Effect of welding residual stress on operating stress of nuclear turbine low pressure rotor

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of welding residual stress on operating stress in designing a nuclear turbine welded rotor. A two-dimensional axisymmetric finite element model is employed to calculate the residual stress before and after post weld heat treatment (PWHT), and then the superposition of residual stress after PWHT and operating stress at normal speed and overspeed were discussed. The investigated results show that operating stress can be affected significantly by welding residual stress, and the distribution trend of superposition stress at the weld area is mainly determined by welding residual stress. The superposition of residual stress and operating stress is linear superposition, and the hoop stress distribution of superposition stress is similar with the distribution of residual stress. With the increasing overspeed, the distribution pattern of the hoop superimposed stress remains almost unchanged, while the stress level increases.