Proceedings of the ASME 2014 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition

IMECE2014
November 14-20, 2014, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

IMECE2014-38164

TRANSIENT THERMAL ANALYSIS OF GAS TURBINE SHUT DOWN PHYSICS;

NORMAL AND FORCED COOLING
Kathiravan Selvam Roberto De Prosperis Nageswara Rao Vanga
GE Oil & Gas GE Oil & Gas GE Oil & Gas
Bangalore, India Florence, Italy, I-50127 Bangalore, India
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

ABSTRACT flow, without impacting reliability. Hence the maintenance &

For industrial gas turbine plant, Reliability, inspection of the gas turbine are very important aspects of the
Availability & Maintainability (RAM) are the critical gas turbine life to evaluate the future risk and inspection of the
parameters that yield maximum production. As gas turbines components for further running. A major gas turbine inspection
work in high temperature environment, periodic maintenance shuts the complete plant down and impacts the plant production
of the machine is important for life evaluation & to detect any [1].
early failures. During major inspection, all critical components The availability of the gas turbine is strongly associated
need to be disassembled, which reduces the availability of gas with its parts reliability and maintenance policy. Therefore, a
turbine & impacts the plant production. Minimizing the well planned maintenance program optimizes owner’s costs and
duration of the scheduled outage helps to increase the maximizes equipment availability. The proper implementation
availability of a gas turbine unit. During every major of planned maintenance and inspection provide direct benefits
inspection, it’s necessary to ensure that the turbine is cooled in reduction of forced outages and increased reliability, which
below the allowable temperature. Gas turbine maintenance in turn can reduce unscheduled repairs and downtime.
phases are often delayed because of slow natural convection An effective boroscopic inspection (BI) can monitor the
cooling during normal shutdown. To reduce the cool-down condition of internal components without the need for casing
time, it's necessary to accelerate the cooling & one of industry removal. The major disassembly inspection requires opening
practices is to spin the unit at a certain speed for an extended the turbine casing for inspection of hot gas path components
period of time which enables low temperature ambient air and all the internal rotating and critical stationary components.
circulation. However, this forced cooling of the machine At major overhaul, apart from dimensional inspections special
imposes additional thermal stresses on the components that inspection procedures may apply to specific components in
may result in overall life reduction. order to ensure that parts meet their intended life [2].
This paper compares the thermal behaviour of normal The expensive gas turbine components must be controlled
cool down and forced cool down phenomena by simulating the and overhauled carefully to avoid serious damage. Depending
critical gas turbine components. A 2D axi-symmetric flange to upon the type of gas turbine usage either base load– to operate
flange thermal modelling approach is used to predict the continuously or cycling operation to meet the plant load
temperature distribution of the gas turbine components. variations may impact operating life. Based on the operating
Conduction, convection and radiation effects are captured conditions of the turbine additional demand for life assessment
using GE in-house methodology. Compressor and turbine procedures are required [3].
casings as well as rotors are studied in detail to understand the For gas turbine components, a low cycle fatigue (LCF)
transient thermal gradients. The results show that a high rim to may represent major loading cycle such as that during turbine
bore gradient exists during forced cool down, which results in start-up and shutdown. During the start-up and shutdown, gas
high stresses in the compressor and turbine wheel regions. turbine components experience thermo-mechanical cyclic loads
that can have a severe impact on the life of the material
INTRODUCTION compared to isothermal (normal operating) conditions [4]. So
Gas turbines are designed and built with emphasis on high it is important to understand the start-up and shutdown physics
availability, reliability and performance. OEM manufacturers of the gas turbine components and associated thermal
are continuously focused to improve overall thermal efficiency behaviour, which helps to predict life more realistically.
by increasing firing temperature and optimizing secondary Predicting transient thermal behaviour of gas turbine shut down

