Convergence Analysis of the Numerical Solution for Cathode Design of Aero-engine Blades in Electrochemical Machining

As a main difficult problem encountered in electrochemical machining （ECM）, the cathode design is tackled, at present, with various numerical analysis methods such as finite difference, finite element and boundary element methods. Among them, the finite element method presents more flexibility to deal with the irregularly shaped workpieces. However, it is very difficult to ensure the convergence of finite element numerical approach. This paper proposes an accurate model and a finite element numerical approach of cathode design based on the potential distribution in inter-electrode gap. In order to ensure the convergence of finite element numerical approach and increase the accuracy in cathode design, the cathode shape should be iterated to eliminate the design errors in computational process. Several experiments are conducted to verify the machining accuracy of the designed cathode. The experimental results have proven perfect convergence and good computing accuracy of the proposed finite element numerical approach by the high surface quality and dimensional accuracy of the machined blades.

Aero-engine Blade Fatigue Analysis Based on Nonlinear Continuum Damage Model Using Neural Networks

Fatigue life and reliability of aero-engine blade are always of important significance to flight safety.The establishment of damage model is one of the key factors in blade fatigue research.Conventional linear Miner＇s sum method is not suitable for aero-engine because of its low accuracy.A back propagation neutral network（BPNN） based on the combination of Levenberg-Marquardt（LM） and finite element method（FEM） is used to describe process of nonlinear damage accumulation behavior in material and predict fatigue life of the blade.Fatigue tests of standard specimen made from TC4 are carried out to obtain material fatigue parameters and S-N curve.A nonlinear continuum damage model（CDM）,based on the BPNN with one hidden layer and ten neurons,is built to investigate the nonlinear damage accumulation behavior,in which the results from the tests are used as training set.Comparing with linear models and previous nonlinear models,BPNN has the lowest calculation error in full load range.It has significant accuracy when the load is below 500 MPa.Especially,when the load is 350 MPa,the calculation error of the BPNN is only 0.4%.The accurate model of the blade is built by using 3D coordinate measurement technology.The loading cycle in fatigue analysis is defined from takeoff to cruise in 10 min,and the load history is obtained from finite element analysis（FEA）.Then the fatigue life of the compressor blade is predicted by using the BPNN model.The final fatigue life of the aero-engine blade is 6.55 104 cycles（10 916 h） based on the BPNN model,which is effective for the virtual design of aero-engine blade.

An Error Area Determination Approach in Machining of Aero-engine Blade

As a result of the recently increasing demands on high-performance aero-engine,the machining accuracy of blade profile is becoming more stringent. However,in the current profile,precision milling,grinding or near-netshape technology has to undergo a tedious iterative error compensation. Thus,if the profile error area and boundary can be determined automatically and quickly,it will help to improve the efficiency of subsequent re-machining correction process. To this end,an error boundary intersection approach is presented aiming at the error area determination of complex profile,including the phaseⅠof cross sectional non-rigid registration based on the minimum error area and the phaseⅡof boundary identification based on triangular meshes intersection. Some practical cases are given to demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed approach.

Composite Adaptive Control of Belt Polishing Force for Aero-engine Blade

The existing methods for blade polishing mainly focus on robot polishing and manual grinding.Due to the difficulty in high-precision control of the polishing force,the blade surface precision is very low in robot polishing,in particular,quality of the inlet and exhaust edges can not satisfy the processing requirements.Manual grinding has low efficiency,high labor intensity and unstable processing quality,moreover,the polished surface is vulnerable to burn,and the surface precision and integrity are difficult to ensure.In order to further improve the profile accuracy and surface quality,a pneumatic flexible polishing force-exerting mechanism is designed and a dual-mode switching composite adaptive control(DSCAC) strategy is proposed,which combines Bang-Bang control and model reference adaptive control based on fuzzy neural network(MRACFNN) together.By the mode decision-making mechanism,Bang-Bang control is used to track the control command signal quickly when the actual polishing force is far away from the target value,and MRACFNN is utilized in smaller error ranges to improve the system robustness and control precision.Based on the mathematical model of the force-exerting mechanism,simulation analysis is implemented on DSCAC.Simulation results show that the output polishing force can better track the given signal.Finally,the blade polishing experiments are carried out on the designed polishing equipment.Experimental results show that DSCAC can effectively mitigate the influence of gas compressibility,valve dead-time effect,valve nonlinear flow,cylinder friction,measurement noise and other interference on the control precision of polishing force,which has high control precision,strong robustness,strong anti-interference ability and other advantages compared with MRACFNN.The proposed research achieves high-precision control of the polishing force,effectively improves the blade machining precision and surface consistency,and significantly reduces the surface roughness.

