Evaluation of Simple Aluminide and Platinum Modified Aluminide Coatings on High Pressure Turbine Blades After Factory Engine Testing

Author(s):  
Jeffrey A. Conner ◽  
David A. Moore ◽  
Roger D. Wustman

This paper presents results from recent factory engine testing of simple aluminide coatings produced using pack cementation processes and platinum modified aluminide coatings produced using both pack cementation and chemical vapor deposition processes. These coatings were evaluated on DS nickel base superalloy high pressure turbine blades in a commercial high bypass turbofan engine. Operating conditions were such that turbine inlet air contained up to 3 ppb of sodium. Details of the factory engine testing, coating selection and application, and environmental protection provided by the coatings are highlighted. Future testing plans are also presented.

Author(s):  
Jeffrey A. Connor

This paper presents results of factory engine testing of simple aluminide and platinum modified aluminide coatings. Simple aluminide coatings were produced using pack cementation processes. Platinum modified aluminide coatings were produced using three aluminiding processes; pack cementation, above-the-pack or out-of-contact processing, and chemical vapor deposition. These coatings were evaluated on both directionally solidified and single crystal nickel base superalloy turbine blades. These high pressure turbine blades were tested in a commercial high bypass turbofan engine operating predominantly in a high temperature oxidation environment. Included in this paper are discussions of coatings phase stability, coating growth due to diffusion during engine operation, comparison of coating performance and assessment of remaining coating life after engine testing.


Author(s):  
Jeffrey A. Conner ◽  
Michael J. Weimer

With the evolution of advanced directionally solidified and single crystal nickel base superalloy turbine blades, managing life cycle costs of high pressure turbine (HPT) blades has become increasingly more difficult. Today’s advanced high pressure turbine blades in aero and aero-derivative turbines feature thin walls (<.030 inches), complex internal geometries, three dimensional (3D) aerodynamic shapes, multiple protective coatings and complex film cooling schemes. A major contributor to blade life cycle cost is the ability to perform multiple repairs without compromising the integrity of these complex components. Repair of HPT blades has traditionally fallen into two categories: mini or partial repairs where blade tips are restored and coated, and full repairs where flowpath coatings are removed, blade tips restored and new coating(s) applied to flowpath surfaces. Historically, the number of full repairs allowed ranges from zero to two based on numerous design considerations, one of which is maintaining a minimum wall thickness. Removal of protective coatings during full repair reduces wall thickness which limits the number of times a full repair can be performed. Furthermore, blades that have sufficient design allowance to permit two full repairs typically have very low yields at the second full repair due to thinning of airfoil walls below minimum thickness limits. The life of a given HPT blade is therefore controlled to a large degree by at what shop visit a full repair is performed. GE Engine Services has developed a new blade repair approach — Coating Rejuvenation — which significantly extends blade life by restoring protective coatings and maintaining wall thickness. Included in the Coating Rejuvenation repair are technologies that allow: removal of physical vapor deposited (PVD) thermal barrier coatings from external surfaces and cooling holes without impacting the bond coat; removal of oxidation and corrosion products from engine exposed coatings without impacting adjacent intact coating; restoration of coating composition to optimize environmental resistance; and upgrade of existing aluminide coatings to platinum aluminide coatings without removal of the existing coating. Combined together, these technologies can be used to support a comprehensive blade repair workscope plan that dramatically increases the life of HPT blades and decreases the life cycle cost for these components. Overviews of these technologies are presented in this paper along with information on how the technology was matured. Due to pending patent applications with the US Patent & Trademark Office as well as pending patent applications in other countries, significant technical detail cannot be presented at this time.


Author(s):  
D. Corriveau ◽  
S. A. Sjolander

Linear cascade measurements for the aerodynamic performance of a family of three transonic, high-pressure (HP) turbine blades have been presented previously by the authors. The airfoils were designed for the same inlet and outlet velocity triangles but varied in their loading distributions. The previous papers presented results for the design incidence at various exit Mach numbers, and for off-design incidence at the design exit Mach number of 1.05. Results from the earlier studies indicated that by shifting the loading towards the rear of the airfoil an improvement in the profile loss performance of the order of 20% could be obtained near the design Mach number at design incidence. Measurements performed at off-design incidence, but still at the design Mach number, showed that the superior performance of the aft-loaded blade extended over a range of incidence from about −5.0° to +5.0° relative to the design value. For the current study, additional measurements were performed at off-design Mach numbers from about 0.5 to 1.3 and for incidence values of −10.0°, +5.0° and + 10.0° relative to design. The corresponding Reynolds numbers, based on outlet velocity and true chord, varied from roughly 4 × 105 to 10 × 105. The measurements included midspan losses, blade loading distributions and base pressures. In addition, two-dimensional Navier-Stokes computations of the flow were performed to help in the interpretation of the experimental results. The results show that the superior loss performance of the aft-loaded profile, observed at design Mach number and low values of off-design incidence, does not extend readily to off-design Mach numbers and larger values of incidence. In fact, the measured midspan loss performance for the aft-loaded blade was found to be inferior to, or at best equal to, that of the baseline, mid-loaded airfoil at most combinations of off-design Mach number and incidence. However, based on the observations made at design and off-design flow conditions, it appears that aft-loading can be a viable design philosophy to employ in order to reduce the losses within a blade row provided the rearward deceleration is carefully limited. The loss performance of the front-loaded blade is inferior or at best equal to that of the other two blades for all operating conditions. As such, it appears that there is no advantage to front loading the airfoil for transonic high-pressure turbine blades. The results also provide a significant addition to the data available in the open literature on the off-design performance of transonic HP turbine airfoils.


