Surface and Coatings Technology, 68/69 (1994)1—9 1

Protective coatings in the gas turbine engine

Jeanine T. DeMasi-Marcin, Dinesh K. Gupta

Pratt & Whitney, 400 Main Street, East Hartford, CT06108, USA

Abstract
The gas turbine engine provides one of the harshest environments challenging material systems today. Engine components are subject
to rigorous mechanical loading conditions, high temperatures, and corrosive or erosive media. Historically, engine manufacturers
have applied protective coatings to increase the durability and field performance of alloys or composites. Field experience as well as
the development ofprocessing technologies has led to the evolution ofmany new and improved coating systems for a variety ofengine
component applications. In the fan and compressor areas, erosion-resistant coatings are used to minimize blade wear, antigallant
coatings are used for fretting wear of blade root attachments and corrosion-resistant coatings are used for blade and disk materials.
In the case of the combustor and turbine areas, diffusion and overlay coatings have been developed for oxidation and/or corrosion
resistance and ceramic coatings are used widely as thermal barriers. In this paper, we shall review the current state of the art for
coating technology in gas turbine engine applications with a look towards future needs and directions.

1. Introduction ance control system which minimizes performance losses

The gas turbine engine provides one of the harshest
environments challenging material systems today.
Engine components are subject to rigorpus mechanical
loading conditions, high temperatures, and corrosive
and/or erosive media. Historically, engine manufacturers
have applied protective coatings to increase the durabil-
ity and field performance of alloys or composite materi-
als. Advanced engine designs as well as the development
of processing technologies have led to the evolution of
many new and improved coating systems in a variety of
engine component applications. Fig. 1 illustrates the
various coating applications throughout the engine. In
the fan and compressor areas, wear and/or erosion-
resistant and abradable coating systems have been
developed. They are applied to polymer composites,
aluminum—titanium alloys and high temperature steels
for airfoils, blade root attachments, compressor seals
and disk components. In combuster and turbine areas,
an oxidation corrosion-resistant abradable seal system
and thermal barrier coatings have been developed. They
are applied to nickel and cobalt-based superalloys for
turbine airfoil seals and combustor liner components.
In compressor and turbine designs, surface coatings
and abradable systems are used to extend part life
and to improve engine performance. For example, in
the compressor, anti-erosion-resistant coatings help to
reduce component deterioration resulting from material
wear losses for temperatures up to approximately
1200 °F.In addition, today’s abradable systems for the
compressor and the turbine provide an effective clear-
that result in increased specific fuel consumption.
Component maintenance is achieved in the turbine
through surface treatments which enhance the super-
alloy’s ability to resist material loss due to oxidation, at
temperatures of approximately 2000 °Fand greater. The
thermal barrier coating systems effectively reduce metal
interface temperatures to reduce oxidation and to
extend life.
Advanced engine designs continue to push the state
of the art forward for coating technologies as well as
repair methodologies. In this paper, the current state of
the art for coating technology for gas turbine engines
will be reviewed with a look at future needs and
directions.
2. Coating processes
Today, the wide variety of environmental and material
design challenges together with component design con-
cepts and repair considerations has given rise to a large
number of coating processes. Many of these are varia-
tions of major processes such as physical and chemical
deposition. The current common coating deposition
processes used in gas turbine engine applications
are chemical vapor deposition (CYD), physical vapor
deposition (PVD), thermal spraying, diffusion and
electroplating.
CVD involves the reactive formation of coatings
through control of the thermodynamic equilibrium con-
ditions (pressure, temperature and reactant gas volumes)

SSDI 0257-8972(94)08043-X Elsevier Science S.A.

