ASSIGNMENT 3 (JULY 2019)

FOR EACH ANSWER, YOU MUST INCLUDE THE SOURCE OF THE ANSWER (INCLUDING PAGE &
TITLE OF THE BOOKS/ JOURNAL/ MANUAL/ MAGAZINE OR WITH WEBSITE ADDRESS IF
ONLINE)

1. What is a turbine blade? Define.

- Individual component which makes up the turbine section of a gas turbine or

steam turbine.
- The blades extracting energy from the high temperature, high pressure gas
produced by the combustor.
- The turbine blades are often the limiting component of gas turbines.

https://www.thefreedictionary.com/turbine+blade

2. What are the forces the turbine blades are subjected to? Explain.
- Turbine blades are subjected to stress from centrifugal force and reaction force.
- Centrifugal force is the force acting on the blades due to change in radius of steam
entering and leaving the turbine.
- Reaction force is due to the change in momentum relative velocity of the steam
while passing over the blade passages.
- Resultant force is the resultant of reaction force and centrifugal force.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbine_blade
3. Material:
a. Explain the various materials that can be used for turbine blades.

- Most of the turbine blades are made of steel forged or nickel alloy as it
can withstand high temperature form the hot gases direct form the
combustor. In high pressure turbine, nickel super-alloy is used as it is
known for its strength and stability at high temperature. For low
pressure turbine, iron based super-alloy or even stainless steel as the
heat in that region is not high as in the high pressure turbine.

b. What is the material currently being used for turbine blades?

- Turbine blades are still made out of nickel super-alloy. However, a
new method of producing turbine blades using ceramic matrix
composite (CMC) as the core of the blades and using single crystal
(SC) to align the grain of the blades to reduces the blade creep
significantly and double the life of the turbine blades. The ceramic
matrix composite is then reinforced with silicon carbide. The
advantages of the CMC is that it is lighter and can withstand higher
temperature than super-alloy.

https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/25645/what-material-is-used-to-make-the-
hot-sections-of-jet-engines
4. Explain the factors to be considered in the selection of turbine blade materials.
- Most of the turbine blades are made of steel forged or nickel alloy
- it can withstand high temperature form the hot gases direct form the
combustor.
- In high pressure turbine, nickel super-alloy is used as it is known for its strength
and stability at high temperature.
- For low pressure turbine, iron based super-alloy or even stainless steel as the
heat in that region is not high as in the high pressure turbine.

Khawaja Hassan, The International Journal of Multiphysics 8(1):91-100 · March 2014

5. Briefly explain the various manufacturing techniques for turbine blades.
- Hot isostatic pressing
 In the early days of making turbine blades, where most turbine blades are
made of alloys, it was made by forging the alloy into desired shape. The
machine has the 2 separate cast mold that hold the negative imprints of the
turbine blades. It presses the mold (alloy) into a turbine shape at static
pressure. The alloy was melted by using vacuum induction melting.

- Investment casting
 Nowadays turbine blades are hollow for cooling purposes. So this technique is
suitable since it can make holes and air passage from the start of
manufacturing. Its starts with a ceramic cast of a negative imprints turbine
blades, then the ceramic core is put inside the cast to act as a air passage for
the turbine blade. Melted alloy is then filled the cast. The ceramic will not react
however it will be removed by chemical reaction. This process has high level of
accuracy rather than hot isostatic pressing.
 - Single crystal method
 Turbine blades needs to operate at high temperature due to direct hit from
the combustor. The blades must be strong enough to withstand the high heat
without being deformed of creeping. There for, turbine blades are made using
metal with directionally solidified crystal structure to limit the weakness at the
grain boundaries. Molten super alloy is poured into a mold placed on a water
cooled copper chill. On the chill surface, some grains will form and grow in one
uniform direction parallel to the temperature gradient created by the radiation
and cooling. Bridgeman-Stockbarger technique is than employed to continue
the process to produce a single crystal at the tip of the cast and produce one
single crystal blade.

