3D Shape Measurement of Aeroengine Blade Based on Fringe Projection Profilometer Improved by Multi-Layer Concentric Ring Calibration.

The precision requirements for aeroengine blade machining are exceedingly stringent. This study aims to improve the accuracy of existing aeroengine blade measurement methods while achieving comprehensive measurement. Therefore, this study proposes a new concentric ring calibration method and designs a multi-layer concentric ring calibration plate. The effectiveness of this calibration method was verified through actual testing of standard ball gauges. Compared with the checkerboard-grid calibration method, the average deviation of the multilayer concentric ring calibration method for measuring the center distance of the standard sphere is 0.02352, which improves the measurement accuracy by 3-4 times. On the basis of multi-layer concentric ring calibration, this study builds a fringe projection profiler based on the three-frequency twelve-step phase shift method. Compared with the CMM, the average deviation of the blade chord length measured by this solution is 0.064, which meets the measurement index requirements of aeroengine fan blades.

Stress measurement of aero-engine thin-walled catheter based on ultrasonic guided wave.

A pipeline system made of catheters is used for liquid-gas transportation in aero-engines. It is important to measure the residual stresses, such as the assembly stress in this system, as they influence performance and lifetime. Compared to other testing techniques, ultrasonic measurement methods based on acoustic-elastic effects can better solve problems. For the above requirements, this paper researches an aero-engine thin-wall catheter's assembly stress measurement method based on ultrasonic guided waves's acoustic, elastic effect. The propagation and dispersion characteristics of guided ultrasonic waves in the catheter were studied. Then, the excitation frequency, guided wave mode, and single-mode excitation mode of the simulation model were determined. Next, a finite element simulation model was established for simulation experiments. In order to reduce the influence of sampling rate and working environment noise on the measurement accuracy of assembly stress, the ultrasonic guided wave signal was processed by the wavelet threshold method. A good noise reduction effect was obtained by determining the wavelet base and the number of decomposition layers. Finally, an experimental platform was built to measure the assembly stress of thin-walled catheters. The maximum measurement error of the assembly stress of a thin-walled catheter was 21.1 MPa, which verified the feasibility of the measurement method. This study provides a promising method for accurately measuring the assembly stress of thin-walled catheters in aero-engines.

A two-variable control and optimization method for imbalance of high pressure compressor based on improved genetic algorithm.

To solve the problem of low quality rate for one-time assembly of high-pressure compressors, an improved genetic algorithm (GA) is used to adjust and optimize the imbalance after assembly. This paper takes the post-assembly imbalance of a multi-stage rotor of a high-pressure compressor as the objective function, to reduce the post-assembly imbalance by adjusting the arrangement order of rotor blades and the assembly phase between rotors. We used a four-sector staggered distribution method to generate high-quality initial populations and added an elite retention strategy. The crossover and mutation probabilities are adaptively adjusted according to the fitness function values. The threshold termination condition is added to make the algorithm converge quickly so as to achieve fast, stable, and efficient search. The simulation results show that the imbalance is reduced by 99.46% by using the improved genetic algorithm, which is better than the traditional GA. The experimental results show that the imbalance of the two correction surfaces can be reduced to 640 and 760 g·mm, respectively, which is 86.7% and 87.1% better than the zero-degree assembly.

Measurement method of aero-engine rotor concentricity and perpendicularity based on deep belief neural network.

When implementing the traditional assembly method, the rotor is affected by machining errors. The morphology of the rotor is complex, and the machining error of the rotors at all levels are transmitted step by step through the stop mating surface, which affects the performance and service life of the aero-engine. The evaluation of machining error of single-stage rotor is the basis of assembly quality of multi-stage rotor. In order to improve the current situation of complicated and time-consuming rotor machining error evaluation, this paper proposes to establish a deep belief neural network (DBNN) to replace the traditional procedure of depolarization. The network takes the relative evaluation error of the rotor profile data without depolarization as the input and takes the machining error of the rotors obtained after depolarization as the output. First, the evaluation mechanism of the rotor's machining error is analyzed, and the corresponding machining error influence source is selected as the input source of the deep belief neural network. Second, as DBNN is trained, and the appropriate weight initialization method and the optimization algorithm of the prediction network are selected to ensure the optimization of the whole network for feature mapping extraction of the training set. Finally, the assembly of multi-stage rotors is simulated and analyzed. It is shown in the experiments that after the iteration, the prediction network, with good training effects, has converged, and its prediction results tend to be consistent with the real values. The mean prediction error of the concentricity is 0.09 µm while the mean difference of angle of concentricity error value is 0.77°, and the mean difference of perpendicularity error value is 0.21 µm while the mean difference of angle of perpendicularity error value is 1.4°, the corresponding R2 determination coefficients were 0.99, 0.98, 0.91, and 0.94, respectively. It meets the requirements of field assembly and fully embodies the effectiveness of the procedure of depolarization based on deep confidence neural network.

