Frequency scanning eddy current testing for assessment of remaining

lifetime of industrial gas turbine blade high temperature coating

More info about this article: http://www.ndt.net/?id=22854

Mattias Broddegård
Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery AB, Sweden, mattias.broddegard@siemens.com

Abstract
Industrial gas turbine blades are exposed to high temperatures and aggressive
environmental conditions during operation. The blades are typically manufactured as
precision castings in nickel-base superalloys, with internal cooling channels in order to
reduce the metal temperature. In order to protect the blades from oxidation, coatings
containing aluminium are applied. During operation, depletion of the aluminium in the
coating takes place until eventually no protective oxide can be formed. In order to
estimate the remaining lifetime of the coating, blades can be cut for metallographic
examination and measurement of the aluminium content in the coating. This will
however not take into account individual variations between the blades, and furthermore
requires removal of the blades from the turbine disc. The use of frequency scanning
eddy current testing for measurement of the electrical conductivity of the coating, which
is related to the aluminium content, has been investigated. Measurements were carried
out on test coupons before and after furnace exposure and also on turbine blades that
had been removed after operation in order to carry out metallographic examination of
the coating status. The results show that there is a useable correlation between the
measured electrical conductivity and the aluminium content in the coating.

1. Introduction
Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery AB in Finspong is developing, manufacturing and
providing services for industrial gas and steam turbines. Among the core gas turbine
components are the turbine blades, which are exposed to high temperatures and stress
during operation. The blades are typically precision castings with internal cooling
channels. The blade alloy is optimized for mechanical properties, and in order to obtain
a useful operating lifetime, a coating for oxidation and corrosion protection is required.
During operation, the aluminium in the coating is consumed by continuous formation
and spallation of aluminium oxide. The coating system studied in this project is a
Platinum-Aluminide (PtAl). As-coated PtAl consists of pure beta-phase. When the
coating lifetime is completely consumed, there is no beta-phase left. This means that by
measuring the beta-phase content in the coating, the remaining lifetime can be
estimated. This requires sectioning and examination in light-optical microscope. One
way of carrying out non-destructive aluminium depletion assessment in metallic
coatings is by measurement of electrical parameters using eddy current technology. Due
to the skin effect, the eddy current penetration depth decreases as the operating
frequency increases. This means that the substrate contributes to the electrical
parameters mainly at low frequencies (greater penetration depth), while the coating
contributes to the electrical parameters at higher frequencies due to a quite limited
penetration.

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Antonelli et. al at Centro Elettrotecnico Sperimentale Italiano (CESI) has developed a
system for frequency scanning eddy current testing (FSECT) and reported successful
coating assessment applications on gas turbine blades (1, 2). A mathematical model
using 2-3 layers, which can be configured by the user, is used to determine the thickness
and electrical conductivity of the coating.

Jentek Sensors Inc. has developed a multifrequency system based on the patented
meandering winding magnetometer (MWM) probe and GridStation software. The
MWM sensor response is converted into material or geometric properties using pre-
computed databases, which are Jentek proprietary. Goldfine et. al has reported
successful MWM applications for gas turbine blades using both MCrAlY and PtAl
coatings (3, 4).

The purpose of the current investigation was to determine if the coating status
assessment by destructive examination could be replaced by eddy current testing using
the FSECT technique for industrial gas turbine blades with PtAl coating applied by
chemical vapour deposition (CVD).

2. Experimental methods
Before starting the project, a feasibility study was performed. IN792 buttons with

The nominal coating thickness was 65 m. The buttons were furnace exposed at 1050°C
20 mm diameter and 4 mm thickness, coated on all sides with PtAl were manufactured.

for up to 1200 hours. Two samples at each exposure time were used. FSECT
measurements were carried out by CESI on the test coupons both before and after
furnace exposure. Based on the results it could be concluded that the FSECT technique
was suitable for PtAl coating measurements.

2.1 Test objects

Measurements were carried out on service-exposed gas turbine blades that were
submitted to the Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery Materials laboratory for status
examination. A typical blade is shown in Figure 1.

2
 Figure 1. Service-exposed industrial gas turbine blade with PtAl coating

2.1 Frequency scanning eddy current testing

The FSECT equipment consists of a high-frequency eddy current module, a power

supply and a flexible probe. Normalisation is carried out on two conductivity reference
blocks with known electrical conductivity using three different lift-off positions.

Initial measurements were carried out in a grid with 50 points covering both the
pressure and suction sides of the airfoil. Subsequent measurements were limited to
positions where maximum aluminium depletion had been observed.

corresponds to the coating and has a fixed thickness of 65 m, which is the nominal
For the turbine blade measurements, a three-layer model was used. The first layer

coating thickness for new blades. The second layer corresponds to the solid part of the
blade wall. The third layer corresponds to the internal geometry of the blade. See Figure
2. The reason for using a fixed coating thickness is that the PtAl thickness is too thin to
be resolved by the FSECT measurements. This means that all information regarding the
coating status is represented by the first layer conductivity. The acquired data was fitted
to the model using the F-SECT data inversion software

3
 Figure 2. FSECT component model

2.2 Metallographic examination

The test objects were cut and moulded in Bakelite and then polished for examination
using light-optical microscope. Measurement of coating thickness and beta-phase
content was carried out using image analysis software. The aluminium reservoir in the
coating is given by the coating thickness and the beta-phase content. For each
measurement position, a parameter called “effective beta-phase” was calculated by
taking the product of the average coating thickness and beta-phase content.

