SAGA OF

GAS TURBINE MATERIALS

PART I
Modern aeropropulsion is possible only because of the engine materials that have enabled continuous improvement in high-temperature operation, higher power, and reduced weight over the past 50 years. This is the first of a four-part series about development of gas turbine engine materials. Robert Schafrik*
GE Aircraft Engines Cincinnati, Ohio

Robert Sprague*
GE Aircraft Engines, retired Cincinnati, Ohio

Fig. 1 This is a cutaway view of the General Electric GE90 gas turbine engine that powers the Boeing twin-engine 777 airliner.

reedom to travel anywhere in the world, both quickly and inexpensively, defines our modern era. Despite year-to-year variation, the long term demand for travel by airplane continues to grow. Spurring this growth is the fact that air travel is affordable by the average family in industrial countries, and is becoming affordable in third world nations as well. However, the most important reason for growth is that travel by air has become exceedingly safe: the probability of life lost, or injury, during air travel is considerably less than that of highway travel. If purchased by the pound, todays jumbo jets (such as the Boeing 747) do not appear to be inexpensive these airplanes cost about eight times more than their weight in silver, or about $500/lb. One of the secrets to success, in spite of the high cost, has been the exploitation of advanced technology that has continued to improve airplane performance while reducing overall costs by allowing fuel-efficient airplanes to fly long distances with a large number of passengers and cargo. Three major systems comprise the modern airplane: the aircraft structure that encompasses the fuselage, wings, and landing gear; the avionics that enable flight through crowded skies in nearly all weather conditions; and the propulsion system that powers the aircraft. Improvements in materials have been critical to advances in all three systems; indeed, the U.S. National Academy of Engineering identified Advanced Materials as one of the top ten accomplishments of the 20th century.
*Member of ASM International

At the simplest level, jet propulsion is that propelling force generated in the direction opposite to the flow of a pressurized mass of gas that escapes through a jet nozzle. A modern jet engine combines the principles of the simple, ancient water wheel, with that of garden hose nozzle, in which gas rather than water generates propulsive force. The turbine engine operating cycle is fundamentally a thermodynamic heat engine that can be theoretically modeled as a Brayton cycle engine. The engine continuously draws in air through the inlet, pressurizes it in the compressor, and heats it at constant pressure in the combustor (Fig. 1). The heated air does useful work in the turbine, which drives the fan and compressor stages, and is then expelled back into the atmosphere at the propulsive jet nozzle. High thermodynamic efficiency demands high operating temperatures to improve turbine efficiency and achieve higher power levels. The materials challenges presented by aeroturbines are particularly daunting given the high stresses, high temperatures, and ultra-high reliability demanded of these components. This series of articles highlights the story of the evolution of the materials and processes that have been crucial to making modern jet engines a reality. The story begins The modern jet engine story begins with Sir Frank Whittle and Hans von Ohain. Whittle, a British citizen, obtained an original patent on a jet propulsion engine, which he filed in January, 1929. The first Whittle engine was called Power Jet W-1, and it first flew in the British Gloster G-40 on May 15, 1941. Concurrently in Germany, Hans von Ohain was 33

ADVANCED MATERIALS & PROCESSES/MARCH 2004

Intermetallics

Ceramic matrix composites

SiC melt infiltration Laser

Thermal barrier coatings Powder metal superalloys Polymer matrix composites Turbine coatings Titanium Nickel superalloys Cobalt Stainless steel

1950s 1960s

Directionally solidified & single-crystal airfoils EB-PVD Large structural castings Iso-thermal forging Multiple vacuum melting cycles Investment casting of complex shapes Arc melting Vacuum induction melting

of propulsion jet engines is the ratio of engine output thrust to engine weight, the thrust/weight ratio. Whittles original 840-pound engine generated thrust/weight of approximately 1.5:1 and could operate for a few hundred hours at most. Todays commercial jet engines have thrust/weight of 6-8:1, and advanced engines are targeting 10:1 and higher. These advances are due, in no small measure, to great improvements in both materials and processes that enabled improved designs. Indeed, the underlying theme of this series of articles is that processing advances are as important, if not more so, as alloy composition development. Early engine materials The first jet engines relied on steels, especially the stainless steels, for hot-section components. The temperature limitations of these materials led many to think that jet engines for powered flight would never be more than a curiosity. The search for alloys with greater high-temperature properties (such as creep strength) was initiated in Europe with the development of the Nimonic alloy series in Great Britain, and the Tinidur alloys in Germany. Simultaneously, exhaust-driven superchargers developed in the United States required alloys with better creep strength; this lead to the initial development of the long series of Inconel alloys. These early alloy families and their derivatives formed

