Manufacturing of Titanium Spherical and Hollow Cylinder Vessel Using Blow Forming

Abstract

Titanium alloys have been widely used in aeronautics and aerospace industries due to their high strength, good corrosion resistance and low density. Since many aerospace vehicle systems require high performance lightweight pressurized vessel for storage of propellant, nitrogen, oxygen, or other medium, the titanium alloy is one of the excellent candidates for this purpose. Conventionally spin forming and TIG welding process have been applied to manufacture titanium spherical vessel. In this work, an innovational method of blow forming and solid state bonding technology has been developed to save manufacturing cost and reduce weight of titanium vessel. High temperature behavior of titanium alloy was characterized and according to this result, solid state bonding process was established with demonstration of manufacturing spherical and hollow cylinder pressure vessel. The optimum condition for solid state bonding of this alloy was obtained by applying hydrostatic pressure of 4MPa at 1148K for 1 hour. For blow forming, the pressure profile was developed using MARC software and the maximum pressure of 30MPa was applied. The structural integrity of the vessel was demonstrated by performing a hydraulic pressurization test.