Abstract
The structural characteristics and thermal protection mechanism of a certain type of auxiliary power unit (APU) turbine guide vane in service were analyzed by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and energy dispersive analyzer (EDS). Then, the thickness variation and failure mode of the high temperature protective coating after removal from aircraft were investigated. The results show that there are two different coating structures in the aircraft APU guide vanes: aluminized coating+MCrAlY coating and mono aluminized coating. The MCrAlY coating thickness of the scrapped APU guide vane components increases first and then decreases from the area of trailing edge to the pressure side and then to the leading edge. Affected by the configuration and the service environment of APU guide vanes, the coatings at the trailing edge and pressure side present an oxidation-predominant damage mode. The oxidation degree of the coating on the trailing edge is more serious, while the closer the pressure-side region to the leading edge, the less severe the oxidative damage. However, due to the coupling effect of CMAS (CaO, MgO, Al2O3, SiO2) corrosion and high temperature oxidation, the damage to the coating at the leading edge of vanes is the most serious.
With the development of the aviation industry, the requirements for the thrust-to-weight ratio is increasing. In order to ensure the high thrust-to-weight ratio and reliability of aero-engine, superalloys are widely used in the new generation of aero-engine.Nickel-based superalloys are the preferred materials for hot-section components of aero-engine due to their good microstructure and creep resistance
Researchers have obtained some results on the damage and failure mechanism of aero-engine vanes/blades as well as their high temperature thermal protective coatings. Qian et a
In this study, the scrapped components of the first-stage guide vanes of an APU high-pressure turbine actually operated by an airplane was taken as the research object. The change trend of different failure modes and damage mechanisms were analyzed at the leading edge, trailing edge and pressure side of this type of guide vane, so as to obtain the typical failure modes of high temperature protective coatings in different areas of APU turbine guide vane, which provides a research basis for improving the overall service life and optimizing the guide vane structure.
The failure components of the first-stage guide vane of APU high-pressure turbine of aircraft actually operated by airlines were taken as the research object. The vane configuration and division are shown in

Fig.1 Schematic diagram of a certain type of APU high-pressure turbine guide vane
After the overall cutting of the guide vane, the cold inlay method was used to prepare the test specimens. The Sigma 300 field emission scanning electron microscope (SEM) produced by Zeiss Company in Germany was used to observe the microstructure of the guide vane in different cross-sectional areas, and the chemical composition inside the coating was analyzed by energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS).
2.1 Structure and thermal protection mechanism of high temperature protective coating for turbine guide vanes
As mentioned above, there are two different high temperature protective coating structures in aircraft APU guide vanes. The coatings in the areas of the vane's leading edge, trailing edge, and pressure side are aluminized+MCrAlY structure, named as Al-Si coating (original thickness of about 50 μm)+MCrAlY metal coating (original thickness of about 80 μm) prepared by EB-PVD (

Fig.2 Aluminized coating+MCrAlY coating structure (a) and aluminized coating (b)
Aluminized coatings are widely used in aero-engine turbine guide vanes due to the superior properties of aluminum in many antioxidant element
The MCrAlY metal coating prepared by EB-PVD method is also widely used as surface thermal protection method for aero-engine hot-section component
It can be seen that both coatings existing in the APU guide vane have Al-Si coatings, and the most significant difference between the two coatings is the lack of MCrAlY metal coating on the suction side of the vane. This structural design is because under the normal working conditions of the APU guide vane, the suction side of the upper surface of the vane is not directly subjected to air scouring, and the convection heat transfer is weaker than that at other areas, so the temperature resistance requirement is lower than that of the vane's leading edge, trailing edge and pressure side. Hence, in the case of a single-layer aluminum coating, this structure can basically meet the thermal resistance requirements under the designed working condition of the APU guide vane, and save the manufacturing and processing cost. On the contrary, as the leading edge and pressure side act as the direct scouring side of the high temperature airflow, and the actual working condition of the trailing edge is severer due to the limitation of the internal vent space, it is necessary to add MCrAlY metal coating for further thermal insulation. At the same time, due to the existence of the aluminized coating, the MCrAlY metal coating on the surface at these three areas is not easy to interact with the substrate in high temperature environment, thus reducing the loss of Al elemen
2.2 Effect of area variation on thickness of high temperature protective coating for APU turbine guide vanes
The remaining thickness of the vane's high temperature protective coating is an important reference to reflect the actual service environment and overall performance changes of the component. Therefore, it is necessary to measure and analyze the thickness of the APU high pressure turbine guide vanes. As shown in

Fig.3 Inlayed vane specimen and its selected marking points

Fig.4 Variation curves of coating thickness on failed vanes
Therefore, further research should be carried out on the basis of the microstructure morphology, element composition and actual working condition of the APU guide vanes to reveal different failure mechanisms in different areas. The specific research results and analysis will be elaborated in Section 2.3.
2.3 Micromorphology and failure mechanism of high temperature protective coating for APU turbine guide vanes
Areas of point 1 (trailing edge), point 7 (basin area), and point 10 (leading edge) were selected for the analysis of micromorphology and element composition. It should be noted that in order to better reflect the difference in microscopic morphology and failure mechanism of different vane areas, point 8 with the largest thickness was not selected, as it represents the transition zone between the pressure side and the leading edge. However, point 7, the pressure side area close to point 8, was selected for analysis and demonstration.