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 physics will be difficult due to complex flow phenomena, free transient thermal results are used to calculate the life of the
convection & non-axisymmetric flow behaviour. components.
During every major inspection, it is necessary to ensure
that the turbine is cooled below the allowable temperature in NOMENCLATURE
order to disassemble safely. Gas turbine maintenance phases CDC Compressor Discharge Casing
are often delayed because of slow natural convection cooling OEM Original Equipment Manufacturer
during normal shutdown. To reduce the cool-down time, it is CFD Computational Fluid Dynamics
necessary to accelerate the cooling. One of industry practices, LCF Low Cycle Fatigue
though not recommended by OEM, is to spin the unit at a HPT High Pressure Turbine
certain speed for an extended period of time with the help of PT Power Turbine
electric motor. This enables low temperature ambient air FEM Finite Element Method
circulation inside the turbine to cool faster. However, this FCD Forced Cool down
forced cooling of the machine imposes additional thermal NCD Normal Cool Down
stresses on the components that may result in overall life T Temperature
reduction. Detailed thermo mechanical calculations and P Pressure
uncertainty studies are required before implementing any t Non-Dimensional time
forced cooling.
Svensdotter et al. [5] discussed about a heat-soak effect for GAS TURBINE THERMAL MODEL
various gas turbine shutdown scenarios. They compared the For this thermal study, a twin spool gas turbine is
results with experimental data and discussed temperatures at considered as shown in Figure 1. Single stage high pressure
the shutdown point to approximately determine a suitable turbine (HPT) drives the axial compressor and single stage
shutdown procedure for ambient and hot ambient conditions in power turbine (PT) generates shaft power (used for mechanical
order to control the bearing soak back peak. drive applications). A fully featured 2D axisymmetric gas
European commission funds several programs like ICAS- turbine model with both static and rotor components are
GT/GT2 and MAGPI to improve the understanding of considered. Since the geometry is modelled in 2D, suitable area
secondary air systems by generating new experimental database and volume multipliers are considered for all non-axisymmetric
and validation using advanced transient CFD and FEA features like turbine buckets and nozzles [8]. The compressor
techniques. These programs focus to improve the understanding contains 17 stages stacked together & compressor blades are
on the gas turbine seals, rotating cavity flow and heat transfer, not physically modelled. The effect of compressor aerofoils
compressor and turbine stator well flow and heat transfer and heat transfer on hub and tip regions are considered as per the
rotating cavity windage losses [6]. Nielson et al [7] presented a GE Oil & Gas best practices.
tip clearance model to predict the tip clearance changes in the
rotor and seal regions based on the temperature effects on the
transient conditions.
Vishnu and Roberto [8] presented a methodology to
perform steady state thermal analysis of gas turbine flange to
flange components (excluding the main flow path) using a 2D
FE model. A brief overview of the GE’s in-house tools and the
modeling approach to capture the complex physics using all the
heat transfer modes and flow modeling physics is described
here.
There are not many published works for the transient Figure 1: Gas turbine cross section
thermal simulation of the entire flange to flange gas turbine The compressor extraction air is used to cool the turbine
components. In this present paper the transient thermal and pressurize the seals. HPT wheel is cooled by compressor
modeling of gas turbine system is described for the entire extraction from forward side and aft side as shown in Figure 2.
turbine. Based on the field and analytical conditions, the HPT forward side is cooled using the air extracted from the
transient mission parameters like temperature and pressures are compressor discharge & the cooling flow is controlled by
measured/calculated to perform the transient thermal analysis. dedicated holes and high pressure packing seal. HPT aft side,
Detailed transient heat transfer simulation is performed for the PT forward & aft sides are cooled by the air extracted from
flange to flange components of the gas turbine with suitable previous compressor stages through external pipes that are
approximations and assumptions described in the later part of again purged inside the cavity between HPT & PT wheels
this paper. Both normal cooling due to natural convection and through holes in hot gas path components & this flow is
forced cooling due to spinning the rotor results are presented controlled by the orifice. The heat pickup through these
and compared. These results show a clear understanding of the external pipes considered to predict the cooling effectiveness.
thermal differences between these two approaches, time Shrouds and cavities between hot gas path diffuser & turbine
reduction and induced gradient due to forced cooling. These case are purged with compressed air & insulated to prevent

