CMC Nozzle Guide Vane Seamless Platform Integration
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current ceramic matrix composite (CMC) materials for gas turbine nozzle guide vanes face challenges in creating seamless transitions from vanes to platforms due to the required lay-up of fibers, making it difficult to form annular arrays without joints, which are necessary for high-temperature applications.
Innovation Solution
A method involving a tubular pre-form with unconsolidated CMC fibers is used, where extraneous surfaces are cut and reoriented to create ancillary features like flaps and lugs, allowing for uninterrupted ceramic structures and seamless integration of vanes and platforms, enabling the formation of annular arrays without joints.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Temperature
If CMC fibers are laid up in conventional architectures to form nozzle guide vanes, then the material provides temperature tolerance and creep resistance, but joints must be introduced between vanes and platforms which reduces mechanical robustness
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the vane and platform structures into a single integrated CMC component by using continuous fiber layouts that extend from the vane through the platform without interruption. This eliminates the need for joints between these components, maintaining mechanical robustness while preserving temperature tolerance.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs preliminary fiber positioning and pre-form construction techniques where fibers are arranged in their final continuous paths before consolidation. This preliminary action ensures that the fiber architecture is designed to accommodate seamless transitions from vane to platform regions, avoiding the need for post-manufacturing joints.
2Ease of manufacture
If CMC components are formed as separate pieces to accommodate fiber lay-up constraints, then manufacturing is simplified, but subsequent joining of components introduces joints that reduce structural integrity
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the manufacturing process into distinct stages (pre-form construction, fiber laying, consolidation) while maintaining continuous fiber paths throughout the final component. This allows the complex integrated structure to be manufactured through systematic sequential steps rather than requiring complex single-step formation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses three-dimensional fiber routing and multi-layer pre-form construction to achieve continuous fiber paths that traverse complex geometries. By utilizing the third dimension and layered architecture, the patent enables seamless fiber continuity from vane to platform regions without requiring component separation.
3Shape
If conventional metallic casting processes are used to create homogenous vane-platform structures, then seamless integration is achieved, but the material cannot tolerate high temperatures as effectively as CMC
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses ceramic matrix composite materials that combine the high-temperature tolerance of ceramics with the structural capabilities needed for turbine components. The CMC material system enables seamless integration through continuous fiber architecture while providing superior temperature resistance compared to conventional metallic alloys.
Data Source
AI summary
A method of constructing the nozzle guide passage may include the steps of: providing a tubular pre-form having a plurality of layers of unconsolidated CMC fibers in which the internal walls of the tubular preform provide either working surfaces which define the main gas path walls of the assembled nozzle vane, or extraneous wall portions which do not provide working surfaces of the assembled nozzle guide vane arrangement; cutting the wall portions to provide one or more flaps which remain attached to the pre-form via a connecting portion of wall; and, displacing the flap from a first pre-cut position, to a second consolidation position to provide one or more ancillary features.