Nickel Base super-alloy in Aerospace turbine blades EG7038 Name: Raef Kobeissi Id: 119036471 Submitted to Prof H.B.

Dong Department of Engineering The following essay will discuss the topic of Nickel base alloys in turbine blades production where aircrafts engines are considered the back bone of this industry. Through a full examination of the properties, micro structure and production process this paper will be divided into 4 main topics. The first will be a brief descriptive introduction, followed with an explanation about the chemistry of Nickel base alloy used for turbine blades to determine the phases within and the complementary role they share. The third part of this essay will describe the production operation which a turbine blade undergo and examine the microstructure of the alloy. At the end, a couple of processing techniques are described and an introduction to freckle chain defect will be discussed.

Introduction The aviation industry is rapidly developing due to the global demands of commercial and military uses. Along these demands, safety is a world - wide concern that imposes itself on the manufacturers who are responsible for achieving simultaneously, efficient and safe designs. The race was to look for materials which are capable to face serious challenges in new complex generation of sophisticated airplanes. The jet engine of an aircraft, for example, contains parts that are exposed to extreme conditions (temperature 1500 C & centrifugal forces) while functioning, because of the heat generation in the combustion chamber and the fast revolutions of blades in the compressor and turbine. The Turbine blades are exposed to higher temperatures than the compressor and to corrosive gases. This is due to the fact that the combustion occurs behind the compressor and so the combusted Fuel-air mixtures are passed through the turbine blades, therefore exposing them to higher temperatures compared to other parts within the jet engine. Once the fuel air mixtures are passed through the blades, they are ejected down to the nozzle and then expand in the atmosphere.

Figure -11- Turbine blade of an aircraft engine.

Chemistry For these kind of applications, a special material is used to withstand these enormous stresses and high temperatures. They are called super alloys. An example of such an alloy would be Nickel base alloy that is composed of two phases. The first phase is made out of Nickel or aluminium (in case of using aluminium in the alloy). Nickel, or Ni, has an atomic number of 28. Its electronic configuration is 1s2, 2s2, 2p6, 3s2, 3p6, 4s2, 3d8, and is not very abundant in its raw state on the earths surface. However, it can be found combined with Iron, in more plentiful amounts. The second phase is an ordered inter metallic Nickel and Aluminum compound (NI3AL). Nickel based alloy take the form of a faced centered cube of matrix (Ni or Al) and f.c.c which is the ordered compound phase (NI3AL) ( 1 ) . The stability of Nickel in the crystal structure makes it ductile and tough, and in addition to that this kind of super-alloy gain its strength from the difficulty of a dislocation to pass through the cuboids.

Figure-2-2- cuboidals and dislocations

The cuboids are organized in a certain way that prevents a singular dislocation to get through it. Pair of dislocations are required to shear the precipitates and this can happen only by forming an antiphase boundary. Upon that the alloys resistivity toward deformation is high and efficient which serves the functioning of the turbine blade in its operational conditions. Anti-phase boundaries (APB) is an arrangement of atoms inside a crystal in an opposite order to the one in a normal lattice system crystal system.

There is a relationship between the dislocation density and the yield strength, if the density increase the yield strength itself and this will require high shear stress to move the dislocation. The correlation can be formulated as following(6) : y = G . b . G : shear modulus b : Burger vector dislocation density

Burger vectors are defined as the magnitude and the direction of shear that is produced by a dislocation.( 7 )

Production of turbine blades and microstructure.

Producing a turbine blade undergo a molding process where the metal is melted and then poured into preheated ceramic mold usually heated to the half melting temperature. A polycrystalline structure with random grain orientation is formed, the process take place using a method called vacuum induction melting ( 2 )which diminish the space between oxygen and nitrogen gases and allow more control of aluminum introduction and reduce the contamination from chemical waste materials like lead (Pb), Silver (Ag), Bismuth(Bi), Cupper and Sulfur(S).

Sulfur is considered an element that weaken the resistivity of the alloy toward corrosion but by adding melted magnesium oxide (MgO)-Aluminum oxide(Al2O3) to react with Sulfur the product of the reaction can be easily removed and the danger exposed by sulfur is eliminated ( 3 ). An induction coil that carried an alternating current is induced to the metal which heats it and eventually melting occurs. A furnace for these operations where a steel jacket that is secured from air leakage is used and the metal is melted in a container that withstands very high temperatures. Nickel based alloys that contains high volumes of phase can be shaped through investment casting. Wax patterns are made by injecting molten wax into an aluminum die to make an exact replica of the part. To make some large parts with high complexity achievable and less expensive wax injection is used although laser technology can be a good alternative for some investment casting. The next step would to assemble the patterns and to put them on a post , the temperature where this operation take place and the humidity should be constantly monitored and it is a considered a sensitive case to ensure that the pattern will be dimensionally stable.

Patterns are placed on a wax runner and an assembly is produced and coated with Aluminum oxide powder. The wax is removed from the mold and heated to make it stronger, the molten metal is poured into the mold and then the mold is broken the casting is removed and finished. The characteristics of the super-alloy is represented by the formation of carbide MC at the beginning during the cooling stage and gradually phase appear and solidify and the process continue with the decrease of temperature until some cubes of precipitate and what remains of the melted alloy solidify completely and becomes a mixture of the 2 phases. phase distribution density is moderated in the cooling level after the metal solidify, by making the cooling process slow the volume fraction of will be high and based on that a turbine blade strength is gained when the phase is of a high volume fraction.

