ISSN 00406015, Thermal Engineering, 2011, Vol. 58, No. 9, pp. 713718. Pleiades Publishing, Inc., 2011.

Original Russian Text V.A. Ryzhenkov, A.I. Lebedeva, A.F. Mednikov, 2011, published in Teploenergetika.

Erosion Wear of the Blades of WetSteam Turbine Stages:

Present State of the Problem and Methods for Solving It
V. A. Ryzhenkov, A. I. Lebedeva, and A. F. Mednikov
Moscow Power Engineering Institute, ul. Krasnokazarmennaya 14, Moscow, 111250 Russia

AbstractThe results obtained from studies of metal erosion processes are analyzed and generalized, which
made it possible to establish the main regularities relating to surface destruction of blade materials under the
effect of droplet impingement and determine how the size of liquid droplets and velocity at which they collide
with the surface affects the rate of erosion wear for almost all blade materials. Development of efficient tech
nologies for strengthening the surface layer and applying universal durable coatings is the most promising line
of activities aimed at making blade materials more resistant to erosion wear.
DOI: 10.1134/S0040601511090138

Quite a number of technical and technological
problems connected with increasing the initial param
eters of steam and length of turbine laststage blades
has to be solved for achieving higher efficiency of
newly designed power units.
Measures taken to ensure reliable and longterm
operation of largecapacity steam turbines are con
nected to a considerable degree with improving the
durability of the blade system, which experiences var
ious kinds of corrosion effects, including corrosion
cracking, as well as abrasive and droplet impingement
erosion during operation, which generates the need of
improving the quality of working fluid, decreasing the
content of moisture at the periphery of wetsteam
stages, using more advanced structural materials, and
developing efficient protective coatings. In view of the
abovementioned problems, leading turbine manufac
turing companies develop new wetsteam stages for
largecapacity turbines equipped with superlong
blades (see the table).
The length of laststage steel rotor blades that are in
operation reaches 1200 mm. The titanium blades that
are being developed will have a length of 1500 mm with
the rotor rotation frequency equal to 50 Hz. This
involves increasing the circumferential velocities of
such blades at the periphery of wetsteam stages to
900 m/s, due to which the problem of blade material
erosion will attain a quite new level of importance.
The majority of methods used for increasing resis
tance to erosion consist in protecting the surfaces of
the leading and trailing edges of rotor blades used in
wetsteam turbine stages from highvelocity droplet
impingement effects. These methods can be subdi
vided (with some degree of conditionality) into two
large groups: active and passive ones. Active methods
are aimed at reducing the content of moisture and
decreasing the sizes of liquid particles contained in the
twophase flow moving in the last turbine stages, due
to which the very factor causing erosion wear is elimi
nated to a certain degree. Passive methods are prima
rily oriented at improving the properties of surface lay
ers (strengthening) and creating different sorts of coat
ings resistant to wear. This group also includes design
and technological measures the taking of which allows
the flow path elements subjected to the influence of a
highvelocity twophase flow to be made more resis
tant to erosion as a result of using optimally selected
structural materials taking into account their resis
tance to wear, improving the structure of traditional
construction materials, and using efficient design and
technological solutions. Despite the fact that quite a
number of passive methods have been developed for
improving erosion resistance, only some of them have
found wide acceptance (the use of stellite plates,
strengthening of surface layers, application of coatings
resistant to wear, etc.). Brazing or welding stellite
plates, which is the most widely accepted method, has
very serious drawbacks: its use degrades the gas
dynamic properties of blade profiles, it has a high cost,
and its implementation involves certain technological
difficulties. In addition, separation of soldered plates
occurs quite frequently, and each of such plates inflicts
damage to one or more condenser tubes with all nega
tive consequences. The welding of stellite plates often
leads to the appearance of stress concentrators, due to
which cracks may occur in turbine blades, and their
fragments can break away during turbine operation.
The use of methods central to which is strengthening
the surface or applying, e.g., gasthermal coatings,
gives rather moderate effect in terms of increasing ero
sion and corrosion resistance, and it should be noted
that application of gasthermal coatings also results in
low adhesion characteristics and appearance of stress
concentrators. All these methods have a common
drawback, which consists in that they cannot in prin
ciple be used for protecting trailing edges of rotor

713
714 RYZHENKOV et al.

