Additive Manufacturing of Hot Turbine Blade

TeamAdd
Anil Kumar
Jayesh Mutyal
Kajal Khan
Mukul Atri
Omkar Kesarkar

1 © 2018 ANSYS, Inc. October 4, 2018 ANSYS Confidential

 Outline of presentation

• Aim of this demo

• What is Additive Manufacturing …Introduction
• Why Additive Manufacturing …Purpose & market trends
• Hot Turbine Blade AM
− Business case
− Engineering challenges
• Pervasive Engineering Simulation …complete ANSYS solution for AM steps
• Solution details
• Summary
• Future improvement

2 © 2018 ANSYS, Inc. October 4, 2018 ANSYS Confidential

 Aim of this Demo

This demo showcases how ANSYS simulation tools can be used to characterize
the complete Additive Manufacturing processes for “Hot Turbine blade” case

If you can print a turbine blade, you can 3D

print pretty much anything. It is very tiny and
simple, but at the end of the day, it is one of
the most challenging applications out there for
additive manufacturing.
– Dr. Markus Seobold
Head of Additive Manufacturing,
Seimens Power & Gas

Curtsey: GrabCAD

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 Additive Manufacturing
…Focus on Powder Bed Fusion AM process

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 Additive Manufacturing introduction

Additive Manufacturing refers to all processes in which material is joined together to

create desired object.

Powder Schematic diagram of the DMLS system Finished AM parts

Combining powder to form a part

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 Powder Bed process & focus on metal AM

• Powder Bed Fusion process “Direct

Metal Laser Melting”- DMLM process
constitutes 60% of the metal AM
process.
− Thin Powder layer is spread over built plate
using spreader blade
− Laser/s selectively melts/sinters powder
layer to form solidified layer
− Part is built layer-by-layer

Demo focuses on this process

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 Why Additive Manufacturing
… Purpose & market trends

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 Additive Manufacturing promise over conventional methods
Conventional Efficiency limited Multiple number Multiple Huge tooling costs Multiple servicing/
by manufacturing of parts manufacturing & lead times repair sources
constraints sources &
inspection
systems

Tooling
Production
4-9 Months

Additive Design Freedom Consolidated part Single Fixed costs & no Smaller number of
for highest manufacturing lead times servicing/ repair
efficiency source & sources
inspection system

Start production right away

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 AM Disruption is here… Industry 4.0

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 Turbine Blade AM
… Business case

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 Additive Manufacturing of Hot Turbine Blades

Hot Turbine Blades are ideal candidate for AM

• Geometrically very complex
• Conformal cooling holes
• Made of superalloys to withstand high
temperature, pressures & centrifugal forces

Key AM advantages:
• Significant reduction in development times Siemens with EOS had tested a new blade design with a completely revised and improved
internal cooling geometry that was not possible to manufacture using conventional
• Significant efficiency improvements methods. Curtsey: Siemens

• Lower carbon footprint, weight reduction

• Significant reduction in inventory

11 © 2018 ANSYS, Inc. October 4, 2018 ANSYS Confidential

 Turbine blade manufacturers

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 Engineering challenges
…in Turbine Blade design by AM

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 Steps in Turbine Blade Additive Manufacturing

1. Digital 3D CAD file obtained 2. Powder characteristics, 3. Layer by layer DMLM

from DfAM Laser Power, Speed, Hatch print process 4. Layered blade portion
spacing, Porosity,
Plan step Microstructure Print step

Finished AM
5. Surface, hole Machining &
blade heat treatment

Post step
14 © 2018 ANSYS, Inc. October 4, 2018 ANSYS Confidential
 List of main engineering challenges at different AM steps
• Plan for AM • Print Process • Post treatments
− Design for Additive Manufacturing − Distortion prediction/ − Binder material ejection
− Identifying optimum “Process compensation − Heat treatment
parameters” for given powder material − Residual stress prediction/ − Microstructure
• Laser power & speed reduction
− Material properties
• Hatch spacing − Support structure planning &
optimization − Porosity
• Meltpool dynamics − Machining
− Effect of Preheat conditions
• Porosity prediction / reduction − Fatigue life
• Microstructure

15 © 2018 ANSYS, Inc. October 4, 2018 ANSYS Confidential

 Proposed ANSYS solution

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 ANSYS solutions for various AM stages

Microstructure,Porosity,
Print process → Additive
DfAM → Spaceclaim, Porosity,Meltpool → Fluent, Material properties
Print,MAPS
Topology Optimization Maxwell, Transient Thermal prediction → Additive
Science
Plan step Print step

Machining & heat

treatment → MAPS
Operational performance & life →
Mechanical, Fluent, CFX, nCode
Post step
17 © 2018 ANSYS, Inc. October 4, 2018 ANSYS Confidential
 Plan Step simulation details
DfAM → ANSYS SC & Topology Optimization
Porosity → Fluent
Meltpool→ ANSYS Transient Thermal