Full-field dynamic strain reconstruction of an aero-engine blade from limited displacement responses

Blade strain distribution and its change with time are crucial for reliability analysis and residual life evaluation in blade vibration tests.Traditional strain measurements are achieved by strain gauges(SGs)in a contact manner at discrete positions on the blades.This study proposes a method of full-field and real-time strain reconstruction of an aero-engine blade based on limited displacement responses.Limited optical measured displacement responses are utilized to reconstruct the full-field strain.The full-field strain distribution is in-time visualized.A displacement-to-strain transformation matrix is derived on the basis of the blade mode shapes in the modal coordinate.The proposed method is validated on an aero-engine blade in numerical and experimental cases.Three discrete vibrational displacement responses measured by laser triangulation sensors are used to reconstruct the full-field strain over the whole operating time.The reconstructed strain responses are compared with the results measured by SGs and numerical simulation.The high consistency between the reconstructed and measured results demonstrates the accurate strain reconstructed by the method.This paper provides a low-cost,real-time,and visualized measurement of blade full-field dynamic strain using displacement response,where the traditional SGs would fail.

A trajectory planning method on error compensation of residual height for aero-engine blades of robotic belt grinding

While the traditional trajectory planning methods are used in robotic belt grinding of blades with an uneven machining allowance distribution, it is hard to obtain the preferable profile accuracy and surface quality to meet the high-performance requirements of aero-engine. To solve this problem, a novel trajectory planning method is proposed in this paper by considering the developed interpolation algorithm and the machining allowance threshold. The residual height error obtained from grinding experiments of titanium alloy sample was compensated to modify the calculation model of row spacing, and a new geometric algorithm was presented to dynamically calculate the cutter contact points based on this revised calculation model and the dichotomy method. Subsequently, the off-line machining program is generated based on a double-vector controlling method to obtain an optimal contact posture. On this basis, three sets of robotic grinding tests of titanium alloy blades were conducted to investigate the advantages of the proposed method.The comparative experimental results revealed that the presented algorithm had improved the surface profile accuracy of blade by 34.2% and 55.1%, respectively. Moreover, the average machined surface roughness was achieved to 0.3 μm and the machining efficiency was obviously promoted. It is concluded that this research work is beneficial to comprehensively improve the machined quality of blades in robotic belt grinding.

Remaining useful life prediction of aero-engines based on random-coefficient regression model considering random failure threshold

Remaining useful life(RUL)prediction is one of the most crucial components in prognostics and health management(PHM)of aero-engines.This paper proposes an RUL prediction method of aero-engines considering the randomness of failure threshold.Firstly,a random-coefficient regression(RCR)model is used to model the degradation process of aeroengines.Then,the RUL distribution based on fixed failure threshold is derived.The prior parameters of the degradation model are calculated by a two-step maximum likelihood estimation(MLE)method and the random coefficient is updated in real time under the Bayesian framework.The failure threshold in this paper is defined by the actual degradation process of aeroengines.After that,a expectation maximization(EM)algorithm is proposed to estimate the underlying failure threshold of aeroengines.In addition,the conditional probability is used to satisfy the limitation of failure threshold.Then,based on above results,an analytical expression of RUL distribution of aero-engines based on the RCR model considering random failure threshold(RFT)is derived in a closed-form.Finally,a case study of turbofan engine is used to demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of the RUL prediction method and the parameters estimation method of failure threshold proposed.