Main characteristics of designed (*) and operating superlong laststage rotor blades of steam turbines with a rotation frequency
of 50 Hz [1]
Outlet flow Mean diameter Circumferential velocity
Developer Length, mm Material
annular area, m2 to length ratio at the periphery
Leningrad Metal Works 1500* Titanium 17.9 2.50 832
Siemens 1423* '' 16.0 2.50 785
Mitsubishi 1372* '' 14.6 2.50 747
Alstom 1360* '' 14.7 2.50 754
GE/Toshiba 1219 Steel, titanium 11.9 2.56 680
Mitsubishi 1219 Steel 11.3 2.44 655
ABB 1200 Steel, titanium 12.2 2.70 697
Leningrad Metal Works 1200 Titanium 11.3 2.50 660
Siemens 1146 Steel 12.5 3.03 720
Alstom 1130 '' 10.5 2.63 642
Turboatom 1100* '' 10.4 2.78 645
Hitachi 1092 '' 10.1 2.70 634
Mitsubishi 1030 '' 9.4 2.78 618

blades of the last steam turbine stages. The above
mentioned drawbacks inherent in the traditional
methods for protection from erosion result in that
these methods cannot be used almost at all for super
long blades of newgeneration turbines.
Erosion of structural materials under the effect of
droplet impingement is a problem that has been
known since long ago and studied thoroughly enough.
As far as steam turbines are concerned, erosion wear is
a very complex and multifactor process of destruction
of the working surfaces of structural materials caused
by intense highvelocity interaction between the rotat
ing rotor blades having an intricate configuration and
liquid phase particles having different sizes and mov
ing with different velocities, and with the twophase
flow having variable content of moisture in the axial,
circumferential, and radial directions in the turbine
flow path, and with the constantly varying profile of
eroded surfaces.
As is well known, the design (diagram) content of
moisture in steam for the last stages of lowpressure
cylinders (LPCs) of largecapacity steam turbines is at
a level of 1012%. In reality, the distribution of wet
ness over the stage height differs considerably from the
average diagram value and may exceed this value by a
factor of 34 at the periphery [26].
The structure of liquid phase particles and the
velocity with which they move in the gap between the
nozzle vane and rotor cascades of the turbines last
stages are predetermined by the location at which pri
mary moisture appears in the flow path during steam
condensation, by coarsely dispersed moisture gener
ated when liquid films separate from the surfaces of
blades and other elements of the turbine flow path, its
interaction with the blade surfaces (including the sur
faces on which liquid films are moving), and by the
design features of stages and operating parameters of
the turbine. There is nothing to do but state that no
trustworthy operating data are presently available on
the actual characteristics of the liquid phase of two
phase flow in the gap between the laststage nozzle
vane and rotor blade cascades. In this connection,
there still remains an extremely acute need of develop
ing methods and unique equipment for measuring the
sizes and velocities of liquid phase particles and deter
mining the actual content of moisture along the stage
height in different operating modes of steam turbines.
An analysis and generalization of a large number of
results obtained from experimental and field investiga
tions made it possible to establish the main regularities
relating to the blade material erosion process. At
present, the process of erosion wear is depicted, unlike
the way it was thought of earlier [7, 8], as a dependence
of the average material erosion depth E on the mass m
of liquid collided with the unit surface area. The
changeover to specific parameters made it possible to
compare the results of erosion tests obtained under
different conditions and reveal regularities common
for different structural materials. According to the mod
ern ideas, the typical curve of erosion wear of blade mate
rials is characterized by five periods (Fig. 1).
The use of specific parameters of erosion also made
it possible to reveal a characteristic feature in the
kinetics of erosion process, which consists in the fol
lowing: the tangents drawn to the erosion curves in the
segments with the maximal and steadystate rate at
different diameters of droplets ddr and collision veloc
ities ccol are intersected at the same points on the ordi
nate axis (the points Em and Est in Fig. 1). This circum
stance was confirmed in analyzing the results from
numerous studies of erosion processes in a wide range

