Accelerated Material Testing of Aero Engine Parts in a High Temperature Test Rig at Elevated Pressures

The here presented test rig allows to test cooled aero engine combustor parts at high temperatures up to 2100K and elevated pressures up to 10 bar. The test rig and the auxiliary facility are designed to increase and decrease the hot gas temperature in defined and repeatable cycles for lifetime testing. Damages due to low cycle fatigue are provoked with this accelerated testing where the data will be used for further life time modeling.
For receiving comparable conditions of aero engine combustors, which operate at comparable temperatures but higher pressures, the temperature gradients were matched by choosing the right temperature ratio of the coolant and hot gas.
The test rig was initially designed for testing of three combustor liner tiles and a maximum time of 20 seconds in the full load phase at high temperatures in a rectangular test section. The test section was modified providing a fourth slot for an additional combustor liner tile. Furthermore the full load time in the test cycle was extended to 70 seconds requiring an improvement of the exhaust gas cooler.
Overall 4500 cycles were completed after several improvements to the facility, which will be presented.