The Effect of Thermal Barrier Coating Surface Temperature on the Adhesion Behavior of CMAS Deposits

Abstract

The interaction of thermal barrier coating’s surface temperature with calcium magnesium aluminosilicate (CMAS) like deposits in gas turbine hot flowpath hardware is investigated. Small Hastelloy X coupons were coated in thermal barrier coatings (TBC) using the air plasma spray (APS) method and then subjected to a thermal gradient via backside impingement cooling and frontside impingement heating using the High-Temperature Deposition Facility (HTDF) at The Ohio State University (OSU). A one-dimensional (1D) heat transfer model was used to estimate TBC surface temperatures and correlate them to intensity values taken from infrared (IR) images of the TBC surface. TBC frontside surface temperatures were varied by changing backside mass flow (kept at a constant temperature) while maintaining a constant hot-side gas temperature and jet velocity representative of modern commercial turbofan high-pressure turbine (HPT) inlet conditions (approximately 1600 K and 200 m/s, or Mach 0.25). In this study, Arizona Road Dust (ARD) was utilized to mimic the behavior of CMAS attack on TBC. To identify the minimum temperature at which particles adhere, the backside cooling mass flow was set to the maximum amount allowed by the test setup, and trace amounts of 0–10 µm ARD particles were injected into the hot-side flow to impinge on the TBC surface. The TBC surface temperature was increased through coolant reduction until noticeable deposits formed, as evaluated through an IR camera. Accelerated deposition tests were then performed where approximately 1 g of ARD was injected into the hot side flow while the TBC surface temperature was held at various points above the minimum observed deposition temperature. Surface deposition on the TBC coupons was evaluated using an infrared camera and a backside thermocouple. Coupon cross-sections were also evaluated under a scanning electron microscope for any potential CMAS ingress into the TBC. Experimental results of the impact of surface temperature on CMAS deposition, and deposit evolution and morphology are presented. In addition, an Eulerian–Lagrangian solver was used to model the hot-side impinging jet with particles at four TBC surface temperatures and deposition was predicted using the OSU deposition model. Comparisons to experimental results highlight the need for more sophisticated modeling of deposit development through a conjugate heat transfer and mesh morphing of the target surface. These results can be used to improve physics-based deposition models by providing valuable data relative to CMAS deposition characteristics on TBC surfaces, which modern commercial turbofan high-pressure turbines use almost exclusively.