Abstract
An unique ceramic material produced through unidirectional solidification with eutectic composition of two-phase oxides was introduced recently. This composite material has the microstructure of coupled networks of two single crystals interpenetrate each other without grain boundaries. Depending on this microstructure this material, called Melt Growth Composite (MGC), can sustain its room temperature strength up to 1$700^{\circ}C$ (near its melting point) and offer strong oxidization-resistant ability, making its characteristics quite ideal for the gas turbine application. The research project on MGC started in 2001 with the objective of establishing component technologies for MGC application to the high temperature components of the gas turbine engine. MGC turbine nozzles are expected to improve efficiency of gas turbine. However, reduction of the thermal stress is required since high thermal stress is easily generated in MGC turbine nozzles due to temperature distribution. Firstly, the hollow nozzle shape was optimized to reduce thermal stress using numerical analysis. From the results of the first hot gas flow tests, the thermal stress due to span-wise temperature distribution was required to be reduced, and separated nozzle to three pieces was designed. This was tested in hot gas flow at 140$0^{\circ}C$ level, and temperature distributions on the nozzle surface were obtained and stress field was evaluated.