Real Blade Research Articles

Experimental research of helicopter blade load in flight based on optical sensing

Abstract The actual flight measurement of blade load is an extremely important part of the new helicopter. In order to solve the problems existing in the traditional electrical measurement method, such as weak anti-interference ability, short life, and large added mass, a flight measurement method of blade load based on optical sensing is proposed. Firstly, the strain mode distribution law is obtained by calculating the dynamic response of the real blade. The optimal layout of the optical fiber measurement points is determined. Through theoretical analysis of strain transferring and experimental verification, a highly reliable fusion scheme of blade and fiber is designed to meet the flight requirements. Based on the power line carrier technology, the optical sensing test system for helicopter flight test is developed. The flight test of blade load is completed successfully. The results of optical fiber measurement are consistent with the results of traditional electrical measurement, which indicates that the optical sensing technology has good applicability in the measurement of helicopter blade load. At the same time, it has been proved that the optical measurement system set is reliable and durable. It is of great significance for the leap from electric measurement to optical measurement.

Numerical investigation of residual stress and strain in blades caused by foreign body impact. Comparison of impact modeling on real blade and flat surface

Damage caused by the impact of a foreign object on the turbine blades is caused by the entry of millimeter-sized foreign particles such as sand, stones, or small pieces of broken parts. Consequently, the remaining damage resulting from the impact of a foreign body on the blades is in the form of geometrical discontinuities such as craters or grooves on the blades, which create suitable conditions for the creation and growth of cracks and the complete failure of the blades. One of the most important aspects of foreign body impact damage is the study of the resulting residual stresses at the impact site, which plays a significant role in the creation and growth of cracks. In the present article, the main aim of this work was to analyze the residual stresses due to foreign object damage by expanding the simulation on the blades, considering a real blade model as well as the leading-edge curvature effect. To validate the numerical modeling, the impact of a spherical particle on a flat plate was modeled and the residual stresses and damages resulting from the modeling were compared to the experimental results available in the articles. Finally, the impact of the spherical foreign body on different places of the leading edge of a blade with different impact velocities was investigated. Moreover, the examined blade sample was replaced with a plate with the same material, and the impact of the foreign object on the flat surface was modeled for two different service temperatures. In this study, the resulting residual stresses and strains in three critical areas were compared.

Remaining useful lifetime prediction for milling blades using a fused data prediction model (FDPM)

AbstractIn various industry sectors, predicting the real-life availability of milling applications poses a significant challenge. This challenge arises from the need to prevent inefficient blade resource utilization and the risk of machine breakdowns due to natural wear. To ensure timely and accurate adjustments to milling processes based on the machine's cutting blade condition without disrupting ongoing production, we introduce the Fused Data Prediction Model (FDPM), a novel temporal hybrid prediction model. The FDPM combines the static and dynamic features of the machines to generate simulated outputs, including average cutting force, material removal rate, and peripheral milling machine torque. These outputs are correlated with real blade wear measurements, creating a simulation model that provides insights into predicting the wear progression in the machine when associated with real machine operational parameters. The FDPM also considers data preprocessing, reducing the dimensional space to an advanced recurrent neural network prediction algorithm for forecasting blade wear levels in milling. The validation of the physics-based simulation model indicates the highest fidelity in replicating wear progression with the average cutting force variable, demonstrating an average relative error of 2.38% when compared to the measured mean of rake wear during the milling cycle. These findings illustrate the effectiveness of the FDPM approach, showcasing an impressive prediction accuracy exceeding 93% when the model is trained with only 50% of the available data. These results highlight the potential of the FDPM model as a robust and versatile method for assessing wear levels in milling operations precisely, without disrupting ongoing production.

Effect of wall curvature on heat transfer and hydrodynamics in a ribbed cooling passage