2 J.T. DeMasi-Marcin, D.K. Gupta
__
Compressor coatings ____
I,,
Burner coatings
Turbine abradable seals
Fig. 1. Coating applications throughout the gas turbine engine.
necessary to force the coating reaction to occur. Gaseous
chemical precursors flow around and can be introduced
into internal passages of the part to be coated. It is at
the part surface, which is maintained at a controlled
temperature, that the reactants then thermally decom-
pose to form the desired coating. This process is ideal
for component designs which are complex. It is a “non-
line-of-sight” process which means that challenging
design geometries with narrow passages may be coated
and receive full coverage. The internal cooling passages
of a turbine blade, for example, require an aluminide
coating for corrosion resistance. Usually relatively
smooth uniform coatings are produced where the thick-
ness can vary and deposition rates will depend on the
reaction conditions. A disadvantage of the CVD process
is that, because it is a non-line-of-sight technique, proper
masking and tooling become design considerations and
an expense [1].
Pack cementation and slurry spray diffusion processes
are chemical deposition processes. In the pack process,
the part to be coated is immersed within a “bed” or
pack mixture containing the coating element source, a
halide energizer and an inert filler material. The reaction
occurs within a furnace at high temperatures under
protective atmospheric conditions for several hours. The
coatings produced are smooth and uniform, and a
/ Protective coatings in gas turbine engine
Compressor abradable seals
~.
Turbine coatings
Metallic coatings Ceramic coatings
diffusion layer is formed within the substrate alloy. The
thickness of this layer is controlled by processing time
at temperatures. The CVD process has the advantage
over the conventional pack process in that it is a cleaner
process and blockage of cooling holes and passages with
pack material in turbine airfoils is not a concern. In
terms of repair, slurry processes are primarily used for
patching of an aluminide, an oxidation resistant coating
produced by the CVD technique [2].
During PYD the process takes place within an evacu-
ated chamber. A high energy source such as an electron
beam or electric arc is used to vaporize the solid material
desired for coating. During sublimation, a vapor cloud
is formed containing the coating atoms or molecules.
The component to be coated is immersed in the area of
uniform vapor space. The vapor then condenses onto
the substrate which is heated to a controlled temperature
for optimization of coating residual stresses. The corn-
plexity of the process vastly increases as the composi-
tional complexity increases such as for an M—Cr—Al—Y-
type coating. This is because the vaporization pressures
of each of the elements of interest must be considered
in producing controlled alloy chemistry. PVD processes
are of a “semi-line-of-sight” type and produce a coated
surface which replicates the substrate surface, i.e. a
smooth substrate surface initially will result in a smooth
 J.T. DeMasi-Marcin, D.K. Gupta
coated surface. In this way, subsequent coating finishing
operations may be eliminated or minimized. Thickness
uniformity and deposition rate are usually good but will
vary with coating composition. Electron beam physical
vapor deposition (EBPVD) is a commonly used PYD
technique, which is preferred for applying ceramic ther-
mal barrier coatings for thermal insulation.
Thermal spraying processes such as plasma spraying
are used extensively in the gas turbine engine because
of the ability to deposit numerous materials readily. In
plasma spraying, the material to be deposited is intro-
duced into the high temperature plasma gas stream as
a powder. Spraying may occur under atmospheric or
low pressure conditions. The molten powder particles
are then carried into the plasma and propelled onto the
substrate, which is heated to a controlled temperature
in order to control stress. In general, a much lower
deposition temperature is maintained during thermal
spraying than in CVD or PVD processing. Thermal
spraying processes are not practical for complex compo-
nents with coatings required in narrow passages since it
is a “line-of-sight” processing technique, i.e. good coating
coverage can only be expected on those surfaces which
are in the direct line of the plume. Consequently, most
parts with curved surfaces must be fixtured, manipulated
and rotated within the coating stream. This is usually
an automated process where robotic operations are most
practical. The advantages of thermal spraying are that
it is relatively inexpensive, part size is not a concern,
and deposition rates are high. The coating surface pro-
duced is, however, usually rough (an Ra of a few hundred)
and subsequent finishing operations are usually required
for airfoil aerodynamics. Plasma spraying is used to
deposit ceramic thermal barrier coatings, M—Cr—Al--Y
oxidation-resistant overlays and abradable seal systems
in both the compressor and the turbine.
A more recent advance in coating processing is the
