Stochastic Crack Growth Analysis on Turbine Disk Based on FEM

Finite element method (FEM) is proved feasible to obtain structural fracture parameters compared with theoretical results of compact tension specimen (CT). Damage tolerance analysis on the turbine disk component was performed based on FEM, where critical crack length was determined through developing the program used to simulate crack growth. Crack growth life of the turbine disk was predicted based on the crack growth model obtained from the experiments. The predicted life agrees with the literature result, which verifies that the method to predict the component’s crack growth life is reasonable and feasible based on FEM. Then, considering random characteristics of material and load, stochastic crack growth of the turbine disk was studied by utilizing orthogonal regression design method. Furthermore, the effect of different random variables on crack growth rate was investigated through the sensitivity analysis in order to improve the component’s reliability.Copyright © 2008 by ASME