High-Temperature (HT) Coatings for Turbine Blades and Vanes

The goal is to develop and experimentally validate a marketable methodology for guiding component specific development of improved thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) and for life prediction of TBCs. The approach will require innovative research anddevelopment (R&D) effort in Phase I to develop, validate and implement relevant oxidation, damage and deformation prediction models. Subsequently, these models will be used in defining a systematic development approach that would be implemented in Phase IIand beyond. Phase I will directly build upon extensive research already performed by RAI and other organizations under various DoD, DOE and NASA funded programs, and by turbine engine manufacturers. Phase I deliverable will be validated mechanism based(mechanistic) modeling methods to describe TBC deformation and damage behavior under general thermomechanical loads, and thermal and environmental conditions relevant to jet engines. A systematic, modeling based approach will greatly facilitate developmentof reliable TBCs for specific jet engine and stationary gas turbine engine components. Because of large potential pay-off associated with the use of TBCs, in both existing and advanced engines, there is an existing and growing market for the proposedtechnology in military and commercial aerospace industry. There is also a potentially large market in the stationary gas turbine industry.