Patent Application
20110194941
Composite materials offer potential design improvements in gas turbine engines. For example, in recent years composite materials have been replacing metals in gas turbine engine fan blades because of their high strength and low weight. Most metal gas turbine engine fan blades are titanium. The ductility of titanium fan blades enables the fan to ingest a bird and remain operable or be safely shut down. The same requirements are present for composite fan blades.
A composite airfoil for a turbine engine fan blade can have a sandwich construction with a carbon fiber woven core at the center and two-dimensional filament reinforced plies or laminations on either side. To form the composite airfoil, individual two-dimensional plies are cut and stacked in a mold with the woven core. The mold is injected with a resin using a resin transfer molding process and cured. The plies vary in length and shape. The carbon fiber woven core is designed to accommodate ply drops so that multiple plies do not end at the same location.
Each ply comprises a plurality of oriented elongated fibers. In one example, a ply can comprise a woven material or a uniweave material. With a woven material, half of the woven fibers are oriented in a first direction and half the fibers are oriented in a direction 90° from the first direction. A uniweave material, on the other hand, has about 98% of its fibers oriented in a first direction and a small number of fibers extending in a direction 90° from the first direction to stitch the uniweave material together. Other woven composite airfoils with different fiber orientation are also currently in use.
Previous composite blades have been configured to improve the impact strength of the composite airfoils so they can withstand bird strikes. During use, foreign objects ranging from large birds to hail may be entrained in the inlet of the gas turbine engine. Impact of large foreign objects can rupture or pierce the blades and cause secondary damage downstream of the blades. In addition, sheaths are used to reduce the effects of erosion during operation, as well as other conventional uses of sheaths. Sheaths may be made from a variety of materials, depending on the purpose of their use.
In order to prevent damage from the impact of foreign objects such as birds or reduce or prevent erosion, a metallic sheath has been used to protect the leading edge of rotor blades and propellers made from composites. Materials such as titanium and nickel alloys have been fitted on the leading edge of the element to be protected. Examples of sheaths used for covering and protecting a component leading edge of an airfoil component are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,881,972 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,908,285. In both patents, the sheaths are formed from metal that is electroformed on the airfoil component.
In more recent years, sheaths have been bonded on an already formed composite blade. Once the blade has been formed and cured in a resin transfer molding (RTM) process or any other process for forming a blade. An adhesive is placed on the leading edge of the formed blade and a leading edge sheath is placed against the adhesive, heat and pressure are applied and the adhesive cures to mount the leading edge as needed. While this process is costly, it is also effective in producing airfoils capable of withstanding impact by birds and other debris that might otherwise damage or destroy the airfoil.
A method of forming a sheath on the leading edge of a resin transfer molding (RTM) molded composite blade includes the steps of forming a dry composite blade preform, placing a sheath against the intended portion of the blade, such as the leading edge, inserting both into a mold, adding the resin to fill the mold cavity, and curing the resin. The resultant blade is thus formed in a single mold process.
A primer material may be added to the surface of the dry perform or to the part of the sheath that is to contact the blade. When titanium is used as a sheath, the primer may applied by a spray, whereas if a nickel based alloy is used, the primer may be applied by dip coating the sheath bond surface prior to inserting a primed sheath and dry composite into the mold. Any appropriate primer may be used for the sheath material and resin combination. Any material that is used as a sheath is within the scope of this invention.
a and 1b are side and top views respectively of the composite blade of this invention with a sheath.
a and 1b illustrate composite blade 10 having trailing edge 12, leading edge 14, sheath 17, tip 20, and root 24. Root 24 is illustrated as a dovetail root. However, root 24 can have any configuration that is used in blade assemblies. Sheath 17 is bonded to its leading edge 14 using the process of this invention in which the dry composite blade 10 and the sheath 17 are placed in a mold and cured at the same time, as described hereinafter. Blade 10 is a composite perform made from a woven three dimensional center core with laid on filament plies as describe below. Alternatively the composite may be simply a woven three dimensional core or a plurality of filament plies. Also used in the present invention are blades such as helicopter or propellers that have a foamed center or honeycomb center to lighten the weight of the blade. Any kind of composite blade that can be resin molded from a dry perform is part of this invention. The method of this invention may be used with any blade having a dry composite outer surface.
