• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.63 no.6
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• pp.703-712
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• 2017

The composite blades of offshore wind turbines accumulate structural damage such as fatigue cracking due to harsh operation environments during their service time, leading to premature structural failures. This paper investigates various fatigue crack models for reproducing crack development in composite blades and proposes a stochastic approach to predict fatigue crack evolution and to analyse failure probability for the composite blades. Three typical fatigue models for the propagation of fatigue cracks, i.e., Miner model, Paris model and Reifsnider model, are discussed to reproduce the fatigue crack evolution in composite blades subjected to cyclical loadings. The lifetime probability of fatigue failure of the composite blades is estimated by stochastic deterioration modelling such as gamma process. Based on time-dependent reliability analysis and lifecycle cost analysis, an optimised maintenance policy is determined to make the optimal decision for the composite blades during the service time. A numerical example is employed to investigate the effectiveness of predicting fatigue crack growth, estimating the probability of fatigue failure and evaluating an optimal maintenance policy. The results from the numerical study show that the stochastic gamma process together with the proper fatigue models can provide a useful tool for remaining useful life predictions and optimum maintenance strategies of the composite blades of offshore wind turbines.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.93-101
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• 2000

In a gas-turbine engine, fan blades in flow path are confronted with many kinds of loading. The study of the excited force by the wake of struts has proposed and the possibility of fatigue failure about rotating fan blades by the excited force at the steady state is evaluated. Equations of the excited force of wakes has been derived at the steady state and the maximum pressure distributions measured at the transient state are proposed. Dynamic characteristics and the fatigue strength of fan blades by experimental test were obtained. To evaluate HCF(High Cycle Fatigue) damage of fan blades, FEM analysis was performed with a steady state harmonic response, which was followed by high cycle fatigue damage factor from goodman diagram.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.181-184
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• 2008

Austenitic stainless steel is used as high temperature components such as gas turbine blade and disk because of its good thermal resistance. In the present investigation, tensile and low cycle fatigue behavior of 316 stainless steel was studied at wide temperature range $20^{\circ}C{\sim}750^{\circ}C$. In the tensile tests, it was shown that elastic modulus, yield strength, ultimate tensile strength decreases when temperature increased. The effect on fatigue failure of the parameters such as plastic strain amplitude and plastic strain energy density was also investigated. With the experimental results, a structural analysis of turbine blades of 316 stainless steel were carried out.

• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.08a
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• pp.509-512
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• 2006

The propellant mixture ratio of gas generator changes when thrust control valve operate to change LRE thrust level. The mixture ratio change of gas generator result in gas temperature change and failure of turbine blade or deterioration of LRE specific impulse. The mixture ratio stabilizer has been developed to maintain propellant mixture ratio of gas generator. This article deals with design and static/dynamic characteristic of stabilizer. Also gas generator system simulation test has shown that the stabilizer can maintain propellant mixture ratio effectively within tolerable range.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.1-9
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• 1998

The exhaustion of fossil fuels and serious environmental pollution put the concern about non-po llution energy into the world. On the developments of technology, wind energy has been spotlighted as a non-pollution energy in many countries. This study has carried out the aerodynamic and structural design procedure of the lightweight composite rotor blades with an appropriate aerodynamic performance and structural strength for the 500㎾ medium class wind turbine system. The previous design, which is shell-spar structure, is redesigned to shell-spar- sandwich structure for light weight. Large deformation problem from light weight is examined by non-linear analysis. Local buckling occurred under lower stress than failure stress. The buckling analysis is accomplished to confirm the safety of the composite blade. The stress analysis around pin hole joint part at hub is carried out and it is confirmed that the pin hole is not failed. The results show that the resonance of redesigned blade does not happen in operation range.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.427-442
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• 2011

