Effects of Coating Thickness, Test Temperature, and Coating Hardness on the Erosion Resistance of Steam Turbine Blades

This paper experimentally examines the influence of coating thickness, test temperature, coating hardness, and defects on the erosion resistance of boride coatings, ion plating CrN coatings, and thermal spraying coatings. The results demonstrate that the erosion rate of coating can be reduced effectively by improving coating hardness and thickness with the absence of the cracks of coating during the coating process. In comparison with thermal spraying coatings, boride coatings and ion plating CrN coatings are more suitable for protecting steam turbine blades from solid particle erosion due to higher erosion resistance. However, blades cannot be protected effectively when coating is thinner than a critical value $θcrit$⁠. Based on our results, it is recommended that the protective coating for the steam turbine blade should be thicker than 0.02 mm. In addition, the effect of temperature on erosion resistance of the coating is strongly dependent on the properties of transition layer between coating and substrate material. For the coating without pinholes or pores in the transition layer, the variation in erosion rate with temperature is consistent with that of uncoated substrate material. However, the erosion rate of coating descends with the elevation of test temperature when a lot of pinholes or pores are produced in the transition layer.