Thermo-Mechanical Fatigue Experiments of Single Crystal Hollow Turbine Blades

The thermo-mechanical fatigue (TMF) experiments have been performed on the critical section of single crystal hollow turbine blades. An experimental system was constructed for the TMF experiments. A special loading device was designed and machined for the blades to provide loading conditions and simulate the stress distribution on the critical section. Induction heating and air cooling were utilized to provide anisothermal conditions. A new induction coil was designed to satisfy the requirements of the temperature distribution on the critical section. This TMF experimental system provided evidence that the loading and anisothermal conditions experienced by the turbine blades during service could be reproduced in a laboratory environment.