RESEARCH AND OPTIMIZATION OF REFURBISHMENT OF HPT BLADES OF THE D-18T AIRCRAFT GAS TURBINE ENGINE BY MICRO-PLASMA POWDER WELDING

Abstract

In current work, peculiarities of the micro-plasma powder welding deposition process applied to the batch refurbishment of D-18T aircraft engine HPT blades made of ZhS32-VI nickel superalloy with limited weldability have been studied. It has been demonstrated that extending operating resource over 6-8 thousand hours leads to an increase in ZhS32-VI “base-deposited metal” weld’s cracking susceptibility during welding and subsequent thermal processing operations. It has been shown that providing stable forming of deposited bead on the shroud edge’s surface requires applying nonstationary impulse modes of straight polarity welding current. Considering the significant amount of technological parameters of the process studied, subjective analysis of such welding modes is extremely complicated. We have introduced the method of specifying requirements for such single-layer micro-plasma powder welding deposition modes with welding current in a range of 7-20 A according to the criteria of effective arc heating power and heat input, which involves using the system for registration and digital processing of welding current-welding bead deposition time dependency. Based on the analysis of statistical data on the quantitative evaluation of cracking susceptibility of the investigated weld, the optimal range of average values has been discovered for these generalized welding deposition mode parameters to be applied in a manual or automated process, which provides no more than several percent of cracked blades detected at the end of refurbishment technological cycle. We have shown that significant technological parameters, which affect the amount of technological defects during mentioned blades’ refurbishment, are the average value of effective welding current and ZhS32 superalloy powder quality, primarily determined by oxygen and nitrogen average weight content in its dispersed particles. It was also shown that the increase in average weight content of gas impurities in the filler powder, primarily oxygen, causes a significant increase in energy consumed on deposited bead formation during the micro-plasma powder deposition process. An initial quality control method for the ZhS32-VI filler powder range has been proposed. The method is based on the average weight content of oxygen and nitrogen, evaluated by reducing fusion in transporting gas flow and on evaluation criteria of effective arc heating power and heat input average values of witness sample blades’ refurbishment process and their conformity to previously defined optimal. An evaluation of future application possibilities for registration systems and deposition mode analysis in batch repair conditions of nickel superalloy aircraft parts has been introduced.