IR Camera Technique Application for Evaluation of Gas Turbine Blades Covering Integrity

가스터빈의 코팅층 건정성 평가를 위한 적외선 열화상 카메라 기법 활용

Key part of main equipment in a gas turbine may be likely to be damaged due to operation under high temperature, high pressure, high-speed rotation, etc. Accordingly, the cost for maintenance increases and the damaged parts may cause generation to stop. The number of parts for maintenance also increases, but diagnostics technology fur the maintenance actually does not catch up with the demand. Blades are made of precipitation hardening Ni superalloy IN738 and the like for keeping hot strength. The surface of a blade is thermal-sprayed, using powder with main compositions such as Ni, Cr, Al, etc. in order to inhibit hot oxidation. Conventional regular maintenance of the coating layer of a blade is made by FPI (Fluorescent Penetrant Inspection) and MTP (Magnetic Particle Testing). Such methods, however, are complicated and take long time and also require much cost. In this study, defect diagnostics were tested for the coating layer of an industrial gas turbine blade, using an infraredthermography camera. Since the infrared thermography method can check a temperature distribution on a wide range of area by means of non-contact, it can advantageously save expenses and time as compared to conventional test methods. For the infrared thermography method, however, thermo-load must be applied onto a tested specimen and it is difficult to quantify the measured data. To solve the problems, this essay includes description about producing a specimen of a gas turbine blade (bucket), applying thermo-load onto the produced specimen, photographing thermography images by an infrared thermography camera, analyzing the thermography images, and pre-testing for analyzing defects on the coating layer of the gas turbine blade.