Midlands

Supercomputing for Research and Industry

HPC Midlands case study

Title

Coatings for industrial gas turbine blades

Partners

Loughborough University, University of Bristol, Cranfield University, The University of Nottingham and 10 industrial partners from across the power generation sector

Nature of collaboration

Supported by EPSRC through the Supergen programme in Lifetime Extension of Conventional Power Plant, part of Research Councils UKs Energy Programme, a key initiative in sustainable power generation and supply

Gas turbine engines are widely used in industrial power generation and will continue to be a significant part of the UK energy portfolio for the foreseeable future. However, the demands placed on these engines are changing, including the requirement to cycle more frequently; to utilise increasingly dirty and variable fuels; and, most importantly, to operate with increased efficiencies to reduce emissions. These engines typically operate at gas temperatures of approximately 1150-1450oC, resulting in a need for materials which can withstand not only these high temperatures, but also the aggressive operating environments which can cause oxidation and corrosion.

The approach

The project partners have simultaneously modelled and experimentally characterised the environmental degradation of selected coated turbine blade systems in order to improve life prediction and failure assessment methods. The Loughborough team have also pursued the development of novel single and multilayer coatings with the aim of increasing usable service lifetimes. Access to high performance computing infrastructure and expertise at Loughborough University has enabled the team to develop a novel kinetic model based on diffusion and oxidation theory which is also linked to thermodynamic equilibrium calculation software developed by the National Physical Laboratory to predict the microstructure of a coated blade system as a function of composition, time and service temperature. The model has been validated by careful experimental quantification using a range of advanced analytical techniques for a variety of laboratory aged and ex-service materials and then successfully applied to a number of practical coating systems to simulate their behaviour under service conditions.

The challenge

Nickel-based superalloys are usually employed for the turbine blades, but they increasingly rely on the performance of coating systems for high temperature degradation protection. During service, a variety of changes can occur due to the movement of elements between the coating and the superalloy which can, in turn, affect their mechanical properties and remaining useable service lifetime. It is therefore necessary to optimise the choice of coating and blade material to best suit the operating conditions. In addition, inspection of power plant components is extremely costly and it is crucial for plant operators to know when a particular component needs to be replaced.

Results

The predictive techniques and data generated are already being used to aid design, quantify operational risks, and improve component inspection, repair and replacement in operational environments. In addition, novel compositions of single and multi-layer coatings are in the advanced stages of testing and are likely to deliver industrial benefits in the future. Jon Wells, RWE npower, said: With respect to industrial gas turbines, the rates of degradation of oxidation coatings on nickelbased superalloys reported by the Supergen project have already been incorporated into materials selection decisions during the refurbishment of hot gas path components.

Acknowledgement We would like to acknowledge the support of The Energy Programme a Research Councils UK cross council initiative led by EPSRC and contributed to by

ESRC, NERC, BBSRC and STFC and specifically the Supergen initiative (Grants GR/S86334/01 and EP/F029748). We also acknowledge the valuable contributions made to the project by the following companies: Alstom Power Ltd, E.ON, Doosan Power, National Physical Laboratory, Praxair Surface Technologies, QinetiQ, Rolls-Royce plc, RWE npower, Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery Ltd, and Tata Steel.