Patent Application
20240335977
The disclosure relates to gas turbine engines. More particularly, the disclosure relates to forming ceramic casting cores for casting internal passageways in cast metallic component substrates.
Gas turbine engines (used in propulsion and power applications and broadly inclusive of turbojets, turboprops, turbofans, turboshafts, industrial gas turbines, and the like) have a number of internally-cooled components cast with internal cooling passageways. These are often cast using shells with partially embedded ceramic casting cores.
Historically, such ceramic casting cores have been molded in a metallic die although molding in elastomeric (e.g., silicone) molds is also known. Such an elastomeric mold may be used to manufacture core shapes that would not be removable from a hard die due to backlocking.
In one example of a core molding process using an elastomeric mold, the elastomeric mold forms a liner contained in a hard outer shell/tool with a port for introducing a ceramic slurry. The entire mold assembly may be placed in a vacuum chamber and vacuum drawn whereupon a slurry nozzle may mate with the port to introduce the ceramic slurry. However, even with the vacuum draw, the ceramic slurry may not always adequately fill the fine features of a core mold, which produce the desired internal cooling passages in the trailing edge of an airfoil.
One aspect of the disclosure involves a method for molding a ceramic core. The method includes introducing a slurry to a mold; and vibrating the mold. The slurry comprises: silica-containing particles; polymer fiber; and matrix precursor (e.g., polymeric). The mold comprises: an outer tool; and a liner held within the outer tool. The vibrating comprises operating a plurality of vibration transducers distributed along the mold.
In a further embodiment of any of the foregoing embodiments, additionally and/or alternatively, the silica particles and silicate(s) if any are at least 95% by weight of solids in the slurry.
In a further embodiment of any of the foregoing embodiments, additionally and/or alternatively, by weight: the silica particles and silicate(s) if any are at least 95% by weight of solids in the slurry; and the polymer fiber is 0.010% to 2.0% by weight of solids in the slurry.
In a further embodiment of any of the foregoing embodiments, additionally and/or alternatively, the vibrating comprises: vibrating at one or more frequencies in a range of 1000 Hz to 25 kHz.
In a further embodiment of any of the foregoing embodiments, additionally and/or alternatively, the vibrating comprises vibrating for at least one of: or more seconds; at least 50% of the time of material introduction; and a time of at least 50% of the volume introduction.
In a further embodiment of any of the foregoing embodiments, additionally and/or alternatively, the vibrating causes at least one of: an at least 50% fiber concentration reduction in a target area relative to an introduced fiber concentration; and an at least 50% reduction in concentration of particles over 0.178 mm relative to an introduced concentration of said particles.
In a further embodiment of any of the foregoing embodiments, additionally and/or alternatively, the vibrating further comprises: vibrating, via a pneumatic vibrator, a platform supporting the mold.
A further aspect of the disclosure involves, a ceramic core molding apparatus comprising: a metallic fixture; and a polymeric liner held by the metallic fixture and forming a mold cavity. A plurality of transducers are mounted to the metallic fixture or the polymeric liner.
In a further embodiment of any of the foregoing embodiments, additionally and/or alternatively, the plurality of transducers are at least partially embedded in the polymeric liner.
In a further embodiment of any of the foregoing embodiments, additionally and/or alternatively, the metallic fixture is a two-piece shell.
In a further embodiment of any of the foregoing embodiments, additionally and/or alternatively, the transducers are piezoelectric transducers or electromagnetic transducers.
In a further embodiment of any of the foregoing embodiments, additionally and/or alternatively, the apparatus further comprises a pneumatic rotary vibrator. Optionally, such apparatus may involve a remanufacturing or reengineering from a baseline apparatus or configuration that lacked the transducers but had the pneumatic rotary vibrator.
In a further embodiment of any of the foregoing embodiments, additionally and/or alternatively: a portion of the mold defines an airfoil-forming core; and the transducers are at a plurality of different spanwise (airfoil inner end (inner diameter in the engine frame of reference) to outer end) and streamwise (leading edge to trailing edge) locations. Optionally for such airfoil-forming core there may be at least two said transducers to the pressure side of the core and at least two to said transducers to the suction side of the core adjacent the airfoil portion of the core. Optionally there may also be at least one transducer at each side of a root-end block of the core. Optionally, the transducers along the airfoil section may be oriented less spanwise and more streamwise than the transducers adjacent the root end block.
