Key components within gas turbines, such as the blades, can be susceptible to a range of degradation mechanisms, including hot corrosion. Hot corrosion type mechanisms describe a sequence of events that include the growth and fluxing of protective oxide scales followed by the degradation of the underlying coating/alloy; this can significantly reduce component lifetimes. To better understand the progress of this type of damage mechanism, a model of hot corrosion progression with both time and corrosive deposit flux is presented for IN738LC and compared to experimental test data collected at 700 °C for four different deposit fluxes. One approach to the interpolation of model parameters between these four fluxes is illustrated. Of particular importance is that the model accounts for the statistical variation in metal loss though the use of Weibull statistics.

Modern gas turbines are operated with fuels that are very clean and within the allowances permitted by fuel specifications. However, the fuels that are being considered contain vanadium, sulfur, sodium and calcium species that could significantly contribute to the degradation of components in hot gas flow path. The main potential risk of material degradation from these fuels is “hot corrosion” due to the contaminants listed above combined with alkali metal salts from ambient air. Depending on the temperature regime hot corrosion can damage both TBC coatings and bond coat/substrate materials. Deposit-induced or hot corrosion has been defined as “accelerated oxidation of materials at elevated temperatures induced by a thin film of fused salt deposit”. For the initiation of hot corrosion, deposition of the corrosive species, e.g. vanadates or sulfates, is necessary. In addition to the thermodynamic stability, the condensation of the corrosive species on the blade/vane material is necessary to first initiate and then propagate hot corrosion. Operating temperatures and pressures both influence the hot corrosion damage. The temperature ranges over which the hot corrosion occurs depend strongly on following three factors: deposit chemistry, gas constituents and metal alloy (or bond coating/thermal barrier coating) composition. This paper reports the activities involved in establishing modeling and simulation followed by testing/characterization methodologies in relevant environments to understand the degradation mechanisms essential to assess the localized risk for fuel flexible operation. An assessment of component operating conditions and gas compositions throughout the hot gas paths of the gas turbines, along with statistical materials performance evaluations of metal losses for particular materials and exposure conditions, are being combined to develop and validate life prediction methods to assess component integrity and deposition/oxidation/corrosion kinetics.

High efficiency in power generation is not only desirable because of economical reasons but also for enhanced environmental performance meaning reduced quantity of forming ash and emissions. In modern medium to large size plants, improvements require supercritical steam values. Furthermore, in future there will be an increasing share of renewables, such as wind and solar power, which will enhance the fluctuation of supply with the consequence that other power sources will have to compensate by operating in a more demanding cyclic or ramping mode. The next generation plant will need to operate at higher temperatures and pressure cycles coupled with demanding hot corrosion and oxidation environments. Such an operation will significantly influence the performance of materials used for boilers and heat exchanger components by accelerating oxidation rates and lowering mechanical properties like creep resistance. The paper discusses the oxidation behaviour of San25, 800H and alloy 263 in supercritical water at temperatures 650 and 700 °C at 250 bar, and compares the changes of mechanical properties of materials at these temperatures.

Energy requirements and environmental concerns have promoted a development in higher-efficiency coal fired power technologies. Advanced ultra-super critical power plant with an efficiency of higher than 50% is the target in the near future. The materials to be used due to the tougher environments become therefore critical issues. This paper provides a review on a newly developed advanced high strength heat resistant austenitic stainless steel, Sandvik Sanicro 25, for this purpose. The material shows good resistance to steam oxidation and flue gas corrosion, and has higher creep rupture strength than any other austenitic stainless steels available today, and has recently obtained two AMSE code cases. This makes it an interesting option in higher pressures/temperature applications. In this paper, the material development, structure stability, creep strength, steam oxidation and hot corrosion behaviors, fabricability and weldability of this alloy have been discussed. The conclusion is that the Sanicro 25 is a potential candidate for superheaters and reheaters in higher-efficiency coal fired boilers i.e. for applications seeing up to 700°C material temperature.

In the later half of the last century great progress in alloy development for power applications was seen to improve thermal efficiency with increasing steam temperature. Meanwhile, many material-related troubles have been experienced due to rising temperature and uncertainty in the properties of fabricated metal. For further improvement in the thermal efficiency of fossil-fired power plants with ultra supercritical steam parameter conditions aiming at temperatures above 700°C, alloy development concepts and material issues with increasing steam temperature must be reviewed and discussed. In this paper new findings in the areas of alloy developments, creep failure in base metal and weldments, thermal fatigue failure and steam oxidation/hot corrosion are presented and discussed, as well as the economical aspect of material development, which is essential to realize unprecedented ultra supercritical steam conditions.