by 20 mm segment from the
trailing edge of a single highpressure (HP) turbine blade
fabricated from the Rene 125
alloy.
Metallographic examination of
the HP blades indicated that
radial cracks near the blade tips
were formed as a result of
severe thermal cycling, high
thermal gradients and thermal

Variation of the turbine entry Temperature

during a flight cycle of a civil aircraft

Evolution of the turbine entry

temperature capability of civil
aeroengines (Rolls Royce)

Failure Mechanisms
Brief Overview
Failure Mechanism of blade
Thermomechanical Fatigue
Creep
Oxidation
Fatigue
Fatigue life estimation model
Stress based life estimation
Fatigue based life estimation
Strain based life estimation
Cumulative damage approach for life prediction of
turbine blade

Brief Overview
TMF has become more critical to the life of gas
turbine blades due to the use of improved blade
cooling technologies that enables higher gas
temperature there by improving turbine efficiency.
In recent cooling technologies steam cooling and
advanced air cooling is used which introduced
humidity into the turbine blade and play its role in
decreasing the life of blade.

Failure Mechanism Of gas

Turbine Blade
High pressure turbine blades are failed due to
Thermo mechanical fatigue. Which is caused
due to the combined action of the thermal and
mechanical stresses. The following are the three
important mechanism which play part in the
TMF failure.
Creep-Flow of material at high temperature
Fatigue-crack growth and propagation due to
repeated loading.

 Oxidation-Change in chemical composition of

the metal due to environmental factors. The
oxidized metal is more brittle prone to crack
formation.

Thermomechanical Fatigue
The two basic TMF cycle that are most often used
to assess lives under TMF conditions are
In-phase (IP) TMF (tensile strain and peak
temperature coinciding)
out-of-phase (OP) TMF (tensile strain and the
minimum temperature coinciding).

Major Source Of Failure Mechanism

Of Gas Turbine Blade Material

Fatigue
The time-independent crack growth mode (also known as
cycle-dependent crack growth, or fatigue crack growth)
depends on three main parameters [23], namely,
frequency, load ratio, and maximum load/temperature.
At higher frequencies transgranular failure occurs, as
fatigue
dominates,
while
at
lower
frequencies
creep/oxidation exert greater influence and intergranular
failure occurs.

Intergranular/Transgranular crack
propagation

 The fatigue crack growth rate (FCGR) increases with

increasing stress ratio.
Experimental observations demonstrate that for given
K, FCGR increases with temperature. Furthermore, for
a given temperature FCGR tends to increase with
decreasing frequency

 Under LCF conditions, the cyclic stressstrain

hysteresis loops show a number of interesting
characteristics. First, the width of the loops is
larger when high inelastic strains are imposed,
which occurs for the stiffest orientations. Second,
a considerable degree of tensioncompression
yield stress asymmetry is observed for 001
orientations, with the yield stress in tension
exceeding that in compression.

 Andersson and Persson [37] carried out

microscopical examination of fatigue crack
surfaces in Inconel 718 using scanning electron
microscope at room temperature, and observed
two different kinds of fracture surfaces: locally flat
fracture surfaces, and striations.
The occurrence of ductile striations on fracture
surfaces
indicates
the
presence
of
the
transgranular (ductile) fracture mechanism of FCG
at room temperature. The spacing between
striations (i.e., crack growth rate) increased with
the stress intensity factor range.

Creep
Creepis the tendency of a solid material to
slowly move or deform permanently under the
influence of stresses. It occurs as a result of long
term exposure to high levels of stress that are
below the yield strength of the material. Creep is
more severe in materials that are subjected to
heat for long periods, and near the melting
point. Creep always increases with temperature.

 Time-dependent effects on high-temperature fatigue

crack growth behaviour in high strength structural
alloys are generally ascribed to phenomena involving
creep and/or environmental degradation processes.
It was seen that the yield stress of a typical 001oriented single-crystal superalloy remains rather
constant from ambient conditions to approximately 700
.it falls to substantially lower values if the
temperature is raised any further
however, in practice, of greater significance is the
possibility of time-dependent inelastic deformation at a
stress substantially lower than that required for
yielding.

 The yield stress at 750 is about 900 MPa, yet a

stress of 750 MPa is sufficient to cause a creep strain
of 5% in about 5 h.
The yield stress at 950 is about 600 MPa, but a
stress of 200 MPa is sufficient for a creep strain of 5%
after 1800 h.