In a further embodiment of any of the foregoing embodiments, additionally and/or alternatively, a method for using the apparatus comprises: introducing a slurry to the mold cavity and vibrating the slurry with the transducers. The slurry comprises: ceramic particulate; polymeric fiber; and matrix precursor.
In a further embodiment of any of the foregoing embodiments, additionally and/or alternatively, the method further comprises vibrating the slurry with a rotary vibrator simultaneously with said vibrating the slurry with the transducers.
In a further embodiment of any of the foregoing embodiments, additionally and/or alternatively, the vibrating comprises
In a further embodiment of any of the foregoing embodiments, additionally and/or alternatively, the vibrating biases the polymeric fiber and larger particles of the particulate away from a narrow region of the mold cavity relative to smaller particles of the particulate.
In a further embodiment of any of the foregoing embodiments, additionally and/or alternatively, the vibrating comprises vibrating at one or more frequencies in a range of 1000 Hz to 25 kHz.
In a further embodiment of any of the foregoing embodiments, additionally and/or alternatively, a method for using the apparatus. A slurry is introduced to the mold cavity, the slurry comprising: ceramic particulate; polymeric fiber; and matrix precursor. The method further includes vibratorily biasing the polymeric fiber and larger particles of the ceramic particulate away from a narrow region of the mold cavity relative to smaller particles of the particulate. Optionally, the biasing causes an at least 50% reduction in concentration of polymeric fiber in the narrow region of the mold cavity and an at least 50% reduction in concentration of particles over 0.178 mm relative to an introduced concentration of said particles in the narrow region of the mold cavity
In a further embodiment of any of the foregoing embodiments, additionally and/or alternatively, the method further includes vibrating a table supporting the apparatus at a lower frequency than a frequency of the vibratory biasing.
In a further embodiment of any of the foregoing embodiments, additionally and/or alternatively, the biasing comprises: operating a plurality of piezoelectric or electromagnetic transducers.
The details of one or more embodiments are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features, objects, and advantages will be apparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims.
Like reference numbers and designations in the various drawings indicate like elements.
When molding cores with very fine features, it may be undesirable to attempt compositional uniformity. For example, larger particles and/or fibers may block access of smaller particles to the fine features of the mold. This may result in undesirably large regions of matrix in those fine features. These matrix regions will then be infiltrated by cast metal thereby at least partially blocking passageways.
Key examples of such casting cores are those used to cast internal cooling passageways in turbine engine airfoil elements (blades and vanes). For example, a feedcore section may cast a plurality of spanwise passageway legs distributed generally from leading edge to trailing edge and ending in a spanwise leg that casts a discharge slot. Depending on the blade configuration, various of the legs may be configured so that flow through the legs is parallel or series (e.g., uppass/downpass/uppass). Additionally, a leading leg may be closed at spanwise ends to cast a leading edge impingement cavity fed by impingement cooling holes from the next downstream leg. Such impingement cavities can, themselves, be spanwise segmented. Due to the inherent shape of an airfoil, the trailing leg that casts a trailing edge discharge slot is subject to suffering the blockage and thus matrix inclusions noted above. When discussing such a core and its associated molding apparatus, the terms “spanwise”, “streamwise”, and “thickness-wise” correspond to the ultimate airfoil frame of reference.
Additionally, to cast a multi-wall airfoil, the core may include one or more skin core sections to the pressure side and/or suction side of the feedcore section effectively forming a thickness-wise stack.
Additionally, fine features of the core may be subject to finish machining. The presence of fibers in those fine features may interfere with the machining, clogging the cutting tool (e.g., abrasive ball or other element) to cause the cutting tool to damage the core. For example, fine comb-like features for casting outlet holes may be too fine to mold initially. Instead, they are molded as ridges on a plate-like section of the as-molded core. This plate-like section provides sufficient cross-sectional flow area for slurry. Prior to pattern molding, the plate-like section may be machined away, leaving an array of spaced-apart features formed by the ridges with openings in between. However, the plate-like section may still be sufficiently thin to suffer the matrix inclusions noted above. Also, similarly, molding issues may leave flash between the fine features which flash must be machined off.
