Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Highly-efficient electrochemical rounding process of sharp corner improved by a tube electrode insulation method

  • ORIGINAL ARTICLE
  • Published:
The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Turbine blades of aero engines often require small-size and high depth-diameter ratio holes, which have been a promising method for film cooling under harsh working conditions of both high temperature and pressure. However, for the film cooling holes with different spatial angles, existing methods are difficult to eliminate sharp corners that might be damaged easily due to stress concentration and thus reduce the strength of turbine blades. Herein, electrochemical machining (ECM) method based on insulated electrodes was proposed to round the sharp corners of film cooling holes on the GH4169 plate. Electrochemical rounding theory was analyzed in detail. Tube electrodes were insulated by polyimide capillary tube to reduce the stray corrosion and improve the precision and strength of turbine blades. In addition, the size of rounded corners could be adjusted by changing the processing parameters including processing voltage, processing time, processing gap, electrode descent position, and electrode exposure length. This electrochemical rounding process can round the film cooling holes efficiently, and is expected to be applied in the field of aviation manufacturing widely.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12
Fig. 13

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

The datasets used or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Code availability

Not applicable.

References

  1. Zhao YC, Gao HS, Wen ZX, Yang YQ, Cheng H, Li Q, Yue ZF (2021) Film cooling of showerhead holes from the twisted leading edge of a gas turbine blade: complex mainstream characteristics and reasonable angle arrangement. Aerosp Sci Technol 119:107208

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Wang J, Zhao Z, Tian L, Ren X, Sundén B (2021) Effects of hole configuration on film cooling effectiveness and particle deposition on curved surfaces in gas turbines. Appl Therm Eng 190:116861

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Courtis M, Murray A, Coulton B, Ireland P, Mayo I (2021) Influence of spanwise and streamwise film hole spacing on adiabatic film effectiveness for effusion-cooled gas turbine blades. Int J Turbomach Propuls Power 6(3):37

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Appalanaidu B, Dvivedi A (2020) On controlling of gas film shape in electrochemical discharge machining process for fabrication of elliptical holes. Mater Manuf Processes 36(5):558–571

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Andreini A, Becchi R, Facchini B, Picchi A, Peschiulli A (2017) The effect of effusion holes inclination angle on the adiabatic film cooling effectiveness in a three-sector gas turbine combustor rig with a realistic swirling flow. Int J Therm Sci 121:75–88

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Voisey KT, Clyne TW (2004) Laser drilling of cooling holes through plasma sprayed thermal barrier coatings. Surf Coat Technol 176(3):296–306

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Li CJ, Li Y, Tong H, Zhao L, Kong QC, Wang ZQ (2016) An EDM pulse power generator and its feasible experiments for drilling film cooling holes. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 87(5–8):1813–1821

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Zhang Y, Xu Z, Zhu D, Qu N, Zhu Y (2015) Drilling of film cooling holes by a EDM/ECM in situ combined process using internal and side flushing of tubular electrode. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 83(1–4):505–517

    Google Scholar 

  9. Li Z, Wen Z, Gu S, Pei H, Gao H, Mao Q (2019) In-situ observation of crack initiation and propagation in Ni-based superalloy with film cooling holes during tensile test. J Alloy Compd 793:65–76

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Aravind S, Hiremath SS (2022) Design and development of IEG control and characterization of micro-holes generated using in-house developed mu-ECM setup. Arab J Sci Eng 47(7):8877–8898

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Zhu LK, Hao JH, Xu B, Wang B (2022) Study on the micro through holes machining using the electrochemical machining (ECM) method with a graphite electrode. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 121(9–10):6049–6057

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Liu GD, Tong H, Li Y, Zhong H (2020) Investigation on passivation and transient electrochemical behavior of Fe-Cr-Ni based alloy in micro ECM. J Electrochem Soc 167(6):063503

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Wu YY, Sheu DY (2018) Investigating tungsten carbide micro-hole drilling characteristics by desktop micro-ECM with NaOH solution. Micromachines 9(10):512

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Wang JY, Sheu DY (2016) Developing a process chain with WEDG technology and pulse ECM to fabricate ultra micro pins. 18th Cirp Conference on Electro Physical and Chemical Machining (Isem Xviii) 42: p 815–818

  15. Han W, Kunieda M (2017) Fabrication of tungsten micro-rods by ECM using ultra-short-pulse bipolar current. CIRP Ann Manuf Technol 66(1):193–196

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Liu GD, Li Y, Kong QC, Tong H (2017) Research on ECM process of micro holes with internal features. Precis Eng 47:508–515

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Wu B, Wu XY, Lei JG, Xu B, Ruan SC, Zhong JM (2017) Study on machining 3D micro mould cavities using reciprocating micro ECM with queued foil microelectrodes. J Mater Process Technol 241:120–128

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Zhang Y, Xu Z, Zhu Y, Zhu D (2016) Machining of a film-cooling hole in a single-crystal superalloy by high-speed electrochemical discharge drilling. Chin J Aeronaut 29(2):560–570

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Lee E-S, Won J-K, Shin T-H, Kim S-H (2012) Investigation of machining characteristics for electrochemical micro-deburring of the AZ31 lightweight magnesium alloy. Int J Precis Eng Manuf 13(3):339–345

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Sarkar S, Mitra S, Bhattacharyya B (2004) Mathematical modeling for controlled electrochemical deburring (ECD). J Mater Process Technol 147(2):241–246

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Funding

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Liaoning Province (Grant No. 20170540709).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Shenyang Aerospace University, Shenyang, 110136, People’s Republic of China

    Yan Sun, Yaxiong Zhang, Ning Ma, Yiqiang You, Wei Li & Luteng Liu

  2. School of Mechanical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116024, People’s Republic of China

    Yang Chen

Authors
  1. Yan Sun
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Yaxiong Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Ning Ma
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Yang Chen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Yiqiang You
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Wei Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Luteng Liu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ning Ma.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval

Not applicable.

Consent to participate

Not applicable.

Consent for publication

All the authors declare their consent for the publication of the manuscript after acceptance.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher's note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Sun, Y., Zhang, Y., Ma, N. et al. Highly-efficient electrochemical rounding process of sharp corner improved by a tube electrode insulation method. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 127, 295–304 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-023-11545-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-023-11545-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation