Advanced Materials and Technologies for Compressor Blades of Small Turbofan Engines

Dmytro Pavlenko,Yaroslav Dvirnyk,Radoslaw Przysowa

doi:10.3390/aerospace8010001

Dmytro Pavlenko, Yaroslav Dvirnyk + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace8010001

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Abstract

Manufacturing costs, along with operational performance, are among the major factors determining the selection of the propulsion system for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), especially for aerial targets and cruise missiles. In this paper, the design requirements and operating parameters of small turbofan engines for single-use and reusable UAVs are analysed to introduce alternative materials and technologies for manufacturing their compressor blades, such as sintered titanium, a new generation of aluminium alloys and titanium aluminides. To assess the influence of severe plastic deformation (SPD) on the hardening efficiency of the proposed materials, the alloys with the coarse-grained and submicrocrystalline structure were studied. Changes in the physical and mechanical properties of materials were taken into account. The thermodynamic analysis of the compressor was performed in a finite element analysis system (ANSYS) to determine the impact of gas pressure and temperature on the aerodynamic surfaces of compressor blades of all stages. Based on thermal and structural analysis, the stress and temperature maps on compressor blades and vanes were obtained, taking into account the physical and mechanical properties of advanced materials and technologies of their processing. The safety factors of the components were established based on the assessment of their stress-strength characteristics. Thanks to nomograms, the possibility of using the new materials in five compressor stages was confirmed in view of the permissible operating temperature and safety factor. The proposed alternative materials for compressor blades and vanes meet the design requirements of the turbofan at lower manufacturing costs.

Highlights

One of the most promising areas in the aerospace and defence industry is the development of unmanned aerial systems for various purposes
The analysis of the thermal and stress-strain state of the compressor blades and vanes, in combination with the tensile testing of the candidate alloys, made it possible to develop recommendations for their use: 1. It was found that the vanes of the first fifth stator stages can be made of sintered VT8 titanium alloy without strain hardening
The blades of the first fifth rotor stages can be made of sintered VT8 titanium alloy, subjected to severe plastic deformation (SPD) processing

Summary

Introduction

One of the most promising areas in the aerospace and defence industry is the development of unmanned aerial systems for various purposes. Small turbofan engines (Table 1) are designed for target drones (Streaker, Lakshya) and cruise missiles such as R-360 Neptune, Kite, Kh-55, Tomahawk and Harpoon Their main performance characteristics include a short life cycle (if used as weapons), small size and weight and, as a result, high thrust-to-weight ratio. Operation on an unmanned platform contributes to the fact that they are not subject to the aviation safety regulations Such engines are produced by JSC Motor Sich, SE Ivchenko Progress and a number of foreign firms. To ensure high efficiency, such turbofan engines rotate at several tens of thousands of revolutions per minute, which imposes special requirements on the design of their components and selection of materials First of all, they should exhibit high specific strength under static loads and a relatively low manufacturing cost. Their durability, due to the short life cycle and lack of pilot, is not of prime importance

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