A wall-thickness compensation strategy for wax pattern of hollow turbine blade

As an important index affecting the aerodynamic performance and the structural strength of hollow turbine blades, the wall-thickness precision of the blade is mainly inherited from the positional relationship between the corresponding wax pattern and the internal ceramic core. However, due to locating errors, the actual position of ceramic core is always deviated from the ideal position, which makes it difficult to guarantee the wall-thickness precision of the wax pattern. To solve this problem, a wall-thickness compensation strategy is proposed in this paper. Firstly, based on the industrial computed tomography (ICT) technique and curve matching algorithms, a model reconstruction method is developed, with which the 3D model of a trial wax pattern can be easily constructed. After that, focusing on eliminating the wall-thickness errors of the trial wax pattern, an optimization method for the pose of the ceramic core in the wax pattern is proposed. Then, by mapping the optimal pose of the ceramic core to length adjustments of the locating rods, the wall-thickness errors of the wax pattern can be greatly reduced. A case study is also given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed compensation strategy.