Structural analysis & Weight Components of gas turbine engines get exposed to extreme loading conditions. In this chapter, the different design challenges that are encountered during the conceptual engine design phase are discussed. In section ‘1 the materials considered in for the fan and low pressure compressor stages evaluated and ‘the selection process is explained. After that, the fatigue design methodology is elaborated upon in section / 2, The structural design considerations of each individual component are treated in separate sections. Fisst, a short section 1.5 is dedicated to the design of the structural design of the blades and ‘the weight estimation of the component, The rotating blades in a rotor blade row are held in place by a rotating disk, which carries the load of the resulting outwards centrifugal force of the blade, Section “1.4 gives a detailed insight in the disk design methods and optimization procedures that are used in this thesis. Pressure containment and blade release are two important eriteria for the design of fan and compressor casing, which is elaborated upon in section ‘.°. ‘The design of the low pressure spool driving the compressor and fan stages is considered in section <0, and finally in section 1.” the spinner ‘cone calculation process is elaborated upon. It should be noticed that the connecting hardware an load carrying components are not designed with this tool. 4.1, Materials Material selection in gas turbine engine design is an import aspect of the design process, as the opera- tional environment of the engine components is highly demanding. ‘The most extreme loading conditions are found at the first HPT stage, just after the combustion chamber. Here, gas temperatures can reach values up to 700K in excess of the material melting point [20]. Since the HPT is connected to the high pressure spool, high rotational velocities are resulting in large mechanical stresses due to contrifa- gal effects. On top of that, in aerospace applications component weight is also an important factor. In combination with the mechanical and thermal loads on the engine components this results in the requirement of advanced, light-weight materials with outstanding mechanical properties. Favourable material properties are often expressed in density fractions, such as the specific strength, 218 and specific siffness, £. Although the "hot section” of uhe gas turbine is not considered in this thesis as signment, itis assumed that the low pressure compressor uses the same material for its casing. ‘This is ‘due to the fact that the LPC and HPC casing are made of one piece, and hence it is designed for the ‘most extreme operating conditions. At the final HIPC stage high pressures and elevated temperatures ‘occur, and therefore the LPC casing material should be able to withstand high temperatures and have high specific strength characteristics. Table “1 shows an overview of hasie material properties of some commonly used materials in aeroengine design. In the T-AXI Disk software a database of materials is present, which is directly adopted in the Matlab engine design and sizing tool. Figure ‘1 shows the temperature dependency of the material streagth properties of the three most common fan and compressor design materials. Similar trends of decreasing properties with increased temperature are found for the Young's Modulus of the material as wel. 3738 4, Structural analysis & Weight Table 4.1: Aeroengine material properties. Source: [!-?i) E Ra [ara K 41 TebAr: TSS Dat 9-10 25 Tar rt 033 = @S-40- 25 Inconel-718 032 980 13-10% 032 1258 135-107° 25 = Mop 1685-10-13 Rene Haynes 188 1,400 1,200 [—— Inconel 718 - Yield strength 2 Rene-4I - Yield strength js Ti-6AL4V - Yield strength + Ti-17 - Yield strength -+- Inconel 718 - Ultimate strength, -2- Rene-41 - Ultimate strength -a- Ti6AL4V - Ultimate strength -+- Ti-17 - Ultimate strength 1,000 800 Strength, o [MPa] ‘0200 400 600 800 1,000 1,200 1,400 Temperature, T [K] Figure 4.1: ‘Temperature effect on yield and ultimate strength 4.2, Fatigue life The structural analysis ofthe engine components is extended by incorporating material fatigue eects in the calculstions. ‘The fatigue life of » component is determined by » number of load eycis until failure Components are designed fora predefined numberof desig load cycles (Nes), and atthe end of the component life the maximum stress values in the material multiplied by a fatigue safety factor Should be within the lower than the defined stress limits Fitst the general aspects of fatigue loading and desig limits are explained in th design methodology section 121. After that, the method of estimating the stresife curve of a component is elaborated upon in section 4.22. 4.2.1. Design methodology The fatigue life of a component is dependent on many different factors, such as the material used, loading of the component, component geometry and surface finishing. Loading of the component is defined by the type of loading and the load cycle profile. ‘The loading types considered in the fatigue design method described here are axial loading, torsion and bending. A load eycle can be defined by two main properties: maximum stress, Jmuqx, and the stress ratio, R= S82=, Other important values can be ‘h as the minimum stress, dyyiq, the mean'stress, Om, and stress amplitude, les indicating the important stress levels for a stress ratio of determined from those, su aq. Figure 4. shows some typical load ¢ R=01 Common used load cycles are the fully reversed cyclic loading (R = —1), the repeated stress cycle (R = 0) and elevated mean stress cyclic loading (R = 0.1). The latter is often used for testing of acrospace structures, However, for stress eye ratio of R = 0, as the maximum stresses are repeatedly present during engine operation, and stresses are absent when the engine is not operational, Determining the minimum required thickness for fatigue design of the separate components is done analysis in engines it is more convenient to use a stress4.2, Fatigue life é om . fo rin ‘Time, ts Time, t [5] Time, t [s] Figure 4.2: Stress amplitude ratio. using an iterative solving procedure, First the component endurance limit, S,, is calculated design mumber of load eycles. The endurance limit is determained by estimation of the styess-life curve, using a method described in Lee ")). The estimated S-N curve method accurately predicts the effects of fatigue loading on the component strength, and the implications of the method are briefly discussed in section 1?” After the endurance limit is determined, the component thickness is calculated for the maximum static stvess loading and an initial static safety factor is applied. The static stres analysis for each component are discussed in sections ‘3 to 40 respectively. Now the margin of safety im the fatigue domain is determined using the Goodman diagram, Several other methods are available to determine the fatigue safety factor as shown in figure 4, Goodman’s method is used here to describe the safety margin of the design, as it is a conservative method that is widely used in fatigue design. —seodan 8 Soderbor Morow Mosied Goodman Elite ASME spt pemox Mean stress, MPa] Figure 4.8; Fatigue safety margin methods ‘The yield ine isa straight Iie from the material yield value on the mean stress (vertical) axis to the yield value on the amplitude atress (horizontal) axis, The Goodman line is defined by equation (1) os aa ¢ (44) Since the stress amplitude and mean stress are known, the current design point location, (07,04), 0%