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Gas Turbine Materials PDF
Gas Turbine Materials PDF
Authors:
J Hannis - Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery
G McColvin - Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery
C J Small Rolls-Royce plc
J Wells - RWE npower
Contents
1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. .................................................................................................................3
2. INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................4
3. GAS TURBINE MATERIALS. ...........................................................................................................5
3.1 Generic technology.........................................................................................................................5
3.2 Compressors. ..................................................................................................................................5
3.3 Combustors.....................................................................................................................................7
3.4 Turbines..........................................................................................................................................9
3.4.1 Turbine Blades.........................................................................................................................9
3.4.2 Turbine Discs.........................................................................................................................11
3.4.3 Bolted Joints. .........................................................................................................................12
3.4.4 Sealing. ..................................................................................................................................13
4. FUTURE R&D PRIORITIES. ...........................................................................................................14
5. ANNEX 1 COATINGS. ..................................................................................................................15
PICTURE CREDITS..............................................................................................................................16
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1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.
The following report summarises the current materials technology for land
based gas turbine components, and reviews the commercial and technology
drivers. The current trends and future prospects for component design and
operating conditions (e.g. pressure ratios, turbine inlet temperatures etc) are
described.
The following key recommendations are made for materials technologies for
gas turbine applications:
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2. INTRODUCTION.
Gas turbines are key components in the most efficient forms of advanced
power generation plants available. Their high versatility and flexibility enables
gas turbines to be used as a means of generating electrical energy using
operational cycles such as conventional simple cycle, combined cycle, and
combined heat and power generation systems.
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turbine materials and components. The trends and future prospects for
component design and operating conditions are described.
3.2 Compressors.
The challenge facing the compressor is to provide improved cycle efficiency,
operability and reduced costs by optimising the work done by each stage.
Page 5 of 16
Future developments are aimed at increasing pressure ratios from the current
15:1 level to 40:1 and beyond, while continuing to target efficiency and surge
margin gains. The need to maintain compressor performance and integrity
through life, while reducing parts costs and the use of more effective
manufacturing processes is paramount, as is the need to achieve operational
lifetimes in excess of 100,000 hours. Many of these targets are dependent
upon improved design and aerothermal analysis methods in conjunction with
test and validation procedures; however without suitable high temperature
materials these cannot be achieved.
bladed discs (bliscs) based on steel, titanium or nickel alloy technology using
friction welding.
Issues associated with rotor corrosion are largely operator dependent, being
influenced by the specific nature of the fuel, compressor washing and cleaning
practices. These are currently addressed by use of protective coatings.
Likewise, commercially available abradable tip sealing coatings are currently
used to provide and maintain efficiency and currently present little technical
risk.
For large utility power generation engines the temperature and strength
limitations of the rotor steels used are currently limiting the performance. The
development and demonstration of high-nitrogen, nano-precipitate
strengthened steels for high pressure compressor disc applications that offer
equivalent strength and temperature capabilities to some nickel alloys with
much reduced cost is crucial. Application of these high strength creep-
resistant steels necessitates the development of improved large-scale melting
(up to 100 tonnes) and forging capabilities (up to 18 tonnes) and the
development of suitable welding technologies, non-destructive testing
methods for large-scale rotors and validated life assessment and risk analysis
methods. Successful development of this technology would negate the need
to introduce much more expensive (by a factor of 5) nickel alloy technologies.
To achieve this the materials and process developments required will be
heavily dependant on successful integrated process modelling that links the
materials and process developments and enables an optimised, affordable,
manufacturing route to be developed.
3.3 Combustors.
The combustor experiences the highest gas temperatures in a gas turbine and
is subject to a combination of creep, pressure loading, high cycle and thermal
fatigue. The materials used presently are generally wrought, sheet-formed
nickel-based superalloys. These provide good thermomechanical fatigue;
creep and oxidation resistance for static parts and are formable to fairly
complex shapes such as combustor barrels and transition ducts. Equally of
importance is their weldability, enabling design flexibility and the potential for
successive repair and overhaul operations, which is crucial to reducing life
cycle costs. The high thermal loadings imposed often mean that large portions
of the combustor hardware need to be protected using thermal barrier
coatings.
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Finally, the use of coal gasification cycles may lead to much higher particulate
loadings than for other fuels. The development of high temperature erosion
and corrosion resistant coatings and substrate materials, as well as improved
gas cleaning facilities will be required. The increased operating temperatures
and corrosive/erosive fuel gas will require the further development of coating
technologies.
