Crack of a first stage blade in a steam turbine

A new Case Study in « Case Studies in Engineering Failure Analysis », Volume 2, Issue 2, October 2014, Pages 54–60

The failure of the first stage blade in a steam turbine of 55 MW was investigated. The blade was made of 17-4 PH stainless steel and has been used for 12 years before failure. The current work aims to find out the main cause of the first stage blade failure. The result showed that the crack at the blade root tang was due to corrosion fatigue and the crack occurred at the blade root fillet owing to stress corrosion cracking.