18 © 2018 ANSYS, Inc. October 4, 2018 ANSYS Confidential

 Design for Additive Manufacturing MAPS DfAM workflow

Operations done in SC:

• Hot turbine blade geometry is imported in ANSYS SC
as 3rd party CAD file
• Exported .STL to be used in Additive Print. Options of
STL are shown here.
ANSYS Topology Optimization is not used in current ANSYS Spaceclaim
demo as geometry was already optimized for cooling
and operating loads. But TO can be used for further
optimization for:
• Mass reduction
• Compliance/ stiffness
• Frequency characteristics optimization

ANSYS Topology Optimization

19 © 2018 ANSYS, Inc. October 4, 2018 ANSYS Confidential
 Laser Power & Speed simulation

Objective & motivation:

• Stable bead formation determination
• Meltpool & laser direction determine the
microstructure
• These also determine porosity and other defects
Meltpool & microstructure for Power vs Speeds
Once meltpool dynamics is studied, one can create
stable printing process parameters for given powder
material

Business metric:
• Months of research to get right process parameters
for given material powder Power vs Speed DOE Power vs Speed DOE
– Melt pool width – Bead width

20 © 2018 ANSYS, Inc. October 4, 2018 ANSYS Confidential

 Laser Power & Speed simulation
• Meltpool dimensions can be simulated by WB
Transient thermal
− Laser Heat source assumed Gaussian
− Continuum material to represent the powder
• High fidelity meltpool dynamics simulation
can be done in Fluent-CFD using given heat
source
• Or Multiphysics, involving Fluent and Maxwell
for heat source (not done as part of this
demo).

Thermal history: Moving laser heat source on

Inconel718

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 Print Step simulation details
Distortion compensation, Residual stress,
Supports → Additive Print, MAPS

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 Print process simulation
ANSYS Solution: Additive Print; MAPS
Objective & motivation:
Inputs to simulation:
• Predict & minimize distortions in Printing process
• 3D .STL CAD file
• Distortion compensation to get right dimensions
• Material properties
• Predict Residual stresses that can cause build failure
• Print process parameters
• Support structure optimization
Outputs of simulation:
• Predict blade crashes
• Distortion compensation
• Residual stresses
Business metric: • Critical stress/strain locations
• 2-10 iterations before successful built • Blade crash
• 2000-6000$ potential loss due to failed iteration • Distortion compensated .STL file

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 Model Setup – Additive Print

Material Properties used in Machine settings used in Build part for Additive Print
Additive Print Additive Print for
Thermal Strain Simulation
method

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 Results for Print Process using Thermal Strain approach
Total Run time 58 hours

After-cutoff displacement On-plate residual stress Compensated geometry

to print final desired part
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 Model setup – Mechanical Additive Process

• MAPS can also be used to perform Machine settings used in Mechanical

Ambient temperature 100oC
Print process simulation
Deposited layer thickness 0.06mm
• AM- commands are used to do this Hatch spacing 0.06mm
Laser speed 500mm/s
• Meshing is done using Cartesian Recoater time 15.7s
mesh with size = 0.35mm
Material properties in
• HPC works as in normal Mechanical Mechanical Solution
runs for AM as well

Inconel 718 from MAPS AM database

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 MAPS AM database : Inconel718

Temperature dependent material properties

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 Results for Additive Manufacturing of Turbine Blade

Animation of thermal solution in Animation of print induced Animation of print induced

AM printing distortions residual stresses

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 Post Step simulation details
Microstructure, porosity → Additive Science
Heat Treatment → MAPS
Machining → Mechanical

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 Microstructure, Porosity, Material properties prediction,
Heat Treatment
Objective & motivation: ANSYS Solution:

• Microstructure controls the part strength • ANSYS Additive science (to be released in Sept) can
predict microstructure and porosity for given
• Effects performance thermal history and process parameters.
• Heat treatment is essential to stress relieve to • MAPS can be used to perform heat treatment (to
improve fatigue life be released) on the AM build parts.

…which results in different:

A unique Scan …results in a unique
- Defect Distributions
Thermal History
Pattern… - Microstructures
- Mechanical Properties
30 © 2018 ANSYS, Inc. October 4, 2018 ANSYS Confidential
 Post Machining for Surface smoothing operations
Business metric:
Motivation & Objective: • Rough surfaces can effect
efficiency of cooling by over
• AM surfaces have inherent surface roughness 5%
• If surface roughness critical to performance (CTQ), • Time / cost required to
machining
these need to be machined (e.g. cooling holes)
• Residual stress redistribution
− Performance; lifing can have effect on parts
fatigue life

ANSYS Solution:
• ANSYS Mechanical is used
• Residual stresses from the Printed model is mapped
onto smooth part via External Data.
• Stresses will redistribute
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 Surface finishing

