The gas turbine combustion process reaches gas temperatures that exceed the melting temperature of the combustor liner materials. Cooling the liner is critical to combustor durability and is often accomplished with double-walled liners that contain both impingement and effusion holes. The liner cooling is complicated with the interruption of the effusion cooling by large dilution jets that facilitate the combustion process. Given the presence of the dilution jets, it is important to understand the effect that the dilution jet has on the opposing wall in respect to the effusion film. This research includes measurements of the local static pressure distribution for a range of dilution jet momentum flux ratios to investigate the impact that the opposing dilution jet has on the effusion film. The interactions with the effusion cooling were also evaluated by measuring the overall cooling effectiveness across the panel. Measurements show that the opposing dilution jets did impact the liner at dilution jet momentum flux ratios that were greater than 20. The impacts at high momentum flux ratios were indicated through increased local static pressures measured on the surface of the combustor liner. Furthermore, the dilution touchdown decreased the overall cooling effectiveness of the effusion cooling. Results also indicated that the opposing dilution jets changed position on the liner as the dilution jet momentum flux ratio changes.

Particles ingested by aero gas turbines are capable of melting in the combustor and depositing on high pressure turbine vane surfaces, where they degrade aerodynamic and thermodynamic performance. The extent of the damage caused is a complex physical process dependent on the thermal and inertial properties of the particles, the operating state of the engine and importantly, engine architecture. The dominant architecture considerations are the position of the burner flames relative to the nozzle guide vane leading edges and the temperature difference across the burner flames. In this work, we investigate the influence of this on particle deposition by approximating the temperature variation of the hot streak as a sinusoidal profile. A parametric analysis is carried out using numerical simulations and an elastic-plastic particle deposition model, to evaluate the effect of mean temperature, temperature difference across the hot streak, and hot streak position on the deposition rate of a generic particle size distribution. Results show that the dominant effect driving particulate deposition is a combination of the gas temperature, hot streak position relative to the vane leading edge and the particulate type. The rate of deposition on a vane for sub-bituminous ash particles may be reduced by up to 56% if the combination of mean temperature, temperature difference across the hot streak, and hot streak position are chosen carefully.

A numerical simulation model of electrothermal de-icing process on carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composite is conducted to study the effect of thermal properties of the substrate on the ice melting process. A novel melting model which is based on the enthalpy-porosity method is applied to study the transient ice melting process and heat transfer of the de-icing sys-tem. Multi-layered electrothermal de-icing systems including composites with different fiber orientation are used to analyze the effects of orthotropic heat conductivity of the CFRP composite on the ice melting process and heat transfer. Movement of the ice-water interface, the melted zone thickness and the melted zone area on CFRP composite are investigated on the three-dimensional electrothermal de-icing unit. The effects of thermal properties of substrate on the temperature distribution of the ice-airfoil interface are analyzed. The computational results show that the thermal properties of substrates affect the temperature on the ice-airfoil interface, the temperature distribution in the substrate, ice melting area, ice melting rate and ice melting volume significantly. The time that ice starts to melt on the CFRP composite substrate is earlier than that on the metal substrate. However, it takes more time for the ice to melt completely on the ice-CFRP interface than that on the ice-metal inter-face. The orthotropic heat conductivity of CFRP composite results in strong directivity of the melting area on the ice-CFRP in-terface. A ratio parameter is defined to represent the matching degree of substrate materials and geometry model of de-icing system. The simulation model can be applied to study electrothermal de-icing system of nacelle inlet and airfoil made of composite. The results in present work is also helpful to predict the change of temperature during de-icing process and provide guidelines for the optimizing the electrothermal de-icing system to reduce power consumption according to the fiber structure of composite.

