Failures of High-Temperature Critical Components in Combined Cycle Power Plants

This article highlights briefly the reported failure of critical parts and equipment in gas turbine, heat recovery steam generator, and steam turbine, in addition to the requirements of lifetime predictions for the high-temperature components in the combined cycle power plant (CCPP). For assessing fracture strength of flawed structural components in high-temperature environments, the first and foremost thing observed is to ascertain the reason for cracking. Special considerations are to be given in case of stress corrosion cracking, environmentally assisted cracking or bulk creep damage. Sensitivity analysis has to be performed to identify the influencing material properties and crack sizes on the load-bearing capacity of the structural component. An elastic–plastic criterion is examined by considering the fracture data of center crack tension specimens on several materials.