An official website of the United States government
Here’s how you know
Official websites use .mil A
.mil website belongs to an official U.S.
Department of Defense organization.
Secure .mil websites use HTTPS A
lock (
) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to
the .mil website. Share sensitive information only on official,
secure websites.
For mobile, landscape view is recommended.
Novel Solutions for Prevention of CMAS Accumulation in Gas Turbine Engines
The objective of this Statement of Need was to develop novel material thermal/environmental high temperature protective or barrier (T/EBC) coatings for increased sustainment and performance of military air and ground vehicle engines under all weather conditions and operational constraints. In particular, the proposed coating should have prevented the buildup of deleterious calcia-magnesia-alumino-silicates (CMAS) on gas turbine engine components. The proposed effort could have consisted of a modeling component (such as particulate impingement modeling on the heated gas turbine engine components, and subsequent buildup, etc.), as well as the following:
Development of particulate resistant and CMAS-phobic high temperature thermal/environmental barrier coating and bulk substrate.
Characterization of high temperature material in button-cell rig, thermomechanical fatigue and creep testing machines, and hot particulate ingestion jet burner rig.
Test evaluations of proposed coated bulk substrate material under relevant engine flow conditions. The relevant engine tests can be conducted at a Department of Defense (DoD)/NASA/academia or an Engine OEM facility.
Comparison of thermal and sand non-adherence performance of the new thermal barrier coating with respect to yttria stabilized zirconia, which is the current industry standard.
Ultimately, the proposed technology potentially could be transitioned to all of the DoD aviation and ground vehicle assets. The new T/EBC technology would be required to seamlessly integrate into new engines and retrofit into existing air, ship and ground vehicle gas turbine and piston engines. For military purposes, coated bulk materials of interest with bleed air cooling would have been expected to survive engine thermal temperatures from 1100 to 1500°C during sand ingestion engine tests.
Proposals were required to include a go/no go task for an initial assessment of the human health and environmental impacts of proposed ingredients, formulations, and byproducts. In addition, proposals should have included a task to establish a baseline lifecycle framework and identified the elements of a lifecycle inventory that were already known, those that would be investigated during the course of the project, and those that were beyond the scope of the proposed work.
Funded projects will appear below as project overviews are posted to the website.
The novel coatings solution will lead to enhanced engine power performance and efficiency improvement of the engines which will result in considerably less impact on the environment. Enhanced sustainment of the hot section materials will lead to a reduced requirement of rare elements like rhenium and reduced usage of nickel resulting in less dependence on imports and significantly lower maintenance costs and logistics burden.
Currently, DoD air and ground vehicles in certain active operational theaters sustain significant damage on gas turbine engine hot and cold section components from particulate ingestion. Field returned engine hardware illustrates the same. Naval ship engines suffer from salt and sand ingested induced damages including corrosion. This entails a significantly increased maintenance burden and cost on the operational availability of DoD vehicles. Even in training sessions over desert or dusty environment, the DoD has lost vertical lift aviation assets and personnel from particulate ingestion. Not only vertical lift, but all aviation assets can be subject to this deleterious condition. It is expected the U.S. military will be facing such a degraded environment or worse in future multi-domain battlespace in mega-cities.
The engine failure is caused by air passage clogging in engine components, erosion and particulate adherence and accumulation, leading to hot section engine component failure and power surge prior to engine failure. A high temperature TBC with sand particle buildup resistant/non-adherence and corrosive resistant coatings needs to be developed to lower maintenance costs (following DoD’s near zero maintenance concept), extend engine hot section components life and operational time in high sand dust/particulate environment, and improve engine performance and efficiency significantly.
The cost and time to meet the requirements of this SON are at the discretion of the proposer. Two options are available:
Standard Proposals: These proposals describe a complete research effort. The proposer should incorporate the appropriate time, schedule and cost requirements to accomplish the scope of work proposed. SERDP projects normally run from two to five years in length and vary considerably in cost consistent with the scope of the effort. It is expected that most proposals will fall into this category.
Limited Scope Proposals: Proposers with innovative approaches to the SON that entail high technical risk or have minimal supporting data may submit a Limited Scope Proposal for funding up to $200,000 and approximately one year in duration. Such proposals may be eligible for followon funding if they result in a successful initial project. The objective of these proposals should be to acquire the data necessary to demonstrate proof-of-concept or reduction of risk that will lead to development of a future Standard Proposal. Proposers should submit Limited Scope Proposals in accordance with the SERDP Core Solicitation instructions and deadlines.