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 turbine case from high temperatures. The secondary flow difficult to be captured in 2D. The cold air stays in the
analysis is carried using GE’s internal 1D compressible flow bottom of the turbine and hot air moves in the top side
solver tool to calculate the amount of air entering the turbine as shown in Figure 3.
components for cooling. Main hot flow path regions are solved 3) Since the pressure is equal across the turbine after
using streamline and CFD codes. This predicted flow shut-down, cooling flow extractions for the hot
information is effectively used in the thermal model to calculate components are not uniform like the steady state
the heat transfer behaviour. The prototype experimental results operation.
are used to fine-tune the flows in uncertain regions to match 4) Circumferential variation in pressures, flows and
with thermocouple readings. temperature exists due to the non-uniform flow in the
cavity and natural convection.
5) Radiation will be difficult to capture at the shutdown.

Figure 3: Natural convection thermal gradient

Figure 2: High pressure turbine wheel cooling
Flow path temperatures at different locations with
MODELING APPROACH respect to time are important to predict the thermal distribution
This work builds upon and uses same modelling of the gas turbine during shut-down. The following
approach as presented earlier in ASME GT India conference temperatures and pressure at key locations are measured or
2013 [8]. Therefore the details of the modelling are not calculated from the experimental database system.
elaborated in detail and reader is advised to refer the above 1. Compressor inlet temperature and pressure
document for all modelling related details. 2. Compressor exit temperature and pressure
Thermal contacts are modelled between flanges and all 3. Firing Temperature
mating surfaces. The main hot flow path boundary conditions 4. Exhaust Temperature
are imposed based on the standard cycle parameters & Since the firing temperature is not directly measured,
streamline aero data. Secondary cooling flow regions are it has to be calculated based on the turbine exhaust temperature,
modelled with fluid network with source temperatures applied and pressure ratio using frame specific equations. Based on the
at inlet fluid node & flows being solved using 1D compressible field/experimental information, hot gas temperature at all flow
flow solver. Radiation heat transfer is considered wherever path regions like nozzle, buckets and platforms & exhaust
high thermal gradients exist. Flow path temperature from CFD diffuser are calculated using GE’s customized aero tools which
and streamline data used as the input for thermal analysis. The are based on streamline solving. As main focus on this thermal
heat transfer coefficient is calculated within the thermal solver, study is to calculate the metal temperature, fluid boundary
based on the standard heat transfer correlations. The thermal conditions are lumped to a fluid node as shown in Figure 4.
tool solves conduction, convection and radiation heat transfer
and calculates the metal temperature. Before performing the
transient heat transfer analysis, steady state heat transfer
analysis is performed by considering above phenomena.
The shutdown and cool-down physics of the gas
turbine is complex due to the following facts involved
1) With the rotor at zero rpm, there is no defined flow
inside the machine. Small amount of flow is possible
due to the draft and natural convection, which is Figure 4: Flow path temperature definition
difficult to measure and understand through
experiments Following efforts are considered to build the robust thermal
2) Natural convection heat transfer plays an important model before starting the transient simulation.
role due to the thermal gradients induced, which is