Reliability analysis of aero-engine blades considering nonlinear strength degeneration

To comprehensively consider the effects of strength degeneration and failure correlation, an improved stress–strength interference （SSI） model is proposed to analyze the reliability of aeroengine blades with the fatigue failure mode. Two types of TC4 alloy experiments are conducted for the study on the damage accumulation law. All the parameters in the nonlinear damage model are obtained by the tension–compression fatigue tests, and the accuracy of the nonlinear damage model is verified by the damage tests. The strength degeneration model is put forward on the basis of the Chaboche nonlinear damage theory and the Griffith fracture criterion, and determined by measuring the fatigue toughness during the tests. From the comparison of two kinds of degeneration models based on the Miner’s linear law and the nonlinear damage model respectively, the nonlinear model has a significant advantage on prediction accuracy especially in the later period of life. A time-dependent SSI reliability model is established. By computing the stress distribution using the finite element （FE） technique, the reliability of a single blade during the whole service life is obtained. Considering the failure correlation of components, a modified reliability model of aero-engine blades with common cause failure （CCF） is presented. It shows a closer and more reasonable process with the actual working condition. The improved reliability model is illustrated to be applied to aero-engine blades well, and the approach purposed in this paper is suitable for any actual machinery component of aero-engine rotor systems.

An Inter-Shaft Bearing Fault Diagnosis Dataset from an Aero-Engine System

In this paper,the aero-engine test with inter-shaft bearing fault is carried out,and a dataset is proposed for the first time based on the vibration signal of rotors and casings.First,a test rig based on a real aero-engine is established,driven by motors and equipped with a lubricating system.Then,the aero-engine is disassembled and assembled following the specification process,and the inter-shaft bearing with artificial fault is replaced.Next,the aero-engine test is conducted at 28 groups of high-and low-pressure speeds.Six measuring points are arranged,including two displacement sensors to test the displacement vibration signals of the low-pressure rotor and four acceleration sensors to test the acceleration vibration signals of the casing.The test results are integrated into an inter-shaft bearing fault dataset.Finally,based on the dataset in this paper,frequency spectrum,envelope spectrum,CNN,LSTM,and TST are used for fault diagnosis,and the results are compared with those of CWRU and XJTU datasets.The results show that the characteristic fault frequency cannot be found directly in the spectrum and envelope spectrum corresponding to this paper’s dataset but in CWRU and XJTU datasets.Using CNN,LSTM,and TST for fault diagnosis of the dataset in this paper,the accuracy is 83.13%,85.41%,and 71.07%,respectively,much lower than the diagnosis results of CWRU and XJTU datasets.It can be seen that the dataset in this paper is closer to the actual fault diagnosis situation and is a more challenging dataset.This dataset provides a new benchmark for the validation of fault diagnosis methods.Mendeley data:https://github.com/HouLeiHIT/HIT-dataset.

Mechanism of internal thermal runaway propagation in blade batteries

Blade batteries are extensively used in electric vehicles,but unavoidable thermal runaway is an inherent threat to their safe use.This study experimentally investigated the mechanism underlying thermal runaway propagation within a blade battery by using a nail to trigger thermal runaway and thermocouples to track its propagation inside a cell.The results showed that the internal thermal runaway could propagate for up to 272 s,which is comparable to that of a traditional battery module.The velocity of the thermal runaway propagation fluctuated between 1 and 8 mm s^(-1),depending on both the electrolyte content and high-temperature gas diffusion.In the early stages of thermal runaway,the electrolyte participated in the reaction,which intensified the thermal runaway and accelerated its propagation.As the battery temperature increased,the electrolyte evaporated,which attenuated the acceleration effect.Gas diffusion affected thermal runaway propagation through both heat transfer and mass transfer.The experimental results indicated that gas diffusion accelerated the velocity of thermal runaway propagation by 36.84%.We used a 1D mathematical model and confirmed that convective heat transfer induced by gas diffusion increased the velocity of thermal runaway propagation by 5.46%-17.06%.Finally,the temperature rate curve was analyzed,and a three-stage mechanism for internal thermal runaway propagation was proposed.In Stage I,convective heat transfer from electrolyte evaporation locally increased the temperature to 100℃.In Stage II,solid heat transfer locally increases the temperature to trigger thermal runaway.In StageⅢ,thermal runaway sharply increases the local temperature.The proposed mechanism sheds light on the internal thermal runaway propagation of blade batteries and offers valuable insights into safety considerations for future design.

