Brittle materials design, high temperature gas turbine. Interior report no. 11, 1 Jul-31 Dec 76

Technical Report · Mon Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 1977

OSTI ID:5032796

McLean, A F; Fisher, E A

The demonstration of uncooled brittle materials in structural applications at 2500 F is the objective of the 'Brittle Materials Design, High Temperature Gas Turbine' program. Ford Motor Company, the contractor, is utilizing a small vehicular gas turbine comprising an entire ceramic hot flow path including the highly stressed turbine rotors. Westinghouse, the subcontractor, originally planned to evaluate ceramic first stage stator vanes in an actual 30MW test turbine engine; however, this objective was revised to demonstrate ceramic stator vanes in a static test rig. Both companies had in-house research programs in this area prior to this contract. In the stationary gas turbine project, the test of ceramic stator vanes in a static rig for 100 cycles up to temperatures of 2500 F has been completed. This accomplishment meets the revised objectives for the stationary turbine project and, therefore, this project was completed. Fabrication of duo-density silicon nitride turbine rotors continued during this reporting period. The injection molding of duo-density rotor blade rings has been improved by the addition of a solid state automatic control system which was installed on the injection molding machine. Fabrication of turbine inlet nose cones and stators was resumed on a limited basis. In order to select the best method of processing Si3N4 powder, the optimum Mg0 content and the best hot pressure parameters consistent with the hub forming portion of the duo-density rotor process, a parametric processing study was conducted. A technique was developed which allows the furnace to control the nitriding dependent upon the nitrogen gas consumption rate, resulting in improved material structure.

• Research Organization: Ford Motor Co., Dearborn, MI (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5032796
• Report Number(s): AD-B-023566/3
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS
330103* -- Internal Combustion Engines-- Turbine
ALUMINIUM COMPOUNDS
ALUMINIUM OXIDES
BRITTLENESS
CARBIDES
CARBON COMPOUNDS
CERAMICS
CHALCOGENIDES
COMPUTER CODES
ENGINES
FABRICATION
GAS TURBINE ENGINES
HEAT ENGINES
HIGH TEMPERATURE
INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES
MATERIALS
MATERIALS TESTING
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MECHANICAL PROPERTIES
NITRIDES
NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
NONDESTRUCTIVE TESTING
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PNICTIDES
RELIABILITY
ROTORS
SILICON CARBIDES
SILICON COMPOUNDS
SILICON NITRIDES
STATORS
TESTING
TRANSITION ELEMENT COMPOUNDS
VEHICLES
YTTRIUM COMPOUNDS
YTTRIUM OXIDES