USC steam turbine blading Federico Cernuschi*, Lorenzo Lorenzoni*, Cristina Guardamagna*, Davide Robba** 9th Liege Conference on material for advanced power engineering Liege, Belgio, 27-29 Settembre 2010 * RSE SpA ** CESI SpA The main objective of COST536 Action is to develop highly efficient steam power plant with low emissions, from innovative alloy development to validation of component integrity. In this perspective, to improve the operating efficiency, materials capable of withstanding higher operating temperatures are required. For the manufacturing of components for steam power plants with higher efficiency, steels and nickel-based alloys with improved oxidation resistance and creep strength at temperature as high as 650°C – 700°C have to be developed. Candidate alloys for manufacturing high pressure steam turbine diaphragms, buckets, radial seals and control valves should exhibit, among other properties, a good resistance at the erosion phenomena induced by hard solid particles. Ferric oxide (magnetite) scales cause SPE by exfoliating from boiler tubes and steam pipes (mainly super-heaters and re-heaters) and being transported within the steam flow to the turbine. In order to comparatively study the erosion behaviour of different materials in relatively short times, an accelerated experimental simulation of the erosion phenomena must be carried out. Among different techniques to induce erosion on material targets, the use of an air jet tester is well recognised to be one of the most valid and reliable. In this work the results of SPE comparative tests performed at high temperatures (550°C, 600°C and 650°C) at different impaction angles on some steels and nickel based alloys samples are reported.