For my engineering coursework, I am writing a report on the material selection used in high pressure turbine blades, and I'm finding that there isn't much in the way of specific data. It's usually just documentaries and phrases such as "around" or "near" or "more than", and very rarely any clear units or definitions.

I'm using the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 as the basis of a lot of my coursework, but any modern jet engine will do, provided I can use the data to justify the choice of materials for this section of the aircraft.

Are there any resources or good books with some really reliable data sources in there? Ideally with technical drawings (such as the cross-section of the blades) and with indepth statistics? From what I can tell so far, the combustion chamber is "around" 1700C hot, each blade delivers the same as power as "an F1 car" and it rotates at "roughly" 10,000RPM. There is a load of "something like" 18 Tons on each blade too. But there are definitely 66 blades per high-pressure turbine assembly and they're machined to a 7-micron tolerance.

So yeah, I could really use some better information before I start to write a report on it 


Understandably there is a lot of secrecy with engines such as these, but I'd like to get as close as possible to the true values. I will try to keep it to the turbofan design, with commercial aircraft in mind. But if needs be, I can base it around other engine types or aircraft. I chose the turbine blades because the other choices for my project were too vague... Too much difference between them. I figured aircraft engines would be relatively similar as there are only a few manufacturers and very small tolerances.

Are there any engine'ers' or fanatics out there?

Cheers

It's a bit cold to go out and check, but the web service for my university library says that book, and others by Gunston, are available there

I'll be sure to check them out!


Rolls-Royce themselves have a little bit of information, but it's targetted at the more general audience. As part of my course we have to do a compulsary-optional module... Mine is in pilot licence theory. Maybe the Coventry pilots who teach it will have some resources that I might be able to borrow!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nimonic

Henry Wiggin.

"The Nimonic family of alloys was first developed in the 1940s by research teams at the Wiggin Works in Hereford, England, in support of the development of the Whittle jet engine.".

I well remember the Company when it was located in my town of Hereford.
http://www.aviationancestry.com/Metals/HenryWiggin/HenryWiggin-Wiggin-1954-1.htm...
It was the Cities largest employer for many years!

Paul.

Jane's Aero-Engines