FROM EARLY DEVELOPMENT TO INDUSTRY'S SUCCESSFUL ADOPTION, THE JOURNEY IN ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING COOLING TECHNOLOGY FOR IMPROVED GAS TURBINE CAPABILITIES

The power industry is a critical sector that fuels the global economy, heavily reliant on high-performance industrial gas turbines. Leading manufacturers of turbine hardware are continually investing in cutting-edge technologies to meet the industry's growing demands. Among these technologies, additive manufacturing has emerged as a game changer. In its early stages, additive manufacturing primarily focused on aspects such as powder morphology, process optimization and material properties characterizations. However, it quickly paved the way for the creation of innovative cooling designs for gas turbine components. Collaborations with prominent universities conducting fundamental experiments have been instrumental in gaining a deeper understanding of the advantages and challenges posed by these novel cooling design features and how they might perform in real engine conditions. A significant milestone was reached in 2018 when Power Systems Mfg., LLC (PSM) successfully conducted a groundbreaking technology demonstration, featuring an additively manufactured advanced cooling design airfoil running in a heavy-duty industrial turbine. This demonstration provided valuable insights and experiences that marked a turning point in the gas turbine industry's acceptance of this transformative technology. Since that pivotal moment, numerous gas turbine units around the globe have been operating with this adopted technology, with some surpassing the impressive milestone of three years in continuous operations. This paper provides detailed technological information related to the journey and present the latest field experience of an additively manufactured F class row 1 turbine nozzle equipped with advanced cooling solutions, as well as valuable lessons learned from applying additive manufacturing technology to enhance cooling designs, ultimately leading to improved gas turbine efficiency.