THERMAL ENGINEERING Vol. 58 No. 9 2011

 EROSION WEAR OF THE BLADES OF WETSTEAM TURBINE STAGES
E, m
I II III IV
Est
m0
Em (I) (II)
Fig. 1. Typical curve characterizing the development of
erosion wear of blade structural materials. Periods:
(I) Incubation, (II) first transitional, (III) with the max
imal erosion rate, (IV) second transitional, and (V) with
a steady erosion rate.
of collision velocities and sizes of liquid particles for
chromium steels and for titanium and aluminum alloys.
The points Em and Est are typically observed for both sin
gle and polydispersed flows of liquid interacting with the
metal surface in a wide range of velocities [9].
An analysis of the results from longterm field tests
in which the length and width of erosion wear zones
were recorded, as well as a decrease of the chord in the
peripheral part of blades shows that there is quite clear
qualitative coincidence with the typical erosion curves
obtained at erosion test rigs (Fig. 2).
In carrying out approximate calculations and
determining the resistance of blade materials to ero
sion, it is advisable to use three kinetic periods of ero
sion wear (indicated in parentheses in the lower part of
Fig. 1) instead of five periods.
The studies of metal erosion processes carried out
at erosion test rigs and setups made it possible to reveal
how the size of liquid particles and velocity of their
collision with the surface affect the time of incubation
period m0, the maximal E m , and steadystate E st rates
of erosion destruction of surface for almost all blade
materials [9, 10]. These dependences are sufficiently
accurately approximated in a wide range of values by
the following correlations:
k l
m 0 = b 0 C sp 0 ; m0 = p0 dk 0 ;
E m = b 1 C sp1 ; E m = p 1 d k1 ;
k l
E st = b '1 C sp1 ; E st = p '1 d k1 ,
k' l'
where b0, b1, b '1 , k0, k1, and k '1 are coefficients
depending on the size of liquid particles, structure,
THERMAL ENGINEERING Vol. 58
715
b, Y, mm
V
b
8
Y
b
6
308.5 MW
664 MW
4
210 MW
m, kg/m2 2
(III) Y
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 103, h
Fig. 2. Maximal depth of erosion wear (Y) for a 308.5MW
turbine and decrease of the chord at the periphery of the last
stage rotor blades of a 664MW turbine and seven 210MW
turbines vs. the time of their operation [9].
and properties of construction materials, and p0, p1,
p '1 , l0, l1, and l '1 are coefficients depending on the col
lision velocity, structure, and properties of construc
tion materials.
Figure 3a shows the generalized dependences char
acterizing the effect the collision velocity of liquid par
ticles with the surface has on the duration of the incu
bation period in the development of erosion of blade
steels and titanium alloys with the diameter of droplets
equal to 2501200 m, and Fig. 3b shows the depen
dences reflecting how the size of liquid particles affects
the erosion rate of the same materials at collision
velocities equal to 150600 m/s.
The generalized results of experimental erosion
studies obtained in a wide range of collision velocities
and droplet diameters make it possible to estimate
with sufficient accuracy how the increase of circum
ferential velocity influences the duration of the incu
bation period and the steadystate erosion rate. In par
ticular, for VT6 titanium alloy, increasing the circum
ferential velocity from 400 to 700 m/s will cause the
incubation period to shorten by approximately a factor
of 15 and the rate of erosion wear to increase by
approximately a factor of 10.
By now, a sufficiently large amount of data from
erosion tests of various construction materials has
been accumulated, based on which these materials can
be ranked according to their resistance to erosion. The
length of the incubation period and the erosion rate of
construction materials are commonly represented as
diagrams of relative erosion resistance. In this case, the
erosion characteristics are compared with the similar
characteristics of the material selected as a reference
one, the relative erosion resistance of which is taken to
No. 9 2011
716 RYZHENKOV et al.

