New High-Temperature Seal System

Increased Efficiency
of Gas Turbines
DIETER SPORER With increasing fuel prices and significant pressure
ARNO REFKE to reduce emissions, the efficient use of fuels in gas
MARIAN DRATWINSKI turbines is gaining ever more attention. Abradable
MITCH DORFMAN seals in gas turbine compressors have contributed to
SULZER METCO improved efficiencies for quite some time now. To
IACOPO GIOVANNETTI further enhance efficiency, current efforts focus on
MASSIMO GIANNOZZI the seals in one of the hottest sections of the
MANUELE BIGI engine, the first turbine stage. Sulzer Metco and GE
GE OIL&GAS have designed and tested a new high-pressure
turbine abradable seal system in the framework of a
European consortium project led by GE Oil&Gas. In
the scope of this project, Sulzer Metco had
developed a novel ceramic coating for application by
atmospheric plasma spraying (APS). An engine test
verified performance and economic advantages of
the new seal system. The measured improvements in
engine performance exceed the expected gains as
predicted by model calculations.

4 SULZER TECHNICAL REVIEW 2/2008 4235

 Efficiency improvements in
gas turbine engines can be
achieved by minimizing the clear-
ance between stationary and rotat-
ing parts. Various techniques to
manage clearances in jet engines
have been introduced since the
1960s with thermal spraying of
abradable coatings representing
a relatively simple, reliable, and
cost-effective clearance-control
method. Clearance-control coat-
ings are broadly accepted in com-
pressors of gas turbines. In the re-
cent past, improving the much
hotter turbine stages has gained a
lot of attention. The extreme gas
temperatures encountered on
these stages challenge the design
and durability of seals. On the oth-
er hand, reducing parasitic tip
leakage flows in this area is most
rewarding from the point of view
of efficiency gain. Again, thermal
spraying turns out to be a very ef-
fective tool to achieve this goal.
Performance Gains Predicted
Through the use of abradable
seals, the operating, or hot, clear-
ances in a turbine stage can be re-
duced by a simple effect: the tur-
bine blades are allowed to cut into
the coated stator part while dam-
age to the blade tip remains mini-
mal. However, a proper design of
the initial, or cold, clearance needs
to be performed to assure optimal
air gaps under all engine operat-
ing conditions. To achieve this, the
evolution of the stage clearance
must be calculated. Using finite el-
ement (FE) methods, a thermal
and mechanical analysis was per-
formed for the design of the high
pressure stage of the engine mod-
el considered (Fig. 1). The turbine
stage shows a monotonic clearance
trend: the minimum clearance
1 Casing ring
2 Shroud seal segment
3 Abradable coating
4 Nozzle guide vane
5 HPT blade (bucket)
1 The seal system of a gas turbine has a significant influence on
its overall efficiency. In the scope of a European research project,
Sulzer Metco has developed a new sealing material for the hot
high-pressure turbine (HPT) stage.
(pinch point) is reached at steady-
state operating conditions, with
different clearances for the cases
with and without abradable seals
(Fig. 2). With abradable seals, more
than 90% reduction of the mini-
mum hot clearance is envisaged.
Using computational fluid dynam-
ics (CFD), the performance bene-
fits from this reduced gap were
calculated for the high-pressure
turbine stage and the overall en-
gine. The simulations predicted an
increase in stage efficiency by ap-
proximately 3 percentage points
and an improvement in overall en-
gine efficiency by about 1 percent-
age point. Similar numbers were
calculated for the enhancements in
stage and engine power output.
Ceramic Coatings Reduce
Metal Temperature
FE simulations comparing a dense
MCrAlY-type abradable coating
with a standard zirconia-based
abradable revealed the following:
the ceramic abradable reduces the
maximum metal temperature of
the shroud segment by 20% and
the thermally induced radial dis-
placements by 34%. Further, the
application of a ceramic, zirconia-
based abradable decreases the cal-
1
2
3
4 5
culatory area where the stress ex-
ceeds the yield strength of the
shroud base material. Hence, fur-
ther development focused on zir-
conia-based materials.
The seal system was subsequently
laid out to have a top coat of
1 mm thickness deposited over
a 0.15 mm MCrAlY bond coat.
Sulzer Metco Amdry 962, a hot-gas
oxidation resistant Ni-22Cr-10Al-
1Y alloy, was selected as the bond-
coat material. Atmospheric plasma
spraying (APS) using the Sulzer
Metco 9 MB gun was chosen as the
process to deposit bond and top
coat (see box p. 6) (Fig. 3).
Thermal-Shock Resistance
The basic requirements for the ce-
ramic abradable top coat are ther-
mal shock resistance, abradability,
and erosion resistance. Thermal
shock resistance of candidate ma-
100 2 Clearance trends
Without abradable
Normalized clearance (%)
for the HPT stage of
80 With abradable
the gas turbine con-
sidered. Cold start
60
and hot restart.
40
20
0
0 4000 16 000 20 000
Time (s)
SULZER TECHNICAL REVIEW 2/2008 5

