R. Holmes, VEXTEC, Brentwood, TN; E. Pope, J. Hamler, T. Brooks, R. Tryon, VEXTEC Corporation, Brentwood, TN
Full scale gas turbine engine testing is expensive and time consuming. An efficient alternative is the use of low cost subscale engine testing that can simulate the conditions of a full-scale engine and its failure mechanisms. VEXTEC has developed scaled turbine engine tests as a platform to gather probabilistic data on multiple material failure mechanisms such as thermal mechanical fatigue, biaxial crack growth, creep and foreign object damage. These tests are efficient in terms of cost and schedule and provide insight into full scale engine behavior. Complex multi-axial stress fields and thermal environment typically observed in gas turbine engines are naturally reproduced in the scaled engine testing. Subscale engine testing is validated by comparing the test data with full scale engine testing results. This paper discusses the capabilities of the scaled engine and its benefits compared to full scale engine testing.
