F1 Turbocharger Materials

[Edax]

Some of the commercial (power generation) gas turbines use steam cooled blades, how about that for an idea.

I can't remember correctly but on avaiaton based gas turbines isn't the most common solution for the high pressure section single crystal alloys with a coating (maybe ceramic coating)? Going to break out of a few of the aviation gas turbine design books I have lying around, probably not the most up to date material though.

I know these days ceramics are heavily used in the combustion chamber of gas turbines, one place they are definitely worth it!

That is correct. These are called thermal barrier coatings or TBC's. Usually these are Yttria/zirconia based and applied with flame spraying or plasma spraying of ceramic powders..



I think they are also used in F1. If you look at the picture of the mercedes exhaust below you can see a whitish shine which suspiciously looks like a TBC. I know they have also been testing them on exhaust manifolds but one of the concerns is spalling and coating pieces ending up in the turbine. So I'm not sure whether they are actually used in front of or inside the turbine housing.

Thanks for the comments/ideas/corrections about ceramics turbo components.

I doubt it is worth the cost but impact resistance has been overcome using matrix composite techniques eg SiC/SiC? And I think techniques for achieving the desired geometry exist but again very costly.

I think the latest generation of SiC composites are absolutely beautiful. But the process of making them does not really lend itself to making the fine structures needed for turbines.



Compare that to sintered ceramics. The process which is normally used to make silicon nitride turbines is by injection molding. The powder is mixed with a binder. The mixture is then injection molded like a normal plastic component. The binder is carefully burned of and the shape is sintered. If you compensate for the shrinkage (up to 50%) and use support structures to prevent sagging you can make a shape with good surface finish (minimal rework) in one shot.

[Brian Coat]

Re: "I think the latest generation of SiC composites are absolutely beautiful. But the process of making them does not really lend itself to making the fine structures needed for turbines."

SiC CMCs are already being used in turbines, including aero foils.

All this talk of ceramics in F1 engines reminds me of remarks attributed to Geoff Goddard about the EC/Zetec-R (was it called that?) around 20 years ago when Schumacher won the championship with Benetton.

IIRC ... (and I often don't) ...

Cosworth confirmed to Autosport that their championship winning engine was indeed using very advanced materials, including ceramic components within the cylinder head.

Years later it was confirmed this was referring to the spark plug insulators ...

[Edax]

Re: "I think the latest generation of SiC composites are absolutely beautiful. But the process of making them does not really lend itself to making the fine structures needed for turbines."

SiC CMCs are already being used in turbines, including aero foils.

All this talk of ceramics in F1 engines reminds me of remarks attributed to Geoff Goddard about the EC/Zetec-R (was it called that?) around 20 years ago when Schumacher won the championship with Benetton.

IIRC ... (and I often don't) ...

Cosworth confirmed to Autosport that their championship winning engine was indeed using very advanced materials, including ceramic components within the cylinder head.

Years later it was confirmed this was referring to the spark plug insulators ...

that's interesting. I have seen some attempts to make Si-SiC blades, but I have not yet heard of them being applied and they seemed pretty far from application. Do you know who is making/applying them?

[Brian Coat]

http://www.geaviation.com/press/militar ... 50210.html

GE confirmed durability demo earlier this year.

I guess F1 turbine could be an easier application in terms of load and temperature.

Blades also currently on test in GE9X.

http://www.geaviation.com/press/ge90/ge90_20150303.html

Turbine shrouds (static) will enter service fairly soon on GE's Leap.

[trinidefender]

http://www.geaviation.com/press/militar ... 50210.html

GE confirmed durability demo earlier this year.

I guess F1 turbine could be an easier application in terms of load and temperature.

Blades also currently on test in GE9X.

http://www.geaviation.com/press/ge90/ge90_20150303.html

Turbine shrouds (static) will enter service fairly soon on GE's Leap.

All of these are still in testing. Yes this is the ultra conservative world of aviation so usually when something is still in testing it will be at least 5 years before it enters production.

[Edax]

http://www.geaviation.com/press/militar ... 50210.html

GE confirmed durability demo earlier this year.

I guess F1 turbine could be an easier application in terms of load and temperature.