Yield stress data for CMSX-4 are plotted

along with the
values of stress at which substantial creep

Creep Crack
Growth
Creep crack growth is described as a phenomenon of
quasi-static growth of cracks in structural components at
elevated temperature under sustained load that is much
less than its critical value for fast crack propagation .
The creep strain rate tends to decrease with time in the
primary stage of creep, and to increase with time in the
tertiary stage.
The data are plotted in two ways: creep strain vs. time
and creep strain rate vs. creep strain the latter is
helpful since it allows periods of creep hardening to be
identified, during which the creep strain rate decreases
with increasing creep strain.

Creep is divided into 3 Regime based upon

the temperature and stress applied
Primary creep regime
Tertiary creep regime
Rafting regime

Primary Creep Regime

At lower temperature and sufficiently high stress
a period of primary creep deformation occurs in
which creep strain rate first increases and then
decreases with increasing creep strain.
Thereafter secondary creep regime starts where
creep strain rate is invariant .Most part of the
creep life is spent on the secondary regime.

Tertiary Creep regime

At intermediate temperature and stress level the
creep strain rate increase monotonically with
creep strain.

Rafting Regime
At high temperature the creep strain show a distinct
plateau before creep strain increase catastrophically.
There is a creep hardening effect at first before the
plateau during which creep strain do not varies strongly
with time.
At this high temperature the creep behavior is affected
by the degradation of the / microstructure.
In the rafting regime, the / microstructure degrades
rather quickly because thermally activated processes
are favoured strongly since the temperature is high.

Two effects occur at a very early stage of deformation:

equilibrium interfacial dislocation networks form at the /
interfaces .
the particles coalesce by a process of directional coarsening
known as the rafting effect .

Oxidation
Oxidation-induced crack growth is described as
the repeated formation of an oxide layer at the
crack tip and its rupture, exposing fresh metallic
material to the environment. Crack nucleation is
defined as the rupture of the first oxide layer
formed.
Type 1 growth
Initially oxide layer forms on the surface when
the oxide layer reaches the critical thickness the
oxide ruptures and crack nucleation has
occurred. Then a fresh metallic surface is
exposed to the environment which rapidly
oxidizes. When thickness of this oxide layer

Type 2 growth
The progression of growth is similar as that of type
1 growth in that the oxide ruptures when it reaches
to the critical thickness. However in type 2 growth
when oxide ruptures It scrap off some of the
material. This result in large surface area exposed
to the environment which cause wide spread of the
oxidation effect.
Type I growth is characterized by a "continuous
oxide layer. A "continuous" oxide layer results in
oxide intrusions with no visible stratification in the
oxide. This will be distinguished from Type II growth
which is characterized by "multilayer" or "stratified"
oxide growth.

Oxidation Failure

Oxidation failure
In particular, the degradation of either coated or
uncoated Ni-base superalloys caused by the oxidation
of a surface and its effect on surface crack initiation
and propagation behaviour will be discussed.
At the high temperature regime, the microstructure is
not stable: the precipitates coarsen rapidly,
especially under stress and, in the vicinity of free
surfaces (e.g notches), there is a depletion of the
precipitates due to surface oxidation . Both
mechanisms lead to a local softening of the material
which in turn reduces the local stresses

 Generally, oxidation leads to the degradation of

materials in two ways. First, a brittle oxide layer, which
is more vulnerable to cracking, forms on the material
surface. Cracks initiating in the oxide may propagate
into the substrate and lead to failure .
A second effect is the microstructural change in the
bulk material beneath the oxide due to oxidation-linked
diffusion and interdiffusion processes, which alters the
phase
composition
of
the
material.

 Matrix and precipitates both contain elements that

are prone to oxidation. Thus not only does an oxide
form but, in consuming stabilising elements such as
Ni, Al and Ti, there is also a zone, much like the socalled precipitate free zones (PFZ) seen in Al alloys,
which is free of but which may contain complex
phase mixture.

 Among the elements present in In 718 and other Ni base

alloys such as In 706 and alloy 625, Nb is largely used to
strengthen these materials. This element combines with
titanium and aluminium to form (DO22) Ni3 (Nb, Ti, Al),
an ordered strengthening precipitate
Niobium can also precipitate as niobium carbides (NbC)
when these materials are aged at elevated temperature
(600-700 ) .
NbC particles oxidise easily and the oxide Nb2O5 which is
formed occupies a volume of about twice that of the NbC
particles.
This volume expansion produces large local stresses
which
can
be
tensile when the particles are located close to the free
surface

Effect of oxidation on Nbc

Effect of oxidation of fatigue crack

growth
the air environment changed the fatigue
crack growth mode from transgranular to
intergranular, increasing the crack growth
rate. The grain boundary ductility was
reduced due to oxygen effect of inhibition
of planar slip.
the role of oxygen is simply to reduce the
grain boundary energy in such a way that
the crack growth path becomes
intergranular.

