METHODOLOGY FOR STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY ANALYSIS OF GAS TURBINE BLADES DOI 10.5028/jatm.2012.04014311

Abstract

One of the major sources of stress arising in turbomachinery blades are the centrifugal loads acting at any section of the airfoil. Accounting for this phenomenon stress evaluation of the blade attachment region in the disc has to be performed in order to avoid blade failure. Turbomachinery blades are generally twisted, and the cross section area varies from the root of the blade to the tip. The blade root shape at the attachment region is of great concern. Stress concentrations are predictable at this contact region. In this paper, a finite element model has been created for the purpose of assessing stress at the joint region connecting the blade to the disc slot. Particular attention was paid to the geometric modeling of the "fir-tree" fixing, which is now used in the majority of gas turbine engines. This study has been performed using the commercial software ANSYS 13.0. The disc and blade assembly are forced to move with a certain rotational velocity. Contact connections are predicted on the common faces of the blade and on the disc at the root. Solutions can be obtained to allow the evaluation of stresses. Results can be compared with the mechanical properties of the adopted material..