Development of In-Process NDE Machining Force Feedback Analysis for Titanium Alloy Component Texture Analysis

Titanium alloys are used in high performance rotating components in the aerospace industry, particularly compressor discs, as they possess high strength/weight ratios and excellent fatigue and corrosion re-sistance. Titanium alloy products are generally forged and machined, and over recent years, the ma-chining force feedback response has been used to provide an indication of grain structure in forged mate-rial and the influence of upstream forging on texture development.
A key aim of this EngD project is to develop the force feedback approach as a non-destructive evaluation technique for titanium alloy components and upstream forged conditions. One aspect is to detect delete-rious micro-texture regions in forged material that may be more prone to performance limiting features in-service and develop a microstructural digital twin from such force feedback data. This project is hugely important in the manufacture of advanced materials, particularly considering the move to high speed machining for enhanced productivity, as there is no viable non-destructive inspec-tion method capable of determining microstructural variation on-line as the material is being machined. This severely limits the advancement of both new materials and machining techniques. If a reliable in-process NDE approach can be developed, this will provide a vast manufacturing advantage not just in forged product but in other processes that require subtractive machining, such as additive manufacturing. The development will work will also provide the framework of a digital twin of the workpiece material through key solid state processing steps.