Heat resistant steels in steam turbine

The production of large capacity steam turbines is a recent development in the Indian industries and the metallurgical industry is not yet geared up to meet the special requirements of steam turbine materials. The present difficulties in procuring the turbine materials from foreign sources and recent unfavourable trends of international markets pose a real problem to turbine manufacturers. By and large the necessity of developing the turbine materials within the country is being felt very strongly. The paper deals with the functional and technical requirements and selection criteria of heat resistant steels for steam turbines. To facilitate the development of materials, a brief account of metallurgical aspects is also given in the paper. (K.K. Gupta, K.M. Singhal, M/s Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. Hardwar)