Adaptive positioning technology of film cooling holes in hollow turbine blades

Film cooling technology is widely used in hollow turbine blades of aero-engine with a high thrust-to-weight ratio. The positioning accuracy of film cooling holes directly affects the uniformity and adhesion of the cooling film on blade surfaces. Two main factors affect the positioning accuracy of film cooling holes, i.e., the profile deformation of the blades during manufacturing and the blade clamping error in computer numerical control equipment. The positioning technology of film cooling holes has rarely been investigated. In this study, an adaptive positioning method is proposed to provide a reference for innovative research in this field. First, this study proposes a method for measuring and compensating blade clamping error based on the point cloud data of the entire blade surface obtained with optical scanning equipment by combining the rigid-body transformation theory and three-dimensional point cloud matching method. Second, owing to the complex overall deformation of the blade surface, this study innovatively focuses on the deformation of each slice from a local perspective. Furthermore, the deformation of each slice is decomposed into bending, torsion, and uneven shrinkage. The bending and torsion deformations are compensated based on the two-dimensional rigid-body matching method, while the remaining uneven shrinkage deformation is compensated by the position mapping method. The effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed method are qualitatively and quantitatively verified by the adaptive positioning results of film cooling holes in actual and test blades. The maximum spatial position and angle deviations are 0.0561 mm and 0.6946°, respectively.