Development and Assessment of Coatings for Future Power Generation Turbines

The NETL-Regional University Alliance (RUA) continues to advance technology development critical to turbine manufacturer efforts for achieving DOE Fossil Energy (FE’s) Advanced Turbine Program Goals. In conjunction with NETL, Coatings for Industry (CFI), the University of Pittsburgh, NASA GRC, and Corrosion Control Inc., efforts have been focused on development of composite thermal barrier coating (TBC) architectures that consist of an extreme temperature coating, a commercially applied 7-8 YSZ TBC, a reduced cost bond coat, and a diffusion barrier coating that are applied to nickel-based superalloys or single crystal airfoil substrate materials for use at temperatures ≥1450°C (≥ 2640°F). Additionally, construction of a unique, high temperature (∼1100°C; ∼2010°F), bench-scale, micro-indentation, nondestructive (NDE) test facility at West Virginia University (WVU) was completed to experimentally address in-situ changes in TBC stiffness during extended cyclic oxidation exposure of coated single crystal coupons in air or steam-containing environments. The efforts and technical accomplishments in these areas are presented in the following sections of this paper.