Manufacturing of a porous metallic panel by spark plasma sintering for hybrid laminar flow control application
Résumé
Hybrid laminar flow control uses wall suction through a porous panel to delay the so-called laminar-turbulent transition, thus reducing the aircraft fuel consumption. This technology requires a skin panel with very good transverse permeability and an excellent surface finish. Currently, laser micro-perforated titanium panels are used, but the minimum diameter of the holes is limited, hindering a better suction distribution. Moreover, these titanium panels are difficult and expensive to produce. This is the reason why spark plasma sintering is used here to produce a porous material through partial densification of Ti64 powder. The samples have been characterised through tomography, and permeability tests to correlate the material’s structure with its suction performances. Indeed, as spark plasma sintering is a field assisted manufacturing process, the material might have enhanced suction performance in the application direction of the electric field.
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