This invention relates to protective coatings and, more particularly, to gas turbine engine components having a protective coating on selected portions thereof.
Components that are exposed to high temperatures, such as a turbine of a gas turbine engine, typically include a coating to protect the component from oxidation and corrosion. For example, turbine blades and vanes may include a protective coating on the blade airfoil portion that resists corrosion from hot gases flowing over the airfoil.
Although effective, such protective coatings may debit mechanical properties of the component. For example, protective coatings are often more brittle than superalloy materials typically used to make the component, and some coatings may interdiffuse with the superalloy to form localized brittle regions. Under fatigue conditions in a gas turbine engine, the coating and/or the localized brittle regions may cause fatigue cracking and thereby limit the useful life of the component. Additionally, the coating adds weight to the component without adding structural strength, which may require stronger or heavier components in order to achieve a desired durability.
Accordingly, there is a need for a protective coating that is disposed only on certain areas of a component to protect those areas from corrosion while maintaining mechanical properties of other uncoated areas. This invention addresses those needs while avoiding the shortcomings and drawbacks of the prior art.
An example gas turbine engine component includes a blade section having an inner end and an outer end, a shroud section at the outer end, and a platform section at the inner end. A protective coating is disposed on the shroud section and the blade section is substantially free of the protective coating.
In one example, the gas turbine engine component is a turbine blade of a turbine section of a gas turbine engine.
An example method of protecting the gas turbine engine component includes forming the protective coating on the shroud section, wherein the blade section is substantially free of the protective coating. For example, a precursor aluminide substance is painted onto the shroud section to form an aluminide material as the protective coating.
The various features and advantages of this invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description of the currently preferred embodiment. The drawings that accompany the detailed description can be briefly described as follows.
In this example, the turbine blade 22 includes a blade section 30 (i.e. airfoil) having a shroud section 32 at a radially outer end relative to the centerline 12 and a platform section 34 at a radially inner end. The shroud section 32 includes an inner surface 36 adjacent the blade section 30 and an outer surface 38 opposite from the inner surface 36. That is, the inner surface 36 is directly exposed to a hot gas flow from the combustion section 18 while the outer surface 38 is not directly exposed to the hot gas flow.
The platform section 34 includes a topside 40 and an underside 42. The topside 40 is adjacent the blade section 30 and the underside 42 is located opposite from the topside 40. A root section 44 for attaching the turbine blade 22 to a rotor extends from the underside 42 in a direction away from the blade section 30.
In the disclosed example, certain portions (represented as shaded sections) of the turbine blade 22 may include an aluminide coating 52 that protects those portions from corrosion, such as sulphidization and oxidation, creating a sulphidization or oxidation portion. In the illustrated example, the shroud section 32 includes the aluminide coating 52 disposed thereon. In one example, all of the surfaces (i.e., the inner surface 36 and the outer surface 38) of the shroud section 32 include the aluminide coating 52. Optionally, the topside 40 and the underside 42 of the platform section 34 also include the aluminide coating 52. The blade section 30 and the root section 44 are substantially free of the aluminide coating 52.
Using the aluminide coating 52 only on certain portions of the turbine blade 22 provides numerous benefits. For example, the aluminide coating 52 may be disposed on selected portions that are known to be the most vulnerable to corrosion, such as the shroud section 32 and/or the platform section 34. Additionally, leaving certain other portions uncoated avoids debiting the mechanical properties of those areas. For example, the blade section 30 and root section 44 are generally under higher fatigue stresses than the shroud section 32 and platform section 34. Thus, by leaving the blade section 30 and root section 44 uncoated, the fatigue resistance of those sections is maintained. Additionally, using the aluminide coating 52 only on certain portions of the turbine blade 22 may reduce the weight of the turbine blade 22 compared to prior turbine blades that are entirely coated with a protective coating.
In one example, the aluminide coating 52 is MCrAlY material, where the M is nickel, cobalt, iron, or a combination thereof, Cr is chromium, Al is aluminum, and Y is yttrium. Given this description, one of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that other types of protective coatings may also be used.
In this example, the aluminide coating 52 is disposed on a repair section 64 of the shroud section 32. The repair section 64 may be a section that has been repaired and/or replaced due to corrosion of the shroud section 32. For example, the repair section 64 may have previously included pitting due to sulphidization corrosion during field use of the turbine blade 22 within engine 10. In this regard, the repair section 64 may be considered a sulphidization portion. Thus, in this example, the aluminide coating 52 is applied to the shroud section 32 as a step in a repair or refurbishment process of the turbine blade 22. However, it is to be understood that the disclosed examples may be also be applied to original turbine blades that have not been used in the field.
Although a combination of features is shown in the illustrated examples, not all of them need to be combined to realize the benefits of various embodiments of this disclosure. In other words, a system designed according to an embodiment of this disclosure will not necessarily include all of the features shown in any one of the Figures or all of the portions schematically shown in the Figures. Moreover, selected features of one example embodiment may be combined with selected features of other example embodiments.
The preceding description is exemplary rather than limiting in nature. Variations and modifications to the disclosed examples may become apparent to those skilled in the art that do not necessarily depart from the essence of this disclosure. The scope of legal protection given to this disclosure can only be determined by studying the following claims.
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