Photoelastic investigation of turbine rotor blade shrouds

This paper deals with the photoelastic stress analysis carried out to investigate the premature failure of low pressure turbine rotor blade shrouds of an experimental gas turbine. Stress distribution at the shroud aerofoil interface was studied for the original rectangular shroud geometry by stress freezing the photoelastic model blades under rotating conditions. The combined influence of taper shroud geometry and larger fillet radius in mitigating the shroud stress is studied by the three dimensional photoelastic technique and an optimised shroud geometry subject to the stress requirements of blade material is suggested.