R. Holmes, R. V. Pulikollu, VEXTEC, Brentwood, TN; V. Ogarevic, R. Tryon, VEXTEC Corporation, Brentwood, TN
Traditional full scale engine tests are prohibitively expensive in terms of time and cost. In addition they provide limited insight into the probabilistic nature of fatigue crack growth in the components. VEXTEC Corporation has developed innovative 3-D probabilistic crack growth models in conjunction with scaled turbine testing to accurately capture crack growth behavior in turbine engine rotors. The models combine the automatic re-meshing in commercial available finite element tools with probabilistic crack growth techniques. The stochastic model has the capability to assess crack growth in multi-axial stress fields with random material properties along the crack front and accounts for crack kinking and branching. These models are evaluated based on test data gathered from scaled engine testing with the ultimate goal of predicting fatigue crack growth behavior in a full scale engine.