In fatigue life design of mechanical components, uncertainties arising from materials and manufacturing processes should be taken into account for ensuring reliability. A common practice is to apply a safety factor in conjunction with a physics model for evaluating the lifecycle, which most likely relies on the designer's experience. Due to conservative design, predictions are often in disagreement with field observations, which makes it difficult to schedule maintenance. In this paper, the Bayesian technique, which incorporates the field failure data into prior knowledge, is used to obtain a more dependable prediction of fatigue life. The effects of prior knowledge, noise in data, and bias in measurements on the distribution of fatigue life are discussed in detail. By assuming a distribution type of fatigue life, its parameters are identified first, followed by estimating the distribution of fatigue life, which represents the degree of belief of the fatigue life conditional to the observed data. As more data are provided, the values will be updated to reduce the credible interval. The results can be used in various needs such as a risk analysis, reliability based design optimization, maintenance scheduling, or validation of reliability analysis codes. In order to obtain the posterior distribution, the Markov Chain Monte Carlo technique is employed, which is a modern statistical computational method which effectively draws the samples of the given distribution. Field data of turbine components are exploited to illustrate our approach, which counts as a regular inspection of the number of failed blades in a turbine disk.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.695-700
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• 2010

Material properties of the lock plate, which covers the gas-turbine blade, are studied using ultrasonic guided waves. The lock plate is a crucial part of a gas-turbine power plant. The wave velocity and attenuation coefficient are measured to investigate the changes in the material properties under three heat-treatment conditions. Compared to the destructive mechanical tests, the material characterization of Inconel X-750 can be performed more efficiently and nondestructively by using ultrasonic guided waves; this characterization helps identify the changes occurring in its elastic moduli and Poisson's ratio under different heat-treatment conditions. The wave velocity and hardness of Inconel X-750 are proportional to each other. This nondestructive technique for the measurement of material properties can be widely used in various industries to avoid catastrophic failure. It is also expected that the guided-wave technique can be applied as a new cost- and time-saving inspection tool for longer and wider inspection ranges.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.48-53
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• 2021

Wind energy is considered as the most competitive energy source in terms of power generation cost and efficiency. The power train of the pitch drive for a wind turbine uses a 3-stage complex planetary gear system in being developed locally. A gear train of the pitch drive consists of an electric or hydraulic motor and a planetary decelerator, which optimizes the pitch angle of the blade for wind generators in response to the change in wind speed. However, it is prone to many problems, such as excessive repair costs in case of failure. Complex planetary gears are very important parts of a pitch drive system because of strength problem. When gears are designed for the power train of a pitch drive, it is necessary to analyze the fatigue strength of gears. While calculating the specifications of the complex planetary gears along with the bending and compressive stresses of the gears, it is necessary to analyze the fatigue strength of gears to obtain an optimal design of the complex planetary gears in terms of cost and reliability. In this study, the specifications of planetary gears are calculated using a self-developed gear design program. The actual gear bending and compressive stresses of the planetary gear system were analyzed using the Lewes and Hertz equation. Additionally, the calculated specifications of the complex planetary gears were verified by evaluating the results from the Stress - No. of cycles curves of gears.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.32 no.7
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• pp.569-575
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• 2008

In this study, disk type of thermal barrier coating system for gas turbine blade was isothermally aged in the furnace changing exposure time and temperature. For each aging condition, bond tests for three samples were conducted for evaluating degradation of adhesive or cohesive strength of thermal barrier coating system. For as-sprayed condition, the location of fracture in the bond test was in the middle of epoxy which have bond strength of 57 MPa. As specimens are degraded by thermal aging, bond strength gradually decreased and the location of failure was also changed from within top coat at the earlier stage of thermal aging to the interface between top coat and TGO at the later stage due to the delamination in the coating.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.226-233
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• 2004

The residual stresses on the surfaces of low carbon 12Cr steels used as a nuclear steam turbine blade material have been studied by controlling the flame hardening surface treatments. The temperature cycles on the surfaces of 12Cr steel were controlled precisely as a function of both the surface temperature and cooling rate. The final residual stress state generated by flame hardening was dominated by two opposite competitive contributions; one is tensile stress due to phase transformation and the other is compressive stress due to thermal contraction on cooling. The optimum processing temperatures required for the desirable residual stress and hardness were in the range of $850^{\circ}C$ to $960^{\circ}C$ on the basis of the specification of GE power engineering. It was also observed that the high residual tensile stress generated by flame hardening induced the cracks on the surfaces, especially across the prior austenite grain boundaries, and the material failure virtually, which might limit practical use of the surface engineered parts by flame hardening.