Simulation of the Tool Shape Design for the Electrochemical Machining of Jet Engine Vanes

Abstract

Due to the demand for environment-friendly passenger planes, the aviation industry is forced continually to improve the efficiency of jet engines. Solutions for this reduction could be the use of high-temperature-resistant materials as jet engine components, such as the well-established nickel-based superalloy Inconel 718, as well as construction aspects to improve the streaming behavior of the jet engine vanes. Electrochemical Machining (ECM) is a well-known technique to bring hard to machine material into complex shapes by creating an excellent surface finish. However, the time and cost intensive tool design process is a big disadvantage. With the aim to shorten the tool development procedure, this paper presents an inverse approach for the tool simulation and optimization. Based on material-specific data, the tool shape for the desired vane geometry is calculated using a self-developed algorithm. The simulated tool shape is validated by the performance of sinking experiments on an industrial ECM-machine.