Creep property variation at different regions on a directionally solidified turbine blade

In order to study the creep property variation at different regions on a directionally solidified (DS) turbine blade caused by microstructure difference among those regions, three types of DS specimen (platform-like specimen, shroud-like specimen and sheet specimen) were presented to investigate the difference by creep rupture tests at elevated temperature. The tests data shows that the performance of platform-like specimen and shroud-like specimen are 94.22% and 75.65% of sheet specimens' performance, respectively. Therefore, the difference of creep property among different regions on a DS turbine blade should be considered in blade structure design and creep life assessment. The research results may also help to improve the manufacture processes of directional solidification.