Metallurgy of Gas Turbine Blades

Synopsis

Gas turbines are used extensively and in many applications, most commonly to power airplanes and helicopters and in the most efficient combustion power plants in operation. High heat engine efficiency requires increasing the temperature difference the engine operates at. The latest generation of gas turbines can handle temperatures of almost 2000 C. Despite extensive cooling, the blades themselves sustain temperatures over 1000 C while bearing accelerations twenty thousand times that of gravity. Immense effort has gone into developing the metal alloys used to accomplish this, and we all benefit from their development. This talk will explore the physics of how these alloys can maintain their strength at high temperature as well as the process used to grow them as single crystals for gas turbine blade applications.