Weld Repair of Steam Turbine Rotor with 12 Cr Weld to Mitigate Corrosion Issues

Abstract

Weld repair of steam turbine rotors has become an acceptable practice to extend the life of rotors. Depending on the type of damage, the extent of weld repair can range from weld build-up of integral discs to stubbing a new forging to replace the damaged portion of an old rotor. Steam turbine rotors made of low alloy steels experience corrosion related damages such as stress corrosion cracking, pitting corrosion, corrosion-erosion etc., Traditional weld repairs have been using low alloy steel welds. While the low alloy welds may have mechanical properties comparable to or even slightly exceeding that of the low alloy steel rotor alloys, the corrosion resistance of the low alloy welds are not great. 12 Chromium weld will provide better resistance to corrosion related damages than typical low alloy welds. However using 12 Chromium weld on low alloy steel rotors provides some additional challenges and limitations. These include selection of optimal combination of weld wire and flux for rotor welding, selection of optimal post weld stress relieve temperature and dealing with abrupt change in chemical composition at the weld interface. This paper discusses development of such a weld procedure and provides some examples where the 12 Chromium weld was successfully applied on steam turbine rotors that experienced corrosion related damages.