Development of a Method to Repair Gas Turbine Blades using Electron Beam Melting Additive Manufacturing Technology

This study focuses in using the electron beam melting additive manufacturing process to develop a framework to repair high performance gas turbine blades. These are currently fabricated using highly engineered super alloys, more specifically Inconel 738LC. The thesis focusses on the research on the current production methods of gas turbine blades, the operating environment inside the gas turbine, the most common failure modes as well as current methods of blade repair. This investigation includes studying the methods of production of metallic powders and the alloying effects of different elements in our required powder. A brief analysis was made to determine the economic viability for the usage of AM technology for mass production, and a proposition has been developed for the repair of turbine blades using additive manufacturing