Abstract—The moisture content in steam of low pressure stages of a turbine for a turbo-alternator can cause erosion of the moving blades and the rate of erosion is believed to increase rapidly with increasing velocity of impact of water droplets on blades. Liquid droplet erosion is one of major concerns in the design of modern large fossil steam turbines because it causes serious operational problems such as performance degradation and reduction of service life. An erosion model has been used to analyze the erosion behavior of Co-Cr alloy coated steam turbine blades of composite material. Various relations have been used to find parameters like: incubation period, mass loss rate under changing conditions of steam quality, steam temperature, coating thickness and diameter of the water droplets. Results have been plotted and discussed, showing a distinct improvement in the erosion characteristics like: incubation period and mass loss rate due to the application of coating on the turbine blades. Accordingly suitable operational parameters have been defined to obtain the best possible performance of the steam turbine.

Index Terms—Steam, Erosion, Turbine blades, Coating thickness

Cite: Sandeep Soni, "Analysis of Liquid Droplet Erosion for Steam Turbine Blades of Composite Material," International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Research, Vol.1, No.3, pp. 214-226, October 2012.