Failure Assessment of Aero-engine Support Structure due to Blade-off

Aero-engine blade-off event could cause serious malfunction and endanger flight safety,which is an important issue widely concerned for a long period.This paper presents a comprehensive review on the regulation requirements,the major research methods and status at home and abroad.Firstly,the relevant certification regulations and standards about aero-engine structure safety due to blade-off event were overviewed and the research gaps between the abroad and the domestic were compared.Then,the simulation and experimental methodologies on aero-engine supporting structures undertake abnormal load due to blade-off event were discussed as major issue.Finally,the safety certification verification technology system for aero-engine support structures during blade-off event was proposed.

Surface integrity of GH4169 affected by cantilever finish grinding and the application in aero-engine blades

GH4169 is the main material for aero-cngine blades and integrated blisks. Because GH4169 has a poor milling performance, the profile precision and surtace integrity of blades and integrated blisks are difficult to be met by utilizing the conventional milling process, which directly influence the global performance and reliability of aero-engines. Through grinding experiments on parameters and surface integrity optimization, the helical cantilever grinding process utilizing a 300# CBN RB wheel is presented and applied in finish machining of GH4169 blades. The profile errors of the blade surface are within ±0.01 mm, the roughness is less than 0.4μm, the residual compressive stresses and the hardening rate are appropriate, there are no phenomena of burr and smearing with the grinding chips, and the leading/trailing edge can be smoothly connected with the suction/pressure surface. All the experimental results indicate that this grinding process is greatly suitable for the profile finish machining of GH4169 blades.

Optimized Design of Bio-Inspired Wind Turbine Blades

To enhance the aerodynamic performance of wind turbine blades,this study proposes the adoption of a bionic airfoil inspired by the aerodynamic shape of an eagle.Based on the blade element theory,a non-uniform extraction method of blade elements is employed for the optimization design of the considered wind turbine blades.Moreover,Computational Fluid Dynamics(CFD)is used to determine the aerodynamic performances of the eagle airfoil and a NACA2412 airfoil,thereby demonstrating the superior aerodynamic performance of the former.Finally,a mathematical model for optimizing the design of wind turbine blades is introduced and a comparative analysis is conducted with respect to the aerodynamic performances of blades designed using a uniform extraction approach.It is found that the blades designed using non-uniform extraction exhibit better aerodynamic performance.

Research on Automatic Test System of Engine Blade Natural Frequency

Blades are one of the important components on aircraft engines.If they break due to vibration failure,the normal operation of the entire engine will be offected.Therefore,it is necessary to measure their natural frequency before installing them on the engine to avoid resonance.At present,most blade vibration testing systems require manual operation by operators,which has high requirements for operators and the testing process is also very cumbersome.Therefore,the testing efficiency is low and cannot meet the needs of efficient testing.To solve the current problems of low testing efficiency and high operational requirements,a high-precision and high-efficiency automatic test system is designed.The testing accuracy of this system can reach ±1%,and the testing efficiency is improved by 37% compared to manual testing.Firstly,the influence of compression force and vibration exciter position on natural frequency test is analyzed by amplitude-frequency curve,so as to calibrate servo cylinder and fourdimensional motion platform.Secondly,the sine wave signal is used as the excitation to sweep the blade linearly,and the natural frequency is determined by the amplitude peak in the frequency domain.Finally,the accuracy experiment and efficiency experiment are carried out on the developed test system,whose results verify its high efficiency and high precision.

Effect of blade tilt angle on fluid flow characteristics in spray-blowing agitation composite process:a simulation

Aiming at the paddle tilt angle of the spray-blowing agitation composite process,the four-blade stirring and blowing composite desulfurization agitator was chosen as the research object,and the computational fluid dynamics numerical simulation was used to investigate the changes in flow field velocity,turbulent kinetic energy magnitude,and distribution caused by the blade tilt angle.Furthermore,the impact of blade tilt angle on the flow fragmentation behavior of individual bubbles and the coalescence process of multiple bubbles at different positions was studied.Under the same stirring and blowing process parameters,with the increase in the blade tilt angle of the agitator,the velocity of the flow field and the average turbulent kinetic energy inside the agitator decreased,and the bubble fragmentation speed decreased while the merging speed accelerated.The turbulent kinetic energy at the agitator bottom was greater when the blade tilt angle was 3.2°compared to when it was 13.2°,while the turbulent kinetic energy at the agitator upper part was relatively smaller.The results for single bubbles represented the state and trajectory of the bubble fragmentation process,and the results for multiple bubbles illustrated the state and trajectory of the bubble aggregation process.