3.4 Turbines.
For many years the primary consideration in the design of blades has been to
avoid the possibility of creep failure due to the combination of high stresses,
temperatures and the expected length of running time. To meet this
requirement and increase the efficiency by running a higher turbine
temperatures more advanced materials have been continuously introduced.
For vanes and blades there has been a gradual move away from
conventionally cast nickel-based superalloys towards directional solidification.
The introduction of these alloys, manufactured using near-net shape
investment casting has provided significant benefits in terms of much
improved creep and thermal fatigue properties. Further significant benefits
have been gained by the use of single crystal technology for both blades and
vanes. A number of issues are, however, still to be resolved. The increased
cost of manufacture needs to be mitigated by the use of revert materials and
increased casting yields, and offset against improved component lifetimes and
more efficient running (through the higher turbine entry temperatures they
make possible). Alloys with greater defect tolerance, in particular to low
Page 9 of 16
Efforts have been made to address these issues with the development of a
number of alloys having improved castability, higher corrosion resistance and
reduced heat treatment times. Alloys have been developed with varying
degrees of success; however significant work is needed in this field to develop
alloy systems that address not only the alloy, but its coating, lifing and repair
as an entity not as a series of unrelated steps. There is a large scope in
industrial gas turbines for continued incremental development of Ni-based
alloys and coatings for the short and medium term.
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The issue of coatings development for turbine blades and vanes is currently
treated almost as a separate topic from the substrate that will carry it into
service. They are applied for oxidation/hot corrosion protection reasons (as
described above) and include aluminising, chromising and MCrAlY. They are
also applied to reduce metal temperatures by acting as a thermal barrier
protection system, usually as a ceramic plus bond coat system. They are
usually applied over the top of existing materials and a variety of similar
proprietary solutions exist and are being further refined. This classical
additive approach will doubtless continue but future developments will have to
treat the substrate, the bond coat, the coating and the environment as
inherent components of the materials system solution that is required.
Continued development of multilayer coatings and application methods are
therefore required to improve reliability and reduce cost but with this holistic
approach in mind.
Creep and low cycle fatigue resistance are the principal properties controlling
turbine disc life and to meet the operational parameters requires high integrity
advanced materials having a balance of key properties:
To meet the highest operating temperatures and the component stress levels
demanded, it has been necessary to develop a series of progressively higher
strength steel and Ni-based superalloys. These are generally manufactured
using cast and wrought processing. However, the complex chemistry of these
alloys makes production of segregation-free ingots very difficult. A triple melt
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Page 12 of 16
3.4.4 Sealing.
(i) Rotating Seals.
Turbine gas path seals include rotor tip seals and disc rim seals. On
unshrouded rotor tips and rim seals, coatings such as MCrAlY and
Nickel-Graphite can be employed as an abradable coating to avoid
damage in the event of a rub. Erosion resistance and the ability to
provide abradability after long-term exposure at high temperature are
required for such coatings. On shrouded rotor blading, superalloy
honeycomb foil materials are employed as abradable seals and high
temperature oxidation resistance is needed for foil materials to achieve
long life at high temperature. Research is ongoing to develop improved
seal materials and novel methods of construction and application for
the above seal types. The labyrinth seal is the most common form of air
system seal, usually with an abradable stator material. Positive contact
carbon seals are often used for bearing chamber seals. The
development of brush seals has provided improved sealing efficiency
and is displacing the use of labyrinth seals in critical locations. Both
metallic and non-metallic bristles are employed depending on
temperature levels and wear resistance and fatigue resistance key
parameters. Film riding face seals have the potential for even higher
sealing efficiencies but place extreme demands on manufacturing
technology if they are to be practicable.
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Page 14 of 16
5. ANNEX 1 COATINGS.
Surface engineering and coatings technology plays a crucial role in the
operation of all high temperature plant, particularly for GT engines. The desire
for higher operating temperatures, improved performance, extended
component lives and cleaner, more fuel-efficient power generation places
severe demands on the structural materials used and many components
operating at high temperature are coated or surface-treated to enable cost-
effective component lifetimes to be achieved.
Page 15 of 16
PICTURE CREDITS
Page 6 Alstom Power
Front Cover and pages 4, 8 and 10 Rolls-Royce plc
Page 5, 12 (both) Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery
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