Analysis of Degradation Mechanism for Single Crystal Blade and Vane in Gas Turbine

Recently, technical advances have been made in high efficiency gas turbine power plants. In domestic gas turbine facilities, the material properties of the blade and vane are degraded by the daily start-stop operations arising from the thermo mechanical cycle. We surveyed the time dependent degradation of the HP blade and vane to gather basic data for life assessment and damage analysis. The EOH(equivalent operating hours) of the blades were 23,686, 27,909, and 52,859 and the EOH of the vanes were 28,714 and 52,859, respectively. With increased operating hours, the shape of the primary (sic)' precipitate transformed from cubic to spherical, and its average size also increased. The leading edge area of the blades and the center of the vanes had the worst morphology, and this tendency agrees with the microhardness results. The thickness of the thermally grown oxide at the outer surface of the bond coat increased with increased operating hours.