Engineering Failure Analysis 13 (2006) 698–704

www.elsevier.com/locate/engfailanal

Failure of a screw compressor shaft

A. Shahrivar *, A.R. Abdolmaleki
Research Institute of Petroleum Industry, PO Box 18745-4163, Tehran, Iran
Received 14 September 2004; accepted 10 October 2004
Available online 27 April 2005

Abstract

Screw compressors used to produce compressed air in refineries have two rotors. One of the main causes of failure of
these compressors is rotor fracture. In this research, the fracture causes of the female rotor of a screw compressor after
only 603 working hours was studied. Experiments showed that the main cause of the failure was fatigue due to a defect
in the cooling system of the compressor that caused thermal expansion, touching of rotors and finally fracture after only
25–43 min.
© 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Failure analysis; Machinery failures; Fatigue; Compressor; Thermal expansion

1. Introduction

One of the common devices to produce compressed air in refineries is the screw compressor. These com-
pressors have two stages; high pressure (HP) and low pressure (LP). The HP stage consists of three com-
pressors; A, B and C that are not used simultaneously. In this case, a repaired HP stage was put into service,
and one of its compressors (compressor A), failed after only 603 working hours.
Construction material of the rotors was carbon steel and of the compressor casing was cast iron. Circu-
lating water was cooling the casing. The compressor was driven from a steam turbine. Torque was applied
to the male rotor, and then transferred to the female rotor by three gears. The Spacing between the two
rotors in such compressors usually is about 0.25 mm [1]. The rotating speed of the male rotor was 3850–
5215 rpm.

*
Corresponding author. Tel./fax: +98 21 590 1094.
E-mail address: shahrivara@ripi.ir (A. Shahrivar).

1350-6307/$ - see front matter © 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.engfailanal.2004.10.021
 A. Shahrivar, A.R. Abdolmaleki / Engineering Failure Analysis 13 (2006) 698–704 699

2. Experimental procedure and results

2.1. Visual inspection

Fig. 1 shows the male and female rotors of the screw compressor and Fig. 2 shows the dimensions of rotors
and location of cracks. The fracture was exactly at the interface of the shaft and female rotor. The shaft diam-
eter at the fracture site was 11 cm. The fracture surface is very smooth and perpendicular to the shaft axis. As
shown in Fig. 3, there is a relatively rough zone, 3 cm diameter, in the central area of the shaft. This shows that
cracks initiated from the circumference and toward the center. When 3 cm of shaft diameter remained, it
could not tolerate the applied stress and fast fracture occurred. There is oxide and scale on the rotors
(Fig. 4). The maximum thickness of the scale is 2 mm. Beside the main fracture, there are 3 cracks at the inter-
face of shafts and worms in other places. The depth of the crack opposite the fracture is about 10 mm.

2.2. Chemical analysis

To determine the grade of the alloy, one piece was cut from the female rotor and tested by optical emis -
sion spectroscopy method (Quantometric). Table 1 shows the analysis compared with the related standard.

Fig. 1. Male and female rotors.

Fig. 2. Dimensions (in cm) of rotors and location of cracks.

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Fig. 3. Relatively rough zone in the center of the shaft.

Fig. 4. Oxide and scale on the rotors.

Table 1
Chemical analysis of shaft compared with related standard (%wt)
Element specimen
Fe S P Ni Cr Mn Si C
Shaft Remainder 0.035 0.03 0.04 0.13 0.7 0.2 0.42
AISI 1040 Remainder <0.05 <0.04 – – 0.6–0.9 0.1–0.6 0.37–0.44

As shown, the alloy is according to the standard AISI 1040 that is one of the usual carbon steel alloys for
making the shafts.

2.3. Hardness

The hardness of the alloy was determined by HRB. The results show that there are no real differences
between the hardness of the outer surface and the central zone of the shaft, and also that no hardening heat
treatment was done on the shaft.
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2.4. Tensile test

To determine the tensile characteristics of the shaft alloy, three pieces were cut according to ASTM E8
Standard. The results are shown in Table 2.

