Integrally Bladed Rotor (IBR) Sustainment

Integrally bladed rotors (IBRs) have become prevalent in new military gas turbine engines. IBRs replace rotors with inserted blades. As with other types of unitized structures, IBRs greatly reduce part count and thus improve assembly and maintainability. This SBIR proposes innovative advanced physics based life modeling techniques to accurately determine the probability of failure of undamaged, damaged and repaired IBRs. System reliability techniques will be developed that recognize that an IBR is an advanced component with many geometric complexities and many active failure mechanism. Because the IBR is a single piece of hardware, the loading and failure mechanism at different locations on the IBR are not independent and can’t be treated that way during life analysis. VEXTEC has developed patented system reliability methods to assess the risk of failure of complex machines such as automobiles and heavy machinery. These methods will be extended to IBRs. Validation testing will performed to verify the analysis methods. . The ultimate goal of this SBIR will be to show that a modeling method can be established to predict the life of a repaired IBR with a high degree of accuracy. VEXTEC will conduct both computational IBR modeling and scaled physical testing within Phase I Uniquely, VEXTEC has developed and constructed a scaled turbine test rig which will be used to prove-out modeling feasibility through direct comparison with an IBR that was fielded and then repaired and then returned to the field until failure.