Sheath 17 may be made from any of the conventional materials. For example, sheath 17 can be made from any hard material, such as titanium and nickel sheaths, and those made from alloys of these metals. Sheath 17 may be made from other metals and other materials such as ceramics, plastics such as polyurethane or epoxy filled fiber materials, and the like. Sheath 17 may have a primer or adhesive used therewith, where the primer or adhesive is applied to sheath 17 or dry perform 10 to enhance adhesion of sheath 17 to perform 10 as it is being cured to ensure that sheath 17 will remain in place during use of the final product.
b also illustrate how a tip cover 21 and trailing edge sheath 21 can be added to the blade 11 by providing space in the mold for those components.
A method of fabricating a composite blade 10 is disclosed in a U.S. patent application titled Core Driven Ply Shape Composite Fan Blade and Method of Making, filed Nov. 30, 2009, having Ser. No. 12/627,629, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Other composite blades that are formed solely from a 3-D woven core or solely from plies are also capable of use in the present invention. Also used are those composite blades that have hollow or filled centers, such as with foam or a honeycombed structure to lighten the overall weight of the blade. All that is required of the molded composite blade is that it be dry when inserted in the mold, cured in a mold with a resin while in contact with a sheath in the mold to thereby form a complete sheath covered blade.
In a RTM process, the mold is closed and the resin is then transferred into closed mold 32, heat is applied and the resin cures to form the finished product. It is important to have the dry blade 10 and the sheath 17 in the mold and in contact when the resin is added and cured.
The flow chart of
The composite blade 10 is thus formed using a resin transfer molding process. In this process, the resin is inserted into mold 32 such as in direction arrow A. The resin is cured to produce blade 10 having sheath 17. Plies 38 may be sprayed with an epoxy adhesive, particularly if sheath 17 is made from titanium or a titanium alloy. A film adhesive layer may be applied to the bonding surfaces of sheath 17 before placement in the mold to ensure enhanced bonding properties of a true adhesive are used. Alternatively, the portion of the dry composite may have a film adhesive applied prior to joining the sheath and blade. Any conventional adhesive used to bond metal such as titanium and nickel to materials such as composites may be used in this step. It is also contemplated that no adhesive will be necessary to bond sheath 17 to blade 10 because the resin used to form blade 10 will also adhere to sheath 17 with sufficient strength without an adhesive. Heat is then applied to cure the resin at a low pressure that reduces the potential for movement of the fibers. The resin can be an epoxy polymer resin system or any other resin system conventionally used in resin transfer molding products such as airfoil blades that operate at high temperatures and other stress inducing conditions.
There are a number of benefits obtained by the process of this invention. A blade with a sheath is formed in a single molding step, thus eliminating the cost of additional tooling and an adhesive bonding and curing step. The junction between the sheath and the blade is improved because they are mated prior to curing the resin that forms the blade, thus insuring that there is essentially 100% contact between the leading edge of the blade and the sheath itself. The process of this invention can be used with any method of forming a composite blade by injecting and curing a resin, with or without an adhesive as desired. Wear life of sheathed blades according to the process of this invention is improved, due to the complete matching of the surface between the blade and sheath.
While the invention has been described with reference to an exemplary embodiment(s), it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes may be made and equivalents may be substituted for elements thereof without departing from the scope of the invention. In addition, many modifications may be made to adapt a particular situation or material to the teachings of the invention without departing from the essential scope thereof. Therefore, it is intended that the invention not be limited to the particular embodiment(s) disclosed, but that the invention will include all embodiments falling within the scope of the appended claims.
