Fretting wear of CMSX4 at blade tip interface with and without coating

Fretting wear is a complex phenomenon that occurs at component interfaces that are subjected to low amplitude oscillation under high contact pressure. In turbomachinery fretting occurs also at the blade tip interfaces where shrouds, that have the aim to reduce the blade resonant vibration amplitude, are machined. To diminish the fretting damage coatings are applied to the blade tips. The aim of this study is to compare the fretting wear behaviour of single crystal CMSX-4 superalloy interfaces with and without plasma sprayed T-800 coating. Experiments have been conducted with hemispherical surface in contact with a flat surface of the same materials at temperature of 800 °C. The hysteresis cycles have been measured through the experiment. The comparison of the hysteresis cycles shown that the tangential contact stiffness of the coated surfaces is greater then that of the surfaces without coating. At the end of wear process, the mating surfaces have been characterized by three-dimensional optical interferometry and SEM analysis. After 10×106 wear cycles, the uncoated surfaces show a large change in the contact parameters and fretting cracks on the flat surface. On the other hand, the coated surfaces do not shows a measurable change in the contact parameters while the coating damage on the flat surface leads to predict an incipient catastrophic wear.