INTRODUCTION

In a gas turbine engine, a single turbine section is made up of a disk or hub that
holds many turbine blades. That turbine section is connected to a compressor
section via a shaft (or "spool"), and that compressor section can either
be axial or centrifugal. Air is compressed, raising the pressure and temperature,
through the compressor stages of the engine. The temperature is then greatly
increased by combustion of fuel inside the combustor, which sits between the
compressor stages and the turbine stages. The high temperature and high
pressure exhaust gases then pass through the turbine stages. The turbine stages
extract energy from this flow, lowering the pressure and temperature of the air
and transfer the kinetic energy to the compressor stages along the spool. This
process is very similar to how an axial compressor works, only in reverse.
The number of turbine stages varies in different types of engines, with high
bypass ratio engines tending to have the most turbine stages. The number of
turbine stages can have a great effect on how the turbine blades are designed for
each stage. Many gas turbine engines are twin spool designs, meaning that there
is a high pressure spool and a low pressure spool. Other gas turbines use three
spools, adding an intermediate pressure spool between the high and low
pressure spool. The high pressure turbine is exposed to the hottest, highest
pressure air, and the low pressure turbine is subjected to cooler, lower pressure
air. That difference in conditions leads the design of high pressure and low
pressure turbine blades to be significantly different in material and cooling
choices even though the aerodynamic and thermodynamic principles are the
same.

TYPES OF MATERIAL
a) Ceramics
A ceramic is
an inorganic,
non-metallic solid comprising metal, nonmetal or metalloid atoms primarily held in ionic and covalent bonds.
The crystallinity of ceramic materials ranges from highly oriented to semicrystalline, and often completely amorphous (e.g., glasses). Varying crystallinity
and electron consumption in the ionic and covalent bonds cause most ceramic
materials to be good thermal and electrical insulators and extensively researched
in ceramic engineering. Nevertheless, with such a large range of options, the
breadth of the subject is vastly extensive, and identifiable attributes are hard to
specify for the group as a whole. Thus, generalities such as high melting
temperature, high hardness, poor conductivity, high moduli of elasticity,
chemical resistance and low ductility are given.

b) Titanium
Chemical element, Ti, atomic number 22 and atomic weight 47.90. Its chemical
behaviour shows many similarities with that or silica and zirconium, as an
element belonging to the first transition group. Its chemistry in aqueous
solution, especially in the lower oxidation states, has some similarities with that
of chrome and vanadium. Titanium is a transition metal light with a whitesilvery-metallic colour. It is strong, lustrous, and corrosion-resistant. Pure
titanium is not soluble in water but is soluble in concentrated acids. This metal
forms a passive but protective oxide coating (leading to corrosion-resistance)

when exposed to elevated temperatures in air but at room temperatures it resists

tarnishing.

c) Nickel
Nickel is silvery-white, hard, malleable, and ductile metal. It is of the iron group
and it takes on a high polish. It is a fairly good conductor of heat and electricity.
In its familiar compounds nickel is bivalent, although it assumes other valences.
It also forms a number of complex compounds. Most nickel compounds are
blue or green. Nickel dissolves slowly in dilute acids but, like iron, becomes
passive when treated with nitric acid. Finely divided nickel adsorbs hydrogen.
d) Superalloy
A superalloy, or high-performance alloy, is an alloy that exhibits excellent
mechanical strength and resistance to creep at high temperatures; good surface
stability; and corrosion and oxidation resistance. Super alloys are commonly
used in parts of gas turbine engines that are subject to high temperatures and
require high strength, excellent high temperature creep resistance, fatigue life,
phase stability, and oxidation and corrosion resistance.

e) Polycrystalline metals
Polycrystalline materials are solids that are composed of many crystallites of
varying size and orientation. Crystallites are also referred to as grains. They are
small or even microscopic crystals and form during the cooling of many
materials. Their orientation can be random with no preferred direction, called
random texture, or directed, possibly due to growth and processing
conditions. Fibre texture is an example of the latter. The areas where crystallite
grains meet are known as grain boundaries. While the structure of a
(monocrystalline) crystal is highly ordered and its lattice is continuous and
unbroken, amorphous materials, such as glass and polymers, are non-crystalline
and do not display any structures as their constituents are not arranged in an
ordered manner.

f) Platinum
It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, greywhite transition metal. Platinum is the least reactive metal. It has remarkable

resistance to corrosion, even at high temperatures, and is therefore considered

a noble metal. Consequently, platinum is often found chemically uncombined as
native platinum. Because it occurs naturally in the alluvial sands of various
rivers.