Author(s):  
Joao Vieira ◽  
John Coull ◽  
Peter Ireland ◽  
Eduardo Romero

Abstract High pressure turbine blade tips are critical for gas turbine performance and are sensitive to small geometric variations. For this reason, it is increasingly important for experiments and simulations to consider real geometry features. One commonly absent detail is the presence of welding beads on the cavity of the blade tip, which are an inherent by-product of the blade manufacturing process. This paper therefore investigates how such welds affect the Nusselt number, film cooling effectiveness and aerodynamic performance. Measurements are performed on a linear cascade of high pressure turbine blades at engine realistic Mach and Reynolds numbers. Two cooled blade tip geometries were tested: a baseline squealer geometry without welding beads, and a case with representative welding beads added to the tip cavity. Combinations of two tip gaps and several coolant mass flow rates were analysed. Pressure sensitive paint was used to measure the adiabatic film cooling effectiveness on the tip, which is supplemented by heat transfer coefficient measurements obtained via infrared thermography. Drawing from all of this data, it is shown that the weld beads have a generally detrimental impact on thermal performance, but with local variations. Aerodynamic loss measured downstream of the cascade is shown to be largely insensitive to the weld beads.


2009 ◽  
Vol 131 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip L. Andrew ◽  
Harika S. Kahveci

Avoiding aerodynamic separation and excessive shock losses in gas turbine turbomachinery components can reduce fuel usage and thus reduce operating cost. In order to achieve this, blading designs should be made robust to a wide range of operating conditions. Consequently, a design tool is needed—one that can be executed quickly for each of many operating conditions and on each of several design sections, which will accurately capture loss, turning, and loading. This paper presents the validation of a boundary layer code, MISES, versus experimental data from a 2D linear cascade approximating the performance of a moderately loaded mid-pitch section from a modern aircraft high-pressure turbine. The validation versus measured loading, turning, and total pressure loss is presented for a range of exit Mach numbers from ≈0.5 to 1.2 and across a range of incidence from −10 deg to +14.5 deg relative to design incidence.


Author(s):  
B. Nagaraj ◽  
G. Katz ◽  
A. F. Maricocchi ◽  
M. Rosenzweig

Two LM2500 rainbow rotors with repaired stage 1 and stage 2 high pressure turbine blades are being assembled for marine propulsion service evaluation by the US Navy. The blades have seen between 5,000 and 15,000 hours of service in the Navy’s Fleets. A number of corrosion resistant coatings including plasma sprayed CoCrAlHf (bill of material), composite plated CoCrAlHf, platinum aluminide, aluminum silicide, and physical vapor deposited yttria stabilized zirconia thermal barrier coating (PVD TBC) will be evaluated in the rainbow rotor. This paper will discuss the advantages and microstructures of the various coatings. Composite plated CoCrAlHf, and PVD TBCs were recently service evaluated in an industrial LM2500 rainbow rotor for 10,500 hours. Both these coatings performed well, although the PVD TBC had local spallation at the leading edge. This paper will review the details of performance of these two coatings in the industrial LM2500 application.


Author(s):  
H. Kanki ◽  
Y. Kaneko ◽  
M. Kurosawa ◽  
T. Yamamoto ◽  
Y. Yamamoto ◽  
...  

Abstract The causes of low-frequency vibration (subsynchronous vibration) of a high pressure turbine were investigated analytically and also via vibration excitation tests on actual machines under operation. From the results, it was concluded that low-frequency vibrations may be caused by either the decrease of the rotor system damping or by external forces, such as flow disturbance in the control stage and the rubbing between the rotor and casing. After identifying the cause of the low-frequency vibration, appropriate countermeasures such as installation of a squeeze-film damper and modification of valve opening sequence were taken. Vibration measurements and vibration excitation tests for the high pressure turbine under actual operating conditions were carried out in order to verify the validity of the countermeasures. These field tests confirmed that the problems of low-frequency vibration can be solved completely by taking the appropriate countermeasure depending on the cause of the vibration. This paper presents some field experiences of low-frequency vibration and the effective solution approach.


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