Blades also currently on test in GE9X.

The way I read the article the blades are are TiAl. Or am I missing something?

The GEnx engine on test at GE’s Peebles, Ohio testing facility contains the following CMC components: inner and outer combustor liners, high-pressure turbine (HPT) stage 1 shrouds and stage 2 nozzles. CMC HPT stage 1 nozzles will be tested on the second build of this demo engine.

The engine is also testing non-CMC parts for the GE9X including the next-generation HPT stage 1 blades with advance cooling technology and the lightweight low-pressure turbine titaniumaluminide (TiAl) blades produced at Avio Aero, a GE Aviation business, using a new 3D additive manufacturing process.

All of these are still in testing. Yes this is the ultra conservative world of aviation so usually when something is still in testing it will be at least 5 years before it enters production.

I guess a lot of these developments are targeting military UAV's as early adopters. The development cycle for these types of aircraft is relatively short. The monolithic turbines I saw were for one of these applications.

[Brian Coat]

Thanks for these insights.

The shrouds (same CMC material) are in production on LEAP.

The TiAl will be in the LPT. The CMCs in HPT (very hot).

TiAl is also applicable to turbochargers.

I was under the impression that current UAV engines are often not all that advanced; but might this change for next gen a/c?

[Vortex37]

http://www.geaviation.com/press/militar ... 50210.html

GE confirmed durability demo earlier this year.

I guess F1 turbine could be an easier application in terms of load and temperature.

Blades also currently on test in GE9X.

http://www.geaviation.com/press/ge90/ge90_20150303.html

Turbine shrouds (static) will enter service fairly soon on GE's Leap.

SiC, SiN, matrix etc are now being manufactured by "additive manufacturing". GE and RR are both working on this, for fine/variable grain control. So a "simple" F1 turbine should be no problem

[riff_raff]

GE will use CMC materials for combustor liners, static parts of the HP turbine nozzle, and possibly rotating parts (ie. blades) of the 2nd stage turbine, on the new engine being developed for the Boeing 777X.

Don't think we'll see CMC's used much for auto engines anytime soon. The is not enough benefit versus cost to be worthwhile. On the other hand, the few CMC components used on the new GE engine will save well over one hundred pounds per engine. Plus they will provide a significant improvement in fuel efficiency.

[Zynerji]

This seems like it might work here...

UCLA researchers create exceptionally strong and lightweight new metal

Magnesium infused with dense silicon carbide nanoparticles could be used for airplanes, cars, mobile electronics and more

A team led by researchers from the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science has created a super-strong yet light structural metal with extremely high specific strength and modulus, or stiffness-to-weight ratio. The new metal is composed of magnesium infused with a dense and even dispersal of ceramic silicon carbide nanoparticles. It could be used to make lighter airplanes, spacecraft, and cars, helping to improve fuel efficiency, as well as in mobile electronics and biomedical devices.

To create the super-strong but lightweight metal, the team found a new way to disperse and stabilize nanoparticles in molten metals. They also developed a scalable manufacturing method that could pave the way for more high-performance lightweight metals. The research was published today in Nature.

“It’s been proposed that nanoparticles could really enhance the strength of metals without damaging their plasticity, especially light metals like magnesium, but no groups have been able to disperse ceramic nanoparticles in molten metals until now,” said Xiaochun Li, the principal investigator on the research and Raytheon Chair in Manufacturing Engineering at UCLA. “With an infusion of physics and materials processing, our method paves a new way to enhance the performance of many different kinds of metals by evenly infusing dense nanoparticles to enhance the performance of metals to meet energy and sustainability challenges in today’s society.”

...

[Brian Coat]

Very interesting - thanks for posting

[riff_raff]

The combination of lightweight magnesium alloy reinforced with evenly distributed, high modulus SiC particles seems like a good thing. But there are still likely many of the same issues with this material that existing MMC's have. They are extremely difficult to fabricate/machine in complex shapes, and often require very expensive tooling. While the ceramic reinforcements provide improved tensile, creep, CTE, wear, etc. properties vs the base metal, the base metal (ie. magnesium alloy) will still limit the high temp capability of the composite material.