Vibration Response of Steam Turbine Healthy and Cracked Blade under the Stress Stiffening and Spin Softening Effects

In the present paper, vibration responses of the healthy and cracked blade under the influence of stress-stiffening and spin-softening have been studied. The three-dimensional finite element-based numerical analysis is carried out to study the blade's mode shape and natural frequencies and are validated with the experimental modal analysis test results. In the case of spin softening, for healthy blade at the turbine’s speed over 1000 RPM, natural frequencies increase significantly in both first flap-wise and chordwise bending modes. In both cases of STF and SOF, for the cracked blade, the deviation from the healthy blade in the natural frequency increases with increasing crack size, maximal in a crack size of 90%. It is also observed that irrespective of crack size, deviation in natural frequencies as compared to healthy blade increases as spin speed increases in the cases of chordwise bending mode (Mode II) and higher-order overlapped mode IV, and in the case of fundamental torsion mode (Mode III), higher-order overlapped mode V and VI natural frequencies decrease in both STF and SOF cases.