 Short range diffusion process

This refers to the formation of an
oxide layer at the crack tip with a
depth that depends on cycle and
materials parameters. The formation
of this layer under the restricted
concave crack-tip geometry causes
high stresses to occur, and these can
transmit to the substrate.

 Long range diffusion process

In this type of oxidation process,
oxygen penetrates the crack-tip
material along rapid diffusion paths,
for example slip planes and grain
boundaries. . This process is
characterised by internal oxide sites,
cavity formations and/or solute
segregation.

Fatigue
A metal subjected to repetitive or fluctuating load
will fail at a stress magnitude much lower than that
required for failure on a single application of load .
Fatigue due to cyclic load fluctuation, known as
mechanical fatigue and, will lead to crack initiation
and propagation which leads to fracture.
The mechanical fatigue can be
classified
into two types of fatigue
High Cycle Fatigue
Low Cycle Fatigue

 LCF occurs at high stresses and low number of cycles

HCF results from cracking or Fracture phenomenon at
stress levels much lower than the stresses associated
with the steady loading.
With HCF most of the Fatigue life spent in the initiation
of the crack whereas in the LCF most life is spent in
crack propagation.
TMF occur due to the combined effect of the cyclic and
thermal stresses. Although the stress and strain caused
due to fatigue is often produced mechanically

Stress Life Model

The stress-life method, based on stress levels only, is
the least
accurate approach, especially for low-cycle
applications. However, it is the most traditional
method, since it is the easiest to implement for a wide
range of design applications, has ample supporting
data,
and
represents
high-cycle
applications
adequately.

S-N Curve for Steel

Strain Life Model

The strain-life method involves more detailed
analysis of the plastic deformation at localized
regions where the stresses and strains are
considered for life estimates.
This method is especially good for low-cycle fatigue
applications. In applying this method, several
idealizations must be compounded, and so some
uncertainties will exist in the results

Fracture Mechanics Based

Model

The fracture mechanics method assumes a crack

is already present and detected. It is then
employed to predict crack growth with respect to
stress intensity. It is most practical when applied
to large structures in conjunction with computer
codes and a periodic inspection program.

Graph between Rate of crack growth per cycle vs stress inte

Cumulative Damage
Approach

This TMF Damage Model consider the effect of

Oxidation, Creep and Fatigue to predict the life. The
damage induced in the material is dictated by the
Mechanical Strain range, strain rate ,temperature
and mechanical strain which are incorporated in the
model.
The total damage per cycle is calculated from the
sum of oxidation, creep and fatigue mechanism.
Assuming linear damage and damage at failure
equal to 1. Dtotal can be expressed as the inverse of
the life Nf.

References
Andre Pineau , Stephen D. Antolovich,High temperature fatigue of nickel based
super alloys- a review with special emphasis on deformation mode and
oxidation,Elsevier Engineering failure analysis 26682697, (2009).
Kadioglu, Y. and Sehitoglu, H., "Modeling of thermo-mechanical fatigue damage
in coated alloys", Proceedings of the Symposium on thermo-mechanical Fatigue
Behavior of Materials, San Diego, CA, USA, ASTM,17-34, (1993).
Y. Kadioglu, and H. Sehitoglu, "Modeling of thermo-mechanical fatigue damage
in coated alloys" ASTM Special Technical Publication, no. 1186, 17-34, (1993).
A. Izquierdo, A review of suitable oxidation models for aero gas turbine engines,
Cranfield University, (2010).

A. O. Abu, S. Eshati, P. Laskaridis, R. Singh, Aero-engine turbine blade

life assessment using the Neu/Sehitoglu damage model, International
Journal of Fatigue 61, 160-169, (2014).

Roy, N., Ghosh, R. N., and Pandey, M. C., Modelling of Interaction

Between Creep and Oxidation Behavior for Engineering Materials, ISIJ
Int.,41(8), pp. 915921 (2001).

E. A. Ogiriki, Y. G. Li and Th. Nikolaidis, Prediction and Analysis of

Impact of Thermal Barrier Coating Oxidation on Gas Turbine Creep
Life,Journal of Engineering for gas turbines and power ASME, Vol. 138 /
121501-1(2016)

Thank you