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  Baseline thermal model is developed and steady state During Fast cooling (or forced cooling) compressor
thermal results are extensively validated with rotor could spin around 15-20% of the maximum speed using
prototype test data the starting motor or any other mechanical system. At this
 Bearing regions are modelled with appropriate heat condition compressor acts like a fan and it pushes significant
transfer coefficient and bulk temperature of the oil to amount of cold air into the gas turbine and which cools the
account for the cooling effects of the shaft and wheel turbine rapidly. This rapid cooling could create high thermal
 Temperature and pressure profile variations are gradients which is not recommended by OEM due to the fact
negligible in the span-wise (radial) directions of the that, overcooling of the hot gas turbine components may results
compressor region and temperature and pressure in degradation of critical components life. Detailed thermal
variations in the axial direction are accounted. For the assessment is always required to understand the thermal
turbine hub, shroud and aerofoil regions, the radial gradient induced and resultant life degradation. Before
variations are considered by averaging the streamlines implementing this approach in the real turbine, several
temperatures in the span-wise direction. sensitivity studies need to be done to understand the thermal
gradient and resultant life calculations.
TRANSIENT THERMAL SIMULATIONS
Steady state thermal analysis is performed to initialize 1) Steady State with data-match
the results for the transient shutdown analysis. Steady state to Steady state thermal simulation is carried out as per
transient shut down analysis is performed based on the mission the GE Oil & Gas best practices and prototype test results
parameters till rotor reaches zero rpm. Once rotor reaches zero are used to improve the thermal predictions [8]. These
rpm, two kinds of analyses are performed, as shown in Figure 5 results are used as initial condition to simulate shut down
and results are compared. All the parameters like time, speed, transient.
mass flow, pressure and temperatures are kept as non- 2) Normal Shut Down
dimensional to maintain the consistency. The normal shut-down (till rotor reaches zero rpm)
mission has been built using measured data from field as
shown in Figure 6. Based on the time other parameters like
speed, mass flow rate, temperature are measured to define
the transient mission. The compressor exit temperature trend
captures the heat soak effects after rotor reaches zero rpm at
t = 0.03. The objective of the analysis is to get the accurate
thermal gradients when rotor reaches full speed to zero rpm.

Figure 5: Process flow chart showing the steps followed for

both normal and force cool-down analysis

Normal cool down is at the turning gear speed of few

rpm. At such low speed, compressor will not push active flow
inside the turbine. Still there could be a negligible flow due to
stack draft effect. The natural convection inside turbine in the Figure 6: Shut down mission
normal cool down is complex phenomena. The flow will not be
uniform at different sections. Due to the buoyancy effects, the 3) Normal Cool Down
cold air tends to settle at bottom of the concentric annulus and From the normal shut down (after rotor reaches zero
hot air flows in the top of the annulus as shown in Figure 3. rpm) the mission parameters are recorded for several hours to
This could produce circumferential variation of temperature define the normal cool down mission, shown in Figure 7. Since
across different sections, which is difficult to capture in 2D the mass flow entering into the turbine region will be very
model. In our analysis of the 2D model, circumferentially small (less than 0.2% of the total flow) and other critical
averaged gas temperature is considered. mission temperatures are used to perform the normal cool down
analysis.

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 Figure 9: Flow path fluid network

Following assumptions are made during the forced cool down

 No enthalpy rise in the compressor flow
 No pressure or radial temperature gradient is
considered in each section
 Secondary fluid network approach is used to calculate
the new flow distribution at forced cool down
condition.
Figure 7: Normal cool down mission
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
4) Forced Cool Down Steady State Thermal results
The forced cool down mission is shown in Figure 8. The temperature distribution for steady state thermal
The mass flow entering the turbine is a significant percentage analysis is shown in Figure 10. Prototype test results are used to
of the total flow of normal steady state operation. Due to higher validate the thermal model and hence to capture accurate
flow compared to the normal cool down, more uniform velocity thermal gradients.
across the section is expected. This flow from ambient will act
as a major heat sink in the flow path. Hot gas path components
experience a sudden heat sink from flow path and cool down
gradually, at much faster pace than normal cool down.

Figure 10: Steady state temperature contours

Normal Shut Down Thermal Results

The steady state temperature contours are used as the
initial solution for non-dimensional time t=0. The transient
thermal simulation is performed till t = 0.03 when the HPT
rotor reaches zero rpm. The temperature contour at time t=0.03
is shown in Figure 11.

