High Power Diode Laser Surface Treatment to Minimize Droplet Erosion of Low Pressure Steam Turbine Moving Blades

This article deals with the high power diode laser (HPDL) surface treatment to overcome water droplet erosion of Low Pressure Steam Turbine (LPST) moving blades used in high rating conventional, critical and super critical thermal power plants. The materials generally used in these steam turbines are titanium alloy (Ti6Al4V), precipitate hardened stainless steel (17Cr-4Ni PH), X20Cr13 and X10CrNiMoV1222 steels. During incubation period as well as under prolonged testing, the HPDL surface treatment of these materials except for 17Cr-4Ni PH steel has enhanced the droplet erosion resistance significantly. This is due to increased hardness and formation of fine-grained martensitic phase due to rapid heating and cooling rates associated with laser treatment. The droplet erosion results of HPDL laser surface treatment of all these materials and their analysis form the main part of the article.