Transient Thermal Analysis and Viscoplastic Damage Model for Life Prediction of Turbine Components

This paper reports the process and computer methodology for a physics-based prediction of overall deformation and local failure modes in cooled turbine airfoils, blade outer air seals, and other turbomachinery parts operating in severe high temperature and high stress environments. The computational analysis work incorporated time-accurate, coupled aerothermal computational fluid dynamics (CFD) with nonlinear deformation thermal-structural finite element model (FEM) with a slip-based constitutive model, evaluated at real engine characteristic mission times, and flight points for part life prediction. The methodology utilizes a fully coupled elastic-viscoplastic model that was based on crystal morphology, and a semi-empirical life prediction model introduced the use of dissipated energy to estimate the remaining part life in terms of cycles to failure. The method was effective for use with three-dimensional FEMs of realistic turbine airfoils using commercial finite element applications. The computationally predicted part life was calibrated and verified against test data for deformation and crack growth.