Non-Destructive Grain Orientation Verification in Directionally Solidified Nickel Super alloy Turbine Blades

Hot section temperatures of turbine engines have been gradually increasing over the past 50 years due to advances in cooling, materials, and processing technologies. Making nickel-alloy blades via directional solidification greatly increases thermomechanical fatigue resistance when the grain orientation is . However, grains with other orientations, e.g. , can be created during processing. These grains have nearly double the moduli of grains, reducing fatigue resistance. There is currently no fast, affordable, completely nondestructive way to detect the presence of misoriented grains in blades, especially for the entire blade including the attachment. TRI proposes to develop a novel electromagnetic method to quickly (few seconds), accurately detect the presence of non grains in complex shaped nickel and nickel alloy turbine components. The system is based on well understood physics and TRI's patent pending LAHMP system technology. The final inspection system will be portable (~5 lbs), affordable (<$10,000) and fast enough to be readily amenable to integration into a high production rate manufacturing line. TRI's proposed system has the additional benefit of estimating the number of grains present in a component.