Development of Numerical Simulation in Nickel-Based Superalloy Turbine Blade Directional Solidification
XU Qingyan(),YANG Cong,YAN Xuewei,LIU Baicheng
Cite this article:
XU Qingyan,YANG Cong,YAN Xuewei,LIU Baicheng. Development of Numerical Simulation in Nickel-Based Superalloy Turbine Blade Directional Solidification. Acta Metall Sin, 2019, 55(9): 1175-1184.
Ni-based superalloy turbine blades have been widely used in aerospace and industrial engine. Numerical simulation techniques can optimize the superalloy directional solidification process and enhance the rate of finished products. This paper summarized the existing macroscopic and microscopic numerical models in the superalloy blade directional solidification process. Simulations have been done on the temperature field evolution, grain structure and dendrite morphology in typical HRS and LMC directional solidification conditions, and the resulting microstructure features were investigated. In particular, the application of varying withdrawal rate in directional solidification of the superalloy blade was introduced. And the advantages of the varying withdrawal rate technique were emphasized by comparing it with the constant withdrawal rate method. The simulation results indicate that by applying varying withdrawal rate, the convex or concave shape of the mushy zone can be change to flat shape, so that parallel columnar grains can be obtained with enhanced high-temperature performance of the turbine blade.
Fund: Supported by National Science and Technology Major Project(2017ZX04014001,2017-VII-0008-0101);National Key Research and Development Program of China(2017YFB0701503);National Natural Science Foundation of China(51374137)
Fig.1 Schematics of high rate solidification (HRS) (a) and liquid metal cooling (LMC) (b) directional solidification techniques
Fig.2 Temperature field simulation results of the single crystal plate samples under HRS (a) and LMC (b) directional solidification conditions
Fig.3 Temperature field simulation results and mushy zone morphologies of the turbine blade under constant (a1, a2) and varying (b1, b2) withdrawal rate directional solidification conditions [31]
Fig.4 Numerical simulation of natural convection and prediction of freckle in single crystal superalloy(a) fluid flow and freckle simulation in a 2D plate(b) comparison of simulated freckles with experimental results of a 3D ladder part
Fig.5 Simulation and experimental results of the grain structure in single crystal bar samples under HRS (a) and LMC (b) directional solidification conditions
Fig.6 Simulated temperature field and grain structure of a turbine blade under varying withdraw rate in directional solidification condition(a) varying withdrawal rate process (b) temperature distribution (c) grain structure
Fig.7 Phase-field simulation results of dendrite competitive growth in directional solidification condition(a) solidification time 14 s(b) solidification time 28 s(c) solidification time 280 s
Fig.8 Phase-field simulation results of 3D dendrite growth under HRS (a1~a3) and LMC (b1~b3) directional solidification conditions[31](a1) solidification time 10 s (a2) solidification time 15 s (a3) solidification time 100 s(b1) solidification time 5 s (b2) solidification time 7.5 s (b3) solidification time 100 s
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