A Comparison Study of Heat Transfer Through Electron Beam Physical Vapor Deposition (EBPVD) and Air Plasma Sprayed (APS) Coated Gas Turbine Blades

Thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) are applied to blades, vanes, combustion chamber walls, and exhaust nozzles in gas turbines not only to limit the heat transfer through the coatings but also to protect the metallic parts from the harsh oxidizing and corrosive thermal environment. There is a growing interest in operating these hot gas path (HGP) components at optimal conditions which has resulted in a continuous increase of the turbine inlet temperatures (TITs). This has resulted in the increase of heat load on the turbine components especially in the high pressure side of the turbine necessitating the need to protect the HGP components from the heat of the exhaust gases using novel TBC such as electron beam physical vapor deposition thermal barrier coatings (EBPVD TBCs) and Air Plasma Sprayed thermal barrier coatings (APS TBCs). This study focuses on the estimation of temperature distribution in the turbine metal substrate (IN738) and coating materials (EBPVD TBC and APS TBC) subjected to isothermal conditions (1573 K) around the turbine blade. The heat conduction in the turbine blade and TBC systems necessary for the evaluation of substrate thermal loads are assessed. The steady state 2D heat diffusion in the turbine blade is modeled using ANSYS FLUENT computational fluid dynamics (CFD) commercial package. Heat transfer by radiation is fully accounted for by solving the radiative transport equation (RTE) using the discrete ordinate method. The results show that APS TBCs are better heat flux suppressors than EBPVD TBCs due to differences in the morphology of the porosity present within the TBC layer. Increased temperature drops across the TBC leads to temperature reductions at the TGO/bond coat interface which slows the rate of the thermally induced failure mechanisms such as CTE mismatch strain in the TGO layer, growth rate of TGO, and impurity diffusion within the bond coat.