DETERMINATION OF THE TENSIONS APPEARING IN CERAMIC LAYER

APPLIED TO THE BLADES FOR AIRCRAFT ENGINE

Geanina Laura Pintilei, Daniel Dragomir Stanciu, Ionut Vasile Crismaru, Gica Narcis Basescu, Sorin Claudiu
Iacob Strugaru and Corneliu Munteanu*

Technical University Gheorghe Asachi of Iasi, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering,
Iasi, Romania, laura_rares082008@yahoo.com


Abstract: The achievement of the ceramic layer on the turbine blades for aircraft engine is now a
usual method used for increasing the strength and durability of the blades. Turbine blades for aircraft
engine are subdued, during functioning, to thermal and mechanical stresses, which can lead to their
deterioration.
One of the problems which appears to the ceramic coatings is the resistance of the layer deposited, to
the tensions in the turbine blades under the action of the centrifugal force and force produced by the
gas stream.
In this paper is carried the analysis of these solicitations onto a layer of ceramic material deposited
on the moving blades of aircraft engine Tumanski R13 which equips MIG 21.
A calculation model was developed, using finite element analysis module, from the software CATIA
V5R19. The calculation has taken into account/consideration the composed request due to the forces
that are acting on blades. The resulting tension was determined on the basis of Von Misess
equivalence theorem.

Keywords: finite element analysis, simulation, ZrO
2
/20%Y
2
O
3



1.Introduction
One way to improve the performance
for aircraft engines is increasing the
temperature in the combustion chamber. By
increasing the gases temperature in the
turbine inlet it can significantly improve the
performance and some other important
functional parameters of gas turbo engines.
[1]
The improvement of the temperature
resistance of the aircraft engine elements
can be obtained by application of a single
ceramic thermal barrier coating.
The goal is to extend the lifetime of
turbine blades by using a common, cheap
and easily processed material, which coated
with a thermal barrier by modern methods
lead to improved thermo mechanical
behavior of the blades, increasing their high
temperature performance and prevents
peeling. One of the problems which appear
is the behavior of the ceramic coating layer
due to the tensions that occur in the blades.
Static loading of the blades has two
main components: the centrifugal force
which acts on the blade and the forces
resulting from the action of the working
fluid on the blades. [2]
Centrifugal force generates an axial
load in the turbine blades. In case of twisted
blades, the centrifugal forces produce
normal and tangential tensions, which lead
to an untwisting of the blade.
These two tensions are taken into
consideration only for long blades, for
shorter ones they are negligible.
The paper analysis the tensions
distribution onto a layer of ceramic material
deposited by atmospheric plasma spraying
composed of ZrO2/20% Y2O3, on super
alloy Inconel 625 blades of the aircraft
turbo engine Tumanski R13, which equips
the MIG 21. The gas turbine has two stages,
with different rotation speeds. The analyze
was made for the mobile blades of both
stages.

2. Calculation model of the forces acting
on the blade
The flow of the gas through the
blades networks, determines on each blade
a force f, because of the different pressures
between the suction side p
1
and the pressure
side p
2
. The force f has two components
coresponding to the tangential and axial
directions: fu, fa. The model is presented in
Fig.1, where w
1
, w
2
are the relative
velocities at the inlet and outlet sections.[3]


Figure.1. Calculation model of the forces
acting on the blade

Based on the geometrical dimensions
of the blades and the nozzles and on the
results of the gasodynamic calculus of the
stages, the values of force f and his
components are presented in Tab.1

Table 1
f
u
[N] f
a
[N] f [N]
Stage I 1003 585 1161
Stage II 1097 1270 1678

The centrifugal force was default
determined by the finite element analysis

3. Stress analysis using finite element
method
The workflow sequence is roughly
broken down into the following steps:
- Defining the geometry for the blade
and the layer;
- Structural assembly;
- Preprocessing;
- Calculation of the stresses inside the
blade and the layer.
In figure 2 is represented a lower
view of a mobile blade of the first stage and
the TBC coating structure.


Figure.2. Turbine blade and the TBC
coating structure.

3.1. Structural Assembly in CAD
The first step was to create a CAD
model of the mobile blades of I an II stages
and of the layers. This includes defining the
geometry of the blades in different sections,
establishing a structural assembly between
the blade and the layer and defining the
material for both the components.
The CAD model for the turbine
blades and ceramic layers on the two
turbine stages was done using the software
CATIA V5 R19. For the base material from
the turbine blades, we defined the
properties of the Inconel 625 material and
for the ceramic layer the properties of
ZrO
2
/20% Y
2
O
3
.
The assembly of the two component
parts, namely the ceramic layer and the base
material, was made using a rigid connection
condition between them.