Relative length of incubation period

(a)

m0 104, kg/m2 Erel
rel m mrel
0
10 E st 4.0

15Kh11MF
1.0
3.5

Relative erosion rate

20Kh13
0.8 3.0

VT6
VTZ1

TS5
2.5

VZK stellite
0.6 2.0
1 0.4 1.5
1.0
0.2
0.5
0 0
CEGB
Fig. 4. Comparison between the erosion characteristics of
widely used blade materials and VZK stellite.
0.1 MEI

TsKTI
stellite used for protecting blades, according to their
Skoda erosion resistance (Fig. 4).
MAI In the given case, type 20Kh13 steel; VTZ1, VT6,
and TS5 titanium alloy; and VZK stellite were com
0.01 pared with type 15Kh11MF steel with respect to three
100 200 400 600 ccol, m/s parameters characterizing their erosion properties

E m, E st (b) (m0, E m , and E st ). It can be clearly seen that the blade
steels and titanium alloys are commensurable in these
MEI characteristics and are considerably inferior to VZK
stellite in the length of the incubation period and rates
of erosion process. Wide use of stellite for increasing
108 CEGB the resistance of steam turbine rotor blades to erosion
was justified to a considerable extent. However, as was
pointed out earlier, its use for future applications is
conjectural due to many reasons.
At present, attempts to find more efficient methods
of increasing the erosion resistance of rotor blades
used in wetsteam stages are continuing. The use of
109 active and passive methods for improving erosion
resistance allowed the designers to relieve the acute
ness of the erosion wear problem to a considerable
extent in certain development stages of the turbine
construction industry. However, as the next transition
is made to constructing turbines of a larger capacity
with the corresponding increase in the circumferential
1010 velocity of their blades, the problems of erosion reli
100 200 400 600 800 1000 ddr, m 2000 ability and ensuring the required service life of blade
systems have become more topical again [11]. In the
last decade, strengthening of blade leading edges and
Fig. 3. Effect of liquid droplet collision velocity with the (or) applying erosionresistant protective coatings has
surface on the length of incubation period (a) and size of become one of the main methods used to control the
droplets on the maximal and steady erosion rates of blade erosion wear of rotor blades. The decision of using one
materials (b). MEI is the Moscow Power Engineering
Institute, TsKTI is the Central BoilerTurbine Institute, method or another is taken proceeding from the
and MAI is the Moscow Aviation Institute. results of erosion tests.
At present, it has become obvious that the major
part of the results from erosion tests of the same con
be equal to unity. An analysis and generalization of the struction materials obtained at the same collision
results from erosion studies carried out at the Moscow velocities and sizes of liquid droplets are in poor con
Power Engineering Institute (Technical University) sistency with one another and cannot serve as a basis
and other organizations allowed us to rank the widely for making a correct comparison with other results,
used blade steels and titanium alloys, as well as VZK and more so, they cannot be taken as a basis in select

