Determination of wax pattern die profile for investment casting of turbine blades

In order to conform to dimensional tolerances, an efficient numerical method, displacement iterative compensation method, based on finite element methodology （FEM） was presented for the wax pattern die profile design of turbine blades. Casting shrinkages at different positions of the blade which was considered nonlinear thermo-mechanical casting deformations were calculated. Based on the displacement iterative compensation method proposed, the optimized wax pattern die profile can be established. For a A356 alloy blade, substantial reduction in dimensional and shape tolerances was achieved with the developed die shape optimization system. Numerical simulation result obtained by the proposed method shows a good agreement with the result measured experimentally. After four times iterations, compared with the CAD model of turbine blade, the total form error decreases to 0.001 978 mm from the orevious 0.515 815 mm.

Advanced simulation of die wear caused by wire vibrations during wire-drawing process

An advanced simulation that considers the effect of wire vibrations was proposed for predicting accurately wear profiles of a die used in a wire-drawing process.The effect of wire vibrations,the changes in the wear profiles,and the generation of ringing during die approach were investigated by this simulation.Wire vibrations occurring between the die and the drum are governed by a partial differential equation called the wave equation,which is a function of the wire length,tension,density,and initial wire velocity.The wire-drawing process was simulated by the commercial code Abaqus FEA,and the die wear profiles were predicted by Archard’s wear model.The predicted profiles were compared with measured profiles of a worn drawing die after producing 5 t of AISI 1010 wire;the die was made of tungsten carbide with a Brinell hardness of HB 682.The profiles predicted by considering the effect of wire vibrations are in good agreement with the experimental data,indicating that the advanced simulation can be used to accurately predict the die wear profiles when ringing is observed during die approach.

Effect of die inlet geometry on extrusion of clover sections through curved dies:Upper bound analysis and experimental verification

The effect of die inlet and transition geometry on the extrusion loads and ~aaterial flow for extrusion of clover sections were investigated and presented both theoretically and experimentally. For this purpose, four different die geometries including straight tapered and cosine transition profile and each of them having round and clover inlet geometries were chosen. In the experimental study, commercially pure lead was used because of its hot forming characteristic at room temperature. A newly kinematical admissible velocity field to analyze different profiles of extrusion dies of clover section from round bars was proposed by upper bound analysis. It is clear that the extrusion loads obtained from the theoretical analysis for various die inlet-die transition geometry combinations are in good agreement with the experimental results. Axis deviations of the parts which define the dimensional quality of the products were also investigated.