Experimental studies on thermal protective coating for low pressure gas turbine blades

Abstract

Paper presented at the 9th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Malta, 16-18 July, 2012.The thermal barrier coatings have many potential applications in the protection of gas turbine engine components, essentially the turbine blades. In this study micro analysis was carried out on Yitria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) coated turbine blades and the results are compared with the uncoated blades. We have used the atmosphere plasma sprayed thermal barrier coating with a thickness of 0.25 mm to withstand the high temperature of about 2000° C. A significant conclusion of the present study is that an increase in thermal coating thickness of 0.25 mm can ensure 50 % increase in the surface temperature of the turbine blades leading to a better thrust performance.