Optimization procedures are performed using RANS models due to computational wall-clock time constraints. These trends are verified against selected LES counterpart simulations. The optimization study is performed on a subsonic small-scale cavity-stabilized combustor. Steady, compressible three-dimensional simulations are performed using a multi-phase Realizable k-ε Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) approach or Dynamic Kinetic Energy Subgrid-scale LES. There are nineteen geometrical input parameters and four output parameters, viz., a pattern factor proxy (maximum exit temperature), a combustion efficiency proxy (averaged exit temperature), total pressure losses (TPL), and “melting” liner area. The RANS-based optimization with initial training sample of sixty design points leads to an optimum design point that dominates the baseline design, among other designs. The non-dominated design points release 57% of the heat inside the cavity in comparison to 43% from the baseline. Dominated combustors release as low as 23% of the heat in the cavity. The optimum, a dominated and the baseline design are compared with LES counterparts. The RANS predicted trends in terms of dominated and non-dominated design points were also confirmed by LES simulations, even though the output parameters quantitative values may differ. Discrepancies between RANS and LES appear more pronounced for the optimum design. This is attributed to the fact the LES permits pressure waves to escape the domain whereas RANS can only moderate pressure-induced disturbances. By allowing boundary-induced disturbances in the LES the flow field resembles that of RANS. Therefore, it is concluded that RANS and LES follow similar total pressure loss, pattern factor, and combustion efficiency trends as function of combustor design.

The following paper presents a new type of gas lubricated thrust bearing that utilizes additive manufacturing or also known as direct metal laser melting (DMLM) to fabricate the bearing. The motivation for the new bearing concept is derived from the need for highly efficient supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO 2 ) turbomachinery in the mega-watt power range. The paper provides a review of existing gas thrust bearing technology, outlines the need for the new DMLM concept, and discusses proof of concept testing results. The new concept combines hydrostatic pressurization with individual tilting pads that are flexibly mounted using hermetic squeeze film dampers (HSFD) in the bearing-pad support. This paper describes the thrust bearing concept and discusses the final design approach. Proof-of-concept testing in air for a 6.8” (173mm) outer diameter thrust gas bearing was performed; with thrust loading, up to 1,500 lbs (6.67kN) and a thrust runner speed of 10krpm (91 m/s tip speed). The experiments were performed with a bent shaft resulting in thrust runner axial vibration magnitudes of 2.9mils (74microns) p-p and dynamic thrust loads of 270 lbs (1.2kN) p-p. In addition, force deflection characteristics and stiffness coefficients of the bearing system are presented for an inlet hydrostatic pressure of 380psi (2.62MPa). Results at 10krpm show that the pad support architecture was able to sustain high levels of dynamic misalignment equaling 6 times the nominal film clearance while demonstrating a unit load carrying capacity of 55psi (0.34Mpa). Gas-film force deflection tests portrayed nonlinear behavior like a hardening spring, while the bearing pad support stiffness was measured to be linear and independent of gas film thickness.

The first stage of turbine in a Brayton cycle faces the maximum temperature in the cycle. This maximum temperature may exceed creep temperature limit or even melting temperature of the blade material. Therefore, it becomes an absolute necessity to implement blade cooling to prevent them from structural damage. Turbine inlet temperatures for oxy-combustion supercritical CO2 (sCO 2 ) are promised to reach blade material limit in near future foreseeing need of turbine blade cooling. Properties of sCO 2 and the cycle parameters can make Reynolds number external to blade and external heat transfer coefficient to be significantly higher than those typically experience in regular gas turbines. This necessitates evaluation and rethinking of the internal cooling techniques to be adopted. The purpose of this paper is to investigate conjugate heat transfer effects within a first stage vane cascade of a sCO 2 turbine. This study can help understand cooling requirements which include mass flow rate of leakage coolant sCO 2 and geometry of cooling channels. Estimations can also be made if the cooling channels alone are enough for blade cooling or there is need for more cooling techniques such as film cooling, impingement cooling and trailing edge cooling. The conjugate heat transfer and aerodynamic analysis of a turbine cascade is carried out using STAR CCM+. The turbine inlet temperature of 1350K and 1775 K is considered for the study considering future potential needs. Thermo-physical properties of this mixture are given as input to the code in form of tables using REFPROP database. The blade material considered is Inconel 718.

