The recent progress in the design of structural strength and life assessment for aero-engine single crystal turbine blades

The improvement of aero-engine performance still strongly relies on the innovation design of the single crystal turbine blades. As the single crystal blades evolve from the solid type to the double-wall film cooling structure, the cooling efficiency has been greatly improved, leading to undertake much higher inlet temperatures. However, due to the complex structures of the next-generation turbine blade, both the strength design and life assessment become much more difficult. Meanwhile, the mechanical properties at localised regions are inevitably different from those of the separately cast standard test specimens, which may seriously affect the accurate mechanical performance evaluation. In order to fill this gap, this paper presents several challenges for the industrial applications of the next-generation single crystal turbine blades, and introduces the recent progress in the fields of structural optimisation, strength life assessment, and intrinsic mechanical performance testing, which would be helpful to the development of the next-generation component.