Simplified rectangular ribbed cooling passages with a flat wall are extensively considered in exploring the internal cooling features of turbine blades, but the realistic blade has a twisted shape inherently. The effects induced by the curved wall have not been clarified in detail. In this work, adopting a verified v2f turbulence model, numerical investigations are completed to evaluate the effects of the curved wall on the internal cooling characteristics of a ribbed channel. Adopting the unified ribbed channel, flat, convex, and concave walls with distinct curvatures are comprehensively evaluated and compared in a wide Re range for the turbulent flow and heat transfer features as well as the flow and thermal performance. It is found that using the flat wall, ribs can typically induce recirculation vortices having a two-dimensional nature. In contrast, the curved wall significantly contributes to the counter-rotating vortex pairs on the spanwise plane. Combined with recirculation vortices offered by the ribs, the turbulent flow of the cooling channel with the curved wall has a remarkable three-dimensional feature. Hence, the turbulent activity and fluid mixing are enhanced greatly along with the raised heat transfer enhancement and friction loss. Particularly, the convex wall with a curvature of K = 4 provides 28.6 % higher heat transfer performance (Nu/Nu0) but 88.4 % higher resistance (f/f0) than the flat wall. Considering the overall cooling performance, the concave wall with a relatively small curvature is suggested with an improvement of up to 32.8 % concerning the factor (Nu/Nu0)/(f/f0) and 9.5 % on (Nu/Nu0)/(f/f0)1/3. Finally, it is highlighted that considering the effect of the wall curvature, the current study stimulates the mechanistic understanding and provides a design guideline for high-performance blade internal cooling.

Thermal–Fluid–Solid Coupling Analysis on the Effect of Cooling Gas Temperature on the Fatigue Life of Turbine Blades with TBCs

The application of thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) can increase the blade’s operating temperature and fatigue life. Previous studies have neglected the effects of cooling gas temperature variations on the temperature field, stress field, and fatigue life of blades and TBCs. For this reason, this paper considers the inhomogeneity of the high-temperature gas inlet temperature, the internal cooling gas temperature, the periodicity of the external flow field, etc., and establishes a finite element model of the gas turbine blade with TBCs. Then, the life of the blade and the TBCs is predicted based on the Ncode 2020R2. Finally, the effect of the cooling gas temperature on the temperature, stresses, and life of the blade and the TBCs is analyzed. The results show that the fatigue life of the TBCs is lower than that of the blade, and the low-life region of the TBCs is located at the leading edge of the blade, which is consistent with the TBCs shedding region of the real blade and verifies the accuracy of the life prediction method in this paper. The fatigue life of the blade and TBCs firstly increases and then decreases with the increase in the cooling gas temperature, and the trend of the stress changes in the opposite direction. When the cooling gas temperature is increased from 573 K to 873 K, the minimum life of the blade is increased by 358.5%, and that of the TBCs is increased by 138.7%. The conclusions can provide guidance for the design of long-life turbine blades with TBCs.

Erosion modelling on reconstructed rough surfaces of wind turbine blades

AbstractNumerical simulations of rain droplet impacts on real rough surfaces of leading edges of wind turbine blades are presented. The effect of rough blade surface conditions during liquid impacts on the stress distribution in the protective coating is studied. Realistic rough surfaces of wind turbine blades, obtained from 3D reconstruction of real blades with photogrammetry, as well as artificially generated rough surfaces were introduced into finite element models of the droplet/blade coating interaction. Stress distributions in the protective coating with rough and flat surfaces were studied and compared. The results of the simulations suggest that roughness on the surface of the blade leads to increased stresses in the protective coating.

A statistical microstructures-based method for the prediction of mechanical properties in nickel-based single crystal alloys

ABSTRACT The γ/γ’ microstructure is a key factor for the mechanical performance of nickel-based single crystal superalloys. Experimental results have shown that the size and shape of the γ’ precipitates are not uniform and follow certain probability distributions. In order to study the effect of the microstructure on the mechanical behavior of the superalloys, a method is proposed to reproduce its initial microstructure with the distribution function of its γ′ particle size. The effect of different microstructures on the creep behavior at different locations of a real blade is predicted to demonstrate the application of the method. It can be found from the simulation results that the mechanical behavior of the blade is related to not only the thickness of the blade wall but also the position in the blade.

Vibration Analysis and Damping Effect of Blade-Hard Coating Composite Structure Based on Base Excitation.

Hard coatings are widely employed on blades to enhance impact resistance and mitigate fatigue failure caused by vibration. While previous studies have focused on the dynamic characteristics of beams and plates, research on real blades remains limited. Specifically, there is a lack of investigation into the dynamic characteristics of hard-coated blades under base excitation. In this paper, the finite element model (FEM) of blade-hard coating (BHC) composite structure is established based on finite element methods in which the hard coating (HC) material and the substrate are considered as the isotropic material. Harmonic response analysis is conducted to calculate the resonance amplitude of the composite under base excitation. Numerical simulations and experimental tests are performed to examine the effects of various HC parameters, including energy storage modulus, loss factors, coating thickness, and coating positions, on the dynamic characteristics and vibration reduction of the hard-coated blade composite structures. The results indicate that the difference in natural frequency and modal loss factor of blades increases with higher storage modulus and HC thickness. Moreover, the vibration response of the BHC decreases with higher storage modulus, loss factor, and coating thickness of the HC material. Blades with a complete coating exhibit superior damping effects compared to other coating distributions. These findings are significant for establishing accurate dynamic models of HC composite structures, assessing the effectiveness of HC vibration suppression, and guiding the selection and preparation of HC materials.