Fig.5 Micromorphology (a) and EDS analysis result (b) of MCrAlY coating on the trailing edge of the vane
By comparison with other APU guide vane components that have failed in actual work, it can be found that the substrate has been exposed after the coating spallation due to the serious oxidation level of the trailing edge. In some certain areas, the substrate has even been ablated, resulting in material missing, as shown in

Fig.6 Material missing from the trailing edge of APU guide vane due to ablation
It should be noted that although the micro-cracks appearing here may be caused by thermal fatigue of the coating material, the phenomenon is mainly affected by high temperature ablation, because the thickness of the coating has been significantly reduced. In addition, as the MCrAlY layer and the Al-Si layer are both metal coatings, the difference in coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) between them is very small; according to Slámečka et al's researc
The microstructure morphology of MCrAlY coating at point 7 (pressure side) is shown in

Fig.7 Micromorphology (a) and EDS analysis result (b) of MCrAlY coating in vane's basin area
According to the foregoing, it can be concluded that the failure modes of the trailing edge and the pressure side of the vane are both high-temperature oxidative damage, but the severity is different. By comparing the trailing edge and pressure side of the vane, it can be seen that there is a significant difference in the remaining thickness of the coating in these two areas. The coating in the trailing edge region is significantly much thinner while the coating oxidation degree in the pressure side is lower. This is because the airflow distribution inside the vane is different, the airflow path at and inside the pressure side near the leading edge is better, and the airflow can take away more heat, so the heat dissipation performance is the best and the degree of oxidation is the lowest. On the contrary, the internal vent space of the trailing edge is small and narrow, so the airflow is poor. Meanwhile, the internal processing technology at the trailing edge is difficult, and the high ambient temperature leads to severer oxidation of the trailing edge coating. In the previous research, Sadowski et a

Fig.8 Temperature distribution of blade pressure surface when 1000 °C is applied for 200 s

Fig.9 Micromorphologies of MCrAlY coating in different areas at point 10 of the leading edge of vane
Meanwhile, combined with EDS analysis of oxidation corrosion products on the surface of MCrAlY coating in

Fig.10 EDS analysis results of oxidation corrosion products on different surface areas of MCrAlY coating at the leading edge of the vane
The effect of CMAS on high temperature protective coatings depends on composition and the operating temperature of the hot-section components. Under lower temperature conditions (below 735 °C), CMAS particles im-pinge on the coating surface, which can lead to corrosion and wear damage, blockage of cooling holes, and partial spalling of the coatin
At the same time, as the vane's leading edge is directly scoured by the airflow, this position is the highest point of the flame temperature that the entire vane is subjected to during servic

Fig.11 Temperature distribution of high temperature airflow in the vane are

Fig.12 Coating thinning and spallation caused by CMAS corrosion-high temperature oxidation coupling effect
1) There are two different high temperature protective coating structures in aircraft APU guide vanes. The coatings at the vane's trailing edge, pressure side and leading edge are aluminized+MCrAlY structure, while the vane's suction side is a single Al-Si coating structure. This is because the upper surface of the vane, which is the suction side, is not directly scoured by the airflow, where the heat convection is weaker than other areas, so the thermal resistance requirement is lower than that of the vane's leading edge, pressure side and trailing edge. Therefore, in order to optimize the structure and save cost, only aluminized coating is prepared in this area. On the contrary, the actual working conditions of the vane's leading edge, pressure side and trailing edge are more severe, so it is necessary to add MCrAlY metal coating to enhance the thermal insulation property.
2) The coating thickness of failed APU guide vanes varies with the change of configuration areas. From the vanes trailing edge to pressure side and leading edge, the thickness of the MCrAlY coating increases first and then decreases. For the MCrAlY coating with the original thickness of 80 μm, the coating thickness from the very front of the pressure side to the trailing edge is reduced quasi-linearly from 70 μm to 20 μm. However, the lowest value of the coating thickness appears in the windward area of the vane's leading edge, with a thickness of only about 10 μm.
3) The coating thickness changes are caused by different failure modes in different areas. The SEM and EDS results show that due to airflow distribution difference inside the vane, the airflow path in the pressure side adjacent to the leading edge is better, and the airflow can take away more heat, so the heat dissipation performance is relatively good, hence the coating presents a high integrity with a low degree of oxidation. However, the small interior ventilation space at the trailing edge results in poor airflow, so air holes are more likely to be blocked. In this case, less heat is carried away by the airflow, thus resulting in a greater oxidative damage to the trailing edge coating.
4) The damage of the MCrAlY coating on the leading edge of the vane is the most serious. The MCrAlY coating in some area almost completely disappears, and the aluminized coating is also oxidized. Since the leading edge of the vane is located on the scouring surface, the scour surface encounters high temperature air flow during the operation of the APU, and is eroded by dusts, sands, volcanic ashes and other impurities in the fuel and/or atmosphere. Therefore, the failure mode of the coating in this area is mainly CMAS corrosion, while it also has a certain degree of high temperature oxidative damage due to the highest temperature of the airflow.
5) Through a comprehensive analysis of the scrapped components of the APU high-pressure turbine guide vane, the damage mode and failure mechanism of the different configuration areas of the vane are obtained. This helps to accumulate original data for the continuous airworthiness of aero-engine and APU key components, and fundamentally improves the reliability, availability, maintainability and safety of aircraft.
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