https://www.academia.edu/24321203/The_manufacturing_process_of_jet_turbine_blades
6. Describe the various blade fixing techniques (methods of fixing blades on the rotor disk).
- Multi-layer cladding

 This technique is used for single crystal jet turbine blades. To

regenerate cracked material it is necessary to remove the crack
affected material. The used notch geometries to remove the crack-
affected area must be weldable and also permit the material
solidification in the same oriented plane as the original microstructure.
To solidify in the original structure a thermal gradient has to be
introduced in order to guide the grain growth. This required gradient
can be established by inductive heating. To reduce the thermal effected
zone, a laser source is used. In addition, it is also an efficient process to
fill the notch. Also the small local heat input and controlled material
supply support the epitaxial growth. However, there are requirements
to achieve a SX structure without cracks and pores.

- Coupon repair

 vanes experience damage in service that requires restoration of the

airfoil leading edge. When this happens, the most effective way to
restore the area is by physically removing the damaged section and
replacing it with a pre-manufactured leading edge section, otherwise
referred to as a “coupon
- Dimensional restoration

 Methods such as Welding, Bending, and machining as well as elevated

temperature plastic strain restoration techniques are used
 to repair dimensional deformations such as the ones caused by heat
expansion as well as breakage in service exposed blades and vanes. The
type of distortion experienced is a result of many factors, such as the
base alloy material properties, geometry, vane cooling, repairs
performed, and operational history 24 Vanes and blade are carefully
heated up to increase their ductility, the vanes are mounted on a
specially designed tooling and a load is placed on it to so as to plastically
strain it to acceptable dimensional requirements.
- Braze Restoration of cracks

 Brazing in general is used for the repair of hot gas pat components. It
involves the use of materials with a lower melting point than the base
metal to be repaired, frequently mixed in various ratios with powders
close to base material composition. The brazing process offers a
number of major potential benefits, compared to the more commonly
used weld repair processes. The uniform heating of the whole part can
lead to a reduced risk of dimensional deviation. The braze process
features a high repeatability rate
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/moving-blade
7. Why the turbine blades are to be cooled?
- To reduce the blade metal temperature acceptable levels for the materials
increasing on thermal capability of the engine.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbine_blade#cite_note-15

8. Explain the problems encountered in high temperature operation.

- High temperature can damage the turbine blades, as it goes under large
centrifugal stresses and weaker at high temperature.

https://www.powermag.com/steam-turbine-rotor-vibration-failures-causes-and-solutions/.
9. What is meant by internal and external cooling of turbine blades? Explain.
Internal Cooling

i. Convection Cooling
- Works by passing air through passages internal to the blade.
- Heat is transferred by conduction through the blade and convection into air going
through blades
- Cooling is achieved by air passes through the hubs towards the blade tips.
- Cooling comes from air compressor.

ii. Impingement Cooling

- Works by hitting inner surface of the blades with high velocity air.
- This allowing heat to be transfer compared to regular convection.
- Cooling air enters from Leading Edge to Trailing Edge of the blades.

External Cooling

i. Film Cooling
- Pumping the cooling air out of the blade through multiple small holes or slots in
the structure.
- A thin layer film of cooling air is then created on the external surface of the blade,
reducing the heat transfer from main flow.

ii. Cooling Fusion

- Cooling air is forced through these porous holes which forms a film or cooler
boundary layer.
- This uniform cooling is caused by effusion of the coolant over the entire blade
surface.
 iii. Pin Fin Cooling
- Narrow trailing edge film cooling is used to enhance heat transfer from the blade.
- There is an array of pin fins on the blade surface, heat transfer takes place from
this array and through the side walls.

iv. Transpiration Cooling

- This is similar to film cooling in that it creates a thin film of cooling air on the blade,
but it is different in that air is "leaked" through a porous shell rather than injected
through holes.
Air flows through internal channels of the strut and then passes through the
porous shell to cool the blade.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/blade-cooling