Steam Turbine Failure at Hinkley Point ‘A’
- 1 June 1972
- journal article
- other
- Published by SAGE Publications in Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers
- Vol. 186 (1) , 341-377
- https://doi.org/10.1243/pime_proc_1972_186_037_02
Abstract
The catastrophic failure of Hinkley Point ‘A’ unit No. 5 in September 1969 was the result of spontaneous brittle fracture of a shrunk-on ***l.p. turbine disc, initiated by stress-corrosion cracking in the crown of a keyway in the disc bore. Stress corrosion cracking of disc bores and keyways was also found on a number of other discs. The discs were made of 3 Cr-Mo steel and complied with normal acceptance standards, but due to temper embrittlement, their fracture toughness was low, and cracks only about 1/16 in deep in the concentrated stress field at the keyway crown were large enough to initiate brittle fracture. Investigation of the cause of the stress-corrosion cracking is being separately reported.Keywords
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