Flow field design and simulation in electrochemical machining for closed integral components

Abstract

Using closed integral components (CICs) not only simplifies the structure and reduces the weight of aeroengine components but also reduces the number of parts and improves overall engine performance. However, there are currently few publicly available reports on the electrochemical machining (ECM) of CIC blades. The key factor influencing the stability of ECM is the flow-field, which is difficult to design for a CIC because its two sides are closed, thereby limiting the direction of electrolyte flow into the processing area. To achieve the ECM of CICs, flow modes involving either lateral or composite liquid supply (LLS or CLS) are proposed, followed by flow-field and cathode-deformation simulation analyses. The simulation results show that the CLS flow-field is more reasonably designed and its electrolyte distribution is more uniform. The maximum cathode deformation under CLS flow-field is only ca. 15 µm. The experiments were conducted to improve the efficiency of CIC ECM and compare the LLS and CLS flow-fields. During processing, the feed rate was increased from 0.2 min/mm to 0.45 min/mm, and the surface roughness (Ra) decreased from ca. 1.29 µm to ca. 0.37 µm. The experiments show that the CLS flow-field offers higher processing efficiency and better surface quality.

Keywords:

• Blade
• design
• electrochemical machining
• flow-field
• simulation
• stability

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this article.

Additional information

Funding

This research was co-supported by the National Nature Science Foundation of China (52275435), the National Natural Science Foundation of China for Creative Research Groups (51921003) and the National Science and Technology Major Project (2017-VII-0004-0097).