B-spline contour curve approximation and deformation analysis of complex ceramic core

Complex ceramic core is the critical part for manufacturing hollow turbine blade in the investment casting process. The complex geometry, small inner structures and high-precision requirements of ceramic cores make them difficult to fabricate, and the shape and dimensional accuracy of ceramic cores are very low in factory practice. To understand the deformation characteristics of ceramic cores, a noisy points recognition algorithm, an extraction method of measuring cross-section contour points and a B-spline iterative fitting algorithm using dominant points of chord deviation are proposed. First, the cross-section contour points were provided through registration, slicing and intersection methods. Second, the noisy points were deleted by convex noisy points and concave noisy points recognition algorithms. Third, the cross-section contour curve of the ceramic core was fitted through B-spline iterative fitting method with chord deviation dominant points. The curves fitted with chord deviation points and curves fitted with local maximum curvature points were compared with simulating data and scanning data, respectively, and the results show that B-spline fitting curve needs fewer chord deviation points than local maximum curvature points, 24.4% fewer in simulation validation and 12.5% fewer in experimental validation. In the end, the bending deformation, torsion deformation and shrinkage deformation errors of ceramic core are established by fitting contour curves of serial cross sections of the ceramic core.