1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s

MATERIALS

PROCESSES

Fig. 2 The development of jet engine materials and processes. Each spiral of improvement contains both processing innovations and material improvements.

secretly working on a jet engine; he ran his first demonstration engine, the S-1, in 1937 with hydrogen as the fuel. The first flight engine was the Heinkel S-3B, which powered the Heinkel 178 airplane on August 27, 1939. By the end of World War II, jet-powered fighters were operated by the Germans in a last-ditch effort to protect the German border. A widely used indicator of the technological state

Fig. 3 Significant events in the development of technology are shown with concurrent historic events.

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ADVANCED MATERIALS & PROCESSES/MARCH 2004

the basis for the materials revolution that has sustained the industry for 50 years. A chronoVacuum chamber logical perspective of these developments is depicted in Fig. Power cables 2. This figure graphically demonstrates that each spiral of Melt improvement contains both processing innovations and mateInduction coil/ rial improvements; this synergy melting unit remains true to this day. Materials processing requires invenMold tion, arduous process development, and huge capital Crucible tilts inside To vacuum investment. One example is the chamber for casting. pumps large presses that were developed for conversion of superalloy and titanium ingot to wrought products, and the Fig. 4. In vacuum induction melting (VIM) furnaces, metals are melted shaping of the resultant billets under vacuum in an inductively heated crucible. VIM is necessary for the prointo ultrahigh-reliability compoduction of superclean superalloys for aerospace applications. Diagram courtesy nents. Carpenter Technology. The high risk of pursuing new technology, regardless of its presumed benefits, in- sion profiles; more often than not, these overarching evitably requires external driving forces. The risk commonalties plus the cost benefit of dual use, of being bested by an unknown alternative alloy or compel alloy commonality between military and process, or of meeting with an unforeseen techno- commercial systems. Military fighter engines achieve higher thrustlogical barrier is always threatening. Pragmatic national security concerns have been predominant to-weight ratios than transport engines by using an factors in justifying many technology investments, augmentor, also known as an after-burner. The augwith commercial interests advancing to the fore- mentor is part of the exhaust nozzle; fuel is injected front in recent times. Figure 3 captures historical into the augmentor, where it is ignited to produce highlights of selected driving forces in each decade additional thrust, which can amount to as much as since 1950, and indicates examples of the United a 50% increase. The augmentor nozzle contains States aerospace communitys initiatives during the movable flaps and seals that create a variable nozzle area. When the augmentor is lit, the flame impinges same time frame. directly on these flaps and seals. This creates a challenge for lightweight flap and seal materials that Commercial vs. military Considering application regimes, commercial must provide very high temperature capability. gas turbines typically operate at lower take-off power settings than do military fighter engines, Vacuum melting technology The saga of propulsion materials technology and and do not experience the high maneuver loads and large changes in engine speed loads imposed the parallel growth in jet engine thrust/weight ratio by combat conditions. Conversely, commercial en- essentially commences at the point when vacuum gines are operated for long periods at modest thrust induction melting (VIM) became commercially feasettings, and are expected to stay on-wing (i.e., not sible, about 1950. Prior to the introduction of nickelrequire maintenance that removes them from the based superalloys, researchers and others had recaircraft) for much longer periods of time than mil- ognized that vacuum melting increased elemental itary engines. These maintenance intervals are (and alloy) purity and that certain properties, such measured by take-off and landing cycles and/or as electrical conductivity and malleability, were improved by purity enhancement. operating time. During the 1950s, commercial vacuum pumps While much has changed over the ensuing years, such as the extension of the periods between en- became available that sustained a vacuum level of gine removals for other than assignable cause, the 10 microns of gas pressure, and vacuum sealing basic differences in military versus commercial mis- technology advanced so that leakage rates into the sion profiles has not significantly changed. The con- vacuum furnace could be minimized and managed. siderably longer expected time on wing for com- VIM process evolution permitted the elimination mercial engines versus the more severe mission of detrimental trace and minor elements in concert profile and operating environment for military sys- with the addition of reactive elements such as alutems (notably fighters) sometimes presented dif- minum and titanium, without the risk of these befering alloy (and component) limiting deterioration coming oxide inclusions. This was truly a fundamental breakthrough for modes. The commonalties of minimum weight designs, producing high strength superalloys, since reducminimization of fuel burned, and stringent man- tion in trace elements increased component reliarated reliability requirements apply to both mis- bility, and the addition of reactive elements enabled ADVANCED MATERIALS & PROCESSES/MARCH 2004
Atmosphere