In this study, the microstructure and solidus and liquidus of several Ni-Co-Hf-Zr-Ti-Al braze alloys were first examined with the objective to develop a B and Si free low melting braze alloy for narrow gap (NGB) and wide gap brazing (WGB) and turbine component repair applications. Among various alloys examined, DSC was used to measure the solidus and liquidus during heating and cooling cycles. Following the measurements of liquidus and solidus, the microstructure was evaluated using SEM. Equations for calculating solidus and liquidus based on alloy’s compositions were established and the functions of each elements on these two characteristic temperatures were discussed. One selected alloy with a liquidus of 1201 °C was further employed for NGB and WGB experiments. The results showed that it was able join CMSX-4 at 1240°C without interfacial voids; and with the use of externally applied pressure and extended homogenization treatment the interfacial intermetallic compounds were substantially removed. Furthermore, the same braze alloy was used to fill a large artificial cavity in a WGB scheme at a reduced temperature of 1200°C. The braze alloy was able to fully bond the filler powder alloy in addition to join the two alloys to a IN 738 substrate. Finally, oxidation test was conducted at 1050°C (isothermal in static air) for 100 hours after NGB of CMSX-4 and WGB of IN 738. The results showed that the oxide formed on the standalone braze alloy is very dense and there is no sign of spallation. It contained primarily NiO (+CoO) with no other elements measured. For the NGB joints, large amount of scale spallation was observed on base alloy CMSX-4 while the NGB joint remained spallation free. The oxide formed on the NGB was NiO with partitions of Co, Al, Ti, Cr, and W. The WGB joint region in IN 738 showed oxide scale spallation on the IN 738 substrate side, leaving behind steps and depression on the sample surface. In the WGB joint itself, there were three notable phases after oxidation test, however, no scale spallation could be found. For the majority part of the surface, a Ni-rich oxide covered the surface. There were areas of smaller oxide particles with higher Cr content. Overall, the new boron/silicon free braze alloy was found to be able to join several superalloys in both WGB and NGB schemes without occurrence of defects and the oxidation resistance was superior to both substrate alloys examined in this study.

A common technique to increase the thermal efficiency and the power output of gas turbines is to inject water upstream of the compressor section. Through the evaporation of the water throughout the compressor, an isothermal process is approached. A recently-developed technology for this enhanced process is Interstage Injection in which water is injected directly between the stages. One advantage of this over wet compression is the avoidance of icing, since the local temperatures at the injection positions are already above melting point. Moreover, stage characteristics and load distribution can be rearranged within the compressor by individually adjusting the injection amount in different stages. However, there is little practical understanding of this process, and suitable injection methods have still to be found. This paper therefore demonstrates the implementation of a novel technology of Interstage Injection in an axial compressor test rig whereby twin jet nozzles are integrated directly into the trailing edge of the first stator row to deliver a homogenous spray over the entire radial span. Due to the resultant blade complexity, blades are manufactured by selective laser melting and subsequently installed in an enhanced four-stage axial compressor. The installed control and measurement principles of the test rig are presented and results demonstrate the functionality of the innovative design.