Surface finish after Surface finish after

Stress redistribution
AM- exaggerated machining
after machining

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 Wear & Repair simulation details
Wear → Mechanical
Repair via AM → MAPS

33 © 2018 ANSYS, Inc. October 4, 2018 ANSYS Confidential

 Blade Tip Wear/ Blade retipping

Motivation & Objective: Business metric:

Blade Tip wear is unavoidable in hot turbine • Over 30% $ savings as

compared to replacement
blades primarily due to:
• Average time to repair ~8000-
• High rotational speeds (~10000rpm) and 25000hrs EOH 30-45 days
thermal loads (~1200 C) • Approximately every 500
• Very tight tolerances between rotating microns (1 percent of blade
span) of blade tip wear drops
blade and stationary casing shroud stage efficiency by
2 percent
Blade tip wear

Blade retipping is a common practice.

Predicting the wear before hand can save monetary losses because of the increased
clearances, lowering efficiency, with timely replacement of the defective blades

34 © 2018 ANSYS, Inc. October 4, 2018 ANSYS Confidential

 Wear Analysis Setup

ANSYS Solution:

Loads:
• Centrifugal: Omega= 10000 RPM
• Thermal: 1000 C on blade & 600 C on base

Wear Parameters at Blade-Shroud contact

• Archard Wear Law is used
• Defined at contact between shroud &
blade tip
• Wear parameters (H, n, m) are used as
shown
35 © 2018 ANSYS, Inc. October 4, 2018 ANSYS Confidential
 Wear Results

• Maximum predicted tip wear 0.093 mm wear predicted at tip for 10000 hrs (assuming
1 incident per hour)
• This blade is next repaired using AM at the tip part

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 Repair of tip by AM…Setup
Print process for Repair:
• As per standard practise, 0.5mm of tip was
uniformly removed for repair
• In AM Print modelling, quarter blade was taken
• Quarter blade part was modelled as base plate & tip
was additively added with 60 micron layer thickness

Machine settings used in Mechanical

Ambient temperature 100oC
Deposited layer thickness 0.06mm
Hatch spacing 0.06mm Model setup for Repair by AM in MAPS
Laser speed 500mm/s
Recoater time 15.7s

37 © 2018 ANSYS, Inc. October 4, 2018 ANSYS Confidential

 Repair of tip by AM.. results
Distortion & residual stresses prediction will help to plan successful Print process in first trial

Animation of thermal solution in AM repair Animation of deformation in AM repair Animation of equivalent

stresses

Transient Thermal History-Max Temp

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 FDM AM Process solution
Binder material ejection; Porosity; Surface
roughness → Fluent

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 FDM processes for Additive Manufacturing

FDM additive process is useful for

high volume production applications

40 © 2018 ANSYS, Inc. October 4, 2018 ANSYS Confidential

 Hatch spacing & Porosity simulation

ANSYS Fluent can help understand the porosity

prediction in FDM 3D print process
• Material is extruded through a nozzle FDM Extrusion process with 95%
extrusion rate, ANSYS Fluent Simulations
• Extrusion process affects
− Poor bonding
− Cavities
− Surface finish

Layer cross section with 95% extrusion vs 105% extrusion

41 © 2018 ANSYS, Inc. October 4, 2018 ANSYS Confidential

 FDM Binder material ejection

Objective & motivation:

• In FDM, Wax-metal paste is used for printing
• Wax must be dissaved before sintering, called as
Debinding process
• Printed part is kept is solvent where wax slowly dissolves
into solvents. This process is slow and highly dependent
on the part shape.
ANSYS Solution:
Debinding of a printed bracket. Wax
• ANSYS Fluent can be used to predict the dissolution time dissolving into the solvent
• Help optimize the product shape for minimum
dissolution time.
42 © 2018 ANSYS, Inc. October 4, 2018 ANSYS Confidential
 Key takeaways from demo activity

• Print process challenges can be simulated with ANSYS Additive Print & MAPS
– Distortion prediction/ compensation
– Residual stresses
– Thermal history prediction

• Additive Print simulates high fidelity scan vector level thermal history
• ANSYS Fluent can be used for high fidelity porosity & binder jetting in FDM
AM processes
• MAPS demonstrated for AM for repair modeling
• Mechanical Transient Thermal solutions can be used to understand meltpool
dynamics in a quick manner

43 © 2018 ANSYS, Inc. October 4, 2018 ANSYS Confidential

 Future improvements

• High fidelity Meltpool dynamics: Modeling powder with appropriate size

distribution and solving for meltpool dynamics in CFD
• Multiscale approach to combine Fluent results (e.g. melt pool dynamics)
into Additive Science
• Porosity, Microstructure & material property prediction: After the release of
Additive Science
• Heat Treatment: After enhancements in MAPS in upcoming release

44 © 2018 ANSYS, Inc. October 4, 2018 ANSYS Confidential

 Thankyou

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