Modeling of Creep Deformation Behavior of DZ411 and Finite Element Simulation of Turbine Blade

Creep tests were conducted on DZ411 material at 930 °C and 850 °C, and creep curves were recorded and employed in normalization creep model building. A yield function suitable for directional solidification nickel-based materials was proposed in an ascending-order approach. Combined with the normalized creep model and the proposed function, a creep subroutine was compiled to simulate the creep deformation behavior of a turbine blade. The typical boundary conditions of the blade were determined and used for finite element analysis. According to the analysis results, the assessment positions for the actual application of a turbine blade were determined and checked for endurance intensity. The phenomenon of deviation angle between crystal axis and blade height direction in actual casting was further analyzed. Multiple angles and directional deviation angles were simulated for 10,000 h creep deformation. Considering the difficulties and challenges of the complex geometric structures of blades, it is necessary to conduct creep tests of DZ411 material and a simulation analysis of a real blade. Based on the above analysis and discussion, the present work sheds light on finite element analysis and has great potential for structural analyses in the engineering applications of complex high-temperature structures.

Global Prior Transformer Network in Intelligent Borescope Inspection for Surface Damage Detection of Aeroengine Blade

Surface damage detection is vital for diagnosis and monitoring of aero-engine blade. At present, borescope inspection is the dominant technology. Several inspectors hold borescope to inspect the blades one by one through naked eyes on the apron. The inspection of turbine blades even requires drilling into narrow aero-engine tail nozzle. The manual visual inspection is high cost and low efficiency. To improve detection efficiency and economic benefit, we propose an intelligent borescope inspection method in this paper. Facing the problem of weak damage information caused by background noise and unsatisfactory illumination, local window Transformer network efficiently models pixel-to-pixel relations with the help of global self-attention mechanism, shifted window strategy is used to conduct information exchange. The capacity of global modeling is benefit for capturing detail damage outline. Besides, to learn label relations as prior and embed it into model, semantic information of different damages is aggregated by a two-layer graph convolution network. The global label graph network provides global prior by modeling label dependencies based on the samples in dataset. Finally, the image features and label features are fused to provide rich feature representation for mode recognition and damage localization. We validate the effectiveness of the proposed method on three datasets, including simulated blade, aluminum, and real blade datasets. The results demonstrate that the proposed method has superior performance with 84.9 mAP on simulated blade dataset and satisfactory visualization results on real blade dataset.

Generation mechanism and control methods of secondary flows in the impeller of axial flow pumps

The secondary flow in the impeller of an axial flow pump is an important factor affecting the safe and stable operation of the unit. However, there is still a lack of systematic research on the generation mechanism of secondary flow and corresponding control strategies in axial flow pumps. To better understand the secondary flow characteristics in the axial flow pump, based on the momentum equation of relative motion, the basic distribution characteristics of the potential rothalpy gradient (PRG, or the reduced static pressure gradient) in the impeller of an axial flow pump were systematically analyzed. Two typical secondary flows were found, namely, trailing-edge hub-shroud type secondary flow at the blade outlet hub side and leading-edge hub-shroud type secondary flow at the blade inlet shroud side. The generation of these secondary flows is directly related to the effect of natural adverse PRG. A new blade design method is proposed. The essential idea of this method is to give the blade loading strategy based on grasping the macro-flow characteristics and control PRG characteristics by adjusting the real blade loading δp (i.e., the static pressure difference between the blade pressure and suction surfaces) and, thereby, control the above-mentioned secondary flows. The application of an axial flow pump showed that the blades designed based on this method can effectively control these secondary flows and reduce pressure fluctuations. The average decrease in pressure fluctuation on the blade inlet shroud side and the outlet hub side is 17.79% and 20.03%, respectively.

Eigen Background Subtraction for Industrial Flaw Detection: Application to High-Pressure Turbine Blade CT Scans

We propose a state-of-the-art approach that is the first to use Eigen background subtraction to reveal flaws in three-dimensional Computed Tomography data. Our method is composed of two main steps. During the first step, principal component analysis (PCA) is applied on flaw-free blade stack data. From a statistical perspective, a series of “flaw-free” characteristic functions is extracted. The second step consists of decomposing the blade of interest according to the functions calculated from PCA. This projection allows the construction of a synthetic blade without any flaws. A subtraction between the synthetic blade and real blade highlights the abnormal variations. The main advantage of this technique is that the processing remains applicable even when the measurement system or parts of the system have variability that is greater than the flaw size.

