Evaluation tests of 1700 °C class turbine cooled blades for a hydrogen fueled combustion turbine system

The development of 1700 °C class hydrogen fueled combustion turbine system with output of 500 MW and thermal efficiency of over 60% (HHV) has been conducted in the World Energy Network (WE-NET) program. This paper describes the development of the first-stage turbine cooled stator and rotor blades applied to the power generation system. The conceptual design of these cooling blades which were served in hot steam flow was carried out. The hybrid cooling method combining recovery cooling with partial ejection cooling was chosen from several cooling systems from a viewpoint of plant efficiency, operational reliability, and durability of cooled blades. Also, the single crystal superalloy (SC) as a blade substrate and thermal barrier coating (TBC) were applied. The experiments of the scale model turbine cooled blades were carried out using a hydrogen-oxygen combustion wind tunnel with practical steam conditions of 1700 °C and 2.5 MPa. The cooling effectiveness and metal temperature at rated condition and the soundness of TBC and blade substrate of the first stage stator and rotor test blades were clarified. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.