Fracture Mechanics-Based Structural Integrity Assessment of Aero-Engine Turbine Disks Under Overspeed Conditions

Abstract Aero-engine turbine disks are safety-relevant components which are operated under high thermal and mechanical stress conditions. The actual part qualification and certification procedures make use of spin-tests conducted on production-similar disks. While these tests provide, on the one hand, a reliable definition of the critical conditions for real components, on the other hand they represent a relevant cost item for engine manufacturers. The aim of this work is to present part of a fracture mechanics-based procedure under development which aims at replacing the tests on production-similar disks with lab tests on fracture mechanics specimens. In particular, the rim-peeling failure mode is considered as case study. A semi-circular surface crack is modelled at the most stressed region at the diaphragm of a turbine disk, with the crack plane perpendicular to the radial direction. The crack is therefore subjected to a biaxial stress state and grows under increasing rotational speed until it triggers the rim-peeling failure. The finite element simulation of the cracked disk considers the real thermal and mechanical loading conditions. In order to design a lab representative specimen, beside the crack driving force, expressed in terms of J-integral, also the constraint to plastic deformation e.g., stress triaxiality, at the crack-tip must be similar for the same crack in the specimen and in the disk. This has been achieved and as expected, both the highest J-integral and constraint factor are calculated at the same location along the crack front for both disk and specimen. The results of the structural integrity assessment in the form of a Failure Assessment Diagram (FAD) show good agreement between designed specimen and disk both in terms of expected failure mode and value of the critical speed. Probabilistic aspects are also considered in the calculations.