The following paper presents rotating test results and advances an analytical predictive fluid-structure model for a new type of gas lubricated thrust bearing fabricated using direct metal laser melting (DMLM). The bearing concept in the present study is a compliant hybrid gas thrust bearing that uses external pressurization to increase load carrying capacity, where the testing campaign in the present study was only focused on steady state static performance. The need for the bearing concept comes from enabling highly efficient supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO 2 ) turbomachinery by replacing oil-lubricated bearings with process gas lubrication. Leveraging the process gas of the turbomachine for bearing lubrication results in lowered bearing power loss [1], simplified mechanical design, and allows for novel oil-free hermetic drivetrains resulting in an efficient emission-free system [2,3]. The new concept utilizes hydrostatic pressurization on individual tilting pads flexibly mounted with hermetic squeeze film dampers (HSFD). The paper focuses on rotating tests of a 173mm outer diameter gas thrust bearing in air up to 10krpm and hydrostatic inlet pressures to 365psi (2.52MPa). The influence of thrust runner speed and bearing inlet pressure on force deflection characteristics and load carrying capability of the gas film were experimentally evaluated. The present work also advances a predictive fluid-structure thrust bearing model using an isothermal ideal-gas based compressible Reynolds flow equation directly coupled to a lumped stiffness element possessing axial and rotational degrees of freedom. The rotating testing demonstrated load capability of 1,816 lbs (8.1KN), which equates to a thrust bearing unit load of 67psi (0.46 MPa). Gas film force-deflection curves reveal a nonlinear relationship between thrust load and film clearance. Comparison of film thickness values with the predictive model show good agreement under high load and inlet pressure, however deviate as load and pressure decrease. Load capability was shown to increase with increasing hydrostatic inlet pressure while the increase in thrust runner speed revealed a small decrease in load capacity.

As modern engine designs target higher efficiencies through increased turbine inlet temperatures, critical turbine components are at increased risk of damage from conditions exceeding material melting temperatures. In particular, improperly designed underplatform hardware components are susceptible to damage when hot main gas path flow is ingested into the stator-rotor cavity. While all turbines inherently experience transients during operation, a majority of turbine tests have been executed using steady operating conditions, and routine transient events are not well understood. To address this need, the present study utilizes a continuous-duration, one-stage test turbine operating with true-scale engine hardware and seal geometries at engine-representative flow conditions. The nature of the continuous-duration facility uniquely supports direct assessment of transient events through its ability to transition between steady-state operating conditions. Specifically, the effects of a transient purge flow were investigated in this study to identify general trends for transient events in a full-scale engine. Results from multiple measurement techniques in the wheelspace region show an interdependence of transient purge flow with a thermal lag of the underplatform hardware. Through experiments conducted at different coolant-to-main gas path temperature ratios, the use of pressure measurements as an indicator of fully-purged behavior was introduced, and a thermally-driven influence on rim seal performance was quantified.

Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) is a technology that integrates the coal gasification and combined cycle to produce electricity efficiently. Due to the fact that the heating value of syngas from coal gasification process is typically lower than that of the natural gas, the conventional gas turbine will have to be adapted for syngas. The nozzle adjustment is the key to the successful transformation since the ignition properties are different between syngas and natural gas which have totally different compositions. The nozzles suitable for natural gas have been prone to partially melting around the flame stabilization holes on sidewalls of the nozzle in real operation. Thus a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was constructed for the syngas nozzles as well as combustion chamber of the gas turbine for low heating value syngas to study the thermostability of the nozzle. The detailed structure of the syngas nozzle, the combustion characteristics of syngas, as well as the actual operation condition of the gas turbine were all employed in the CFD model to improve the simulation accuracy. The reason of partially melting of the nozzles suitable for natural gas can be attributed to that the syngas leaked from the flame stabilization holes into the mainstream air can quickly mix with air, adhere to the sidewalls of the nozzles and then ignite around the holes which result in temperatures high enough to melt the material of the nozzle around the holes through CFD simulation. Finally, a new structure of the syngas nozzle was proposed and validated by CFD simulations. The simulation result shows that the flames caused by the syngas leaked from the flame stabilization holes are no longer adhering to the nozzle sidewalls and local high temperature can be lowered by about 30% which will not be able to melt the nozzle material.