2.5. Microstructural characterization

Microscopy before etching shows that there are relatively high amounts of impurities (Fig. 5). To deter-
mine the type of these impurities, EDS microanalysis was used.
Microscopy after etching shows that microstructure of this alloy is ferrite and pearlite with approxi-
mately 50% of each. This microstructure is usual for steel AISI 1040. Texture of grains shows that the alloy
is wrought. Fig. 6 shows the microstructure of the shaft alloy and Fig. 7 shows transgranular crack growth
in the microstructure.

2.6. Fractography

The fracture surface was cleaned with 6 N HCl Solution with hexa methyl tetra amine (HMTA) inhibitor
in an ultrasonic cleaner at 30 °C for 14 min, then studied by stereomicroscope at 60· and by SEM. Ratchet
marks that show the crack initiation sites were determined. About 40 Ratchet Marks were found (Fig. 8).

Table 2
Mechanical properties of three specimens of shaft according to ASTM E8
No. of Specimen Tensile property
Elongation Maximum tensile Lower yield Reduction
in 50 mm (%) strength (MPa) strength (MPa) of area (%)
1 30.4 560 298 57
2 28.8 570 313 56
3 28.2 583 313 55

Fig. 5. Microstructure of the shaft alloy (un-etched).

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Fig. 6. Microstructure of the shaft alloy.

Fig. 7. Optical micrograph of transgranular crack growth in the shaft.

Fig. 8. (a) Fracture surface of shaft. (b) Schematic of Ratchet Marks of low alloy steels [2,3]. (c) Ratchet Marks on shaft. (d) Ratchet
Marks of a low alloy steel [2,3].
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Fig. 9(a) shows one of the inclusions in the alloy and Fig. 9(b) shows the analysis of this inclusion by
EDS. As shown, the main elements of these impurities are Si, Al and O so the inclusions are probably
SiO2 or Al2O3.
Striations were seen in all of the zone [4]. Fig. 10 shows a picture of these striations at 5000·. The average
distance between striations is about 0.3 lm.

3. Discussion

Based on the data gathered, the rotor of the compressor fractured after only 603 h. Experiments show
that the phenomenon responsible for this fracture is fatigue. The average crack depth was about 40 mm
when fast fracture occurred. Since the average distance between striations is about 0.3 lm, the growth of
the crack in each cycle is about 0.3 lm, although for accurate analysis the paris law formulation must
be used [5].

Fig. 9. (a) SEM micrograph of an inclusion in the shaft. (b) Analysis of inclusion by EDS.

Fig. 10. SEM micrograph showing Striations at 5000·.

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An approximate number of cycles from crack initiation to final fracture is given by 40,000 lm/
0.3 lm = 133,000 cycles. Based on the technical specification, the minimum and maximum speeds of the
rotors are 3850 and 5215 rpm. Calculations show that the time between initiation and final fast fracture
is about 25–34 min. If the fracture time (603 h after repair) is compared with these times (25–34 min) it
is concluded that there was not any crack in the shaft after repairing and service starting the compressor.
As mentioned before, the space between the two worms (male and female) is very small (0.25 mm) and
these two rotors contact with each other. By using the dimensions of the rotor, it is concluded that if the
temperature rise exceeds from only 87 °C, the two rotors will touch one other and this will cause a rapid
temperature increase.
The high thickness of oxidation scaling on the worm shows that temperature reached very high levels. By
touching, two problems may arise: first increasing the applied stress and therefore decreasing the fatigue
life, and second, increasing the temperature and therefore decreasing the fatigue limit and fatigue life of
the alloy. This caused the initiation of cracks and their growth towards the center of the rotor shaft.

4. Conclusions

The main cause of fracture is the touching of the two rotors due to thermal expansion followed by a
rapid increase in temperature. This then led to an excessive fatigue cycle, resulting in fatigue failure of
the shaft. The initial temperature exertion was caused by a defect in the cooling system of the compressor.

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