Figure 8: Forced cool down mission

Other mission parameters like compressor exit

temperature and firing temperatures are not defined in this
forced cool down analysis except the compressor inlet
temperature. In order to capture the heat soak behaviour, the
Figure 11: Normal shut down temperature contours
fluid network approach is used to calculate main flow path
temperature as shown in Figure 9. The fluid heat pickup from
Cool Down (Normal Vs Forced) Thermal Results
the upstream sections is important to be captured to predict the
The normal and forced cooling results are compared in
right temperature for the downstream sections. Based on the
the various regions of the gas turbine like buckets, nozzles,
heat pickup, the proposed fluid circuit approach will calculate
shrouds, diffuser, wheels and casing etc. High thermal stresses
the fluid temperature at every location by picking the heat from
are induced in the wheels due to higher thermal gradients.
the surrounding components.
Wheel bulk thermals and rim to bore gradients (rim temperature
– bore temperature) are discussed in detail.

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 Hot Gas Path convection, radiation heat exchange with flow path
Since buckets & nozzles are directly exposed to main components. Since forced cool down does not directly impact
flow path with maximum surface area, their transient response the casing, still the corresponding secondary flow leaks cools
is similar to flow path fluid temperatures. Figure 12 shows the casing faster than normal cool down as shown in Figure 14.
temperature comparison between normal and forced cool down
at the nozzle and bucket region. The results show that the
aerofoils are cooled faster compared to the normal cool down
as they are directly exposed to main flow path.

Figure 14: Temperature comparison at the turbine casing

(Normal Vs Forced cooling)

Turbine Wheels
Figure 12: Temperature comparison at the aerofoil region During steady state, thermal behaviour of turbine
(Normal Vs Forced cooling) wheels are governed by wheel space cooling convection with
the help of dedicated compressor extraction purge flows and
Inner Duct conduction from turbine bucket through shank dovetail contact.
Figure 13 shows the temperature comparison at the At steady state, the cooling side convections are dominated by
turbine inner duct region. ID1 represent the location of the cooling flow passing through rotor-stator cavities and
inner hot gas path diffuser, which is directly exposed to main influenced by tangential velocities. From main flow path, heat
flow path. ID2 represents the location on the diaphragm to transfer is driven by hot gas path convections to the shank
which thermal is majorly impacted by local convection and region. In addition to this, bearing shaft may also be attached to
radiation heat transfer from inner diffuser and turbine wheels. turbine wheel, which makes additional complexity that cools
Compared to the location ID2, ID1 cools faster because close the wheel near the attachment zone. Based on these conditions,
proximity to forced cooling air. thermal gradient exists between wheel rim and bore at steady
state as shown in figure 15.

Figure 13: Temperature comparison at the inner duct region Figure 15: Steady state HPT wheel thermal contour
(Normal Vs Forced cooling)
In normal cool down, after the rotor halts, both hot gas
Turbine Casings path flow as well as compressor extraction flows will be
Casings are cooled generally by the ventilation air negligible and heat transfer is mainly due to free convection &
flow in the enclosure and are in thermal equilibrium with radiation. So immediately after shutdown, it is observed that
ventilation heat exchange and internal secondary flow wheel becomes more homogeneous in temperature and the

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 temperature gradient between wheel rim to bore comes down. temperature – bore temperature) sets up in the wheel. From
This is due to conduction within metal being dominant than wheel life perspective, wheel experiences high rim to bore
surrounding convections. Bearing region act as major heat sink, thermal gradient during or immediately after ramp down due to
as long as bearing oil supply continues. Bearing oil supply is sudden heat transfer from bucket shank to wheel rim region, as
assumed to be available for the entire cool down period. conduction dominates in the absence of cooling convections.
Normal cool down typically takes 25-30 hours to cool the
turbine. This is generally monitored by the wheel space
thermocouple measurements in the field. Once turbine cools
below allowable temperature, casing disassembly process
starts.