Onset of unsteadiness in the flow past a blade cascade

There has been little research on the system stability of the flow past a blade when the domain is finite in the transverse direction. In this study, we first explore the influence of the domain size and periodic boundary conditions in the transverse direction on the stability of the flow past a single blade in a finite domain. As the transverse width decreases, the base flow and instability characteristics change. Furthermore, the stability of the flow past a cascade including n blades is analyzed. There exist n perturbation modes corresponding to different temporal growth rates and frequencies with various staggered spatial distributions of the dominant region, embodied as the inter-blade phase angle in the frequency domain. The critical value and leading mode are related to the blade number. Therefore, when analyzing the stability of the flow past a cascade, it is important to extend the domain to the real blade number. The influence of the geometric cascade parameters on system stability is also studied. Finally, when the circumferential periodic flow is broken in a cascade including n blades, there exists only one eigenvalue near the stability boundary. The system stability deteriorates, and the critical Reynolds value drops sharply, even when several blades are restaggered to have a smaller angle of attack. From the distribution of the leading mode, the initial location of unsteadiness is associated with the region of maximum deficit in the velocity profile of the wake flow.

Mechanical Behavior of Variable Nozzle Guide Vane Systems Based on Full-Scale Testing

Abstract A full-scale test bench for the analysis of frictional and modal behavior of nozzle guide vanes (NGV) is an advanced tool enabling high design accuracy for these components equipped with an increasing number of turbo-expanders. This subassembly is a key feature enabling operational flexibility for the expander. During the NGVs design, great attention must be paid to the natural frequencies of its kinematic chain, which are influenced by internal clearances and by friction. In this paper, the results of a testing campaign performed on an NGV assembly employing realistic blade geometry are presented together with details concerning the test bench commissioning and setup procedure. The testing campaign involves three different combinations of blade orientation and preload corresponding to typical design conditions of the expander. In addition, two bushing clearance values corresponding to different worn-out conditions were investigated. The measurements of the global friction coefficient based on actuator force detection are summarized. After that, the reconstruction of mode shapes based on experimental modal analysis is explained. The results highlight the importance of loading conditions on the actual value of friction force and their influence on blade natural frequencies. The testing campaign was used to properly validate finite element models to be used for further investigations.

Intermittent cavitating flow field in tandem cascades of Kaplan turbines

Within the framework of the classical turbine design setup, we present a numerical investigation of unsteady cavitating flow in tandem cascades of guide vanes and rotor blades. The practical relevance of the present investigation is ensured by choosing real blade profiles and domain geometry for the large Kaplan turbines (9.5 m rotor diameter) from the Iron Gates I hydropower plant on the Danube River. The 2D tandem cascade setup is obtained with a conformal mapping of the circular guide vane cascade into a straight cascade, while the rotor blade cascade is by default a straight one for axial turbines. Both single-phase and two-phase cavitating flows results are presented and analysed. The single-phase liquid flow displays rather modest pressure and tangential force fluctuations, with the characteristic blade passing frequency, due to the interaction of the rotor blades with the wakes of guide vanes. The two-phase cavitating flow displays a completely different dynamics in comparison to the liquid flow, with periodic cavitation growth and collapse at a specific frequency lower than the blade-passing one. Moreover, the tangential force on the rotor blade displays severe intermittency and the force fluctuations are almost one order of magnitude larger than in the single-phase flow.

Exploiting internal resonances in nonlinear structures with cyclic symmetry as a mean of passive vibration control

The purpose of this paper is to study how internal resonances can be used to mitigate the vibration of cyclically symmetric systems exhibiting geometrical nonlinear effects. The method of multiple scales is employed to derive specific conditions that allow such energy transfers. This novelty is confirmed through numerical investigations, and an application to decrease the vibration of the system is proposed. A simplified yet realistic blade model with geometrical nonlinearities is considered. It includes pre-twist, pre-bending and warping, and is duplicated to create a full bladed rotor with cyclically symmetric properties. As the model of the whole structure may become enlarged, it is further reduced via the normal form approach. The harmonic balance method is then employed to obtain periodic solutions, localize bifurcation points and then follow bifurcated branches. These numerical solutions are used in complement with the aforementioned theoretical conditions to investigate the energy transfer properties of the mechanical system. Through these simulations, an effective range of amplitude excitation is defined to obtain internal resonances leading to an overall vibration mitigation of the system.