Research on the Icing Diagnosis ofWind Turbine Blades Based on FS–XGBoost–EWMA

In winter,wind turbines are susceptible to blade icing,which results in a series of energy losses and safe operation problems.Therefore,blade icing detection has become a top priority.Conventional methods primarily rely on sensor monitoring,which is expensive and has limited applications.Data-driven blade icing detection methods have become feasible with the development of artificial intelligence.However,the data-driven method is plagued by limited training samples and icing samples;therefore,this paper proposes an icing warning strategy based on the combination of feature selection(FS),eXtreme Gradient Boosting(XGBoost)algorithm,and exponentially weighted moving average(EWMA)analysis.In the training phase,FS is performed using correlation analysis to eliminate redundant features,and the XGBoost algorithm is applied to learn the hidden effective information in supervisory control and data acquisition analysis(SCADA)data to build a normal behavior model.In the online monitoring phase,an EWMA analysis is introduced to monitor the abnormal changes in features.A blade icing warning is issued when themonitored features continuously exceed the control limit,and the ambient temperature is below 0℃.This study uses data fromthree icing-affected wind turbines and one normally operating wind turbine for validation.The experimental results reveal that the strategy can promptly predict the icing trend among wind turbines and stably monitor the normally operating wind turbines.

Blade Wrap Angle Impact on Centrifugal Pump Performance:Entropy Generation and Fluid-Structure Interaction Analysis

The centrifugal pump is a prevalent power equipment widely used in different engineering patterns,and the impeller blade wrap angle significantly impacts its performance.A numerical investigation was conducted to analyze the influence of the blade wrap angle on flow characteristics and energy distribution of a centrifugal pump evaluated as a low specific speed with a value of 69.This study investigates six impellermodels that possess varying blade wrap angles(95°,105°,115°,125°,135°,and 145°)that were created while maintaining the same volute and other geometrical characteristics.The investigation of energy loss was conducted to evaluate the values of total and entropy generation rates(TEG,EGR).The fluid-structure interaction was considered numerically using the software tools ANSYS Fluent and ANSYSWorkbench.The elastic structural dynamic equation was used to estimate the structural response,while the shear stress transport k–ωturbulence model was utilized for the fluid domain modeling.The findings suggest that the blade wrap angle has a significant influence on the efficiency of the pump.The impeller featuring a blade wrap angle of 145°exhibits higher efficiency,with a notable increase of 3.76%relative to the original model.Variations in the blade wrap angle impact the energy loss,shaft power,and pump head.The model with a 145°angle exhibited a maximum equivalent stress of 14.8MPa and a total deformation of 0.084 mm.The results provide valuable insights into the intricate flow mechanism of the centrifugal pump,particularly when considering various blade wrap angles.

Influence of Blade Number on the Performance of Hydraulic Turbines in the Transition Stage

To analyze the effect of blade number on the performance of hydraulic turbines during the transient stage in which theflow rate is not constant,six hydraulic turbines with different blade numbers are considered.The instantaneous hydraulic performance of the turbine and the pressure pulsation acting on the impeller are investigated numerically by using the ANSYS CFX software.The ensuing results are compared with the outcomes of experimental tests.It is shown that thefluctuation range of the pressure coefficient increases with time,but the corresponding range for the transient hydraulic efficiency decreases gradually when theflow velocity transits to larger values.During the transition to smallflow velocity,thefluctuation range of the pressure coefficient gradually decreases as time passes,but the correspondingfluctuation range of its transient hydraulic efficiency gradually becomes larger.Thefluctuation range in the Z9 case is small during the transition.The main frequency of transient hydraulic efficiency pulsation is equal to the blade frequency.At the main frequency,Z7 has the largest amplitude of the hydraulic efficiency pulsation,Z10 has the smallest amplitude,and the difference between Z7 and Z9 is limited.As the number of blades grows,the pressure pulsation during the transition process gradually decreases,but the pressure pulsation of Z10 at the volute tongue is larger.In the steady state,Z9 has the highest efficiency and in the transient stage,the pressure coefficientfluctuation range is small.Accordingly,for the hydraulic turbine Z9,the performance is optimal.

