Thermal Conductivity of AlSi/Polyester Abradable Coatings

Abradable seals are used in aerospace applications to control the overtip leakages between the blades of an engine rotor and its static parts. To achieve the combination of properties required, these seals have been developed with thermally sprayed coatings and are generally elaborated from a range of two or three phase powder mixtures. In the present study, the thermal conductivity of thermally sprayed AlSi/Polyester abradable coatings produced with Metco 601 NS and Durabrade 1605 powders was measured and investigated using finite element and finite difference methods based on two-dimensional structures obtained from micrographs. The computed values were compared to the experimental results.