Development and Test of Oxide/Oxide Ceramic Matrix Composites Combustor Liner Demonstrators for Aero-engines

Ceramic matrix composites (CMC) offer the potential of increased service temperatures and are thus an interesting alternative to conventional combustor alloys. Tubular combustor liner demonstrators made of an oxide/oxide CMC were developed for a lean combustor in a future aero-engine in the medium thrust range and tested at engine conditions. During the design, various aspects like protective coating, thermomechanical design, and development of a failure model for the CMC as well as design and test of an attachment system were taken into account. The tests of the two liners were conducted at conditions up to 80% take-off. A new protective coating was tested successfully with a coating thickness of up to t = 1 mm. Different inspection criteria were derived in order to detect crack initiation at an early stage for a validation of the failure model. With the help of detailed pre- and post-test computer tomography (CT) scans to account for the microstructure of the CMC, the findings of the failure model were in reasonable agreement with the test results.