1 Creep Life Uncertainty Assessment of a Gas Turbine Airfoil

Hot gas path turbine components are exposed to very severe and complex boundary conditions and many other sources of variation during their design, production, and operation. Consequently, the useful life of these components can exhibit considerable scatter. A complex, multi-physics environment has been created to automate the bulk creep life assessment of a gas turbine airfoil for a land-based, heavy duty power generation unit. An uncertainty assessment using the combined response surface Monte Carlo method is conducted with the developed environment. Results of this study are given and found to be in agreement with a more theoretical solution using power series approximation. Some widely used assumptions in conducting component level reliability assessments are investigated and discussed