Zirconia ceramic top coat (1000 m)
Amdry 962 bond coat (150 m)
Shroud substrate
3 Sulzer 9 MB spray gun selected to deposit the seal system, seal design, and bond coat material.
terials was evaluated at GE
Oil&Gas in a furnace cycle test
(FCT) rig at a peak temperature of
1150 C (Fig. 4). The goal of the de-
velopment was to provide an
abradable top coat with signifi-
cantly improved thermal-shock
life when applied as a relatively
thick coating as required by the ap-
plication in an abradable system.
Coatings made from Durabrade
2192, a novel Sulzer Metco abrad-
4 Furnace used
Temperature (C)
Heat Dwell
to qualify ceramic 1150
abradables at GE
Oil&Gas and the 50
thermal-shock
10
cycle applied. Time (min)
6 SULZER TECHNICAL REVIEW 2/2008
able powder consisting of dyspro-
sium-oxide (Dy2O3) stabilized zir-
conia with additions of a polyester
compound, show a distinct advan-
tage in cyclic life compared with
baseline yttria-stabilized zirconia
(YSZ) materials (Fig. 5). This ad-
vantage is used to provide the nec-
essary coating thickness of the
abradable without compromising
its cyclic life.
Untipped Blades Save Cost
Typically, the use of ceramic seals
requires a hard tipping of the
Cool
blade. Standard tipping systems
include cubic boron nitride (cBN)
or silicon carbide (SiC). The tip-
ping of blades is expensive, and a
45 5
system that can be cut by untreat-
ed, bare-metal blades provides a
significant economic advantage to
the end user. On the abradable test
rig of Sulzer Innotec, the Sulzer ex-
perts performed several series of
abradability tests (see STR 2/2007,
p. 23). This component validation
rig has the capability to test the
cutting behavior of ceramics at ex-
tremely high temperatures. Tests
were performed at 1100 C coating
Plasma Spray Technology
Plasma spraying can be carried
out under atmospheric and
vacuum or low-pressure condi-
tions. It is perhaps the most
flexible of all of thermal spray
processes as it can develop suf-
ficient energy to melt any ma-
terial. Since it uses powder as
coating feedstock, the number
of possible coating materials is
almost unlimited. A high-fre-
quency arc is ignited between
the nozzle serving as an anode
and a cathode. Process gases
(generally mixtures of argon,
nitrogen, hydrogen, and heli-
um) flowing between the elec-
trodes are ionized and become
a plume of hot plasma with a
temperature between 6600 C
and 16 600 C (12 000 F and
30 000 F), exceeding that of the
surface of the sun. When the
coating material is injected into
the gas plume, it is melted and
propelled towards the sub-
strate, or material to be coated.
The flow of the process
gases and the current applied
to the cathode control the
amount of energy produced by
the process. Since both can be
regulated accurately, repeat-
able and predictable coating re-
sults can be obtained. In addi-
tion, point and angle at which
the material is injected into the
plume and the distance of the
gun to the target component
can also be controlled. These
features provide a high degree
of flexibility in the develop-
ment of appropriate spray
parameters for materials with
a very large range of melting
temperatures.
 Durabrade 2192 Performance Higher
standard YSZ materials
Than Predicted
FCT Cycles to Failure

400

300 After the laboratory test phase, the

200
100
0
0 10 20
Coating Porosity (%)
5 Thermal-shock life of Durabrade
2192 coatings compared with that of
standard YSZ coatings (all coatings
tested were 1 mm thick).
temperature with cBN-tipped and
untreated blades. Essentially, good
abradability behavior was as-
sessed for a number of coatings
when hard-tipped blades were
used. However, only the
Durabrade 2192 coating sprayed
to a certain porosity level showed
the necessary abradability to be
cut by untipped blades while
maintaining satisfactory erosion
resistance (Fig. 6).
6 Abradability test results at 1100 C. Left: Sulzer Metco 2460 against
cBN-tipped blades. Center: Durabrade 2192 against cBN-tipped blades.
Right: Durabrade 2192 against untipped blades.
Tip speed 410 m/s
Incursion rate 5 m/s
20 mm
Amdry 962/Durabrade 2192 seal
system was validated in an actual
gas turbine (Fig. 7). Sulzer Metco
30 40 50
coated shroud seal segments with
the selected seal system in accor-
dance with a drafted GE Oil&Gas
coating specification based on the
results of the laboratory test car-
ried out by Sulzer Innotec.
Testing was performed over 100
engine cycles, with the redesigned
high-pressure turbine seal system
being the only modification com-
pared with the baseline engine.
A post-test evaluation of the seal
system showed that there was no
coating loss, confirming the ther-
mal-shock results from the labora-
tory. The good surface stability ob-
served indicates a satisfactory ero-
sion resistance of the ceramic top
coat. The wear measured on the
untipped turbine blades was small
Tip speed 410 m/s Tip speed 410 m/s
Incursion rate 5 m/s Incursion rate 5 m/s vides significant economical and
7 Seal assembly for a high-
pressure turbine with shroud
seal segments carrying the
new Amdry 962/Durabrade
2192 seal system.
and remained within acceptance
limits.
In terms of engine performance, an
increase of 1.8 percentage points
in power output and of 1.3 per-
centage points in overall engine ef-
ficiency was assessed, values
slightly higher than predicted by
the model simulations.
This joint project with GE is one
example of Sulzer Metcos initia-
tive to develop new solutions in
close cooperation with users of
Sulzer technology. With the per-
formance improvements achieved,
the seal system developed pro-
environmental advantages to
manufacturers and users of gas
turbines.

Acknowledgment
Work as presented here was in part sponsored by the European Com-
mission (EC) under an EESD FP5 project (acronym: ABRANEW;
project no. NNE5-2001-411). The support received from the EC to
1 mm
carry out the work is gratefully appreciated.
Blade wear +1.2% Blade wear 3.9% Blade wear +2.8%

Tip speed 410 m/s Tip speed 410 m/s Tip speed 410 m/s
Incursion rate 500 m/s Incursion rate 500 m/s Incursion rate 500 m/s Contact
Sulzer Metco (Canada) Inc.
Dieter Sporer
Wies 21 a
6677 Schattwald
Austria
Phone +43 5675 43 272
Fax +43 5675 43 272
Blade wear +1.7% Blade wear +3.6% Blade wear +26.0%
dieter.sporer@sulzer.com

SULZER TECHNICAL REVIEW 2/2008 7