Design and Testing of CFCC Shroud and Combustor Components

Abstract

This paper presents initial results in the development and testing of SiC-based Continuous Fiber Ceramic Composites (CFCC) materials for combustor and stage 1 shroud components of large utility-class gas turbines. Use of CFCC’s for these components has the potential for increasing output power and thermal efficiency and reducing emissions. First stage turbine shroud components were fabricated using five material systems including three SiC/SiC-Si systems made by silicon melt infiltration (MI), chemical vapor infiltrated (CVI) enhanced SiC-SiC and directed metal oxidation (DIMOX) Al2O3-SiC composite. A combustor liner was made of MI CFCC. Before and after testing the components were inspected by several NDE techniques including IR thermography, resonance testing and visual examination. A novel, high pressure test rig was used to test four shroud components and a combustor liner simultaneously. Components were exposed to hot gas temperature of 1200°C at 12.5 bar in cyclic and steady-state tests. Cyclic testing simulated engine trip conditions with 200 flame-on, flame-off cycles. Steady state testing involved 100 hours of exposure at high temperature and pressure with hot combustion gases. At the conclusion of the first phase of testing there was visible damage to two pieces of one of the material systems. Destructive testing of the components following rig exposure showed little degradation to the MI composite materials. In summary, high pressure combustion rig testing of these components demonstrated excellent performance with little degradation among the material systems.