W. M. Miglietti, GE Enerfy Services, Greenville, SC
GE industrial Frame engines, such as the Frame 7FA+e, utilized for power generation, have their first stage nozzle segments cast from a Co-based superalloy, referred to as FSX-414. The nominal composition of this alloy is Co-29.5Cr-10.5Ni-7W-2Fe (max)-0.25C-0.012B. During engine service, these nozzle segments exhibit thermal fatigue cracking, oxidation, erosion, corrosion and foreign object damage (FOD). These degradation modes need to be addressed, and have traditionally being weld repaired, since this alloy is readily weldable. The major disadvantages to weld repairing these components are the large distortion that results and the long cycle times for implementing the repair. As a consequence, a diffusion brazing process was developed to repair the above-mentioned damage. As a means of qualifying the diffusion braze repair, both metallurgical and mechanical property evaluations were carried out. The metallurgical evaluation consisted of optical and scanning electron microscopy. The diffusion brazed area consisted of a fine-grained equiaxed structure, with carbide and boride phases dispersed both intergranularly and intragranularly. The mechanical evaluations were tensile tests at both room temperature and elevated temperature, stress rupture tests from 1400oF—2000oF (760oC—1093oC) and finally low cycle fatigue (LCF) tests, the latter being one of the most important and severe tests to conduct, since the cracks being repaired are thermal fatigue driven. The mechanical test results were equivalent to that of the base metals properties, and significantly superior to the properties of weld filler metals.
Summary: This paper describes the wide gap diffusion brazing process to repair thermal fatigue cracks, oxidation, erosion, corrosion and foreign object damage typically found on nozzle segments of industrial gas turbine engines. Degradation methods are described. The focus point of the paper is the qualification procedure utilized to approve this diffusion braze process. Metallurgical and mechanical properties were conducted of the repaired region and compared with welding, the latter being the repair procedure of choice in the past. The mechanical properties, (viz tensile, stress rupture and low cycle fatigue)of the wide gap diffusion repairs are equivalent to that of the base metal, FSX-414, and significantly better than the weld filler metals mechanical properties.