Figure 17: HPT wheel Rim to Bore temperature gradient

(Normal Vs Forced cooling)

Wheel Space Temperature

Figure 16: Temperature comparison at the HPT Wheel
In general operational turbines, wheel space air
(Normal Vs Forced cooling)
temperatures are measured as indicative for alarm to avoid the
risk of wheel failure. The location of the wheel space
Figure 16 shows the cool down phenomena over the thermocouples is shown in Figure 18. Since in the real
non-dimensional time. It is evident that the forced cool down
machines, there are no metal thermocouples placed in the wheel
cools the wheels faster than the normal cool down. In the
region, if wheel space air thermocouple temperature reading
forced cooling, the cooling air passes over the bucket, which is
crosses the set limit, the machine will automatically trip. The
connected to the wheel rim. Thus the cooling occurs from rim
wheel space alarm and trip temperature limits are established
to bore. But the results also indicate that rim region cools faster by the wheel material capability and Wheel life requirements.
than bore region, which induce more thermal stresses. So the This is strong function of thermo-mechanical stress distribution
gradient needs to be studied in detail to ensure that wheel life is
& local metal temperature at life limiting locations. Detailed
not impacted due to forced cool down approach.
thermal analysis helps to establish the relation between wheel
space temperature and important metal region temperatures
Rim to Bore Gradient critical to life, which is shown in Table 1.
Figure 17 shows the rim to bore gradient (rim
temperature – bore temperature) temperature plot between the
normal cool down and forced cool down with respect to the
time. Time t = 0 represents the steady state condition and t =
0.03 represents the time rotor reaches zero rpm from the full
speed. Before rotor reaches zero rpm, the combustion flames
are off and compressor continues to send some air inside the
turbine. Due to this small amount of cooling happens in the rim
region. This results in negative rim to bore gradient at the end
of shut down (t=0.03) reflecting rim colder than bore. After
some time in normal shut down, the cool down is normal and
will be with positive gradient due to the fact that the most
cooling happen through the bearing region and metal
conduction. During the normal shut down the thermal gradient
is small due to conduction within metal.
In forced cool down, the rim of the turbine wheel is
Figure 18: HPT Wheel space thermocouple locations
cooled down faster while the bore cools at a slower rate. As a
result of this, rim to bore negative thermal gradients (rim

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 TABLE 1: HPT WHEEL SPACE AIR TEMPERATURE VS and there is no temperature rise to the air. When low
METAL TEMPERATURE temperature ambient air passes through main flow path,
Non-Dimensional Forward Stage 1 Wheel Casing
compressor wheel rim regions are cooled fast compared to bore
Time Wheel-Space regions. This phenomenon in forced cool down induces rim to
bore thermal gradient across each wheel compared to normal
0 0.34 0.35 0.34
0.1 0.1 0.25 0.28 cool down. Since last stage compressor wheels are hotter
0.2 0.06 0.17 0.19 compared to forward stage wheels at the end of the steady state,
0.3 0.04 0.11 0.12 the rim to bore thermal gradient is higher in the last stage wheel
0.5 0.03 0.06 0.06 compared to the initial wheel. Figure 20, 21 and 22 shows the
1 0.02 0.03 0.03 rim to bore thermal gradient on the first, middle and last stage
compressor wheels respectively.
Compressor Wheels

Figure 19: Compressor steady state thermal gradients

Figure 19 shows the steady state thermal contours of

compressor rotor wheels. At steady state, axial thermal gradient
is established, because of heat addition due to the compression
effect at every stage of the compressor section. The temperature
gradually increases from first stage to last stage based on the
heat addition to the compressor stages. During normal cool Figure 21: 8th stage compressor wheel Rim to Bore temperature
down, compressor rotor wheel thermal behaviour will be gradient (Normal Vs Forced cooling)
similar to turbine. But due to lower temperatures in compressor
section, lesser rim to bore thermal gradient exists compared to
turbine wheel. Also, rim to bore thermal gradient keeps
increasing stage by stage in compressor section from suction to
discharge & last stage compressor wheel is at maximum rim to
bore thermal gradient.

