The rotating components in a gas turbine are a challenge for both design and manufacturing. Especially turbine blades lead the way in terms of future technology. Improvements of these components may result in a lower weight, an increased turbine performance, a longer life, and lower operating costs. For aero engines, such improvements have a positive impact on the entire aircraft. This may lead to lower emissions and a reduced environmental impact. Among the most critical parts of the turbine are the fir-tree connections of turbine blade and turbine disk. The loads in these connections strongly influence the living of blade and disk. Indeed, turbine disks are among the components which are most prone to cracking in the entire engine. Such a failure may cause severe damage to the aircraft. The resulting high safety requirements as well as the high potential for future development and optimization of turbine blades, disks and their fir-tree connections lead to a demand for highly accurate and rapid simulation tools.

In this project, different numerical methods for the simulation of deformations and stresses in turbine blade fir-tree connections are examined. Some results of this work can be found in the paper below.

The title picture shows a worn fir-tree connection on the disk of an aircraft turbine. The image is taken from the paper below, as are most parts of this introduction.

Numerical methods for the simulation of deformations and stresses in turbine blade fir-tree connections
J. Benad
Facta Universitatis, Series: Mechanical Engineering, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 1-15, 2019

Events related to the project