Proceedings of ASME Turbo Expo 2018

Turbomachinery Technical Conference and Exposition

GT2018
June 11-15, 2018, Oslo, Norway

GT2018-75696

DEVELOPMENT OF BLADE TIP REPAIR FOR SGT-700 TURBINE BLADE

STAGE 1, WITH OXIDATION RESISTANT WELD ALLOY

Dikran A Barhanko, Niclas R Åberg, Olov H Andersson,

Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery AB, Finspong Sweden

Abstract This technical paper describes the repair process

The SGT-700 gas turbine currently rated at 33 developed together with a sub-supplier. The project
MW (simple cycle) and with an efficiency of ~ 37% resulted in a successful repair process for the
has been in service since 2002. In order to reduce component as well as repaired blades with higher
life cycle cost, a repair process with an acceptable blade tip oxidation resistance compared with the
repair yield needed to be developed for turbine original design.
blade stage 1. The stage 1 blade is made from the
polycrystalline cast alloy IN792, and the blade is
coated with PtAl or MCrAlY+TBC depending on Introduction
engine model. The blade is internally air cooled. The turbine blade 1 for the SGT-700 is used in
After the row 1 vane, the stage 1 blade is forced to engines rating between 29 to 33 MW. The engines
withstand the highest temperatures. The are used both for mechanical drive and power
combination of high temperatures, and generation. The engine has dual fuel capability but
thermomechanical fatigue loading results in blade is mainly run on natural gas fuel. Today we have
tip degradation, which leads to a loss of thermal turbines commissioned mainly in the southern
efficiency. The blade tip repair process described in parts of Europe, the Gulf countries, Asia and South
this document is one step in a continuous repair America. The first stage blade is an equiaxed cast
development plan for the SGT-700. To ensure type, the blade is coated with PtAl or MCrAlY+TBC
quality in each reparation, the blade tip repair depending on engine version. The base material is
described here was developed using Siemens’ IN792 and the blade is internally air cooled. The
Product Development Process (PDP). high temperature at the blade tip creates blade tip
The development of the repair procedure include degradation via oxidation. As the oxidation
 Coating removal progresses to a certain level an interaction with
 Pre-and post-weld heat treatment thermal loading results in TMF cracks in the blade
 Machining of oxidized areas tip. To fulfill the requirements for the blade tip
 Hot box welding with manual GTAW repairs it was necessary to investigate the oxidation
 Grinding to final air foil shape resistance of different filler materials. This was
 Re-opening of the cooling holes with EDM achieved by an internal laboratory test program to
 EDM to restore the squealer tip find a filler material with high oxidation resistance
 Recoating and air flow check and a literature study for weldability [1], followed
by welding trials.

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 Acronyms
GTAW – Gas Tungsten Arc Welding
EDM – Electric Discharge Machining
OEM – Original Equipment Manufacturer
LE – Leading Edge
FPI – Fluorescent Penetrant Inspection
TBC – Thermal Barrier Coating
TMF – Thermo Mechanical Fatigue
FCT – Furnace Cyclic Test
PDP – Product Development Process
PtAl – Platinum modified nickel Aluminide
MCrAlY – Thermally sprayed metallic coating
IGA – Inter Granular Attack
Figure 2: Stripped and heat tinted blade which has
LPPS – Low Pressure Plasma Spray been operated to the Hot Gas Path inspection.
APS – Air Plasma Spray
SEM – Scanning Electron Microscope
LOM – Light Optical Microscope
CAD – Computer Aided Design

Typical damage
The SGT-700 blade 1 stage is cast from Ni-based
superalloy IN792. The nominal composition, in wt%,
is balance Ni-8.5Co-12.5Cr-1.8Mo-4W-3.4Al-4Ti-4Ta-
0.3Hf-0.07C-0.015B-0.015Zr. The blade is either
coated with PtAl or MCrAlY+TBC depending on
engine model, but the internal cavity is uncoated.
The developed repair is applied on both variants.
The main damage mechanism is in both cases
interaction between oxidation and TMF cracking of
the blade tip. The TMF loading is moderate but
cracking still occurs due the degradation caused by
the oxidation. A pressure and suction side view of
the blade in as manufactured condition is shown in
figure 1. A blade that has been operated to the Hot Figure 3: Typical blade tip after service and stripping,
Gas Path inspection is shown after stripping of the TMF cracking and oxidation damages.
coating and heat tinting in figure 2. A close up view
of the blade tip after coating removal is shown in
figure 3. The blade exhibits blade tip oxidation and in some
cases airfoil erosion damages which are repaired by
stripping and recoating. Another typical damage is
TBC spallation at the blade tip area see figure 4.

Figure 1: Suction and pressure side view of the blade

in as manufactured condition, with TBC coating.