The feedstock may be mixed from commercially available precursor feedstocks. The precursors may have specific narrow size distributions which are blended to form a desired distribution. The blockage considerations noted above may not be due to larger particles from the original source feedstocks. In addition to considerations of particle size distribution in feedstock, a relevant consideration is agglomeration (clumping) of precursor material to form large agglomerates that block the passageways. Such agglomeration may occur at any time from initial manufacture of the individual feedstock powders, through blending of the powders, mixing with a matrix precursor (e.g., uncured epoxy such as an A/B epoxy optionally with solvent curing inhibitor), and through to the injection process. For example, silica is relatively hydrophilic and will tend to clump during storage in ambient humidity conditions even before the different silicas are blended. Thus larger clumps (rather than larger particles from the original source feedstocks) are particularly significant in blocking fine mold passageways.
Accordingly, to permit filling and avoid excessive matrix inclusions on the one hand, and facilitate machining on the other hand, it may be desirable to provide a slurry distribution that biases fiber and larger particles away from certain fine areas such as those casting trailing edge outlets on airfoils. This distribution may be achieved via selective vibration of the core mold during and/or after slurry introduction. Additionally, the vibration may serve to break-up clumps.
In an example by weight of combined dry ingredients (the fiber, the silica, and any other particulate), the slurry has at least 85% silica or silicate (e.g., zircon (ZrSiO4)) particulate with most of that being silica (e.g., at least 50% or 80% of the combined silica and silicate). The next largest amount of initial dry ingredients can be matrix-formers (e.g., resin flakes that either dissolve when blended with solvent or melt). More broadly, the combined silica and silicate may be at least 80% of the solids or at least 90%. Many manufacturers will use proprietary blends with very small amounts (e.g., up to 1.0% by weight) of one or more (typically powder and often oxide) additives (and typically aggregating to less than 3.0%).
The slurry also has an example up to 0.20% fiber (nonmetallic, e.g., polymeric) by weight of combined dry ingredients (the fiber, the silica, and any other particulate) (e.g., fiber of nominal length 0.125 inch (3.2 mm, more broadly 1.0 to 5.0 mm or 2.0 mm to 5.0 mm) and diameter 0.001 inch (25 micrometers, more broadly 15 micrometers to 50 micrometers or 20 micrometers to 30 micrometers). More narrowly, example such fiber content is 0.010% to 0.10% by weight. Example fiber material includes polyethylene.
It may, for example, be possible to vibrate the core material during the molding so as to bias the larger particles and fibers away from the trailing edge (or other fine features) and bias the fines toward the trailing edge (or other fine features). Any bias of the intermediate particles may be non-existent or at least less toward the trailing edge than bias of the fines. Depending on conditions, the fines may be relatively non-agglomerated particles. Thus, it is possible that even of non-agglomerated particles the biasing directs smaller particles toward the trailing edge and larger particles away.
An example bias leaves the targeted area with few to none large agglomerated particles (e.g., particles over 0.178 mm and substantially reduces the content of more intermediate particles (e.g., particles from over 25 micrometers to 0.178 mm) by at least 50% relative to concentrations elsewhere such as the overall root section or one of the feed passageways or concentrations in the inlet flow.
An example bias leaves the targeted area with an at least 50% reduced content of such intermediate particles relative to the content as introduced to the mold or elsewhere (e.g., overall in the root section or one of the feed passageways), more particularly an at least 70% or at least 80% or at least 90% reduced (reduced by said 70% or 80% or 90%) content. This region may represent an entirety (average) of the discharge slot in the example. The large particles may similarly be reduced by an example at least 80% of at least 90% or at least 95%.
An example bias also leaves the targeted area with an at least 50% reduced content of fiber relative to the content as introduced into the mold or elsewhere such as in the overall root section or one of the feed passageways, more particularly an at least at least 70% or at least 80% or at least 90% reduced (reduced by said 70% or 80% or 90%) content. This region may represent an entirety (average) of the discharge slot in the example.
