Modelling Gas Turbine Blade Degradation in a High Fidelity Digital Twin

The hot blades in a gas turbine operate within an extremely hostile environment. Whilst the materials used are selected on the basis of their ability to survive in this environment the environment is such that blades degrade with time and when the operating conditions of the engine and levels of contaminants ingested change this can adversely alter the predicted life time of the blades. This leads to reduced reliability and greater costs for the equipment supplier and user. The project will therefore seek to improve understanding of gas turbine blade base material and coating corrosion and oxidation mechanisms and the models used to describe them. The models will be used in a high fidelity digital twin to replicate turbine blade degradation on gas turbines performance and service life. In particular, Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery is developing digital twins for their gas turbines to improve their performance and to tailor maintenance to a particular gas turbine's manufacture, operating history and previous repair. Such digital twins go far beyond conventional record keeping, and involve the development of a toolkit of different models (with partners including Cranfield University and the University of Cambridge).