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 Reconditioning procedure development
and implementation

Weld alloy evaluation

The development process of the SGT-700 turbine
blade 1 repair started with a pre-study with a
number of filler material candidates. This resulted
in an initial weld trial of blade tips using R80 and
R142 weld filler wires. The outcome of the two alloys
was evaluated metallurgically and tested for cyclic
and isothermal oxidation resistance. Isothermal
heat treatment at 950°C for 3000 hours was carried
out, see figure 6. In the R142 tip specimen sharp
corners remained sharp whereas in the R80 tip the
sharp corners become rounded due to oxidation.

Furnace cyclic tests was carried at 1100°C with a

cycle time of 1 hour followed by forced air cooling
down to a temperature of approximately 100°C.
The R142 specimen was cycled 500 cycles and the
Figure 4: TBC spallation and oxidation of blade R80 specimen was removed after 300 cycles, see
tip. figure 7.

General work scope

For reconditioning of the stage 1 turbine blade, the
outcome of repair resulted in the following work
scope, see figure 5.

R142
3000h
950°C isothermal

R80
3000h
950°C isothermal
Figure 6: Photo of the weld repaired specimens in
R142 (top) and R80 (bottom) after isothermal
oxidation at 950°C with a hold time of 3000 h.
Figure 5: Repair work scope for blade 1.

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 locally up to 20 µm. No internal nitride formation
was seen, see figure 9. For reference a comparison
of the oxide formation of weld alloy R142 and the
base material IN792 was made, the SEM
micrographs are seen in figure 10, R142 formed a
dense Al2O3 scale compared to the thick, non-
compact scale composed of mixed oxides formed on
the blade base material IN792. In the furnace cyclic
test at 1100°C the R80 specimen was not able to
form a dense Al2O3 scale. The test was aborted after
R142 300 FCT cycles due to severe oxidation. The R142
500 FCT cycles specimen was able to form a dense Al2O3 scale, 4-6
@1100°C
µm in thickness. Local internal oxidation up to a
depth of 100 µm was present. No formation of
internal nitrides was found, see figure 11. Based on
this the R142 filler was chosen [4].

R80
300 FCT cycles
@1100°C
Figure 8: Micrograph of the R80 specimen after
Isothermal oxidation @ 950°C for 3000 h.

Figure 7: Photo of the weld repaired specimens after

finished FCT test. The test was stopped at 300 cycles
for Rene 80 and after 500 cycles for Rene 142.

After 500 cycles, the R142 tip specimen was

essentially intact whereas all sharp corners had
become rounded in the IN792 substrate, see figure 7
(top). After 300 cycles, R80 test was stopped since
much of the tip had been consumed by oxidation. At Figure 9: Micrograph of the R142 specimen after
this time the IN792 substrate was still intact, isothermal oxidation @ 950°C for 3000 h.
showing that R80 is inferior not only to R142 but
also to IN792, see figure 7 (bottom). This behavior
was somewhat unexpected as the alloys have a
similar chemical composition. We have not analyzed
this in detail but a speculation is that small
differences in alloy impurities have a great
influence on oxidation behavior. In the isothermal
R142 IN792
oxidation test @ 950°C for 3000 h the R80 specimen 5500x mag. 1300x mag.
did not form a dense Al2O3 layer. The oxide scale
thickness was ~100 µm, composed of mixed oxides. Figure 10: SEM micrographs after isothermal
oxidation @ 950°C for 3000 h. The dense Al2O3 scale
Notable were nitride formations almost through the
formed on the R142 specimen is seen to the left and
sample thickness, see figure 8. The R142 specimen the oxide scale (mixed) formed on the blade base
had formed a dense Al2O3 layer.The oxide scale material IN792 for reference is seen to the right.
thickness was 1.5-3 µm with internal oxidation

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 R80 R142
300 FCT cycles 500 FCT cycles

Figure 11: LOM micrographs of the R80 (to the left)

and R142 (to the right) specimen after 300 and 500
FCT cycles respectively.
Figure 13: Blade before and after coating removal, the
blade to the right is in the heat tinted condition.

Coating Removal
The TBC is removed by manual grit blasting
following a given work instruction. To avoid Inspection
accumulation of blasting media in the internal The blade is inspected visually followed by a control
cavity, the blade is pressurized with air from the of the wall thickness by ultrasonic measurement.
blade root. The MCrAlY bond coat is chemically The template for wall thickness is shown in figure
removed from IN792 base material by acid 14. Before welding, the blades are solution heat
stripping. This process needs to be carefully treated. The heat treatment also facilitates the
monitored to avoid grain boundary attack (IGA, following FPI as it acts to open up possible cracks
inter-granular attack). The protection of the before examination and makes the inspection more
internal cavity is made by injection of wax in the accurate and reliable.
trailing edge and cooling holes, the blade root is
covered in wax. The PtAl coating is removed from
the base material IN792 in a similar process as the
MCrAlY, by acid stripping. The effectiveness of
coating removal is controlled by heat tint. Figure 12
shows the masking process where the cavity is filled
with thermoplastic and the blade root is waxed up to
the platform. Figure 13 shows the blade before and
after the stripping process, the blade to the right in
figure 13 is in the heat tinted condition.

Figure 14: Suction and pressure side of the blade

showing the template for wall thickness
measurement.