3.2. Preprocessing
The finite element analysis was done
using the Generative Structural Analysis
module of the CATIA V5 R19 program.
As boundary condition the blades
were clamped on the lower surface. The
loads that are applied to the blades are:
centrifugal force due to the high rotational
speeds of the blades and the force generated
by the fluid flow through the network of
blades.
The centrifugal force was modeled
using the Rotation Force function, for
which the body that is rotating is the
assembly between the blade and the layer,
the rotation axis is the axis of the shaft
which was defined in the CAD model and
the rotational speed is 11,200 turn/min for
the first stage and 10,200 turn/min for the
second.
The force produced by the gas flow is
considered as a uniform distributed force on
the pressure side of the blade and is
introduced by its two components, namely
the tangential force and the axial force,
determined using the velocity triangles for
the two stages.
The finite elements used for the mesh
are of tetrahedral parabolic type. In the
mesh network composition can be noted
that are 15577 elements with 5114 nodes
(Figures 3.a. /3.b.)



Figure 3.a. Finite element mesh for first
stage


Figure 3.b. Finite element mesh for second
stage

4. Results
In figure 4.a. / b. is presented the
turbine blades from stage I, where it is
possible to see that the zone with the
highest stress is located at the base of blade
and the maximum value of the stress is 251
MPa and that is present in the ceramic
coating.



Figure 4.a Tension distribution of the blade
from stage I with ceramic layer, suction
side view



Figure 4.b Tension distribution of the blade
from stage I with ceramic layer, pressure
side view

In figure 5.a, b is presented the
second stage of the blade. Here is observed
that the zone with the highest stress is
located on the central zone of the suction
side of the blade and the maximum is 314
MPa.
It can be observed that in the zone of
the hole of the rigidization wire (Figure
6.b.) the value of the stress is higher
because of the phenomenon of the tension
concentrations.



Figure 5.a Tension distribution of the blade
from stage II with ceramic layer, suction
side view


Figure 5.b Tension distribution of the blade
from stage II with ceramic layer, pressure
side view

In both stages the distribution of
tensions for blades with ceramic layer and
without it is similar. The blades without
ceramic layer of the first stage have the
maximum stress value of 136 MPa and the
second stage 356 MPa.



Figure 6.a Tension distribution of the blade
from stage I without ceramic layer, suction
side view




Figure 6.b Tension distribution of the blade
from stage I without ceramic layer,
pressure side view



Figure 7.a Tension distribution of the blade
from stage II without ceramic layer, suction
side view


Figure 7.b Tension distribution of the blade
from stage II without ceramic layer,
pressure side view

In table 2 are presented the maximum
values of the stress for the blades with
ceramic layer and for the blades without
ceramic layer.

With
ceramic
layer [MPa]
Without
ceramic
layer [MPa]
Stage 1 251 136
Stage 2 314 356


5. Conclusions
From the presented values, we can
conclude that the stress of the ceramic
coating its less than the value of the
admissible stress. For the ceramic material
ZrO
2
/20% Y
2
O
3
the value for the
admissible stress is 380MPa.
We can appreciate that:
a) The blade of stage I with ceramic layer
shows an increase in the maximum stress
value at its base from the blade without the
layer due to tangential shear stress
occurring at the interface between the
coating layer and the base material.
b) In stage II can be seen a decrease in the
maximum stress value of the blade with
ceramic layer.
c) To lower the maximum stress value for
the blade from stage I with ceramic layer
would be necessary to change the geometry
of the section so the maximum stress value
occurs inside the base material and doesnt
affect the ceramic layer.
d) We conclude that there are situations
when the geometry of the blade can
influence negatively in terms of mechanical
resistance the way that the layer interacts
with the base material.
e) It can be concluded that the ceramic layer
does not influence decisively the
distribution of tensions, but can improve the
maximum stress that appears in the blades.

Acknowledgements
We thank SC AEROSTAR SA from
Bacau for providing the super alloy
substrates.
We acknowledge that this paper was
realized with the support of EURODOC
Doctoral Scholarship for Research
Performance at European level project
financed by the European Social Found and
Rumanian Government.

References
[1] C.C.Berndt et al., J.Thermal Spray
Tech. 1(4) (1992).
[2] C.Cantuniar, Turbomasini termice, Ed.
Mirton Timisoara 2002
[3] D. Ursescu and I. Tardea, Turbine cu
abur si gaze, Ed. I.P. Iasi 1983.
[4] S.Sampath and H.Herman,
Microstructure Development in Plasma
Sprayed Coatings, Proceedings of
International Thermal Spray Conference,
Welding Inst., London Vol.1 (1989) P53.
[5] Nicholas Curry, Nicolaie Markocsan,
Xin-Hai Li, Aurelien Tricoire, and Mitch
Dorfman Next Generation Thermal Barrier
Coatings for the Gas Turbine Industry
(Submitted May 10, 2010; in revised form
September 20, 2010).
[6] R. Vassen, X. Cao, D. Stver,
Improvement of new thermal barrier
coating systems using a layered or graded
structure, 25th Annual Conference on
Composites, Advanced Ceramics,
Materials, and Structures: B: Ceramic
Engineering and Science Proceedings, 22,
2008, pp. 435442.



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