Experimental Investigations on Aircraft Blade Cooling Holes and CFD Fluid Analysis in Electrochemical Machining

Mingxia Chai,Hongjuan Yan,Xiaoyu Sun,Zhiyong Li

doi:10.1155/2019/4219323

Abstract

The flow field distribution in an interelectrode gap is one of the important factors that affect the machining accuracy and surface quality in the electrochemical machining (ECM) process for aircraft blades. In the ECM process, some process parameters, e.g., machining clearance, processing voltage, and solution concentration, may result in electrolyte fluid field to be complex and unstable, which makes it very difficult to predict and control the machining accuracy of ECM. Therefore, 30 sets of experiments for cooling hole making in ECM were carried out, and furthermore, the machining accuracy and stability of cooling hole were concentrated. In addition, the flow channel of the geometrical model of the gap flow field was established and analyzed according to the electrolyte flow state simulation by CFD. The effects of the flow velocity mode on the machining accuracy and stability for cooling hole making were investigated and determined in detail.

Highlights

With the development of aviation technology, modern aircraft engines can generate higher power for the same unit size and improve fuel efficiency
A study by Jain and Pandey showed that the accuracy of holes could greatly be improved by use of bits rather than bare tools as electrochemical machining (ECM) tools, and they found that the overcut difference between the top and bottom of the drilled hole is less than 5 mm [7]
Is paper mainly studied the influences of ECM parameters on the machining accuracy, stability, and efficiency in aircraft cooling hole making by the STEM process. e modes of the electrolyte flow field were determined by computational fluid dynamics (CFD)

Summary

Introduction

With the development of aviation technology, modern aircraft engines can generate higher power for the same unit size and improve fuel efficiency. From the results of the electrochemical drilling process using the regression analysis, ANOVA, and Taguchi technique, Rao et al [12] completed the optimization of machining parameters and established a radial overcut model. By using this model and referring to the optimization parameters, the quality of the holes in the actual production can be improved. Is paper mainly studied the influences of ECM parameters (applied voltage U and electrolyte concentration ξ) on the machining accuracy, stability, and efficiency in aircraft cooling hole making by the STEM process. The effects of the electrolyte flow field mode on EMC efficiency were analyzed based on CFD computing results in detail

Experimental Setup and STEM Process

Experiment Works

CFD Analysis of Electrolyte Flow Field

Section 1 Section 2 Section 3 Section 4 Section 5

Findings

Conclusions