NURBS-Driven Modelling of Interface Geometric Errors in Aero-Engine Casings for Assembly Analysis

Assembly-oriented geometric models of aero-engine casings require the spatial distribution of deviations at mating interfaces. Conventional scalar descriptors, including flatness, axial runout, and radial runout, cannot retain this information. This study proposes a measurement-driven integrated modelling method based on measured point clouds. After boundary completion, gross-error removal, and Gaussian filtering, the interface morphology is reconstructed as a tensor-product cubic B-spline surface in unit-weight non-uniform rational B-spline (NURBS) form. The reconstructed surface is then integrated with the nominal computer-aided design (CAD) model. Validation was performed using two cuboidal specimens and three representative casing flange surfaces. The relative differences between the reconstructed and measured flatness values of the cuboidal specimens were −8.58% and −1.04%. At the withheld verification points of the casing flange surfaces, the mean absolute reconstruction errors were 0.0022 mm, 0.0017 mm, and 0.0049 mm. These results show that measured interface morphology can be transferred into a CAD-compatible component model while retaining its spatial characteristics. The present study provides a geometric basis for subsequent assembly analysis.