Chapter

5
ADVANCED GAS TURBINE MATERIALS
AND COATINGS
1. Introduction

Combined-cycle efficiencies as high as 60% are now

achievable because of increased firing temperature coupled with
more efficient component and system designs.
This paper describes the evolution of solutions to what used to
be incompatible market demands: high firing temperatures and
long life, corrosion protection from contaminated fuels and air,
and higher efficiency with fuel flexibility. It concentrates on
advances made in the hot gas path components because they are
generally the most critical part of the gas turbine.
Improvements in superalloys and processing now permit the hot
gas path components to operate in advanced gas turbines firing
at increased temperatures for many thousands of hours under
severe conditions of centrifugal, thermal and vibratory stresses.
Recent improvements to compressors and rotors are also
discussed.

2. Turbine Buckets and Nozzles

2.1. Processing

GE has used investment cast nozzles and buckets made by the

lost wax technique since the mid-1960s. This casting process
allows the use of alloys that are difficult to form or machine and
provides great design flexibility for internal cooling schemes. For
example, ceramic coring is used extensively in these castings to
form air-cooling passages and to provide weight reduction.
Most nozzle and bucket castings used by GE are made by using
the conventional equiaxed investment casting process. In this
process, the molten metal is poured into a ceramic mold at a
pressure below 10-2 torr (10-2 mm Hg). Vacuum is used in most
cases, except for some of the cobalt alloys, to prevent the highly
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reactive elements in the superalloys from reacting with the
oxygen and nitrogen in the air. With proper control of metal and
mold thermal conditions, the molten metal then solidifies from
the surface toward the center of the mold, creating an equiaxed
structure. To pre
Directional solidification (DS) is also being employed to produce
advanced technology buckets.

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2.2 Bucket Materials

The stage 1 bucket must withstand the most severe combination

of temperature, stress and environment; it is generally the
limiting component in the machine.
Since 1950, turbine bucket material temperature capability has
advanced approximately 850°F/472°C, approximately 20°F/10°C
per year. The importance of this increase can be appreciated by
noting that an increase of 100°F/56°C in turbine firing
temperature can provide a corresponding increase of 8% to 13%
in output and 2% to 4% improvement in simple-cycle efficiency.
Advances in alloys and processing, while expensive and time-
consuming, provide significant incentives through increased
power density and improved efficiency.
Figure 4 shows the trend of firing temperature and bucket alloy
capability. The composition of the new and conventional alloys
discussed is shown in Table 1. The increases in bucket alloy
temperature capability accounted for the majority of the firing
temperature increase until the 1970s, when air cooling was
introduced, which decoupled firing temperature from bucket
metal temperature. Also, as the metal temperatures approached
the 1600°F/870°C range, hot corrosion of buckets became more
life-limiting than strength until the introduction of protective
coatings.
During the 1980s, emphasis turned toward two major areas:
improved processing to achieve greater bucket alloy capability
without sacrificing alloy corrosion resistance; and advanced
highly sophisticated air-cooling technology to achieve the firing
temperature capability required for the new F generation of gas
turbines. (See Figure 5.) The use of steam cooling to further
increase combined-cycle efficiencies will be realized in the
1990s.

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All GE gas turbine bucket alloys are vacuum cast, nickel-base
superalloys that are strengthened through solution and
precipitation-hardening heat treatments. Figure 6 shows the
stress rupture strength of these alloys and the superalloys used
for nozzle applications: GTD-222, FSX-414 and N-155. This
comparison is presented in the form of the stress required for
rupture as a function of a parameter that relates time and
temperature (the Larson- Miller Parameter). This parameter is
one of several important design parameters that must be
satisfied to ensure proper performance of the alloy in a bucket
application, especially for long service life. Creep life, high- and
low-cycle fatigue, thermal fatigue, tensile strength and ductility,

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2.3. Bucket Coatings

Bucket coatings are required to protect the bucket from

corrosion, oxidation and mechanical property degradation. As
superalloys have become more complex, it has been increasingly
difficult to obtain both the higher strength levels that are
required and a satisfactory level of corrosion and oxidation
resistance without the use of coatings. Thus, the trend toward
higher firing temperatures increases the need for coatings. The
function of all coatings is to provide a surface reservoir of
elements that nwill form very protective and adherent oxide
layers, thus protecting the underlying base material from
oxidation and corrosion attack and degradation. Experience has
shown that the lives of both uncoated and coated buckets depend
to a large degree on the amount of fuel and air contamination, as
well as the operating temperature of the bucket. This effect is
shown in Figure 10, which illustrates the effect of sodium, a
common contaminant, on bucket life at 1600°F/871°C. The
presence of increased levels of contaminants give rise to an
accelerated form of attack called hot corrosion. In addition to hot
corrosion, high-temperature oxidation and thermal fatigue
resistance have become important criteria in the higher firing
gas turbines, as shown in Figure 11. In today’s advanced
machines, oxidation is of concern not only for external buckets
surfaces, but also for internal passages such as cooling holes.

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2.4. Hot Corrosion

Hot corrosion is a rapid form of attack that is generally

associated with alkali metal contaminants, such as sodium and
potassium, reacting with sulfur in the fuel to form molten
sulfates.
Presence of only a few parts per million (ppm) of such
contaminants in the fuel, or equivalent in the air, is sufficient to
cause this corrosion. Sodium can be introduced in a number of
ways, such as salt water in liquid fuel, through the turbine air
inlet at sites near salt water or other contaminated areas, or as
contaminants in water/steam injections.
Besides the alkali metals such as sodium and potassium, other
chemical elements can influence or cause corrosion on
bucketing. Notable in this connection are vanadium, primarily
found in crude and residual oils, and lead, most frequently
resulting automobile exhaust emissions or as transportation
contaminate from leaded gasoline.

There are now two distinct forms of hot corrosion recognized by

the industry, although the end result is the same. These two
types are high-temperature (Type 1) and low-temperature (Type
2) hot corrosion.

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2.4. High-Temperature Oxidation

Metal oxidation occurs when oxygen atoms combine with metal

atoms to form oxide scales. The higher the temperature, the
more rapidly this process takes place, creating the potential for
failure of the component if too much of the substrate material is
consumed in the formation of these oxides. Figure 14a shows the
microstructure of a coated bucket that has seen about 30,000
hours of service. At the temperatures seen in this region of the
airfoil, no significant oxidation attack of the coating can be seen.
By contrast, Figure 14b shows the microstructure of the same
type of coating, which has been severely attacked after about the
same length of service. At the higher temperatures,

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2.5 High-Temperature Coatings

High-temperature coatings are used where the temperatures of

the components exceed the inherent oxidation resistance of the
material. Considerable development has occurred during the
past 20 years in the field of high temperature coatings. The
result has been a marked increase in the capability of these
coatings to resist not only hot corrosion attack over long periods
of time, but high-temperature oxidation as well. GE heavy-duty
coatings avail-able today have lives that are 10 to 20 times
longer than the first-generation coatings under a wider diversity
of corrosion and oxidizing conditions.
GE has used two basic classes of coatings during the past 25
years.
The first class used was a diffusion- style coating called platinum
aluminide (PtAl). The second class is an overlay-style coating
such as PLASMAGUARD™ GT-29 INPLUS ™.

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