high velocity oxy-fuel process. This process uses high
pressure and velocities which it obtains from combus-
tion flames and, like thermal spraying, a powder charge
is utilized. The temperature of the plume is much lower
than in plasma spraying, enabling thicker deposits to
be obtained because of reduced residual stresses. Higher
deposition rates can also be obtained, resulting in
reduced costs compared with plasma spray processing.
There are many other coating processes being
explored and developed, many of which involve subtle
variations on the more commonly used methods. Over
the past few decades, advanced engine designs, perfor-
mance and reliability targets have been major drivers
which augmented the use of coatings for engine
applications. As seen in Fig. 2, vapor deposition and
plasma spray coating businesses have flourished. They
are today the two major coating processing technol-
ogies used.
/ Protective coatings in gas turbine engine 3
Worldwide
~ CVD, PVD, and pack coating
Plasma
2800
~ 2400
2000
~
1600
-~
~
~
1200
800
400
____________________
0
1960 1970 1980 1990 2000
Year
. .
Fig. 2. Business growth for various coating processes.
3. Compressor abradables and erosion coating systems
In advanced aircraft gas turbine engines, very small
clearances are required between the rotating airfoils and
the stator case in order to minimize gap losses and to
increase efficiency. This allows for more forced air flow
through the compressor to be converted to thrust upon
combustion, as opposed to escaped air flow at blade
tip—shroud locations. Use of abradable seal systems has
allowed engine designs to “close the gap” which has
resulted in improved performance, greater performance
retention, and reductions in specific fuel consumption.
Today, abradable seal systems represent one of the most
significant applications of coatings in gas turbine engines.
Abradable systems are designed to account for rotor
misalignment and thermally driven dimensional changes.
Abradable seal systems are designed to wear without
damage to the blade tip and to maintain a smooth finish
for aerodynamic loss purposes [3]. The abrasive blade
tip materials and static abradable seal materials have
been developed jointly so as to achieve optimum blade
tip and seal wear characteristics. The material character-
istics required are resistance to erosion from foreign
particles as well as abradable seal debris, good abradabil-
ity with little damage to the blade, and the ability to
withstand the operational temperatures without deterio~
ration in mechanical properties [4].
In abradable seal systems, a balance is needed between
spalling resistance, surface finish, erosion, abradability
and oxidation resistance. Abradables are produced by
plasma spraying; this allows for control of these critical
properties at reasonable costs and with repair ease. The
plasma spray process used is fully automated for depos-
ition of nickel-base alloy. Porosity and density control
4 J.T. DeMasi-Marcin, D.K. Gupta
is the key to good abradability. Microstructural control
is maintained through spray parameters and powder
size. The optimum microstructure is shown in Fig. 3(a).
This seal material is hard and machined to a smooth
surface finish, and has been shown to provide up to 1%
increase in compressor efficiency.
The blade tips spinning at high speeds must act as an
efficient cutting tool. This is necessary so as not to
damage the seal or blades which can result in blade
fracture if inefficient cutting is experience. As part of the
compressor abradable system, a blade tip coating was
developed to cut a groove optimally in the plasma
coated shroud to obtain a “good” seal as shown in
Fig. 3(b). The tip system currently used is shown in
Fig. 3(c). The tip coating is an electroplated nickel, with
a hard angular grit which is encased in the nickel
coating. The microstructure is shown in Fig. 3(d).
* ¼
•T
~ ~ .
(a)
(C)
Fig. 3. Compressor abradable seal—tip system: (a) seal microstructure; (b) rubbed seal; (c) blade tip; (d) tip microstructure.
/ Protective coatings in gas turbine engine
Compressor airfoil particulate erosion has been a
concern especially at airlines where hubs are in locations
which experience severe winters, and sand is used to
de-ice runways. Ingested sand carried through the corn-
pressor at high velocities causes rapid erosion of titanium
airfoils, resulting in dimensional losses and engine perfor-
mance deterioration as seen in Fig. 4. A titanium nitride
coating produced by cathodic arc PVD has been used
to maintain dimensional conformance. However, a
monolayer of TiN was observed to result in a small-
angle brittle erosion failure which led to “worm-holing”
of the airfoil. This is illustrated for the trailing-edge
pressure side of a compressor blade in Fig. 5. A TiN
multilayer system was developed which greatly improved
coating durability, owing to interfacial impact energy
scattering and/or absorption. Fig. 6 exhibits the
improvement in erosion resistance obtained.
__ __
(b)
Id)
 J.T. DeMasi-Marcin, D.K. Gupta / Protective coatings in gas turbine engine 5

