Life prediction of gas turbine hot section components - an Italian-French cooperative project

In the frame of a cooperative EUREKA scheme, EDF and CESI have been carrying out a four year project, entitled Gas Turbine Life Prediction (acronym TULIP). intended to develop a life prediction methodology for the rotating blades of large industrial gas turbines. In the CESI approach, a blade Life Management System was developed in the form of a software tool for predicting the blade lives under typical operational transients (normal and also abnormal) and stationary periods, utilising results of previous thermomechanical finite element and fluid mechanics analyses. The EDF approach is tailored to steady state (base load) operation, as most of the gas turbines exploited by the EDF group are currently working in this mode.