TECHNOLOGIES

Application of ceramics to power offers:

-increase in the efficiency of gas turbine engine up to 42-43% even with power below 500KW;

-reduction in NOx emissions ( up to 25 mg/Nm3) and CO (up to 50 mg/Nm3 ) at 15% O2;

-application of recuperative air heaters to gas turbine engines with the combustion products TIT amounting to 1000 °С and higher;

-application of ceramic air boilers and linked therewith a reduction in the toxic emissions due to fuel firing under conditions close to the atmospheric pressure downstream of the power turbine;

-application of essentially cheaper ( twice to four - fold reduction) blade-free turbomachines;

-commercialization of shrinkage- free welded structural ceramic materials on the basis of alumo-boron-nitride composition ( operating temperature up to 1350°C , reliable operation under oxidizing combustion products conditions).

The structural ceramics that need no cooling, featuring excellent properties in terms of heat resistance, erosion and corrosion resistance, lower density ( and would-be actually unlimited resources and low cost) underpin an expediency to apply it to the gas industry as a promising base-line heat resistant and thermally stable material.

The development of high temperature gas turbine plants on the basis of use of the structural ceramics proved to be rather a complicated challenge due to its high brittleness and low impact strength. To ensure a successful application of the structural ceramics to the gas industry, it turned out to be a must to formulate, substantiate and actually put into effect the following principal design, material science and theoretical concepts:

-minimization of overall sizes of all ceramic parts and components of gas turbine engine elements which ensures their reliability due to elimination of the negative effect imposed by the scale factor;

- quasi-adiabaticity that provides a minimization of power losses caused by cooling of metal carrier (strength) elements in the metal-ceramic structures;

-development of parts and components of gas turbine engines which ceramic elements operate essentially on compression;

- high adaptability to manufacture featured by the alumo-boron-nitride structural ceramics (no shrinkage at synthesis, and, therefore, no need in a mechanical machining by a diamond tool, diffusive bonding («welding»), elasto-erosion treatment, etching, spraying capabilities).