Numerical simulation of directional solidification of single crystal turbine blade casting

Abstract

As the key parts of turbine engines, single crystal superalloy turbine blades directly determine the engine's performance and service time. In this paper, a mathematical model based on the modified cellular automaton and finite difference method was developed for the three-dimensional simulation of solidification process of single crystal turbine blade castings. Using a ray tracing method, the complex heat radiation among the multiple blade castings and the furnace wall was considered in the model. The microstructure evolution was simulated with the modified cellular automaton method. A discrete layer by layer calculation method was proposed to couple the macro- and microsimulations.Simulation results show that with proper varying withdrawal rates, it is possible to increase the productivity and avoid the grain defects at the same time for single crystal blade castings. Experiments with constant and varying withdrawal rates were carried out to validate the proposed model.