NASA Glenn has been directly involved in the effort to bring these materials to turbine hot section components. The NASA Ultra Efficient Engine Technology program (UEET) was focused on driving the next generation of turbine engine technology. Currently, the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) Thrust 3 for Ultra-Efficient Commercial Vehicles focuses on the development and demonstration of advanced high-temperature materials which are capable of surviving the extreme environments of turbine combustion and CMAS attack.
In the commercial sector, the Rolls Royce Trent 1000 and Trent XWB engines are being developed for the Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 XWB aircraft, respectively. The Trent 1000 was the launch engine for the Boeing 787. These are large markets where the benefit of this technology will have a lasting impact in efficiency and cost. By working closely with Rolls Royce during the early stages of this development program, MR&D has ensured that the resulting products will meet the requirements of future customers. Rolls Royce has expressed a serious interest in this technology and, as demonstrated above, has a sizable market for its application. The aerospace industry is not the only potential beneficiary of this technology. The Department of Defense (DoD) is working hard to improve environmental barrier coatings' resistance to CMAS attack. The proposed modeling effort could be used to both improve existing CMAS damage models for in-service components and to aid in the evaluation of new coatings exposed to a wide range of CMAS compositions.
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