Study on Propagation Depth of Ultrasonic Longitudinal Critically Refracted (LCR) Wave.

The accurate measurement of stress at different depths in the end face of a high-pressure compressor rotor is particularly important, as it is directly related to the assembly quality and overall performance of aero-engines. The ultrasonic longitudinal critically refracted (LCR) wave is sensitive to stress and can measure stress at different depths, which has a prominent advantage in stress non-destructive measurements. In order to accurately characterize the propagation depth of LCR waves and improve the spatial resolution of stress measurement, a finite element model suitable for the study of LCR wave propagation depths was established based on a wave equation and Snell law, and the generation and propagation process of LCR waves are analyzed. By analyzing the blocking effect of grooves with different depths on the wave, the propagation depth of the LCR wave at seven specific frequencies was determined in turn. On this basis, the LCR wave propagation depth model is established, and the effects of wedge materials, piezoelectric element diameters, and excitation voltages on the propagation depth of LCR waves are discussed. This study is of great significance to improve the spatial resolution of stress measurements at different depths in the end face of the aero-engine rotor.

Measurement of fastening force using dry-coupled ultrasonic waves.

The accurate measurement of assembly fastening force of the high-pressure compressor rotor is of great significance to improve the structural connection quality and comprehensive performance of aero-engine. To solve the problem that liquid couplant reduces the measurement accuracy and causes the surface of the bolt to rust and corrode, a method of measuring the fastening force with dry-coupled ultrasonic wave was proposed in this paper. The measurement model of the fastening force including the thickness of the protective film of the ultrasonic transducer and the couplant was established, and the influence of the thickness variation in the couplant on the measurement accuracy of the fastening force was analyzed. Based on the propagation model of the ultrasonic wave on the heterogeneous interface and the principle of ultrasonic dry coupling, a coupling device was designed. At last, the experiment of fastening force measurement based on dry coupling and liquid coupling ultrasonic wave was carried out and compared. The experimental results show that the average relative errors of the fastening force measurement based on dry coupling and liquid coupling ultrasonic wave are 2.13% ± 0.42% and 3.15% ± 0.80%, respectively. Therefore, the dry coupling method can be as good or better in measuring the accuracy of the fastening force. Furthermore, it also overcomes the limitations of the liquid coupling method, which should make it more suitable to the measurement of fastening force in the aerospace field.

Measurements error propagation and its sensitivity analysis in the aero-engine multistage rotor assembling process.

The purpose of this paper is to research the measurements error propagation principle about the measurement-assembly equipment of aero engine multistage rotor, besides analyze the effect of guide linear motion and turntable rotational motion on the final alignment error. Furthermore, we can improve the measurement and assembly accuracy of the aero engine multistage rotor. In this paper, a novel error analysis method related to measurement-assembly equipment was proposed. First, the topology of the measuring equipment was established based on the multibody system theory, the error propagation path was constructed by using the low order body sorting method. Second, the error transfer model of the linear motion and the rotational motion were established by using the homogeneous coordinate transformation matrix, and the total measurement terminal errors introduced by the equipment were calculated. Finally, through numerical simulation, the magnitude of the measurement terminal offset error was obtained, sensitivity analysis was performed to calculate key error sources. Measurement accuracy not only depended on the accuracy of the sensor but also closely related to the accuracy of the measurement-assembly equipment. Through the simulation verification, when the linearity error is 0.1 µm and the angular error is 0.1″, the final cumulative offset displacement error is about -0.1002 µm to -0.0998 µm with a probability of 97%. Different type errors have different effects on the results. We can give a conclusion that linear guide alignment error and verticality error are the primary error sources, and the angle error of the turntable need to be improved.