3. Results
The influence from variation in characteristics of two different probes was checked by
measuring two new blades and comparing the results. It was found that comparable
results were obtained with both probes. It could furthermore be observed that the
coating thickness or conductivity was different for the two blades. See Figure 3. By
comparing results from two repeated measurements on two service-exposed blades, it
was found that the influence from probe positioning and handling was small. In
addition, a significant decrease of the coating conductivity as compared to the new
blades was found, in particular for the pressure side of the blades. See Figure 4.

The results from measurements on a complete set of blades are shown in Figure 5. It can
be observed that there is a certain degree of correlation between the coating
conductivity variations of individual blades. The conductivity variation between
different blades is probably related to coating thickness variations.

By plotting the effective beta-phase measured by light-optical microscope as a function

of the FSECT electrical conductivity for the coating for a number of blades from
different gas turbine units, trendlines and linear equations for calculating the effective
beta-phase from the FSECT conductivity were obtained. See Figure 6. Validation of the
accuracy was then carried out by measurement of additional cut blades. The results
showed that the predicted effective beta-phase according to FSECT measurements was
in general within ±10% of the actual. See Figure 7.

4
 1,05

1
Coating
conductivity,
FSECT Electrical conductivity [MS/m]

blade BJ207
0,95

Coating
0,9
conductivity,
blade BH141
0,85

Pressure side Suction side

0,8

0,75 Substrate
conductivity,
blade
0,7
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 45 47 49 51
Measurement #

Figure 3. Comparison of electrical conductivity according to FSECT for two as-coated blades
1,1
S1_B619-Dobestroom_BE780
S2_B619-Dobestroom_BE780
1,05 S1_B619-Dobestroom_BE780-R
S2_B619-Dobestroom_BE780-R
FSECT electrical conductivity [MS/m]

1 S1-B640-Neubrandenburg_AM207
S2-B640-Neubrandenburg_AM207
S1_B640-Neubrandenburg_AM207-R
0,95 S2_B640-Neubrandenburg_AM207-R

0,9

0,85

0,8

0,75

Pressure side Suction side

0,7
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 45 47 49 51
Measurement #

Figure 4. Comparison of electrical conductivity according to F-SECT for repeated measurements

on two service-exposed blades. S1 = coating conductivity, S2 = substrate conductivity

5
 0,9

0,85
FSECT coating conductivity [MS/m]

PS1
0,8 PS2
PS3
PS4
SS1
0,75
SS2
SS3
SS4
0,7
SS5
SS6

0,65

0,6
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 45 47 49 51 53 55 57 59
Blade #

Figure 5. Results from measurement on a complete set of service-exposed blades

80
y = 202,38x - 125,12
R2 = 0,9778
70

60
Effective beta phase

50
PS2

40 SS2
Linear (PS2)
Linear (SS2)
30
y = 162,42x - 89,911
R2 = 0,9543
20

10

0
0,5 0,55 0,6 0,65 0,7 0,75 0,8 0,85 0,9 0,95 1
Coating electrical conductivity [MS/m]

Figure 6. Correlation of FSECT electrical conductivity and effective beta-phase measured by light-
optical microscope for one measurement point on the pressure side (PS2) and one measurement
point on the suction side (SS2)

6
 120
Thick
coating
100
FSECT effective beta phase

80

60
SS2
PS2
40 Ideal
+10
-10
20

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Metallographic effective beta phase

Figure 7. Accuracy of FSECT effective beta phase estimation

4. Conclusions
It can be concluded that the frequency scanning eddy current technique is capable of
providing accurate estimates of the remaining aluminium content in a PtAl coating
applied to industrial gas turbine blades by the CVD process. With the non-destructive
testing approach, the coating status for all blades in a turbine stage could be determined,
which eliminates the uncertainty that follows from picking out a single blade for
destructive evaluation. If measurement results from the as-coated blades were available,
the amount of aluminium depletion could be determined with greater accuracy. The
measurement technique provides repeatable results.

5. References
1. G. Antonelli, M. Ruzzier, F. Necci: Thickness measurement of MCrAlY high-
temperature coatings by frequency scanning technique. Journal of Engineering for
Gas Turbines and Power, July 1998, vol. 120 pp. 537-542
2. G. Antonelli, G.Tirone: Condition assessment of service degraded high-
temperature blades during gas turbine overhauls. PowerGen Europe 2000,
Helsinki, Finland
3. N. Goldfine et al.: Conformable eddy-current sensors and arrays for fleetwide gas
turbine component quality assessment, ASME Journal of Engineering for Gas
Turbines and Power, Vol. 124, No. 4, pp 904-909, October 2002
4. N. Goldfine et al.: Recent MWM-Array accomplishments in NDT and health
monitoring of engines and structures, ATA NDT Forum, 2005