Cavitation erosion risk assessment on a full-scale steerable thruster

Propeller cavitation erosion prediction at an early design stage is becoming more and more important since it is one of the key constraints in the search for maximum propeller efficiency. Despite the experience from model tests, cavitation erosion research on actual ship scale is very limited. In this study, an attempt is made to assess the erosion risk on the blades of a full-scale steerable thruster of a tug boat. Pressure side cavitation was detected on board for three different propeller designs. For the first time, a cavitation erosion analysis is performed on ship-scale, using a rigorous potential energy approach, which accounts for the focusing of the potential energy at the collapse center during the cavity collapse. A full sensitivity study has been performed for the blade surface accumulated energy. The erosion model shows the erosion risk for different propeller designs applied on the vessel, and different operating conditions, by looking at the surface specific energy on the blade. The erosion analysis shows locations of high erosion risk that show a good resemblance with the actual damage locations on the real blades.

Способ расчета динамических напряжений в лопатке переменного сечения турбомашины

The problem of assessing the dynamic stresses arising from vibrations of the blades of turbo machines is an urgent and significant problem affecting the overall reliability of the turbo machine. Its solution requires a mathematical study and a physical experiment to determine the intensity of the gas flow impact and the blade reaction.However, there is relatively little information in the scientific publications on this issue. The article considers a semi-empirical method for calculating dynamic stresses at the base of a variable cross-section blade at the first tone resonant vibrations. These vibrations can be considered as the most dangerous because of the maximum amplitude. To perform the calculation a real blade was replaced with a calculated one, composed of separate portions with a constant profile, and the contribution of each part to the stress in the base section was determined. An example of calculating the dynamic stress by the proposed method with a resonant vibration of the first tone of a constant-section blade is given. The calculation showed that the solution to a complex problem can be represented as a sum of solutions to simpler problems. The calculation method can be used in the design of turbine and compressor blades.

Explicit dynamic modeling of epoxy resin against the water drop impact

Purpose of this paper to investigate erosion wear of wind turbine blades. The effect of raindrops that falls into in wind turbine blades. The erosion wear plays a major role in the life cycle or endurance limit of wind turbine parts when we talk about wind turbine blades. Wind turbine blades getting more affected by raindrop erosion performance of epoxy resin materials. A mechanical design was created and used to conduct erosion test various environment conditions the experiment was carried out using water as raindrop and epoxy resin as the blade of the wind turbine the experiment was conducted with the help of ANSYS software and validate it to the analytical expression. The experiment going on, on the basis of time parameter range 30–120 min and also impacted by angle which is used to strike on the direction downward is about to maximum 90, velocity is the main parameter for investigate erosion wear which is varies in each step of experiment in this paper we trying to represent the future scope of epoxy resin which can be used in aircraft wing and wind turbine blade these research paper also clear that we can use ANSYS Software for investigate erosion wear of any materials The value obtain in Table 3 and Table 4 has the similar on both analytical and simulated rain drop impact on the epoxy resin material which can be used in real blade. It is found that the stress in Fig. 4. Which is shows the minimum and maximum drop impact with velocity variation. The tip speed and Wendy speed incident is large. for the force of significant has transmit on the edge and the material create stress access 164.39Mpa on the epoxy resin compressive strength range from 41.2280 to 247.728Mpa the tensile strength of epoxy resin from 9.12 to 117.5Mpa the fact that rainfall on a regular basis add to potential effect which can be noted down in the real blade.

Coordinated motion planning in a double-sided tools system with surface uniformity requirements

Double-sided tools system is a promising design to counteract the forces caused by tools, and has become a practical way to machine thin-walled parts with the twisted structure. However, it is still difficult to obtain uniform machining effects on the part surfaces. This paper proposes a coordinated motion planning method for coordinating two tools in the double-sided tools system. The tools are devoted to guaranteeing the uniform surface quality while meeting the constraints about tools' velocity, tools' inclination and the system structure. At first, a velocity-dependent model is presented to describe the two tools' motions along the predefined paths. Then, the motion-planning problem of two tools is formulated as a constrained velocity-optimization problem, and the genetic algorithm is proposed to achieve the optimization target of the surface uniformity. Finally, experiments are performed on a real blade in a self-developed double-sided ultrasonic surface rolling process machine tool. The results demonstrate that the proposed coordinated motion planning method can effectively improve the surface uniformity in the double-sided tools system.