By way of background and with reference to
The blade 102 may include an inner diameter edge/end 108 (e.g., of a root 144 in
Cooling passages and their casting methods are described with reference to the blade 102. However, one skilled in the art will realize that the cooling passage design implemented in the blade 102 may likewise be implemented in the vane 104, or any airfoil (including a rotating blade or stationary vane) in other portions of the engine or in other cooled components.
Turning now to
The airfoil inboard end is disposed at the outboard surface 140 (
The example turbine blade is cast of a high temperature nickel-based superalloy, such as a Ni-based single crystal (SX) superalloy (e.g., cast and machined). As discussed further below, an example of a manufacturing process is an investment casting process wherein the alloy is cast over a shelled casting core assembly (e.g., molded ceramic casting cores optionally with refractory metal core (RMC) components). Example ceramics include alumina and silica. The cores may be fired post-molding/pre-assembly. An example investment casting process is a lost wax process wherein the core assembly is overmolded with wax in a wax die to form a pattern for the blade. The pattern is in turn shelled (e.g., with a ceramic stucco). The shelled pattern (not shown) is dewaxed and hardened (e.g., a steam autoclave dewax followed by kiln hardening or a kiln hardening that also vaporizes or volatilizes the wax). Thereafter, open space in the resulting shell casts the alloy.
The blade may also have a thermal barrier coating (TBC) system (not shown) along at least a portion of the airfoil. An example coating covers the airfoil pressure and suction side surfaces and the gaspath-facing surfaced of the platform. An example coating comprises a metallic bondcoat and one or more layers of ceramic (e.g., a YSZ and/or GSZ).
Three-dimensionally, the camber line is a mathematical surface formed by the camber lines along all the sequential sections. The blade has a cooling passageway system with a plurality of spanwise passageways (passageway legs/segments/sections) within the airfoil. These legs include a series of passageways extending from a leading passageway 150 at the leading edge to a trailing edge discharge slot 152. The leading passageway 150 may be an impingement cavity fed by the second passageway 153 downstream/aft. The example airfoil is a so-called multi-wall airfoil with multiple (two shown) groups of passageways spaced apart between the pressure side and the suction side to leave a pressure side wall 160, a suction side wall 162, and an intermediate wall 161. In addition to the discharge slot, the various passageways may have outlets (e.g. film cooling outlets to the pressure side or suction side).
In addition to branching, there can be merging.
The legs 342 are relatively fine.
In addition to the example liner having two flexible elastomeric layers, optionally, there may be one or more sacrificial inserts 616. Examples of sacrificial inserts are used to mold cores for so-called multi-wall airfoils wherein one or more generally streamwise walls are positioned between the pressure side and suction side to separate two or more groups of passageways. The illustrated example shows a single sacrificial insert used to mold adjacent faces of two groups of legs of the core. For a further example (not illustrated) two such inserts could be stacked to mold a core having three groups of legs (a pressure side group, a suction side group, and an intermediate group). Example insert material is wax. Alternative core material may be hard plastics or elastomers. Depending on implementation, the insert may remain with the core through wax pattern overmolding, in which case the insert may become a part of the wax pattern. Alternatively, the insert may be lost (e.g., melted or decomposed) during a core hardening step (e.g., firing) prior to wax pattern overmolding.
In one group of sub-examples, one or more of the transducers are mounted directly to (e.g., including embedding within) the liner pieces (see 630A and 630B in
The transducers are schematically shown as right circular cylinders having central longitudinal axes 331 (transducer frame of reference), which correspond to a vibration direction. The transducers are schematically shown in simple cylindrical (e.g., right circular cylindrical) compartments in or through the hard tool and/or liner. Further variations may be contemplated. These may include various additional mounting features. For example, a portion of a compartment may be internally threaded to mate with a transducer having an externally threaded housing or the compartments may be closable such as via a threaded cap or plug that may hold the transducer in place.
Example transducers are electrical (e.g., piezoelectric or electromagnetic coil driven (e.g., rod and coil type such as used in acoustic tone generators)).
The example hard fixture may have two main pieces 606A, 606B (e.g., machined from billet or additively manufactured with optional finish machining) that may be assembled to each other and then disassembled to release the liner for subsequent release of the molded ceramic core from the liner. When casting a core for an airfoil element such as a blade, one of the fixture pieces may fall generally to the pressure side and the other generally to the suction side of the ultimate airfoil frame of reference.