I
I I

(a)

(a) ‘. •. —.

Flight cycles
1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000

di~s~n,0.8~ I

JT9D (b)
(b) 0.6 Stage 9
Fig. 5. Airfoil erosion mechanism.
Fig. 4. Compressor airfoil erosion.
6
5X
4. Combustor and turbine abradable coating systems -

In today’s engines, combustor exit temperatures may Relative

exceed 2600 °F.At such high temperatures, coatings are erosion 3 -

required for those alloys to cope with creep, oxidation, resistance

thermal mechanical fatigue (TMF), hot corrosion and 2 - 1.5x
even incipient melting. It is the advancements in the - ix
coatings area which specifically has allowed for the full 1
exploitation of the superalloys used [5]. As seen in o
Fig. 7, it is thermal barrier coatings which have provided uncoated Monolayer Multilayer
up to a 300 °Fimprovement in temperature capability. Ti TiN TiN
This has translated in an up to a 1% improvement in Fig. 6. Erosion resistance for TiN.
specific fuel consumption, due to minimized cooling
air flow, have exhibited the greatest performance in oxidation
Metallic coating systems used for oxidation resistance resistance as shown in Fig. 8 [6].
are basically designed to form a thin tenacious uniform At Pratt & Whitney’s laboratories, CVD at a high
aluminum oxide layer. This layer acts as a barrier to temperature is an approach being considered to accom-
further oxidation and resultant deterioration of the plish active element incorporation into aluminide coat-
substrate alloy. Improvements in oxidation resistance ings. Cyclic thermal testing has been used to evaluate
have resulted from compositional changes as well as the durability of the active-element-enriched aluminides.
processing. Diffusion aluminides and M—Cr--Al—Y over- Too high an active element content leads to rapid
lay coatings with active element additives (Si, Hf and Y) internal oxidation and poor oxide scale retention; too
6 J. T. DeMasi-Marcin, D.K. Gupta / Protective coatings in gas turbine engine

Increased
turbine
temperatures
100r
501-
(°F)
Base

1960 1970 1980 1990 2000

Time
Fig. 7. Impact of thermal barrier coatings.

6 nents for both the combustor and turbine applications.

PWA 1480 Thermal barrier coatings in use today are produced by
2100SF burner rig tests
two methods: air plasma spraying and EBPVD. The
yttria (Y
2O3)-stabilized zirconia (Zr02) plasma-sprayed
R~ativecoatnig ~ structure shown in Fig. 10 has a controlled level of

2 porosity and microcracking, for strain tolerance or resis-

1 very favorable field experience for a decade on turbine
0 vane components and is aZrO2
Aluminide deposited v~ac:Ln~n1 VCUUn1
NICoCrAIY NIC0CrAIY NICoCrAIY
+ )St, Hf)
Fig. 8. Advances in oxidation protection of metallic turbine airfoil
coatings.
low an active element content precludes the beneficial
effect on oxide scale retention. It is only those coatings
with compositions within a defined range which have
exhibited substantial improvements in oxidation life
when compared to conventional aluminides.
Pratt & Whitney’s advanced aluminide coatings pro-
duced through CYD processing provide outstanding
thermal mechanical fatigue crack resistance combined
with good oxidation resistance. The M—Cr--Al—Y overlay
coatings, produced by vacuum plasma spraying (low
pressure plasma spraying), provide excellent oxidation
resistance and moderate thermal mechanical fatigue
resistance [7]. TMF cracking initiates in the coating
and can propagate into the base metal which can result
in component fracture. Field evaluations of M—Cr—Al---Y
systems indicate that thickness is a critical variable
controlling TMF cracking, thus emphasizing the criti-
cality of process control.
Thermal barrier coatings provide thermal insulation
to hot combustion gases as shown in Fig. 9. The low
thermal conductivity of ceramic coatings results in lower
metal interface temperatures on cooled airfoil compo-
tance to cyclic thermal spallation. This system has had
muchsystem
improved system used
over
the magnesia-stabilized originally
in combustor applications, owing to its lower destabili-
zation temperature [8]. Plasma-sprayed coatings,
however, are limited in strain tolerance and fail by
microcrack link-up within the ceramic [9,10].
EBPVD systems have much greater strain tolerance
by virtue of the columnar microstructure which is formed
during the condensation of vapor onto the component.
This structure is illustrated in Fig. 11. The columnar
structure allows for full expansion or contraction of the
ceramic on the superalloy during thermal cycling without
crack formation. The EBPVD process and resulting
coating structure provide a quantum leap in thermal
spallation resistance when compared with plasma-
spraying systems without a compositional change in
ceramic chemistry, as seen in Fig. 12 [11]. This improved
strain tolerance makes it ideal for rotating hardware
applications where thermal and mechanical strains are
greatest.
In the field, EBPVD ceramic thermal barrier coatings
with service experience on various models of JT9D
engines, for HPT first-stage blades and second-stage
vanes, continues to be impressive. JT9D-7R4G2, first-
stage HPT blades with EBPVD thermal barrier ceramic
“patch” coating in the “hot-spot” region of the pressure
side airfoil, after operation for approximately 15 000 h
showed excellent performance. Blades with only a met-
allic coating exhibited localized airfoil distress in the
 J.T. DeMasi-Marcin, D.K. Gupta / Protective coatings in gas turbine engine 7

Oxidation-resistant
metallic layer

Hot
combustion
gases
Internal .. I
cooling air — — — — — ~

/~
Insulating ~ ~. — —
I-------- /4c~~
ceramic layer - —

(~=0.01 inch)

Fig. 9. Schematic diagram of a thermal barrier coating.

