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    In-Service Reliability Assessment of Turbine Blade Thermal Barrier Coatings Based on a Novel Cumulative Damage Index Model
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    Abstract:
    Abstract Thermal barrier coating (TBC) has been used widely on turbine blades to provide temperature and oxidation protection. With the turbine inlet temperature continuously increasing, TBCs have become more likely to oxide spallation, leading to premature failure of blade metal substrates. Thus, It is necessary to accurately evaluate the in-service reliability of TBCs for blade life assessment and engine operation safety. Nowadays, it is common to dynamically record aero-engine operating and performance data, called dynamic covariate data, which provides periodic snapshots for obtaining reliability information of engine components. Nevertheless, existing TBC life prediction models that pay adequate attention to dynamic covariate information are rare. This paper focuses on using limited failure samples with associated dynamic covariate data to make in-service reliability assessments of TBCs through a proposed cumulative damage index model. For the demonstration of the proposed approach, an integrated TBC life simulation approach has been introduced, which comprises engine performance, blade thermal, TBC damage, and damage accumulation models. The case study shows that the proposed cumulative damage index model-based method provides more stable and accurate results than the traditional statistical method based on failure-time data.
    Keywords:
    Service life
    Turbine blades were coated with a thermal barrier coating system consisting of an MCrAlY bond coat about 100 μm thick deposited by Low-Pressure Plasma Spraying (LPPS) and a 300 μm thick ZrO2-7 wt. % Y2O3 top coat. The latter was manufactured by both Atmosphere and Temperature Controlled Spraying (ATCS) and Air Plasma Spraying (APS) using internal air cooling through the cooling holes of the turbine blades. Coated blades were submitted to thermal cycling tests in a burner rig with hot gas temperature of 1485°C. In the case of ATCS coated blades the number of cycles until the first spallation at the leading edge of the blade was between 350 and 2400. The number of cycles of the thermal barrier coatings sprayed with internal cooling was between 1200 and 1800. Furnace cycling tests were also carried out with ATCS coated blades at temperatures of 1100 and 1200°C. The results of thermal cycle tests and the investigations of the microstructure are discussed.
    Temperature cycling
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