Similarly, the liner 608 may have two (or more) pieces (e.g., molded) 608A, 608B with one piece lining each of the fixture pieces and preassembled to that associated fixture piece prior to mating the fixture pieces to each other. The fixture halves have mating surfaces 610A, 610B and the liner halves have mating surfaces 612A, 612B. Depending on molding techniques, alternative liners may have more pieces stacked. And intermediate liner pieces may be rigid plastic or the like. The fixture pieces form a compartment for accommodating the liner when assembled. The liner pieces form compartments/passageways complementary to and for forming the as-molded core (e.g., before cutting away gating (at the block section 302 inner diameter end) and the like to form the
In one group of examples, vibration transducers 630A and 630B are positioned on opposite sides of the portion of the cavity that molds the block. Also, they are partially embedded in the liner, on the pressure and suction side respectively of the block portion. The example transducers are oriented partially parallel to a flow direction of the slurry into the mold. A range of examples may be between parallel to the flow and 90° off-parallel. As the flow direction is essentially radially outward adjacent the transducers 630A and 630B, axes 331 of the transducers may be oriented partially radially outward (e.g., within 60° or 45° or 40° of radially outward with the upper end of that transducer axis within the transducer being closer to the mold cavity.
There also may be a partial rearward orientation to the transducers 630A and 630B to help with the biasing of fines toward the trailing edge. Thus, the transducers may start an initial segregation biasing the fines aftward even before there is a flow split. This may help bias fines to the trailing trunks for subsequently passing to the discharge slot portion of the core.
Adjacent the airfoil portion of the core on the pressure and suction side respectively, there are a spanwise array of streamwise-pointing transducers 632A, 632B, 634A, 634B, 636A, and 636B. These are also oriented relatively parallel to the mold. The (radially) outboard pair 636A/B are positioned and oriented adjacent the tip flag section of the mold to bias particle distribution in the tip flag.
The inboard two pairs 632A/B and 634A/B are principally positioned and oriented to affect flow from the trailing leg through the discharge slot section. Thus, the transducers along the airfoil section may be largely oriented aimed toward the trailing edge (e.g., within 30° or 20° viewed from the side and within 50° or 40° viewed radially).
Thus, in an example modification of a baseline process and associated apparatus, the vibration transducers may be added transducers in addition to the baseline vibration source 640 (e.g., rotary pneumatic as noted above). Also, the number of added transducers may be substantial (e.g., at least five or an example five to twenty). For example, in a context of an airfoil, the added transducers may be distributed both around the airfoil cross-section (streamwise adjacent pressure and/or suction sides) and distributed spanwise. Multiple streamwise distributed transducers at or near a given spanwise location may be needed to achieve a desired distribution. Thus, there may be an example at least two transducers adjacent each side of the airfoil. Or the at least two may only be along the pressure side or suction side. When present, there may be two transducers (at least one on each side) adjacent the block to the inner diameter and of the root (such as shown) or adjacent the trunks in the root section.
The fixture may be clamped to the injection table. A vacuum is created within the fixture (by a vacuum pump, not shown) while slurry is pumped into the entrance of the fixture. The rotary vibrator 640 provides agitation to the fixture during injection. To vent the mold cavity, the liner may have small ports (not shown) and the fixture may not be fully sealed. Particularly with a lack of such sealing near the trailing edge, pressure difference may force slurry between mating liner sections (due to their deformability) to form the trailing edge flash 344.
The example platform has a port 650 for introducing the slurry. A slurry flowpath proceeds downstream from the port into the mold and branches through various core cavity spaces. In the example, the port is inboard of a core section that will form blade root trunks so the slurry flowpath initially passes spanwise. To aid such passing, one of the transducers 632 is close to upstream along the slurry flowpath. Two more 634 and 636 are progressively downstream. One other 638 is at the tip.
Potentially, different transducers may apply different respective frequencies simultaneously to achieve different biases for the different particles and fibers. Due to likely limited spanwise influence, such groups of transducers may be duplicated at multiple spanwise locations. Such distribution will depend on core geometry and the slurry flow path through the mold. With the trailing edge discharge slot example, the spanwise symmetry suggests a spanwise array of transducers 630A-C at generally similar positioning about the airfoil section. In this example, the oscillation direction 950 of those trailing edge transducers is close to parallel to the mean line.
