Development of a water droplet erosion model for large steam turbine blades

Water 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. A new erosion model has been developed in the present study for the prediction of water droplet erosion of rotor blades operated in wet steam conditions. The major four erosion parameter ; impact velocity, impacting droplet flow rate, droplet size and hardness of target are involved in the model so that it can also be used for engineering purpose at the design stage of rotor blades. Comparison of the predicted erosion rate with the measured data obtained from the practical steam turbine operated for more than 90.000 hours shows good agreement.