Scholarly record

FINITE ELEMENT METHODS TO EVALUATE FATIGUE LIFE FOR HYDROPOWER PLANT MAINTENANCE

Assoc. Prof. Constantin DRAGOI, Assoc. Prof. Vlad Florin PIRAIANU, PhD. Petru-Cristinel IRIMIA, PhD. Calin Husar, PhD. Mihai GROVU

Abstract

Fatigue damage is determined from time signals of loading, usually in the form of stress or strain. However, there are many design scenarios when the loading, or fatigue damage process, cannot easily be defined using time signals. In these cases the design/operation engineer usually has to use a test based approach to evaluate the fatigue life of the structure or the component. Alternatively, a frequency based fatigue calculation can be used where the loading and response are represented using Power Spectral Density (PSD) functions. There are also many situations where structures from the hydropower plants equipment are subjected to a random form of loading coming from the hydraulic shocks (during sudden closing of the intake valves or fast opening to take the unit to the requested power when the grid is requesting in order to keep the safety in operation and supply), electrical power fluctuation with a strong and fast variation of frequency to the grid and therefore a powerful response from the speed governor (for grid safety purposes), etc. All of these situations can be analyzed using new and modern techniques of fatigue life estimation that can now be incorporated into the Finite Elements Analysis (FEA) environment, enabling fatigue life calculations to be done at a computer model level. The aim of proposed paper is to develop a reliable and accurate methodology to evaluate the fatigue life of the turbine shaft based on operational data.

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DOI resolver: doi.org/10.5593/sgem2017/42/s17.036

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