Eddy current inspection of stationary blade rings
- Electric Power Research Inst., Charlotte, NC (United States). Nondestructive Evaluation Center
- Pacific Gas and Electric Co., San Ramon, CA (United States)
Stationary turbine blade rings in a US power plant have experienced chloride-induced cracking. Failure analysis determined two types of cracking mechanisms: corrosion fatigue cracking confined to the leading edge of the outer shroud; and stress corrosion cracking present all over the blade surface. Fluorescent dye penetrant is typically used to detect and size cracks. However, it requires cleaning the blade rings by sandblasting to obtain reliable inspection results. Sand blasting in turn requires sealing the lower half of the turbine housing to prevent sand from contaminating the rest of the power plant components. Furthermore, both the penetrant examination and the removal of the sand are time consuming and costly. An alternative NDE technique is desirable which requires no pre-cleaning of the blade and a quick go/no-go inspection with the capability of estimating the crack length. This paper presents an innovative eddy current technique which meets the desired objectives by incorporating the use of specially designed contoured scanners equipped with an array of pancake coils. A set of eddy current pancake coils housed in three different scanners is used to manually scan and inspect the convex side of the stationary blade rings. The pancake coils are operated in a transmit/receive mode using two separate eddy current instruments. This paper presents the inspection concept, including scanner and probe designs, and test results from the various stages of multiple blade rings.
- OSTI ID:
- 72642
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-931061--; ISBN 0-87170-506-0
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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