—, ~ ~ ~

•11i.1tfl1
1

Fig. 10. Microstructure of a plasma-sprayed thermal harrier coating.

pressure side hot-spot region while the ceramic patch
coated blades showed essentially no airfoil distress and
only limited TBC degradation. This is illustrated in
Fig. 13.
Ceramic thermal barrier coatings are also used for
turbine abradable seals. They improve engine perfor-
mance by minimizing air cooling and leakage losses. As
for the case in the compressor, significant efficiency
losses can result from loss of high pressure gases around
blade tips. Abradable turbine seals allow for reduced
tip—stator clearances and hence improved turbine effi-
ciency. Abradable turbine blade air seal materials for
advance high performance gas turbine engines must
provide a balance between abradability and long-term
capability to resist erosion and thermally induced spall-
ation. To meet these requirements, plasma-sprayed
Zr02-based ceramic air seals are in production for
various aircraft applications. The current plasma-
8 J.T. DeMasi-Marcin, D.K. Gupta
I ______
Fig. 11. Structure of an EBPVD thermal barrier coating.
Relative
spallation 5 -
life
0
Dense PWA 264
ceramic plasma
deposited
ceramic
Fig. 12. Thermal spallation resistance of a thermal barrier coating.
sprayed seal is a graded ceramic which provides the
required abradability for clearance control, as well as
insulative properties to lower cooling air flow require-
ments and to improve spallation resistance. The graded
structure can reduce ceramic—metallic thermal mismatch
strains associated with free expansion and minimize
cracking, to improve spallation resistance [12]. This
system is shown in Fig. 14. In cases of higher gas path
surface temperatures and larger temperature gradients,
accelerated cracking may result in spallation of thick
ceramic layers near the seal surface. Examination of
thermal cyclic tests and experimental engine tested tur-
bine seals shows that the seals generally fail by laminar
cracking in the fully stabilized (20% Y203) Zr02 layer.
The progressive ceramic cracking combined with indige-
nous surface erosion in the blade rub path adversely
effects seal life and the engine’s performance margin,
Seals with controlled ceramic microstructure for rub
/ Protective coatings in gas turbine engine
________p_p _
tJ
F
PWA 266 electron
beam — physical
vapor deposited
ceramic
abradability and thermal cycling exhibit reduced
cracking.
5. Future requirements
Engine design concepts are moving towards greater
thermal and propulsive efficiency. Materials and especi-
ally coatings will continue to play an impressive role in
advancing performance, efficiency and reliability. Future
engines will operate at higher temperatures and speeds
and will need extended component life at reduced costs.
Reduced costs may be realized in part through common-
ality of coating processes and compositions. In addition,
ease of repair will continue to be a key concern at
overhaul shops for jet engine customers.
Material durability improvements especially in the
area of “hot-section” components, will continue to drive
the technology. Higher temperature ceramics, greater
 J.T. DeMasi-Marcin, D.K. Gupta / Protective coatings in gas turbine engine 9

Partially stabilized
Zirconia ~—3rd graded zone
~_— mixed ceramic
Fully stabilized
Zirconia
~r~i1 150-200 mils
thick
2nd graded zone
mixed ceramic
Alumina Metallic

_____
+

JIE”III
~pp ~ ii 1st graded zone
Metallic to Alumina

________
!tl~E1IlT~WLiImiu.~•

TBO’nd layer Me~llic

Metal substrate

Fig. 14. Graded turbine outer air seal.

ceramic spallation resistance, improved metallic coating

oxidation and TMF resistance as well as reduced weight

r requirements will require focused materials studies.

Clearly, processing methodologies will be important in
creating a new generation of coating systems. Multi-
laminated coatings, such as the advanced titanium nitride
(a) erosion coating system, have recently experienced a great
deal of publicity. Work in this area has been reported
with phenomenal results. Physical and mechanical prop-
erties have been increased over the monolithic structures
by forming thin multilayer composite structures. This
concept may well be the next frontier in gaining the
advancements needed for future-generation engines.

References

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________ [11] SM. Meier and D.K. Gupta, J. Eng. Gas Turbines Power, in press.
(b) ~ [12] T.E. Strangeman, Trans. ASME, (1991), mt. Gas Turbine and
Aeroengine Congr. and Exposition, Orlando, FI~1991.
Fig. 13. JT9D first-stage HPT turbine airfoils after 15 000 h (a) with a
thermal barrier coating and (b) without a thermal barrier coating.