Advanced aircraft engine materials trends

Recent activities of the Lewis Research Center are reviewed which are directed toward developing materials for rotating hot section components for aircraft gas turbines. Turbine blade materials activities are directed at increasing metal temperatures approximately 100 C compared to current directionally solidified alloys by use of oxide dispersion strengthening or tungsten alloy wire reinforcement of nickel or iron base superalloys. The application of thermal barrier coatings offers a promise of increasing gas temperatures an additional 100 C with current cooling technology. For turbine disk alloys, activities are directed toward reducing the cost of turbine disks by 50 percent through near net shape fabrication of prealloyed powders as well as towards improved performance. In addition, advanced alloy concepts and fabrication methods for dual alloy disks are being studied as having potential for improving the life of future high performance disks and reducing the amount of strategic materials required in these components.