Patent Abstract:
A method of ultrasonically testing the disk bore and keyway area of a shrunk-on steam turbine rotor disk or hub is provided. The method employs a one or more scanning ultrasonic phased linear array probes mounted on the disk to inspect the disk bore and keyway area on the opposite side of the disk.

Full Description:
RELATED APPLICATIONS  
       [0001]    This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application Serial No. 60/254,372 filed Dec. 7, 2000. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    This invention relates generally to ultrasonic inspection of shrunk-on steam turbine disks or hubs and more particularly to the ultrasonic inspection of the disk bore and keyway area to detect stress corrosion cracking.  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0003]    Turbines are used to generate rotary mechanical power from the energy in a working fluid. The working fluid energy, originally in the form of pressure energy, is converted to velocity energy by passing through a system of blades in the turbine. Changes in the magnitude and direction of the velocity energy are made to cause tangential forces on the blades to produce mechanical rotation of the turbine rotor. The rotating turbine rotor may be coupled to a generator rotor and stator to produce electricity.  
           [0004]    Steam turbines are used to convert thermal energy into usable work and are typically used to drive alternating current electric generators. A large number of “built-up” low pressure, steam turbine rotors are operating in the U.S. electric utility industry. FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 illustrate an example of a simplified rotor assembly. A built-up rotor  10  generally consists of a large central rotor shaft  12  with individual disks or blade hubs  14  fitted to the shaft. Individual disks carry one or more stages of blades  16 , or buckets, that capture the incoming steam and transform it to torsional energy. The disks have a central bore hole  20  that matches a specific machined step on the central shaft as illustrated in FIG. 2. The disks are typically shrunk onto the shaft and subsequently restrained from torsional movement, relative to the shaft, by use of a key  22 . A machined slot, or keyway  24 , cut into the disk and shaft accommodates the key. Utility operating experience with built-up rotors using shrunk-on disks has demonstrated that the area around the central bore hole  20  of the disk or hub  14 , and especially the area around the keyway  24  on the rotor hub  14 , are subject to stress corrosion cracking (SCC) that can ultimately lead to catastrophic failure.  
           [0005]    A variety of ultrasonic inspection techniques are used to examine various components that make up a steam turbine rotor. One method using phased array ultrasonic sensors to inspect turbine blade attachments is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,082,198 the text of which is hereby incorporated by reference. Ultrasonic techniques involve applying high frequency sound waves to a structure of interest. When the sound waves interact with an object that has a significant difference in acoustic impedance (the product of density and acoustic velocity) from that of the propagation medium, a portion of the sound is either reflected or diffracted back to the source from which the sound originated. Detection and quantification of the returned sound pattern is used to determine the presence and characteristics of the reflecting medium.  
           [0006]    Ultrasonic inspections of the disk bore  20  and keyway area  24  have historically been performed to detect SCC as illustrated in FIGS. 3A and 3B. The keyway area is the highest stress point on the disk bore, so substantial effort is invested in detecting and sizing cracks in this area. Current state of the art techniques for inspection of the disk bore area use a series of individual, conventional, single angle, ultrasonic probes  26 . These probes  26  are placed on the disk face and angled to transmit toward the keyway area  24 . Reflections and diffractions from the area and the disk edges are recorded automatically or manually and then analyzed in relation to the known geometry of the keyway area. These prior art methods are most effective if used in conjunction with detailed existing data on the geometry of the keyway area. Additionally, because of the need for numerous probes operating at fixed angles, the process is relatively slow and can only be performed while the turbine is out of service.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0007]    Accordingly, it is a general object of the present invention to provide a method for using advanced ultrasonic techniques to inspect the disk bore and keyway area of a shrunk-on steam turbine disk.  
           [0008]    More specifically, it is an object of the current invention to provide a method employing linear phased array probe technology to ultrasonically inspect the disk bore and keyway area of a shrunk-on steam turbine disk.  
           [0009]    Alternatively, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method for ultrasonically inspecting the disk bore and keyway area of a shrunk-on steam turbine disk that employs time of flight diffraction (TOFD) techniques. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0010]    The invention will be better understood from the following description which reads in the conjunction with the accompanying drawings as follows.  
         [0011]    [0011]FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of a rotor assembly.  
         [0012]    [0012]FIG. 2 is a cross sectional view perpendicular to the rotor of a shrunk-on steam turbine disk with a keyway.  
         [0013]    [0013]FIG. 3A is a cross sectional view along the rotor&#39;s axis of a shrunk-on steam turbine disk illustrating a prior art method of ultrasonically inspecting the disk bore and keyway area using a series of individual, single angle ultrasonic probes.  
         [0014]    [0014]FIG. 3B is a cross sectional view perpendicular to the rotor of a shrunk-on steam turbine disk illustrating a prior art method of ultrasonically inspecting the disk bore keyway area using an individual, single angle ultrasonic probe.  
         [0015]    [0015]FIG. 4A is a cross sectional view along the rotor&#39;s axis of a shrunk-on steam turbine disk illustrating the method of ultrasonically inspecting the disk bore and keyway area using linear phased array probes.  
         [0016]    [0016]FIG. 4B is a cross sectional view perpendicular to the rotor of a shrunk-on steam turbine disk illustrating the method of ultrasonically inspecting the disk bore and keyway area using time of flight diffraction probes. 
     
