Yao He

Solid particle erosion of dusty energy recovery turbine blades has a great impact on the operating economics and safety of the unit. To mitigate the erosion of blade and improve the aerodynamic performance of the turbine, a multi-objective optimization method for turbine cascade based on the experimental design method, genetic algorithm and CFD multiphase flow simulation was developed. The optimization results show that the number of stator and rotor blades and the trailing edge angle at 50% blade span are the main parameters affecting the efficiency and blade erosion of the dusty turbine. By reducing the number of stator blades and the circumferential bending angle of the stator trailing edge, the impingement velocity and impingement probability of particles impinging on the stator trailing edge decrease by 7.5%–16.8% and 8.9%–46.2%, respectively. Additionally, compared with the original design, the flow separation loss and secondary flow intensity of the rotor blade row are suppressed by adjusting the load distribution and inlet attack angle of the rotor; thus, the turbine efficiency effectively improves by 2.28%. Meanwhile, the optimized blade reduces the particle impingement velocity and probability on the rotor leading edge, and the erosion condition of the rotor leading edge decreases by 70%.

Based on the establishment of the original and improved models of the turbine blade, a thermal-fluid-solid coupling method and a finite element method were employed to analyze the internal and external flow, temperature, and thermal stress of the turbine blade. The uneven temperature field, the thermal stress distribution characteristics of the composite cooling turbine blade under the service conditions, and the effect of the thickness of the thermal barrier coating (TBC) on the temperature and thermal stress distributions were obtained. The results show that the method proposed in this paper can better predict the ablation and thermal stress damage of turbine blades. The thermal stress of the blade is closely related to the temperature gradient and local geometric structure of the blade. The inlet area of the pressure side-platform of the blade, the large curvature region of the pressure tip of the blade, and the rounding between the blade body and the platform on the back of the blade are easily damaged by thermal stress. Cooling structure optimization and thicker TBC thickness can effectively reduce the high temperature and temperature gradient on the surface and inside of the turbine blade, thereby reducing the local high thermal stress.

In this study, the high temperature erosion mechanisms and damage characteristics of a boronized coating have been systematically studied by employing an improved high-temperature accelerated erosion test bench and impact contact theory analyses. Within the scope of the experimental parameters, the erosion rate of the boronized coating under the same erosion conditions was observed to be only one half to one-twelfth of the erosion rate of the substrate. Furthermore, the boronized coating was noted to be less sensitive to the speed of the erosion particles than the plastic substrate, thus, indicating superior and more stable erosion resistance than the base material. The boronized coating exhibited typical brittle fracture characteristics under impact by the high-speed particles. When the particle impact normal stress exceeded the critical stress for crack propagation owing to the coating defects, the surface and subsurface layers of the coating initially formed horizontal and vertical micro-cracks, followed by their gradual expansion and intersection. After destabilization, the brittle coating material was peeled layer-by-layer from the surface of the test piece. At the same incident speed, as the particle size was increased from 65 μm to 226 μm and 336 μm, the size (width) of the erosion cracks on the coating surface increased from 1 μm to 30 μm and 100 μm respectively. Correspondingly, the erosion damage thickness of the coating was enhanced from 15 μm to 50 μm and 100 μm. In the case of the quartz sand particle size exceeding 300 μm, the dual-phase boronized coating did not provide effective protection to the substrate. Furthermore, based on the elastoplastic fracture theory, a prediction model for the erosion weight loss of the boronized coatings within the effective thickness range has been proposed in this study.