COMPUTER AIDED STRUCTURAL AND LIFE ANALYSIS OF TURBINE ENGINE COMPONENTS

A COMPUTER BASED PROGRAM FOR STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS AND LIFE PREDICTION OF HIGH TEMPERATURE TURBINE ENGINE COMPONENTS IS PROPOSED, USING EXISTING COMPUTER ROUTINES WHICH HAVE BEEN DEMONSTRATED BY STI TO SUCCESSFULLY PREDICT SERVICE LIFE OF LOW TEMPERATURE TURBINE AND COMPRESSOR COMPONENT. THE OBJECTIVE OF PHASE I WILL BE TO INITIATE DEVELOPMENT OF A STAND-ALONE COMPUTER CODE FOR PREDICTION OF OPERATING STRESSES AND SERVICE LIFE OF HIGH TEMPERATURE TURBINE ENGINE COMPONENTS, COMPLETE WITH SUPPORTING GRAPHIC ROUTINES. IN PHASE I STI WILL EXAMINE THE CURRENT CAPABILITIES OF ITS BLADE PROGRAM, AND PRESENT A MEANS FOR EXTENDING THE FINITE ELEMENT FORMULATION AND SOLUTION ROUTINES TO COMPUTE STEADY STATE, THERMAL AND DYNAMIC TRESSES OF GAS TURBINE COMPONENTS USING SELECTED ADVANCED COMPONENT MATERIALS. SUITABLE STATE-OF-THE-ART TECHNIQUES FOR LIFE PREDICTION IN HIGH TEMPERATURE ENVIRONMENTS SUCH AS STRAIN RANGE PARTITIONING, AND THE DOUBLE LINEAR DAMAGE RULE WILL BE REVIEWED AS EXTENSIONS TO THE LOCAL STRAIN AND FRACTURE MECHANICS ROUTINES CURRENTLY AVAILABLE IN THE BLADE CODE FOR ESTIMATING CRACK INITIATION AND CRACK PROPAGATION OF LOW TEMPERATURE ENGINE COMPONENTS. PHASE I WILL DEMONSTRATE THE FEASIBILITY OF ANALYZING A SELECTED GAS TURBINE BLADE WITH BLADE BY PREPARING A CUSTOMIZED PRE-PROCESSING ROUTINE FOR FORMULATING A SELECTED HIGH TEMPERATURE BLADE MODEL, AND CALCULATING STRESSES AND NATURAL FREQUENCIES USING THE BLADE SOLUTION AND POST PROCESSING ROUTINES. FREQUENCY RESULTS WILL BE CORRELTED WITH AVAILABLE AIR FORCE TEST RESULTS FOR THE SELECTED COMPONENT.