THERMAL ENGINEERING Vol. 58 No. 9 2011

 EROSION WEAR OF THE BLADES OF WETSTEAM TURBINE STAGES
ing a method for improving erosion resistance. This is
because in the majority of cases, erosion tests are car
ried out without constructing the erosion curve and
revealing the three main periods of this process. A
comparison of construction materials with respect to
their erosion resistance is in this case carried out pro
ceeding from the average depth of erosion damage
inflicted to the surface for the same fixed interval of
time with the same parameters of collision. Such an
approach can give an incorrect idea about the true ero
sion resistance, especially in comparing construction
materials with strengthening and protective coating.
Sufficiently reliable results of erosion tests can be
obtained by using experimental setups in which the
following key parameters are measured and main
tained at the required level with high accuracy: colli
sion velocity, size, and number of colliding liquid par
ticles. In this case, the erosion characteristics of tested
materials can be determined with sufficient accuracy
with the use of specific parameters; at least, it is possi
ble to make a correct comparison of materials in the
length of the incubation period, maximal and steady
state erosion rates at certain sizes of liquid particles,
and their collision velocities. This is especially impor
tant when it is required to determine the effectiveness
of different methods for improving erosion resistance.
Figure 5 shows the diagram characterizing the rel
ative erosion resistance of different protective coatings
comprising different numbers of layers of titanium and
titanium nitride, and having different overall thick
nesses in comparison with the similar indicator for
type 20Kh13 blade steel. The comparison was carried
out with respect to the length of incubation period m0
and maximal erosion rate E m . The results of erosion
tests represented in such form allow us to draw a quite
substantiated conclusion about the erosion resistance
of structural materials, strengthening methods, and
protective coatings.
The results obtained by Russian and foreign
researchers testify that under the present conditions,
the most promising line of activities aimed at making
blade materials more resistant to erosion is, on one
hand, working out more efficient technologies for
strengthening the surface and applying universal dura
ble coatings and on the other hand, decreasing, as far
as possible, the content of moisture and the fraction of
coarsely dispersed moisture at the stage periphery in
the gap between the nozzle vane and rotor blade, as
well as in the root zone of rotor blades on the side of
the trailing edge.
It has been determined from the results of numer
ous studies that the technologies for strengthening the
surfaces and applying protective coatings that are
being developed must meet the following require
ments under the presentday conditions [12]:
They must ensure high corrosion and erosion
resistance (at least, commensurable with that of stel
lites).
THERMAL ENGINEERING Vol. 58 No. 9 2011
717
14
12 m
Relative erosion resistance
12
10
8
coating is 6 m
rel
m0
thickness of
6
The overall
10 m
E
rel
4
M
2 20Kh13
0
Fig. 5. Relative erosion resistance of blade steel with mul
tilayer protective coatings with different overall thick
nesses [13].
They must effectively protect the entire surface
of the leading and trailing edges of rotor blades.
The rotor blade profile and the roughness of
their surface must be kept at their initial levels.
The coatings must retain their effectiveness at
the operational level of stresses.
The technological processes used to apply protec
tive coatings must not negatively affect the structure and
mechanical properties of the protected construction
materials, including the fatigue characteristics.
In view of these very stringent requirements, multi
layer coatings made of nitrides, oxides, and carbides of
transition metals belonging to groups IVVI of Men
deleevs periodic system and their compounds were
found to be the most promising ones.
CONCLUSIONS
(1) At present, leading turbine manufacturing
companies develop new wetsteam stages of large
capacity turbines with superlong blades. This prede
termines an entirely new level of importance of the
problem of blade material erosion due to essentially
higher circumferential velocities at the periphery of
designed rotor blades.
(2) At present, there is lack of reliable field data on
the characteristics of the liquid phase of twophase
flow in the circumferential, axial, and radial directions
between the laststage nozzle vane and rotor blade cas
cades of large turbines. In this connection, the need of
developing methods and equipment for measuring the
sizes and velocities of liquid phase particles and for
determining the actual content of moisture along the
stage height in different operating modes of steam tur
bines remains extremely acute as before.
(3) The analysis and generalization of the results
obtained from the studies of metal erosion made it
possible to establish the main regularities of the surface
718 RYZHENKOV et al.
destruction process of blade materials under the effect
of droplet impingement and to determine for almost
all blade materials how the size of liquid particles and
the velocity of their collision with the surface affect the
rate of erosion wear.
(4) Development of efficient technologies for
strengthening the surface and applying universal dura
ble coatings, and maximally possible decrease of mois
ture content and fraction of coarsely dispersed mois
ture at the stage periphery in the gap between a nozzle
vane and rotor blade, as well as in the root zone of
rotor blades on the side of trailing edge are the most
promising lines of activities aimed at achieving better
erosion resistance of the blades used in the wetsteam
stages of newly designed turbines with long blades.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was carried out within the framework of
the Federal Target Program Scientific and Scientific
Pedagogical Staff of Innovative Russia for 2009
2013 (State Contract No. P287).
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