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Research project

Structural Integrity assessments in steam turbine power generation blade materials

Project overview

Fatigue in steam turbine blade materials is a growing issue as we try to extend the latter stages of lifetime at end of life of these assets. In particular a focus on fatigue mitigation approaches such as shot peening, coatings and minor overloads on fatigue mechanisms has been studied in a range of projects

Staff

Lead researchers

Professor Philippa Reed

PROFESSOR OF STRUCTURAL MATERIALS
Research interests
  • Fatigue processes in additively manufactured high performance alloys
  • High temperature oxidation and creep fatigue processes in nickel based turbine disc and blade…
  • Fatigue mitigation and prediction approaches in turbine blades
Connect with Philippa

Email: P.A.Reed@soton.ac.uk

Other researchers

Dr Andrew Hamilton

Associate Professor
Connect with Andrew

Email: A.R.Hamilton@soton.ac.uk

Dr Benjamin Cunningham BEng (Hons), MEng, PhD, IMechE, IEng

Senior Enterprise Fellow
Connect with Benjamin

Email: B.Cunningham@soton.ac.uk

Collaborating research institutes, centres and groups

Research outputs

Mechanistic evaluation of fatigue mitigation approaches to extend the fatigue lifetime of low-pressure steam turbine blades
2025
Type: thesis
Fatigue crack initiation and growth behavior within varying notch geometries in the low-cycle fatigue regime for FV566 turbine blade material
Benjamin M.D. Cunningham, Mitchell Leering, Yuhui Fan, Chao You, Andrew Morris, Philippa A.S. Reed, Andrew R. Hamilton & Michael E. Fitzpatrick, 2023, Fatigue & Fracture of Engineering Materials & Structures, 46(8), 2845-2863
DOI: 10.1111/ffe.14036
Type: article
Fatigue crack initiation and growth behavior in a notch with periodic overloads in the low-cycle fatigue regime of FV566 ex-service steam turbine blade material
Benjamin M. D. Cunningham, Angelos Evangelou, Chao You, Andrew Morris, James Wise, Philippa A. S. Reed & Andrew R. Hamilton, 2021, Fatigue & Fracture of Engineering Materials & Structures, 45(2), 546-564
DOI: 10.1111/ffe.13617
Type: article
Numerical modelling of the fatigue crack shape evolution in a shot-peened steam turbine material
Chao You, Binyan He, Mithila Achintha & Philippa Reed, 2017, International Journal of Fatigue, 104, 120–135
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijfatigue.2017.07.017
Type: article
A numerical study of the effects of shot peening on the short crack growth behaviour in notched geometries under bending fatigue tests
Chao You, Mithila Achintha, Binyan He & Philippa Reed, 2017, International Journal of Fatigue, 103, 99-111
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijfatigue.2017.05.023
Type: article
Effect of microstructure on fatigue behaviour of advanced high strength ductile cast iron produced by quenching and partitioning process
André Caetano Melado, Arthur Seiji Nishikawa, Hélio Goldenstein, Michael A. Giles & Philippa A.S. Reed, 2017, International Journal of Fatigue
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijfatigue.2017.07.009
Type: article
Low cycle fatigue life prediction in shot-peened components of different geometries – Part I: residual stress relaxation
Chao You, Mithila Achintha, Katherine Soady, Niall Smyth, Michael Fitzpatrick & Philippa Reed, 2017, Fatigue & Fracture of Engineering Materials & Structures, 40(5), 761-775
DOI: 10.1111/ffe.12543
Type: article