The first stage ring segment (RS) of a Siemens large gas turbine has been redesigned for Selective Laser Melting (SLM) in order to reduce the cooling air consumption and to increase the gas turbine efficiency. The material is IN939. Cylindrical specimen for uniaxial tensile, cyclic tests and creep rupture tests have been manufactured by SLM to characterize the material by derivation of stress strain and creep rupture curves. The ring segment has been tested in a real gas turbine. The loading conditions as well as measurement data from thermocouples and dynamic strain gages have been taken as input for numerical structural integrity assessment. Permissible service life of the ring segment was evaluated in respect of low cycle fatigue (LCF), high cycle fatigue (HCF) and creep. Results have been compared with the conventional design. Furthermore the hook lock up in the engine was evaluated. The manufacturing quality was ensured through several methods including an optical 3D measuring system and computer tomography, process specimen and flow tests. Post investigations such as cut ups and metallography have also been conducted. The results show that the additive manufactured RS meets the required service lifetime.

Removal of fuel sulfur assumes that hot corrosion events will subsequently end in shipboard and aero gas turbine engines. Most papers in the literature since the 1970s consider Na 2 SO 4 and SO 3 as the primary reactants causing hot corrosion. However, several geographical sites around the world have relatively high pollutant levels (particulate matter, SO 2 , etc.) that have the potential to initiate high-temperature corrosion. The deposit chemistry influencing hot corrosion is more complex consisting of multiple sulfates and silicates with the addition of chlorides in a marine environment. Sulfur species may still enter a ship combustion chamber as contaminants via air intake or with seawater entrained in air entering through the ship air intake. High levels of impurities (SO 2 ) above 2 ppm can lead to hot corrosion attack. Research is needed to determine how sulfate salt mixtures and air impurities influence hot corrosion in marine and non-marine conditions. Other impurities such as phosphorus, lead, chlorides, sand, and unburned carbon may lower salt melting temperatures, alter the sulfate activity, or change the solution chemistry and acidity/basicity that leads to accelerating hot corrosion. Other issues need to be considered in non-metallic materials system.

Additive manufacturing (AM), also known as 3D printing, is a rapidly developing technology with tremendous potential in both developmental and production applications. Solar Turbines Incorporated is committed to AM technology for gas turbine applications. The ability to metal 3D print novel designs of turbine blades capable of actual turbine engine operation would effectively reduce design validation cycle time, and allow acquisition of key performance data early in a design campaign. In support of Solar’s advanced manufacturing development and ongoing engine efficiency improvement goals, Solar initiated a project to print a full set of Mercury™ 50 stage 2 turbine blades to be run in a development engine. Solar leveraged years of experience with design and serial production of AM components in support of this project. A significant challenge faced when printing turbine blades is producing metal with mechanical properties sufficient to withstand the rigors of engine operation. As a rotating component within the hot section of the engine, turbine blades experience high centrifugal and pressure loads at elevated temperatures. After investigation of possible alloys capable of meeting the requirements of the Mercury™ 50 design envelope, the gamma prime (γ’) strengthened nickel superalloy Inconel™ 738LC was selected to provide the best opportunity for successful development engine testing. Solar partnered with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to produce the Inconel™ 738LC blades with Electron Beam Melting (EBM) powder bed fusion process. Once a rough blade shape was printed, the fir-tree attachment, blade tip shroud, and air flow path surfaces were finished using both conventional and non-conventional machining processes. In-process monitoring, metallurgical evaluations, mechanical testing, and non-destructive inspection techniques were used to validate the printed blade material integrity and conformance to geometric design intent. Planned future activities include assembly of the AM blades onto a disk for spin pit testing to validate the mechanical integrity and design margin of the blades. The final phase of the project will be to install the bladed disk assembly into a Mercury™ 50 engine at Solar Turbines to conduct a series of hot-fired engine performance tests.