SELECTION OF MATERIAL
In conclusion, the best material of making the turbine blade is superalloy. There
are many types of superalloy. To be more specific, in the process of making
turbine blade, single-crystal superalloy is highly recommended. Single-crystal
superalloy is forms as a single using a modified version of the directional
solidification technique, so there are no grain boundaries in the material. The
mechanical properties of most other alloys depend on the presence of grain
boundaries, but at high temperatures, they would participate in creep and must
be replaced by other mechanisms. Creep is also sometimes called cold flow, it is
the tendency of a solid material to move slowly or deform permanently under
the influence of mechanical stresses. In many such alloys, islands of an ordered
intermetallic phase sit in a matrix of disordered phase, all with the same
crystalline lattice. This approximates the dislocation-pinning behaviour of grain
boundaries, without introducing any amorphous solid into the structure. Single
crystal superalloys have wide application in the high pressure turbine section of
aero and industrial gas turbine engines due to the unique combination of
properties and performance. Since introduction of single crystal casting
technology, single crystal superalloy development has focused on increased
temperature capability, and major improvements in alloy performance have
been associated with the introduction of new alloying elements, including
rhenium (Re) and ruthenium (Ru). Thus, single-crystal superalloy is the best
material for turbine blade.

Manufacturing Process
a) Investment Casting
There are many methods of casting alloys, nevertheless, turbine blades
are usually made by investment casting method or otherwise known as
lost-wax casting method. Investment casting is one of the oldest casting
methods there are, dating around 5000 years ago. It is preferred in
making turbine blades since the method can create casting with intricate
details. In order to increase the thermodynamics efficiency of the jet
turbine engine, operating temperature of the engine must be sufficiently
high, especially in the high pressure turbine section. A limiting factor is
the operational temperature of turbine blades in that section, which
rotate at extremely high speed and endure high stresses and
temperature. Thus, any increase in the working temperature can
adversely affect the service life of those blades. As a result, engineers
have designed the turbine blade such that cooling is done internally by
adding holes and passages inside the blade itself. The network of
passages allows cool air to be pumped through the centre of the blade
and escape through holes at the surface, covering the blade in a film of
cool air. Machining the internal cooling passages from a single block of
alloy would prove to be impossible. Therefore, investment casting is
used to create the complete detailed structure of the turbine blade.

The process has the following steps. First, a wax model is created. This
is done by injecting molten wax into a master mould to solidify around
ceramic cores which will form the cooling passages in the completed
turbine blade. Pinning wire is pressed through the wax to butt against
the ceramic core in the model. Next, several models can connect with
replicas of runners and risers to form cluster so several blades can be
casted at a time.

Then the investment shell is produced by dipping the model in ceramic

slurries of alumina, silica, zirconium and other binding agents. Next,
the model is covered with larger particles of the same materials as the
slurries. This operation is repeated a few time until the investment shell
reach the required thickness. After that, the shell is heated to melt away
the wax inside while leaving the ceramic core intact. Then, it is heated
again to strengthen the structure of the shell. Precise positioning of the
ceramic core and maintaining such position throughout the mold
preparation and casting process is required. However, the core have
high length-to-diameter ratio and therefore can only be poorly
supported in the mold.

To solve this problem, pinning wires are employed to hold the ceramic
core in place for the whole process. Typically, seven to ten pins are used
for a 2-inch thick turbine blade.

After the mold is preheated and degassed, it is ready to be poured with

molten single-crystal superalloy. The pouring process happen in a
vacuum at around 1500 degree Celsius. The cooling process is then
controlled meticulously to create the precise microstructures, this
process is called directional solidification. Directional solidification is
a metal casting term. It refers to the process of controlled feeding of the
molten metal into a temperature-controlled mold to produce a part that
is free of hollow spots, called shrink defects. Directional solidification
is also used to refine the metal during the casting process because the
impurities found in the molten metal will continue to rise to the surface
of the pool, following the path of least resistance as they are pushed up
by the solid materials below. In the directional solidification process,
the molten metal at the far end of the mold begins to cool and solidify
before the rest of the mold does. As the metal on the bottom of the mold
cools, this line of solidification moves steadily upward toward the
molten metal feed. By controlling the rate of flow for the molten metal
feed and introducing thermal variations in the mold, shrink defects can
be eliminated, because the liquid metal will naturally run into these dips
and vacant areas. The performance and service life of the blade is
largely determined by the grains structure. Blades used in the hottest
parts of the engine are usually made up of directionally solidified grain
or single crystal for the best performance. Single crystal is a process
and apparatus for the production of a single-crystal article, such as a
turbine blade, by casting a molten metal into a casting mold with a

single crystal seed crystal at the bottom of the casting mold. The casting
mold is heated and vacuum-purified after which the seed crystal is
introduced into an opening at the bottom of the mold in a matter of a
few seconds where after the molten metal is immediately cast onto the
seed crystal in the casting mold. The seed crystal is carried by a holder
which is lifted to bring the seed crystal into the open bottom of the
casting mold in sealed relation in the mold.