35

B
Probability of occurrence Low High

Low-angle grain boundaries in singlecrystal castings

Quench cracking of hardenable superalloy

Forging grain size slightly out of specification Low

Hard alpha presence in wrought titanium High Impact of occurrence

consequently steel properties varied widely due to the presence of many oxide inclusions. Bearing failures were common and had serious consequences, such as in-flight shutdown of the engine. Bearing steels prepared by VIM were much cleaner than electric furnace steel, but unfortunately suffered from rarely occurring, randomly distributed exogenous ceramic inclusions that caused early failure in a few bearings. These ceramic particles originated from erosion of the furnace liner, weir, and gating. Thus, VIM successfully removed indigenous inclusions, but the problem of exogenous inclusions resulted in a small percentage of bearings that failed quite early; they experienced infant mortality. An important lesson learned The problem of exceptionally deleterious defects that appeared with very low frequency, such as the exogenous inclusions in AISI 52100 VIM ingots, plagued the application of high-integrity structural materials for several years. This problem is schematically defined in Fig. 5 as Zone D. Zone A contains defects that are seen sporadically, causing negligible harm. These defects can be accommodated by design practice changes, specification changes, etc. It may not be worth the benefit to completely eliminate these defects. Zone B defects occur frequently but cause little detriment. These can be accommodated by design practice changes and specification changes; their frequency should be reduced by improved process control. Zone C defects develop often and are quite deleterious to the performance of the component. These defects motivated a nondestructive evaluation (NDE) program. Fortuitously, most of the defects that fall into this zone are easily detected. The frequency of the defects can be reduced by better process control or an improved process once the source is understood. Zone D is the regime of exceptionally deleterious defects that randomly develop at extremely low frequency, such as one or fewer occurrences per million opportunities. For example, a defect such as a hard alpha inclusion in titanium, can reduce minimum fatigue life by an order of magnitude, but it appears only approximately once in two to three million pounds of premium quality billet. These defects are difficult to eliminate, or even minimize, through process changes because they are so infrequent that measuring success requires massive sample sizes and long time spans. Rigorous attention to control at each process step is crucial to prevent such defects. In the ideal case, an entirely new process would avoid the driving forces that produce the defect. Heavy reliance on NDE helps to s find these defects.
For more information: Dr. Robert E. Schafrik is General Manager, Materials & Process Engineering Dept., GE Aircraft Engines, 1 Neumann Way, M/D H85, Cincinnati, OH 45215; tel: 513/243-0167; fax: 513/243-3526; email: Robert.Schafrik@ae.ge.com; Web site: www.ae.ge. com.

Fig. 5 This risk assessment map compares the impact of each occurrence of various defects with the probability of each.

precipitation strengthening of these alloys. A representation of a VIM unit is shown in Fig. 4. As a further improvement, those detrimental elements that could not be adequately cleansed from the melt were removed from the alloying additions prior to VIM. For instance, high purity electrolytically refined chromium additions replaced less pure ferrochromium additions. One of the first clean metals produced by VIM was AISI 52100 grade steel, a vintage bearing steel that was adopted in early jet engine mainshaft bearings. At first, bearing steels for flight-rated jet engines were made in an air melt electric furnace, and

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