Affordable Thermomechanical Fatigue Testing under Turbine Airfoil Conditions in the Hyperbaric Advanced Development Environmental Simulator (HADES)

Advanced gas turbine aircraft engines are designed to operate at higher overall pressure ratios, elevated turbine temperatures, and more severe duty cycles. Thermomechanical fatigue (TMF) is expected to be the leading failure mode for hot-section components in these engines, a behavior typically dominated by adverse thermal gradients combined with cyclic thermal and mechanical loading. Improvement in TMF predictive modeling is needed to maximize reliability and affordability of component designs. Characterization at gas turbine operating conditions is needed to support the development of first-principles based material models. The HADES rig (Hyperbaric Advanced Development Environmental Simulator) is a low-cost test device capable of subjecting test articles to turbine gas-path conditions, surface temperatures exceeding 2000F and a very high heat flux. A prototype rig developed by Florida Turbine Technologies (FTT) has been demonstrated. Feasibility studies of a new rig with enhanced capabilities, including tensile and compressive loading of specimens, autonomous cyclic operation, and full-field measurement capability is the subject of this Phase I SBIR proposal. Rig manufacturing, assembly, installation and validation testing are proposed for Phase II. Leased production versions of this rig would then be installed at the customer’s site, with training, technical and engineering support and analysis options offered by FTT.