Designing thermal and mechanical properties of ceramic shell moulds used in investment casting of aircraft engine turbine parts

Aim of project
The purpose of the project is to develop models for designing thermal and mechanical properties of ceramic moulds used in investment casting of aircraft engine turbine parts. The project aims at developing models which utilize the ANSYS software for the finite element method computations, FEM.

Models shall be verified by studies on multilayer moulds produced using the ceramic slurry technology. The technology shall be optimized in terms of rheological characteristics and properties of ceramic slips such as solid phase content, types and amounts of plasticisers, types and amounts of water-based polymer adhesives and surfactants. The purpose of the research will be to develop methods for designing geometry and properties of the moulds.

The following thermal properties of the moulds will be tested:

specific heat – calorimetric method,

linear expansion coefficient – dilatometric or optical method,

thermal conductivity (diffusivity) – pulse method.

A mould model will be developed which accounts for its layered structure. The thermal/mechanical properties as a function of variable layer number will be modelled. The FEM modelling results will be used as input data for PROCAST software which will permit optimisation of the mould and technological system designing.

Expected results
Techniques for testing thermal properties (thermal diffusivity, specific heat, and linear expansion coefficient) of ceramic slurries;

A shell mould for calculation of the casting model of thermal/ mechanical properties;

Database of thermal/mechanical properties of casting moulds for PROCAST modelling.