Creep resistance of turbine blades Materials have certain tolerances toward deformation under high stresses due to mechanical work or exposure to extreme heat for long periods of time. The deformation rate depends on the chemical properties of the material itself, the time of exposure to temperatures and load, in the case of a airplane turbine such a deformation can results in a contact between the blades and the casing which can be catastrophic. It is normal for alloys to undergoes some high stresses because of the nature of its functions but the stresses must always be a certain degree lower at which fracturing can take place at room temperature regardless to the duration of mechanical work. Creep occur in different stages where the first one is represented by an initial extension of the material, in the second stage the creep occur in a constant rate and a third stage and when the extension rate becomes more rapid and lead to fracture.

Figure-33-Creep curve

The existence of a stable dislocation substructure gives the material a resistivity toward the movement of these dislocations. In the case of Nickel base alloy the substructure becomes rough with the straining creep and as more rough it becomes the creeps strength is reduced ( 4 ). Particle stability and a dispersion of precipitates ensure the stability of the substructure. Using Larson Miller parameter it is possible to calculate the time to rupture if the temperature at which the alloy is functioning and the stress load that is exposed to by using a graph ( stress over Larson Miller parameter). P= T.[20+ log10.tr] T : temperature in Kelvin tr : time to rupture P : Larson-Miller parameter.

Processing techniques The change of phase from liquid to solid is a physical transformation of matter called solidification which requires a heat transfer from the matter outward to the surrounding. The equations of heat diffusion and solute diffusion are reported as follow: = . 2 . And = . 2 . Ti = phase temperature = thermal diffusion coefficient Ci = Solute concentration in phase i t = time Directional and single crystal solidification is a technique used to process the metals in investment castings by preheating the mold to a high temperature which is closely equal to the melting temperature and the bottom of the mold is connected to a chill plate which is a water cooling system. A system of heat baffles surrounds the mold and the melted metal is poured and it begins to crystallize in the cold region where the chill plate is attached. The mold is withdrawn and small crystals start to grow at the chill plate and grains grow in a columnar manner normal to the plate and at the end the result would be made up of parallel columns of grains approximately of the same orientation.

Some grain defects may occur and the blades production would be rejected, one of these defects is called freckle chain.

Freckle chains appear away from the chill plate where the thermal gradient is at its minimum and the growth of the mushy zone decrease. Freckles are long chains of equiaxed grains that are situated parallel to the initial dendrite arm, they can be located on the surface. If the casting increase in diameter it becomes more likely to find more freckle chains. It has been noticed that the freckle chains appears when the critical Rayleigh number is exceeded.

Ra=(/0 ).g.K.h/.v
0

:density gradient in the liquid.

g : gravity acceleration.. K : average permeability. h : height of mushy zone. By reducing the height of the mushy zone through increasing the thermal gradient the defect can be avoided. Single crystal castings with no grain boundaries can be produced in similar way where the molten metal is poured into a ceramic mold that has pig tale shape selector between the chill plate and the top part of the mold. Columnar grains starts to grow but the selector is narrow to let more than one crystal grow through and when the mold get larger in the top region the diameter of the singular crystal increase.

Figure-44-Single crystal casting

The absence of grain boundaries improves the creep resistivity of the turbine blades.

Figure-55-

The turbine blade is composed of multiple crystals with different orientations as shown in figure (a) using directional crystal solidification where grain boundaries are numerous. As for figure (c) the process of singular crystallization eliminates all grains in the turbine blades which make more resistive toward creep.

Conclusion This paper briefly presented an introduction and simple explanation for the technology used in the production of aeronautical turbine blades through taking advantage of Nickel based alloys and the knowledge possessed in investment castings. The futuristic technology is focusing on producing alloys of a light weight, hard and anti corrosive. Some laboratories like Sandia national in the United States are working on new super alloys through Nano particle synthesis which give some hope of improving the properties of the alloys used in industry(5).

LIST OF REFERENCES

[1]: Association of Metallurgical Engineers of Serbia Review paper, AMES UDC:669.2.245873=20 Processing and some application of Nickel, Cobalt and Titanium-based alloys. Institute of Nuclear Sciences Vina, 11001 Belgrade, Serbia . Online reference: (http://www.metalurgija.org.rs/mjom/vol13/No%202/1MJOVANOVIC.pdf) [2]: http://www.azom.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1505
[3]: JOURNAL OF PROPULSION AND POWER Vol. 22, No. 2, MarchApril 2006,Nickel-Based Superalloys for Advanced Turbine Engines: Chemistry, Microstructure, and Properties,Tresa M. Pollock University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109 and Sammy Tin University of Cambridge. [4]: http://www.twi.co.uk/services/technical-information/faqs/material-faqs/faq-what-determines-thecreep-strength-of-an-alloy/ [5]: [6]: [7]: Figure ( 1 ) : Figure ( 3 ) : http://www.sandia.gov/nenoff/superalloy_nanoparticles.html Aerospace Materials (Ni-base Superalloys) Handbook by H.B.Dong department of Engineering, University of Leicester. http://users.encs.concordia.ca/~mcqueen/Dislocations_lecture6.html http://www.laser-industrial.com/ldex1.jpg http://www.materialsengineer.com/CA-Creep-Stress-Rupture.htm

Figure ( 2, 4, 5) : http://www.metalurgija.org.rs/mjom/vol13/No%202/1MJOVANOVIC.pdf