Composite Turbine Disc Rotor With Friction-Welded Replaceable Lugs
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Solution Overview
Problem
Turbine rotors in gas turbine engines face challenges with high stresses and temperatures, leading to limited operating life, complex and energy-intensive manufacturing, and inconvenient repair processes, necessitating a stronger and more robust design with efficient manufacturing methods.
Innovation Solution
A composite turbine disc rotor design featuring a hub and radially projecting lugs made from different materials, where lugs are friction welded to the hub using an interface material, allowing for removability and high-temperature performance, and enabling efficient manufacturing and maintenance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If turbine rotors are designed to withstand high stresses and temperatures, then strength and durability are improved, but manufacturing complexity and energy consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The rotor is divided into separate components (hub, lugs, blades) that can be manufactured independently and assembled together. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized separately, reducing overall manufacturing complexity while maintaining the required strength through proper material selection and joining methods for each segment.
Solution Approach 2:
The rotor employs composite construction with lugs made from different materials than the hub, allowing each material to be selected for its optimal properties. This enables the structure to withstand high stresses and temperatures through material optimization without requiring the entire rotor to be manufactured as a single complex unit.
2Duration of action of stationary object
If turbine rotors are designed to withstand high temperatures, then operating life is improved, but manufacturing energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
Different regions of the rotor are made from different materials optimized for their specific thermal and mechanical environments. The lugs, which experience different stress and temperature conditions than the hub, are made from materials specifically selected for those local conditions, allowing the rotor to achieve high-temperature durability without the energy-intensive manufacturing required for a monolithic high-performance material throughout.
3Strength
If turbine rotors are designed as integrated structures, then strength is improved, but ease of repair deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The rotor is designed as an assembly of separable components (hub, lugs, blades) connected through standardized interfaces. This segmentation maintains structural strength through proper joining methods while enabling individual components to be removed, inspected, and replaced independently, dramatically improving ease of repair compared to integrated structures.
4Ease of manufacture
If turbine rotors use homogeneous materials, then manufacturing simplicity is improved, but adaptability to different loading conditions deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The rotor employs composite construction with lugs made from different materials than the hub, allowing each material to be selected for its optimal properties. This enables the structure to withstand high stresses and temperatures through material optimization without requiring the entire rotor to be manufactured as a single complex unit.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The design enhances the rotor's strength and durability at high temperatures, simplifies manufacturing and maintenance, and allows for convenient inspection and replacement of individual components, improving overall efficiency and longevity.
Implementation Method 1
friction welding the lug to a hub member via the interface material
Data Source
AI summary
A rotor for a turbomachine and a method of manufacturing the same. The method includes providing a lug with a lug body and an interface material disposed on the lug body. The method also includes friction welding the lug to a hub member via the interface material to define a projected structure for an outer radial area of a disc assembly of the rotor. The projected structure is configured to support a first side of a rotor blade of the rotor in cooperation with a second projected structure of the disc assembly supporting a second side of the rotor blade. The lug body and the hub member are made from different materials.