Improving the Life Service of Fe-34Mn-10Al-0.76C Tidal Turbine Blades Using Variable PMF

This paper studied the effect of increasing pulsed magnetic field (PMF) voltage during treating a Fe-34Mn-10Al-0.76C steel alloy used in fabricating a blade to be installed in a tidal turbine on its fatigue lifetime. Fatigue strength for each sample treated using PMF voltages (0, 100 and 160 V) had been investigated experimentally to plot their S-N curves while fatigue lifetime of the tidal turbine had been predicted using mathematical model established by a MATLAB code. The cyclic loadings affect the studied turbine were rearranged using Rainflow algorithm. Results of the study showed that, the blade made of Fe-34Mn-10Al-0.76C steel alloy and treated using PMF 100 v had achieved the highest fatigue resistance. The aforementioned fact had investigated based on comparing among the three specimens under the same conditions. For each specimen, the effect of the tidal turbine operation period according to fatigue lifetime been examined as well and it was investigated that, increasing number of operation hours resulted in a drastic reduction in the turbine's fatigue life of the turbine.