After the turbine blade solidifies, the investment shell is broken off.
Then, the ceramic core is taken out by chemical solution. The turbine
blade then goes through some minor machining to acquire its final
shape. After the product is done, the product is then added a layer of
protection. The process is called thermal barrier coating which is the
most common used in combustion sections of aircraft turbine engines.
With the demand for fuel economy and increased power, combustion
temperatures are approaching the design limits of the metal alloys from
which turbine components are made. The use of thermal barrier
coatings in this and other application enables the use of the alloys at
higher temperatures, by reducing the temperature to which the parts are
exposed. With the ability of thermal spray to apply an almost limitless
number of materials, well-engineered thermal barrier coatings can be
produced to solve even some of the most complex thermal barrier
problems. After the product is done, it is send for inspection.

Flow of Processes of Investment Casting

Summary of Investment Casting

Manufacture wax
Combine
pattern
blades with raiser
andthe
runner
Dipping
model in ceramic slurries
Dewaxing

Mold is preheated
Single crystal
Pinning wires are Heated
employed
to strengthen the structu
Inspection

Directional solidification
Pouring process
Breaking off Removing
mold
ceramic core

Thermal barrier coating pro

Final product

b) Forging
Forging is another alternative method of making turbine blade. The present
invention relates to a method of forging turbine blade, which comprises forging
a plurality of turbine blades as an integrally connected body in a longitudinal
direction, and then separating the integrally connected body into said respective
turbine blades. According to the method of the invention, a yield of material can
be improved as compared with the conventional art and the number of processes
for forging work can be reduced. In addition, the turbine blades cab be forged
into a favourable shape without occurring cracks. Further, it is possible to
effectively reduce the cost for the die required for the forging work.

Selection of Process
In conclusion, investment casting will be recommended as the process ensures
the production with a high dimensional accuracy, excellent surface finish and no
flash or parting lines turbine blades. Forging is not suitable because the surface
finish is not as good as investment casting. However, this can be resolve by
using machining operations to produce a better surface.

Pros and Cons

Types of
process
Investmen
t casting

Forging

Advantages
-

reduces the need of machining

can create a complex structure
high level of accuracy
can be done automatically
Increase in ductile strength
Reduction in the pore size
High temperature helps in
removal of homogeneous
substances due to increased
diffusion

Disadvantages
- high cost of production
- size limitation
- require much time
- Lesser tolerance
- Warping of material
during the cooling
- Undesirable result due
to reaction of metal
with that of
surroundings

- Varied metal structure

Improvement
1) Thermal barrier coatings process is the additional step that is added
into the process that has been discussed earlier. It helps improve
corrosion and oxidation resistance, both of which become greater
concerns as temperatures increased.

2) The investment casting permeability can be improved by using

Graphite particles. The mold must be capable of allowing gases to
pass through with at least the same rate as molten metal enters the
mold. If gases cannot exit the mold faster than it is filled, then air
pressure increases within the mold. This build-up of pressure can
result in incomplete mold filling, shell cracking and gas defects in
castings.
3) Analysis and study of casting defects to improve casting yield. The
yield of investment castings is the percentage of total weight of
qualified castings and total weight of material which is input metal
furnace. Investment castings with internal defects, which are
assembled in the equipment, will bring unpredictable hazard to
production. It will not only shorten the service life, but also causing
accidents.

References
1) http://www.iom3.org/feature/materials-through-ages-materialsaeroplane-engines

2) http://www.thelibraryofmanufacturing.com/investment_casting.htm
l
3) http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-directional-solidification.htm
4) http://www.tstcoatings.com/thermal_barrier.html
5) http://www.joinville.udesc.br/portal/professores/verran/materiais/A
rtigo_Tania.pdf
6) http://www.china-investmentcastings.com/The-key-to-improveyield-of-investment-castings.html
7) http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/44305#files-area
8) http://www.articlesbase.com/business-ideas-articles/advantagesdisadvantages-of-forging-process-4856077.html
9) http://ppcpinc.com/investment-casting-advantages-disadvantages/