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Completed TRL 5 (started at 3, targeting 5)
Project Objective
The objective of this project is to improve understanding of additive manufactured and polished surface texture on aerodynamics and heat transfer for GRX-810 turbine blade surfaces through experimental wind tunnel linear cascade turbine test section.
Project Description
GRX-810 is an additively manufactured NASA alloy with longer creep life and higher ultimate strength at high temperatures than available nickel-based superalloys. Due to these properties, GRX-810 is a potentially enabling material for turbomachinery which operates in high temperature environments. The long-term goal is to infuse additively manufactured GRX-810 as a commercial turbomachinery material. The primary obstacle to commercial aerospace infusion is a lack of understanding of the effects of post processing, which is required for additively manufactured components, on turbine aerodynamic and thermal performance, both of which are critical for engine designers to understand.
Project Results and Conclusions
Hardware constructed included six GRX-810 turbine blades manufactured with laser powder bed fusion with varying surface enhancements such as built condition, chemical milling micromachining, abrasive flow machining, electropolishing chemical mechanical polishing and conventional machining. A transonic five-bladed linear cascade wind tunnel test section was equipped to measure surface heat transfer with the transient impulse response infrared thermography and a one-dimensional spatially varying traverse to measure wake profile losses. Aerodynamic loss parameters including pressure loss coefficient, integrated aerodynamic loss, and entropy generation were measured and compared for each surface condition. Spatially resolved heat transfer coefficients, adiabatic wall temperature, and reconstructed heat flux were determined for each surface condition. Results were delivered to industry in a journal publication. A Master’s thesis was produced as a result of this project.
The benefit of this project is that experimental heat transfer and aerodynamic turbomachinery data with additively manufactured laser powder bed fusion GRX-810 is transferred to commercial aerospace industry and academia. The effects of surface texture for GRX-810 and laser powder bed fusion surfaces with various surface finishing techniques on turbine performance is quantified. Broader applications of GRX-810 micro surfaces with various surface enhancement post processing methods on heat and mass transfer is better understood through this experiment for industry use of GRX-810 in engine components.
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