Modular coating for flexible gas turbine operation

In heavy duty gas turbines, the loading boundary conditions of MCrAlY systems are differently weighted for different operation regimes as well as for each turbine component or even in individual part locations. For an overall optimized component protection it is therefore of interest to produce coatings with flexible and individually tailored properties. In this context, ALSTOM developed an Advanced Modular Coating Technology (AMCOTECTM), which is based on several powder constituents, each providing specific properties to the final coating, in combination with a new application method, allowing in-situ compositional changes. With this approach, coating properties, such as oxidation, corrosion, and cyclic lifetime, etc., can be modularly adjusted for individual component types and areas. For demonstration purpose, a MCrAlY coating with modular ductility increase was produced using the AMCOTECTM methodology. The method was proven to be cost effective and a highly flexible solution, enabling fast compositional screening. A calculation method for final coating composition was defined and validated. The modular addition of ductility agent enabled increasing the coating ductility with up to factor 3 with only slight decrease of oxidation resistance. An optimum composition with respect to ductility is reached with addition of 20 wt.% of ductility agent.