Design Tools for Fatigue Life Prediction in Surface Treated Aerospace Components

The goal of this program is to develop a validated design tool to predict fatigue behavior in components subjected to residual compression inducing surface treatments. This design tool will be based on the Fatigue Design Diagram (FDD) model developed at Lambda Technologies to predict the optimum magnitude of compression needed to mitigate damage and restore or exceed the original performance of aerospace components. An FDD code will be developed in this Phase II SBIR program that will be capable of interfacing with most commercial finite element analysis (FEA) codes. Several design analysis options will be available, including the prediction of optimum residual stress distribution, life estimation, damage tolerance design, etc. The FDD code will be validated with test results from PRATT & WHITNEY’s F100-PW220 HPC 4-6 surface treated blades. Also, additional tests are planned to test the limits applicability of the FDD. Commercialization plan includes providing seat licenses to OEMs and DoD agencies, and also by providing training and on a trial limited time basis free beta-version of the FDD code to users.