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0017]    The present invention uses a linear ultrasonic array probe  30  for detecting or inspecting for SCC. The linear array probe  30  is a series of individual, small ultrasonic transducers arranged in a row. Each transducer element has its own electrical connections and is acoustically isolated from the other elements. Each element has its own pulser/receiver circuit and produces its own radio frequency, time/amplitude response, called an “A-scan.” The angle of the beam is controlled by modulating the timing of the pulses and reception by each transducer element. The individual A-scans from each transducer in the array are summed and the resulting A-scan is saved. The angle, mode and focus of the ultrasonic beam are varied by controlling the timing pulse and reception for each element before the individual element responses are summed. With the turbine fully assembled, one or more array probes are placed on one or both faces of the turbine rotor hub or disk  14 . The probe or probes successively generate longitudinal mode or shear mode sound beams, or both, in one degree increments as illustrated schematically in FIG. 4A. In one embodiment the probe  30  scans over a range of beam angles, for example from 30 to 80 degrees (labeled “multi-angle” in FIG. 4A). Scanning a range of angles allows increased coverage of the disk bore  20  and keyway interface area  24 . The total length of the disk bore  20  and keyway are  24  can be examined with a single probe. In an alternative embodiment, beam focusing as shown in FIG. 4A may be used to improve quantification of the length and depth of a specific defect.  
         [0018]    Use of a linear array probe provides better signal to noise ratio and a more concise beam profile resulting in improved detection, sizing, and characterization of service induced flaws as compared to current inspection practices.  
         [0019]    Another preferred embodiment of the current invention is a method that employs time of flight diffraction (TOFD). TOFD is a variation of the “pitch and catch” technique presented above in which a first array probe  34  that can be a scanning transmitting transducer and a second array probe  36  that can be a scanning receiving transducer are used as shown in FIG. 4B. Transmitted ultrasonic energy from the transmitting transducer  34  is diffracted from the tip of a crack and also transmitted along the scanning surface and reflected from the backwall. The receiving transducer  36  detects and quantifies the diffracted and transmitted ultrasonic energy. Data collected by this second probe  36  is assembled to recreate an image of the keyway area  24 . The resulting image shows the structure of the keyway area  24  and can be analyzed to identify the presence of defects or cracks  38 . TOFD can also be used to inspect the remainder of the disk bore interface. One advantage of TOFD over the conventional pulse echo method in which the same array probe both transmits and receives the ultrasonic energy is that TOFD is substantially less sensitive to flaw orientation. TOFD may also offer an advantage in more accurately determining the depth and length of cracks.  
         [0020]    The attributes of advanced ultrasonic inspection techniques should help in more accurately determining the remaining service life of individual disks and allow for more efficient inspection and repair planning over the useful life of the disks.  
         [0021]    In general, cracks that occur for the rotor geometry shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 initiate on the disk bore in the radial direction on the disk bore  20  or on a parallel plane in the keyway area  24 . As such, in an advantageous embodiment of the present invention, inspection probes  30  are positioned to send an incident beam perpendicular to the expected flaw orientation, a skewed position to allow a corner trap beam, and a radial position for crack tip detection. Experiments conducted by the inventors have indicated that the use of two separate phased array probes  30  positioned on opposite faces of the rotor disk  14  and operating in the aforementioned pitch and catch mode provides the most complete inspection coverage of the disk bore  20  and keyway area  24 .  
         [0022]    The foregoing descriptions of specific embodiments of the present invention are presented for purposes of illustration and description. They are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Obviously many modifications and variations are possible in view of the above teachings. The embodiments were chosen and described to best explain the principles of the invention and its practical applications, to thereby enable others skilled in the art to best utilize the invention and various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated. It is intended that the scope of the invention be defined by the following claims and their equivalents:

Technology Classification (CPC): 6