Material Science Engineering

Sponsoring Company: Pratt & Whitney—United Technologies Corp.

Project Title: CMAS Infiltration

Contacts:

Shayan Ahmadian, PhD

(860) 834-3783

This is a joint project between MSE and ME students.

The Engineering Challenge:

In today’s modern transportation, airplanes can take off from any part of world and land 1000s of miles away within hours—thanks to the gas turbine technology. As a result, jet engines are subject to environmental ingestion of sand from dry desert regions. One of the sand ingestion degradation modes is by infiltration of Calcium Magnesium Alumino-Silicate (CMAS) into the ceramic coated parts (see figure 1).

Description of Problem/Project :

CMAS infiltration into coatings is a complex phenomenon as infiltration will depend on CMAS viscosity and coating porosity morphology. Currently, there is a minimum data available in open literature regarding CMAS viscosity. Furthermore, it is not clear which capillary formulation will best predict the infiltration. A 2016-2017 Mechanical Engineering Senior Design Project started to study and develop a model for the capillary action of CMNAS infiltration. This work can be used as a starting point for this project.

In this project, students are challenged to utilize the high temperature glass viscometer at PW-UConn Gradient Rig Facility to measure the viscosity of controlled chemistry CMAS. Furthermore, students will explore the capillary formulation found in literature in junctions with guidance from their university advisor to model and propose, best infiltration fit to experimentation obtained from CMAS-Gradient Rig as well as isothermal furnace exposure.

Expected Approach/Deliverables:

  • Research of capillary infiltration methods and glass viscosity.
  • Reading on ASTM methods for rotating spindle-crucible glass.
  • Analysis, including mathematical formulation for modeling CMAS infiltration.
  • Design of experiment for viscosity measurement and infiltration validation.

Attach photos/slides

Figure 1 Turbine Blade Coating Damage Due to Sand Ingestion

  • Is there a specific software package required for the projects? Y ___ N __X_

Which package (name/version) ______

  • U.S. Citizen/Person (green card) Required? Y_X___ N ____
  • Will Export Controlled data be used in project (EAR/ITAR) Y _X____N___
  • NDA/IP Agreements required? Y _X__ N __
  • Other considerations: Previous Senior design teams have worked other aspects of the sand/CMAS problem. Their reports and data can be used to characterize the size and distribution of expected particles to be captured.