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Surface texture enhancement of SLS processed turbine blades using a mix of flexible media and abrasives
Additive manufacturing technologies such as Selective Laser Sintering of Grade 5 Titanium has been used extensively within the aerospace industry as it allows for the fabrication of complex shapes with minimal material wastage. With the increased use of complex shapes, newer polishing technologies n...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Department of Mechanical Engineering
2023
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| _version_ | 1867613834432217088 |
|---|---|
| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Titus, Matthew |
| author2 | Kuppuswamy, Ramesh |
| author_browse | Kuppuswamy, Ramesh Titus, Matthew |
| author_facet | Kuppuswamy, Ramesh Titus, Matthew |
| author_sort | Titus, Matthew |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | Additive manufacturing technologies such as Selective Laser Sintering of Grade 5 Titanium has been used extensively within the aerospace industry as it allows for the fabrication of complex shapes with minimal material wastage. With the increased use of complex shapes, newer polishing technologies need to be developed to accommodate the fabrication technological advancements. This dissertation proposes a novel abrasive flow polishing technology that can lower polishing times as well as limiting damage that polishing may have on a component due to excessive forces. This is achieved by the addition of a flexible media to the abrasive particles to achieve more desirable properties of the polishing media. The technology has been partially developed with further design requirements being investigated by means of explicit dynamic simulations within the Ansys package. The simulations include an asperity made of Grade 5 titanium, a SiC abrasive particle and, an HDPE particle as the flexible media. These simulations have tested process parameters such as abrasive size, asperity size and impact velocity. These simulations have shown that addition of the flexible media can increase the material removal rate of process by up to 200% due to a vibratory motion that was observed of the abrasive particle. These results are promising in showing that the proposed abrasive flow polishing technology can improve the material removal rate of the current aero lapping technology due to the addition of the flexible media. Preliminary testing for this technology has shown that the developed system is within a 22% performance range of similar literature. However, the verification of these simulations and findings needs to be completed through thorough testing of the physical technology. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/37122 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:42:26.863Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| publishDateRange | 2023 |
| publishDateSort | 2023 |
| publisher | Department of Mechanical Engineering |
| publisherStr | Department of Mechanical Engineering |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/37122 Surface texture enhancement of SLS processed turbine blades using a mix of flexible media and abrasives Titus, Matthew Kuppuswamy, Ramesh Mechanical Engineering Additive manufacturing technologies such as Selective Laser Sintering of Grade 5 Titanium has been used extensively within the aerospace industry as it allows for the fabrication of complex shapes with minimal material wastage. With the increased use of complex shapes, newer polishing technologies need to be developed to accommodate the fabrication technological advancements. This dissertation proposes a novel abrasive flow polishing technology that can lower polishing times as well as limiting damage that polishing may have on a component due to excessive forces. This is achieved by the addition of a flexible media to the abrasive particles to achieve more desirable properties of the polishing media. The technology has been partially developed with further design requirements being investigated by means of explicit dynamic simulations within the Ansys package. The simulations include an asperity made of Grade 5 titanium, a SiC abrasive particle and, an HDPE particle as the flexible media. These simulations have tested process parameters such as abrasive size, asperity size and impact velocity. These simulations have shown that addition of the flexible media can increase the material removal rate of process by up to 200% due to a vibratory motion that was observed of the abrasive particle. These results are promising in showing that the proposed abrasive flow polishing technology can improve the material removal rate of the current aero lapping technology due to the addition of the flexible media. Preliminary testing for this technology has shown that the developed system is within a 22% performance range of similar literature. However, the verification of these simulations and findings needs to be completed through thorough testing of the physical technology. 2023-03-02T09:08:02Z 2023-03-02T09:08:02Z 2022 2023-02-21T07:24:28Z Master Thesis Masters MSc http://hdl.handle.net/11427/37122 eng application/pdf Department of Mechanical Engineering Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment |
| spellingShingle | Mechanical Engineering Titus, Matthew Surface texture enhancement of SLS processed turbine blades using a mix of flexible media and abrasives |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | Surface texture enhancement of SLS processed turbine blades using a mix of flexible media and abrasives |
| title_full | Surface texture enhancement of SLS processed turbine blades using a mix of flexible media and abrasives |
| title_fullStr | Surface texture enhancement of SLS processed turbine blades using a mix of flexible media and abrasives |
| title_full_unstemmed | Surface texture enhancement of SLS processed turbine blades using a mix of flexible media and abrasives |
| title_short | Surface texture enhancement of SLS processed turbine blades using a mix of flexible media and abrasives |
| title_sort | surface texture enhancement of sls processed turbine blades using a mix of flexible media and abrasives |
| topic | Mechanical Engineering |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/37122 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT titusmatthew surfacetextureenhancementofslsprocessedturbinebladesusingamixofflexiblemediaandabrasives |