Figure 22: Last stage compressor wheel Rim to Bore

temperature gradient (Normal Vs Forced cooling)

Forced cool down is one of the approaches to increase

st the availability of the plant. But the detailed thermal analysis
Figure 20: 1 stage compressor wheel Rim to Bore temperature
shows that forced cool down induces thermal stresses in the
gradient (Normal Vs Forced cooling)
wheels especially in the compressor last stage and turbine first
stage compared to normal cool down. Detailed thermo-
During forced cool down, all compressor wheels are
mechanical calculations help to estimate the life degradation of
subjected to higher rim to bore thermal gradient compared to
the wheels and accordingly fine-tune the forced cool down
normal cool down. At lower rpm, compressor acts like a fan
mission to operate the turbine in safe zone.

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 In case induced thermal stresses are higher than the [7] Annette E.Nielsen, Christoph W.Moll, Stephan Staudacher.
expected component life degradation, forced cool down “Modelling and Validation of the Thermal Effects on Gas
mission modified to reduce the impact. Following two options Turbine Transients”, GT2004-53344, ASME Turbo Expo 2004:
can be considered based on the results to fine tune the mission. Power for Land, Sea and Air, Vienna, Austria.
 Based on thermal stresses induced, the speed of the [8] Vishnu Vardhan Reddy, Roberto De Prosperis. “Heat
cranking can be increased or decreased to control the Transfer Analysis of a Gas Turbine and Improving
mass flow and cooling time Predictability Using Prototype Test Data”, GTINDIA2013-
 Pulsating or intermediate cranking can be used to keep 3701, ASME 2013 Gas Turbine India Conference.
the cooling rate under control

Forced cool down may have the possibility of rubbing

of rotating components with stators. Before implementing the
forced cool down, the tip clearance verification need to be done
using detailed thermal results. The safe forced cool down
approach can be directly implemented into the control system
to automatically perform the cool down.

CONCLUSIONS
This paper summarised the effort of a forced cool
down of gas turbine flange to flange components compared
with normal cool down. The detailed shutdown modelling was
prescribed for a 2D axi-symmetric flange to flange gas turbine
components and an alternative approach (main flow path
modelling) was used to predict the heat-soak effect during the
forced cool down operation.
The results show that a high rim to bore gradient
exists during forced cool down, which results in higher
stresses in the compressor and turbine wheel regions.
Extensive investigations on the effect of wheel thermal
gradients by forced cooling and shutdown mechanism that are
critical to the life were studied. These results can be used by
service engineers for a choice of optimum cool down cycle to
avoid damage to the turbine.

REFERENCES
[1] Fernando Jesus Guevara Carazas and Gilberto Francisco
Martha de Souza. “Availability Analysis of Gas Turbines Used
in Power Plants” ISSN 1301-9724, Int. J. of Thermodynamics
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[2] David Balevic, Stevan Hartman, Ross Youmans. “Heavy-
Duty Gas Turbine Operating and Maintenance Considerations”,
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[3] M. Kemppainen, J. Scheibel and R. Viswanathan 2002.
“Combustion Turbine Hot Section Life Management” OMMI
journal (Vol. 1, Issue 2) August 2002.
[4] Xijia Wu (2010). Life Prediction of Gas Turbine Materials,
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InTech.
[5] Susanne Svensdotter, Lee Skelton and John Ingle.
“Shutdown Modelling to Extend Engine Operation to Extreme
Ambient Conditions”, GT2007-28110, ASME Turbo Expo
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[6] Colin Young, Peter D.Smout. “Recent Advances in the
Simulation of Gas Turbine Secondary Air Systems” 25 th
International Congress of the Aeronautical Sciences. ICAS
congress proceedings 2006.

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