Repair
An evaluation of individual blade reparability is
Figure 12: Fixture for injection of thermoplastic is made before proceeding with the repair process.
shown on the left and waxing of the blade root up to Minor cracks are removed by blending, see figure
the platform on the right.
15 for an example of this. The joint preparation of
areas to be welded is done by blending, see the
example in figure 16.

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 the blade is lowered, see figure 17 [2] [3]. The blade
is protected from oxidation by inert shielding gas
during preheating and welding. The welding is
performed by manual GTAW with filler material
Re142, the appearance after welding are seen in
figure 18. To ensure a flawless weld a final NDT
including X-ray is performed after contour blending
and heat treatment.

Figure 15: Cracks emanating from the airfoil cooling

holes, before and after blending.

Figure 17: Photo of the hot box.

Figure 16: Example of weld preparation by blending.

Before the actual welding, a heat treatment is

performed to relieve eventual residual stresses that
could have arisen during blending for joint
preparation. The areas to be welded are inspected
visually and by FPI. The blade tip is restored by
preheating the area to be welded above the aging
temperature of the substrate material. Both
preheating and welding takes places in a so called
Hot Box, which is constructed as a cavity in which Figure 18: The appearance after welding.

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 Restore the blade tip after welding blocked. Visual and geometrical check of the
The height of blade tip is restored by CNC grinding repaired area is carried out via ultrasonic
using the profile from the 3-D CAD model. The measurements of the wall thickness. The blades are
external airfoil profile is restored by blending. The post weld heat treated as a final step before coating.
tip cap is restored by die sink EDM, see figure 19. Inspection of the blades pre coating is made
The cooling holes are located using the 3-D model visually, by X-ray and by FPI.
and re-opened by EDM drilling, the trailing edge is
also restored in same way by EDM, see figure 20.

Figure 21: Tool for back and

forward flush.

Coating
The coating step for PtAl starts with light grit
Figure 19: Tip cap is restored by die sink EDM after blasting and polishing of the gas path surfaces to
welding. achieve the surface roughness according to the
specification, see figure 22. Before the platination
process, the blades are weighed and masked. After
platination the blades are cleaned and the weight
gain is measured. The platinum is diffusion heat
treated, inspected and masked before start of the
aluminizing process see figure 23. After the coating
process the blades are visually inspected, diffusion
heat treated and aged.

Figure 20: Trailing edge restored

after welding by EDM.

The internal cavity is cleaned after machining by

ultrasonic cleaning followed by back and forward
Figure 22: Blades to be light grit blasted and then
flushing with water, see figure 21. Water flow test is
platinum plated.
used to check whether any cooling holes are

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 Figure 25: TBC coated blade as in final condition.

Figure 23: Blade cleaned and masked before platinum

plating.
Conclusion
A number of stage 1 sets have been successfully
repaired. They are planned to be installed during
the scheduled maintenance activity during 2018.
The coating step for TBC starts with grit blasting
Based on our experience from similar repairs and
followed by weighing and masking. The MCrAlY
with the laboratory trials that we have performed,
bond coat is Low Pressure Plasma Sprayed (LPPS).
we do not foresee any complications and are fully
The weight gain is measured and the blades are heat
confident that we have a sound blade repair.
treated before the top coat is applied by air plasma
spray (APS). After the coating process the weight
gain is measured and the blades are visually
inspected, polished, diffusion heat treated and aged.

Final inspection
The blades are water flowed and checked for
dimensions, surface roughness and air mass flow.
See blade in final condition in figure 24 and figure
25.

Figure 24: PtAl coated blade in final condition.

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 References
[1] S. A. David, J. A. Siefert, J. N. DuPont & J. P.
Shingledecker (2015) Weldability and weld
performance of candidate nickel base superalloys
for advanced ultrasupercritical fossil power plants
part I: fundamentals, Science and Technology of
Welding and Joining, 20:7, 532-552, DOI:
10.1179/1362171815Y.0000000035

[2] Wilkenhoener et al., Refurbishing Advanced Hot

Section Components at Siemens PG. Proceedings
Turbine Forum 2003, “Effective Repair of Gas
Turbine Components”, April 9th to 11th, 2003, Nice,
France, published by Forum of Technology, Dorsten,
Germany, 2003.

[3] R. Anton, M. Ott, B. Heinecke and R.

Wilkenhoener, Siemens PG. “REPAIR OF ADVANCED
GAS TURBINE BLADES” ASME Turbo Expo Montreal,
Canada 2007. Paper GT2007-28208.

[4] Earl W. Ross and Kevin S. O’Hara, GE Aircraft

Engines. “RENE’l42: A HIGH STRENGTH, OXIDATION
RESISTANT DS TURBINE AIRFOILALLOY”.
Superalloys 1992 Edited by S.D. Antolovich, R.W.
Stusrud, R.A. MacKay, D.L. Anton, T. Khan, R.D.
Kissinger, D.L. Klarstmm The Minerals, Metals &
Materials Society, 1992.

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