3D Woven Composite Fan Platform Box Structure
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for creating fan blade platforms for turbine engines using 3D weaving struggle to provide sufficient strength against centrifugal forces, requiring additional reinforcement which is difficult to achieve due to the size of the fibers involved, often leading to part rejection.
Innovation Solution
A fiber blank is woven as a single piece using 3D weaving with specific arrangements of warp and weft yarns to form a closed box structure, including closed and open non-interlinked zones, allowing for a platform with enhanced buckling strength without increasing thickness, achieved through precise interlinking and unfolding of the fiber blank before densification with a matrix.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If additional reinforcement (covering on stiffeners) is added to form a closed box structure, then the strength against centrifugal force is improved, but the manufacturing complexity and difficulty increase due to the size of the fibers involved
Solution Approach 1:
The fiber blank is divided into distinct zones: interlinked zones that provide structural strength and non-interlinked zones that allow easy separation and covering application. The stiffeners are segmented from the base through non-interlinked zones, enabling independent handling and covering operations.
Solution Approach 2:
Non-interlinked zones act as intermediaries between the stiffeners and the base, facilitating the covering operation by providing a transition region where the covering can be applied without interfering with the underlying fiber structure.
2Strength
If the platform thickness is increased to improve buckling strength, then the strength is improved, but the device complexity and manufacturing difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of increasing thickness in the vertical dimension, the invention uses horizontal dimensioning through non-interlinked zones that extend along the platform. This allows buckling strength enhancement through lateral structural features rather than vertical thickening.
Solution Approach 2:
The platform utilizes composite fiber structures with different zones having different interlinking characteristics, creating a composite material system where interlinked zones provide compression resistance and non-interlinked zones provide structural flexibility and ease of manufacturing.
3Stability of the object's composition
If 3D weaving is used to make the fiber blank as a single piece, then the structural integrity is improved, but the manufacturing precision requirements increase due to the complexity of the weaving pattern
Solution Approach 1:
Different zones of the fiber blank have different local qualities: interlinked zones with high structural integrity for load-bearing areas, and non-interlinked zones with reduced interlinking for areas requiring ease of separation and covering application. This localized differentiation reduces overall manufacturing precision requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of fully interlinking the entire fiber blank, the invention applies partial interlinking only where structurally necessary. The non-interlinked zones provide sufficient structural integrity for the application while dramatically reducing the complexity and precision requirements of the weaving process.
Data Source
AI summary
A fiber blank woven as a single piece by three-dimensional weaving to make a closed box-structure platform out of composite material for a turbine engine fan. In each plane of the fiber blank, a set of warp yarns interlinks layers of weft yarns in first, second, and third portions of the fiber blank, while leaving a closed non-interlinked zone separating the first and second portions over a fraction of the dimension of the fiber blank in the warp direction between an upstream non-interlinking limit and a downstream non-interlinking limit, and while leaving at least one open non-interlinked zone separating the second and third portions over a fraction of the dimension of the fiber blank in the warp direction from a non-interlinking limit to a downstream edge of the fiber blank. A method of fabricating a preform for the closed box-structure platform can use such a fiber blank.