Modeling and design of an overlapped-flexure hinge for joule balance.

In the joule balance experiment, the electromagnetic force and the gravity of the test mass should be aligned along the vertical direction precisely; otherwise, an alignment error will be introduced into the redefinition of the kilogram and the realization of the standard mass. In order to decouple and align those forces, a flexure hinge with an overlapped structure is proposed. The proposed overlapped-flexure hinge contains two flexure hinges, namely, the outer flexure hinge and the inner flexure hinge. The outer flexure hinge is connected to the suspension coil to bear the electromagnetic force, while the inner flexure hinge is connected to the test pan to bear the gravity of the test mass. As the mechanical structure ensures the above hinges coaxial and identical, this hinge can decouple the above-mentioned forces adequately and align these forces along the same vertical line. In this paper, a theoretical compliance model is first established based on Castigliano's second theorem to precisely design the flexure hinge. Second, the key dimension parameters of the overlapped-flexure hinge are designed to satisfy the requirements of the joule balance. Third, finite element analysis simulations and experiments are carried out to validate the performances of the hinge. Finally, in the joule balance experiment, the alignment uncertainty between the electromagnetic force and the gravity of the test mass is proved to be less than 50 ppb by using this overlapped-flexure hinge.

Development of a 6-DoF motion system for realizing a linear datum for geometric measurements.

In order to further improve the linear datum based geometric measurement accuracy and expand the measurement range, a 6-DoF motion system is developed for realizing a linear datum in the form of motion trajectory of the contact point (CP) of an absolute displacement measurement probe. This linear datum is established based on the concept of coordinate measurement and it does not contain straightness error in theory. The 6-DoF motion system consists of a 6-DoF fine stage and a 1-DoF coarse stage. The probe is moved by the 6-DoF fine stage which is magnetically noncontact supported and parallelly noncontact actuated. A CP-centred 6-DoF metrology model and a CP-centred 6-DoF motion model are established for elimination of Abbe error and on-line compensation of motion error of CP, respectively. 1-DoF coarse stage is controlled with relative position between two stages to extend the limited motion range of 6-DoF fine stage along the linear datum. Effectiveness of the metrology and motion models is verified through experiment. Straightness error of a 91.5 mm long line of an optical flat is measured by the proposed system and a commercial Fizeau interferometer. Comparison shows a consistency with standard deviation of 11 nm. Another experiment indicates that the proposed system could be used to realize a linear datum within a range of 220 mm with a repeatability of standard deviation of 7 nm.

System for the measurement of the deviation of a laser beam from the vertical direction.

If a used "vertical beam" is not perfectly vertical in a measurement, a cosine error will be introduced into it. To decrease and compensate for this cosine error, a measurement system is proposed to measure the deviation of the laser beam from the vertical direction. The structure of our measurement system is illustrated, and a model for solving for the deviation angle is established. As the distance of the beam spots on the charge-coupled device is the essential parameter for the measurement results, the acquisition process for this distance is explained. Moreover, the accuracy of the algorithm used in the acquisition process is also tested by experiments. Further, a self-correction module is designed and applied to reduce the error caused by the corner cube reflector in the system. The characteristics of the measurement system such as the resolution, stability, temperature drift, and direction accuracy are analyzed through experiments. The combined uncertainty of the measurement system is calculated to be 11×10-6 rad.

Experimental study on a resonance mesh coating fabricated using a UV-lithography technique.

In order to achieve high optical transparency and Ka-band bandpass filtering simultaneously, a resonance mesh coating sample is fabricated using a UV-lithography technique. Optical transmission is measured using an Ocean Optics QE65000 spectrometer. And Ka-band bandpass filtering is measured using an Agilent E8363B PNA series network analyzer. Experimental results indicate that the optical transmission of the resonance mesh coating is 63.4% higher than that of non-meshed Frequency Selective Surfaces (FSS) with equivalent aperture parameters, and the transmittance loss of the coating is lower than 0.21 dB while the coating has a Ka-band resonance frequency of 32 GHz. It can therefore be concluded that the resonance mesh coating can be used as a dual-mode spatial filter to achieve high optical transparency and Ka-band bandpass filtering.