Ceramic Jet Engine Turbine Blades

Design of the 2070 f engine continues with the ceramic gasifier nozzle turbine tip shroud and gasifier turbine blades already being fabricated.

Ceramic jet engine turbine blades.

One high pressure turbine blade extracts around 1 000hp from the gas flow towards the rear of the engine which is equivalent to the power of a formula 1 racing car. They are tough lightweight and capable of withstanding temperatures 300 400 degrees f hotter than metal alloys can endure. Jet engines and land based power generation turbines provide different environments. Predominantly turbine blades are made of stainless steel titanium nickel alloys and ceramic material.

Turbine blades may be small but their job is unbelievably demanding. In general jet engines high pressure turbine blades hpt blades are expected to last for about 30 000 h. I started my engineering draughtsman apprenticeship at bth rugby in september 1955. Supporting this design and fabrication has been process development using a prototype blade and compliant layer testing using a ceramic coupon duplicating the blade attachment.

For land based power generation this figure can vary between 50 000 and 75 000 h about 9 years. In a somewhat similar fashion to mike blamey i almost by chance followed the development of the jet engine over many years. This ceramic layer insulates the lower levels from the elevated temperatures of the in flight operating conditions. A turbine blade is the individual component which makes up the turbine section of a gas turbine or steam turbine the blades are responsible for extracting energy from the high temperature high pressure gas produced by the combustor the turbine blades are often the limiting component of gas turbines.

If certain components were made with cmcs instead of metal alloys the turbine engines of aircraft and power plants could operate more. Next generation ceramic matrix composites cmcs are being developed for future applications such as turbine blades top left these may use new technologies such as water like polymers that can be processed into 1700 c capable low density ceramics bottom or nanofibers grown onto silicon carbide sic reinforcing fibers for increased toughness top right. Carbon brainprint ceramic coatings for jet engine turbine blades page 3 of 14 general description this study concerned the high pressure turbine blades located immediately behind the combustion chamber of a jet engine figure 1 where the temperature exceeds the melting point of the alloy used in the blades. A very interesting article covering the history of aircraft turbine blade development and in particular the single crystal blade.

January 3 2017 ceramic matrix composite cmc materials are made of coated ceramic fibers surrounded by a ceramic matrix.