Segmented Cladding for Gas Turbine Wear Resistance
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Gas turbine components in thermally stressed regions face issues with wear due to thermal expansion and contact-induced deformations, leading to potential cracking and limited repairability of clad components with hard cladding materials.
Innovation Solution
A segmented cladding design is applied to machine components, allowing for decoupling of cladding zones to accommodate thermal deformation and enabling flexible attachment to the base body, with cladding segments applied via weld surfacing and embedded in recesses to maintain a smooth surface, allowing for differential hardness selection to focus wear on more easily replaceable components.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a cladding material with greater hardness is applied to the base body, then wear resistance is improved, but the cladding becomes more brittle and prone to cracking during thermal expansion
Solution Approach 1:
The cladding is divided into multiple cladding segments that are laterally separated from each other, allowing independent thermal expansion of each segment without inducing cracks in the entire cladding layer
Solution Approach 2:
The cladding segments are arranged such that they provide localized wear protection only in the regions where contact wear is expected, while leaving other regions with the more ductile base material to handle thermal stress
2Reliability
If a cladding material with greater hardness is applied to the base body, then wear resistance is improved, but further treatment of the base body by bending becomes limited
Solution Approach 1:
The segmented cladding design allows the base body to be bent without the cladding restricting the deformation, as each segment can independently accommodate the thermal and mechanical stresses during bending operations
Solution Approach 2:
The cladding segments are applied after the base body has been formed to its final shape, allowing all necessary bending and forming operations to be completed on the base material before the brittle cladding is applied
3Reliability
If cladding material is applied to reduce wear, then contact-induced wear is reduced, but crack formations occur during thermal expansion
Solution Approach 1:
The cladding is segmented into laterally separated sections that can independently expand thermally without generating the tensile stresses that would cause cracks in a continuous cladding layer
Solution Approach 2:
The thermal expansion behavior is managed by changing the physical configuration of the cladding from continuous to segmented, allowing each segment to expand independently and accommodating thermal stress without crack formation
4Reliability
If machine components are designed with tight tolerances to minimize contact, then wear is reduced, but manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The cladding segments are designed as replaceable protective layers that can be applied to the base body and replaced when worn, allowing the use of tighter tolerances in the base body design without permanently increasing manufacturing complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The cladding provides localized protection in specific wear-prone regions, allowing the base body to have standard tolerances while still achieving wear reduction in the critical contact zones
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The segmented cladding design reduces distortion and cracking during welding, enables bending without stressing the cladding, simplifies assembly and operation, and facilitates easier maintenance by focusing wear on specific components, thus enhancing the durability and maintainability of gas turbine components.
Implementation Method 1
cladding segments applied via weld surfacing
Implementation Method 2
cladding consisting of a cladding material with a greater hardness in comparison to the base material
Implementation Method 3
as a result of thermal expansions
Data Source
AI summary
A machine component with a base body made of a base material, a part of the surface of which has been equipped with cladding material having a hardness greater in comparison to the base material. The cladding material is segmented and made up of a number of cladding segments that are spaced apart on the machine component. Each cladding segment may be disposed within a respective recess on the surface of the base body forming strips of the base body and material, and each such strip is disposed between consecutive segments forming a continuous surface.