Erosion Rate Testing at High Temperature of Alloys and Coatings for Use in Turbomachinery

Because of the serious consequences of turbomachinery erosion on their performance and life, it is important to have reliable methods for predicting their erosion when solid particles are ingested with the incoming flow. This is a very challenging problem since turbomachinery erosion is affected by many factors such as blade passage geometry, blade row location, rotational speed flow conditions, blade material and particles’ characteristics. Several studies which are essential to predicting blade surface erosion intensity and pattern, have been conducted at the University of Cincinnati’s Propulsion Laboratory over the past twenty-five years. This paper describes only some of the work done on erosion testing at high temperatures and velocities for different materials and coatings. The testing has been performed with a special high temperature erosion wind tunnel which simulates the aerodynamic conditions on the blades. The coated substrates reveal one order of magnitude less wear compared to some commercial non-CVD coatings on the same alloys. This study demonstrates that some coatings provide an excellent erosion resistance to INCO 718, LNCO 738, MAR-246, X-40 and Tungsten Carbide.