Laser additive manufacturing (LAM) is an emerging technology that builds parts in a layer-by-layer process by selectively melting metal powders. This additive manufacturing technique among others can produce very complex geometries, which are not possible using conventional methods. A mock segment of the leading edge of a turbine blade, designed with both internal and external cooling features fabricated by LAM of Inconel powder, is investigated. This design consists of an internal impingement cooling array and an engineered-porous structure. This porous region consists of a lattice of intersecting cylinders that simulates the effect of a transpiration cooled segment or permeable wall with a designed porosity of 0.57. Transpiration cooling is a promising external cooling technique capable of reducing thermal gradients at the surface of the blade by providing a more uniform film than conventional discrete film cooling holes. In this current study, adiabatic film cooling effectiveness is experimentally investigated using pressure sensitive paint (PSP) for blowing ratios ranging between 0.03 and 0.15. Using air as the mainstream, and CO 2 as the coolant source, a density ratio of 1.5 is obtained. Steady state simulations using RANS are analyzed and used to compare against experimental results. All cases result in an increase in effectiveness values with increasing blowing ratio. Highest effectiveness values are associated with high pressure drop. Coolant uniformity is observed downstream the porous region and mixing becomes more significant as blowing ratio is increased.

Over recent decades, the variability and high costs of the traditional gas turbine fuels (e.g. natural gas), have pushed operators to consider low-grade fuels for running heavy-duty frames. Synfuels, obtained from coal, petroleum or biomass gasification, could represent valid alternatives in this sense. Although these alternatives match the reduction of costs and, in the case of biomass sources, would potentially provide a CO 2 emission benefit (reduction of the CO 2 capture and sequestration costs), these low-grade fuels have a higher content of contaminants. Synfuels are filtered before the combustor stage, but the contaminants are not removed completely. This fact leads to a considerable amount of deposition on the nozzle vanes due to the high temperature value. In addition to this, the continuous demand for increasing gas turbine efficiency, determines a higher combustor outlet temperature. Current advanced gas turbine engines operate at a turbine inlet temperature of (1400–1500) °C which is high enough to melt a high proportion of the contaminants introduced by low-grade fuels. Particle deposition can increase surface roughness, modify the airfoil shape and clog the coolant passages. At the same time, land based power units experience compressor fouling, due to the air contaminants able to pass through the filtration barriers. Hot sections and compressor fouling work together to determine performance degradation. This paper proposes an analysis of the contaminant deposition on hot gas turbine sections based on machine nameplate data. Hot section and compressor fouling are estimated using a fouling susceptibility criterion. The combination of gas turbine net power, efficiency and turbine inlet temperature (TIT) with different types of synfuel contaminants highlights how each gas turbine is subjected to particle deposition. The simulation of particle deposition on one hundred (100) gas turbines ranging from 1.2 MW to 420 MW was conducted following the fouling susceptibility criterion. Using a simplified particle deposition calculation based on TIT and contaminant viscosity estimation, the analysis shows how the correlation between type of contaminant and gas turbine performance plays a key role. The results allow the choice of the best heavy-duty frame as a function of the fuel. Low-efficiency frames (characterized by lower values of TIT) show the best compromise in order to reduce the effects of particle deposition in the presence of high-temperature melting contaminants. A high-efficiency frame is suitable when the contaminants are characterized by a low-melting point thanks to their lower fuel consumption.

The current study reports on modification of conventional welding materials with titanium, boron and silicon to enhance weldability by reducing the solidus temperature and promoting the formation of low temperature eutectics. Melting behavior, weld microstructure, tensile and stress rupture strength are reported for several alloy compositions. Some examples of repairs of IGT and aero HPT blades using the materials and technologies are provided.