The transducers work by taking advantage of the harmonic frequencies that certain sizes and densities of the particles have. A resonant frequency will have much greater movement energy than non-resonant. These transducers can be turned off and on at will to affect the slurry when more movement is needed and turned off when it is not desired.
In contrast, the baseline pneumatic vibrator 640 produces continuous, broad based vibration that does not take part geometry or slurry movement into consideration. Its sole job is to shake the whole fixture in an attempt to keep the slurry moving. The example pneumatic vibrator is an air powered rotary device that creates circular vibration in two axes. The vibration is induced into the table the fixture rests on. The frequency range is lower (typically max ˜500 Hz (e.g., up to 500 Hz or an example 5 Hz to 300 Hz) than electrical transducers (typically range 1 Hz-10 MHz. However, the electrical transducers 630A/B, 632A-C, and 634A-C will be used in a range above the rotary (e.g., 500 Hz to 25 kHz, more particularly 1000 Hz to 25 kHz or 5.0 kHz to 15 kHz).
Advantageously the vibration is occurring during introduction of the slurry and not merely after the mold cavity has been filled. The binder (e.g., epoxy) may progressively cure, greatly limiting the ability to redistribute particulate size once introduced. Additionally, jamming-up of larger particles and fiber into the finer passageways may prevent any redistribution. Accordingly, advantageously, the vibrating occurs during the entirety of introduction of slurry to the mold cavity (at least the portion of such introduction once slurry has entered a portion of the cavity that forms the ultimate part (e.g., as opposed to a portion that merely forms gating)).
More broadly, the vibration time may represent at least 50% of the total time during which the slurry is introduced and a time during which at least 50% by volume or weight of the slurry is introduced (e.g., if there is a change in flow rate). This will differ from the first alternative. Additionally, the vibration may represent a duration of at least 5 seconds, more typically, at least 10 seconds or an example 5 seconds to 200 seconds with optional alternative lower limits of 10 seconds and 20 seconds and optional upper limits of 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 60 seconds, and 100 seconds. Such upper limits are not dictated by necessity but rather, as noted above, reflect diminishing return for typical molding processes. Such diminishing return means there is little benefit to vibrating during more than the entire introduction period.
Relative to the slurry introduced to the mold, the biasing vibration may reduce concentration of fiber and larger particulate in the tip flag and discharge slot regions as discussed above.
Particular frequencies and transducer positions and orientations best for breaking-up clumps may differ from those best for merely biasing distribution. Thus, the possibility exists of having only transducers serving one purpose, having only transducers serving the other purpose, having different transducers serving each purpose, or having transducers that are tuned to a compromise so as to serve both purposes. As such, it is possible that the transducers not only operate differently from each other but may have varied operation such as alternating between frequencies respectively associated with biasing and clump breaking.
In an example of engineering the distribution of the transducers and their driving method, trial and error experimentation may be used to determine the most effective angles, frequencies, and amplitudes to promote or limit slurry movement or break up clumps or reduce clumping. An initial positioning and orientation may be made aligned with the part such as show with the transducers facing parallel to direction of flow into fine passageways. Thereafter experimentation involving molding and sectioning/examining cores for particle distribution may be iterative with frequency and transducer positions being varied. Once a good arrangement for one part has been found, that may serve as a baseline for optimizing for a new part design/configuration.
In the
Among further variations are slurries that do not include polymeric fiber (e.g., still are a majority or greater number mentioned above ceramic such as silica).
The use of “first”, “second”, and the like in the following claims is for differentiation within the claim only and does not necessarily indicate relative or absolute importance or temporal order. Similarly, the identification in a claim of one element as “first” (or the like) does not preclude such “first” element from identifying an element that is referred to as “second” (or the like) in another claim or in the description.
One or more embodiments have been described. Nevertheless, it will be understood that various modifications may be made. For example, when applied to an existing baseline casting technology and cast article configuration, details of such baseline may influence details of particular implementations. Accordingly, other embodiments are within the scope of the following claims.
