CN-122029030-A - Composite vane with leading edge made of thermoplastic material

Abstract

An aerospace component (10) includes a body (11) made of a composite material having a portion at least partially impregnated with a thermoplastic impregnating material (30) and a protective element (34, 44) comprising a thermoplastic build material and attached to the portion by welding. A method for manufacturing such a component.

Inventors

• Harvey grayling
• Matteo Minavino
• Nicholas DeRode
• Didier Fromontel

Assignees

• 赛峰飞机发动机公司

Dates

Publication Date

20260512

Application Date

20240913

Priority Date

20230926

Claims (11)

1. 1. An aerospace component (10) comprising a body (11) made of a composite material, the body having a portion at least partially impregnated with a thermoplastic impregnating material (30), and a protective element (34, 44) comprising a thermoplastic construction material, the protective element being attached to the portion by welding, wherein the thickness of the portion at least partially impregnated with thermoplastic material is substantially equal to the diameter of strands (21) of fibres of the composite material.
2. 2. The aeronautical component (10) of claim 1, wherein the aeronautical component (10) comprises a turbine blade (12) comprising: -a body (11) of a blade (12) made of composite material extending along a main direction (EV), said body (11) having a lower surface (16) and an upper surface (17) connected by a leading edge (13) at an upstream portion of said body (11), on the other hand connected by a trailing edge (14) at a downstream portion of said body (11), said upstream and downstream portions being located on either side of said main direction (EV); -said portion at least partially impregnated with thermoplastic impregnating material (30) is a portion of an edge selected from the group consisting of said leading edge (13) and said trailing edge (14); -the protection element (34, 44) is a leading edge (34) element (34) or a trailing edge element (44).
3. 3. The aeronautical component (10) according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the protection element has serrations (35).
4. 4. The aircraft component (10) according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the impregnating material is selected from the group consisting of polyetherimide, polyetheretherketone, polyetherketone.
5. 5. The aerospace component (10) of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the composite material is at least partially impregnated with a thermosetting resin.
6. 6. The aircraft component (10) of any preceding claim, wherein the protective element (34, 44) comprises at least one metal reinforcement.
7. 7. A method for manufacturing an aircraft turbine component, comprising the steps of: -a step of prefabricating a fibrous preform (20) of a body (11) of an aeronautical component (10), said body comprising portions (13, 14) such as a leading edge (13) or a trailing edge (14); -a step of impregnating at least one section of said portion (13, 14) with a thermoplastic impregnating material; -a step of injecting a resin (33); -a step of placing a protective element (34, 44) comprising a thermoplastic construction material on said portion (13, 14); A step of assembling said protective element (34, 44) onto said portion (13, 14) by means of a joining method, such as a heat input for welding, -Wherein the thickness of said portion at least partially impregnated with thermoplastic material is substantially equal to the diameter of the strands (21) of the fibers of the composite material.
8. 8. The manufacturing method according to claim 7, wherein the impregnating step includes the steps of: -a step of positioning a film (30) made of thermoplastic impregnating material on said portions (13, 14); -a step of applying an impregnation pressure to the membrane (30); -and/or a step of heating the membrane (30) to an impregnation temperature.
9. 9. The manufacturing method according to claim 8, wherein the impregnating step includes a step of monitoring the impregnating pressure and/or the impregnating temperature and a step of stopping impregnation when the impregnating pressure and/or the impregnating temperature is less than a predetermined value.
10. 10. The manufacturing method according to any one of claims 7 to 9, wherein the step of injecting the resin (33) is performed according to a resin transfer molding method.
11. 11. The manufacturing method according to any one of claims 7 to 10, wherein the pre-manufacturing, impregnating and resin injection steps are performed in a single working mold (25) which remains closed during all these steps.

Description

Composite vane with leading edge made of thermoplastic material Technical Field The present invention relates to a turbine blade, such as an industrial gas turbine, an aircraft or helicopter engine turbine or an Auxiliary Power Unit (APU). The invention is particularly applicable to blades for fans, turbines and Outlet Guide Vanes (OGV). Background In a turbojet engine (in fig. 1, reference numeral 1), air is drawn into an intake duct 2 to pass a fan 3, and then divided into a central main flow and a secondary flow surrounding the main flow. The main flow is compressed by the low-pressure compressor 4 and the high-pressure compressor 5 before reaching the combustion chamber 6, after which it is expanded by passing through the high-pressure turbine 7 and the low-pressure turbine 8 and then discharged by generating auxiliary thrust. The secondary flow is in turn propelled directly by the fan to generate the primary thrust. Each turbine 7, 8 and fan 3 comprises a radially oriented vane ring evenly spaced about the axis of rotation AX, with an outer casing 9 surrounding the vane ring. The stationary OGV fairing inserted between the vane rings also includes the vane rings. Each blade 10 comprises a blade body 11 made of composite material and a root P, by means of which the body 11 is mounted to a slot of a rotating disk of a turbojet engine, the root extending a blade 12, the blade 12 extending along a main direction EV (so-called spanwise direction). The blade 12 is the aerodynamic component of the blade, and the blade 12 terminates at a tip. The blade includes a trailing edge 13 and a leading edge 14, the trailing edge 13 being substantially parallel to the spanwise direction EV and downstream AV with respect to the direction of gas flow in the turbine, the leading edge 14 being substantially parallel to the trailing edge 13 and spaced from the trailing edge 13 along the axis AX to be located upstream AM of the vane. The blade 12 terminates in a tip S. The metallic leading edge element 15 is attached to the trailing edge 13 by bonding to improve the impact and wear resistance of the trailing edge. The use of adhesive bonding in the manufacture of aerospace components is prohibited when adhesive bonding may result in a phenomenon known as "danger" (i.e., critical to safety). The use of metal to make the leading edge element limits the possibilities to modify its geometry to improve performance. Finally, such a leading edge element increases the mass on the high speed moving part. Climate change is a major concern for many legislation and regulatory authorities around the world. Indeed, various restrictions on carbon emissions have been, are being or will be adopted by the various states. In particular, an aggressive standard applies not only to new aircraft, but also to those already in use for which technical solutions need to be implemented in order for them to comply with the current regulations. For many years, civil aviation has been taking action to make contributions to the management of climate change. Technological research efforts have significantly improved the environmental performance of aircraft. The applicant considers the influencing factors of all design and development phases in order to obtain aviation components and products with lower energy consumption, more environmental protection and moderate environmental impact of integration and use in civil aviation, with the aim of improving the energy efficiency of the aircraft. Accordingly, applicants continue to strive to reduce their negative climate effects by using methods and the operation of benign development and manufacturing processes, as well as by minimizing greenhouse gas emissions to as little as possible to reduce their active environmental footprint. This ongoing research and development is focused on new generation aircraft engines, making the aircraft lighter, in particular by using lighter materials and on-board equipment, developing propulsion using electric technology, and using aviation biofuels as an essential complement to technological advances. Disclosure of Invention To this end, the invention is the result of technical studies aimed at very significantly improving the performance of an aircraft and thus helping to reduce the impact of the aircraft on the environment. To this end, the invention relates to an aerospace component comprising a body made of a composite material, the body having a portion at least partially impregnated with a thermoplastic impregnating material. A protective element comprising a thermoplastic construction material is attached to the portion by welding. The result is a vane with improved durability having a lightweight body made of a thermoset resin composite material, a portion of which is reinforced with a protective element made of a lightweight, strong, and cost effective material. The welded edge elements improve durability and allow this type of reinforcement to be extended to buckets t