Effect of Rigid Pitch Motion on Flexible Vibration Characteristics of a Wind Turbine Blade

Adynamic pitch strategy is usually adopted to improve the aerodynamic performance of the blade of awind turbine.The dynamic pitch motion will affect the linear vibration characteristics of the blade.However,these influences have not been studied in previous research.In this paper,the influences of the rigid pitch motion on the linear vibration characteristics of a wind turbine blade are studied.The blade is described as a rotating cantilever beam with an inherent coupled rigid-flexible vibration,where the rigid pitch motion introduces a parametrically excited vibration to the beam.Partial differential equations governing the nonlinear coupled pitch-bend vibration are proposed using the generalized Hamiltonian principle.Natural vibration characteristics of the inherent coupled rigid-flexible system are analyzed based on the combination of the assumed modes method and the multi-scales method.Effects of static pitch angle,rotating speed,and characteristics of harmonic pitch motion on flexible natural frequencies andmode shapes are discussed.It shows that the pitch amplitude has a dramatic influence on the natural frequencies of the blade,while the effects of pitch frequency and pith phase on natural frequencies are little.

PFNA2 versus 95 Degree Condylar Blade Plate in the Management of Unstable Trochanteric Fractures

Purpose: The proximal femoral nail anti-rotation (PFNA) is known to have advantages in enhancing the anchorage ability of internal fixation in elderly unstable osteoporotic intertrochanteric fracture patients. However whether it is superior to condylar blade fixation is not clear. This study aimed to determine which treatment has better clinical outcomes in older patients. Materials and Methods: A total of 86 patients over the age of 60 with unstable trochanteric fractures within the past 3 weeks, were included in this prospective study conducted from June 1, 2018, to May 31, 2021. All the intertrochanteric fractures were classified according to AO/OTA classification. Among them, 44 cases were treated with the Proximal Femoral Nail (PFNA2) with or without an augmentation screw, and 42 cases were treated with the Condylar Blade Plate. In addition, the operative time, intraoperative blood loss, intraoperative and postoperative blood transfusion, postoperative weight-bearing time, hospitalization time, Harris score of hip function, Kyle’s criteria and postoperative complications were compared between the two groups. Results: The mean duration of surgery for the PFN group was 66.8 minutes (on average), whereas for the condylar blade plate group, it was 99.30 minutes (on average). The PFNA2 group experienced less blood loss (average of 80 mL) compared to the condylar blade plate group (average of 120 mL). Union and partial weight-bearing occurred earlier in the PFNA2 group (14.1 weeks and 10.6 weeks, respectively) compared to the Condylar blade plate group (18.7 weeks and 15.8 weeks). In two patients from the PFNA2 group, screw backing out and varus collapse complications were encountered;however, these patients remained asymptomatic and did not require revision surgery. In two other patients, screw cut out and breakage of the nail at the helical screw hole leading to non-union of the proximal femur were observed during the nine-month follow-up, necessitating revision surgery with prosthetic replacement. Among the condylar blade plate group, three patients experienced complications, including blade breakage at the blade and plate junction. In two cases, the fracture united in varus, and in one case, the blade cut through, resulting in non-union of the femoral head, which required revision surgery. According to the Harris hip score and Kyle’s criteria, a good-excellent outcome was observed in 92.85% of cases in the PFNA2 group and 90.90% of cases in the condylar blade plate group. Conclusion: Both the Proximal Femoral Nail A2 and Condylar blade plate are effective implants for the treatment of unstable trochanteric fractures. The intramedullary implant promotes biological healing and allows for early ambulation with minimal complications. Similarly satisfactory restoration of anatomy and favorable radiological and functional results can be achieved with the biological fixation provided by the 95-degree condylar blade plate. However, the use of PFNA2 internal fixation technique has the advantage of less trauma in elderly patients than the 95-degree condylar blade plate.