Current and future designs for advanced turbine systems, such as Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC), advanced Natural Gas Combined Cycle (NGCC), and the emerging supercritical CO 2 (SCO 2 ) systems require increasing turbine inlet temperature (TIT), which is well beyond the substrate melting temperature. The well-known approach is coating the turbine blade with thermal barrier coatings (TBC) combined with internal cooling channel in the substrate. However, due to thermally grown oxide (TGO) and thermal expansion mismatch stresses, TBC spallation failure is a major concern. Furthermore, neither the ceramic coating layer nor the metallic bond coat in current TBC system can provide structural support to house the internal cooling channels. In this research, a method to fabricate high temperature protective structural coating on top of critical gas turbine components by additive manufacturing (AM) technique using oxide dispersion strengthening (ODS) metal powder is presented. A novel combined mechanochemical bonding (MCB) plus ball milling process is utilized to produce near spherical and uniformly alloyed ODS powders. AM-processed ODS coating by direct energy deposition (DED) method on MAR-247 substrate, with laser powers from 100W to 200W were carried out. The ODS coated samples were then subjected to thermal cyclic loadings for over 2200 cycles. For comparison, in our earlier studies, under the same cyclic testing condition, typical tested TBC coupons showed spallation failure after ∼400 cycles. Correlation of the measured ODS coating Young’s modulus using a unique non-destructive micro-indentation testing method with evolution of the ODS microstructures are studied to identify optimum AM processing parameters for best performance of the ODS samples. In particular, stability of secondary γ′ phase in the ODS coating after thermal cycles is analyzed. Test results revealed a thin steady durable alpha alumina oxide layer on the best performance ODS samples. After 2,200 thermal cycles, strong bonding at ODS/substrate interface is also maintained for most of the ODS coated samples. Test results also showed stable substrate microstructure due to the protective ODS coating even after 2,200 thermal cycles. These preliminary test results showed strong potential for applications of AM-assisted ODS coating on advanced gas turbine components.

The paper describes the manufacture of an outlet guide vane (OGV) of jet engines by the Selective Laser Melting (SLM) process, in view of current challenges for conventional machining approaches such as; high airfoil profile tolerances, limited tooling access and hard to machine materials like nickel-chromium-based super alloys. Within this paper, analysis was conducted to investigate the influence of build parameters on possible distortion during printing that affect the build accuracy. These parameters include the part orientation on the build plate, thickness change to the flanges and the positioning of the support structure of each part. The configurations are 3D printed using the SLM approach. The chosen material is IN625. The printed parts are 3D scanned and the results are compared to the original CAD design. The results confirmed the presence of distortions in printed parts and the effect of parameter changes. Furthermore, it was shown that improvements to the print parameters are necessary to achieve a satisfactory profile tolerance.

Recent inspection of shipboard gas-turbine components under the platform has indicated the apparent presence of CMAS (calcium, magnesium, alumino-silicate) and its related attack. This type of attack has often been observed in aero gas turbine engines when sand and similar siliceous matter is ingested into the engine and the sand debris melts due to high engine operating temperature greater than 1150°C. Initial chemical analysis shows that the CMAS-affected areas of ship engine components versus aero engine components are similar. However, this phenomenon commonly observed in advanced aeroengines are not supposed to occur in the ship engine components since their probable temperature is known to be much lower than 1150°C (i.e., melting temperature of CMAS). As a consequence, some important questions arise as to: What caused this “CMAS” attack in ship engine components? Was this initiated by hot corrosion, which created a molten salt pool at a sufficient temperature to trigger CMAS attack? Did sodium chloride mixed with dust and debris lower the temperature at which molten CMAS would initiate? Past research provides a basic understanding of hot corrosion, but may ignore other reactants and other species inherently associated with ‘natural CMAS’ and mechanisms contributing to hot corrosion or CMAS attack. Further examination of ship and aero components will discern the local structure chemical profile of the component coatings, the chemical compositions of the alloy substrates, and the interface between the coating and the molten “CMAS” by several methods. Integrated computational materials engineering (ICME) and validating experiments will assist in developing degradation mechanisms. The environment complexity is also to be taken into account to determine whether salt-induced CMAS attack or CaO-induced hot corrosion may be dominant. The mechanisms need to be further studied and defined. The current work will address a series of systematic approaches to the aforementioned CMAS issues and will also present some recent results on CMAS-related effects on components and an elected alloy material system.