Cyclic Mixed-Mode Crack Propagation due to Time-Dependent Multiaxial Loading in Jet Engines

Abstract

Components in jet engines are subject to time-dependent multiaxial loading. This creates a time-varying mixed-mode stress state at the crack tip. Mixed-mode loading leads to out-of-plane crack propagation and has been treated in previous articles [1,2]. This paper concentrates on coping with the time-dependent character. Key issues are the crack propagation rate and the crack propagation direction in three-dimensional space. In order to determine the prevalent crack propagation direction the dominant loading case is determined based on its crack propagation rate. Then, a mixed-mode equivalent K-factor is calculated for all other loading cases based on the closeness of their associated crack propagation direction with the dominant one. Subsequently, a cycle extraction is performed on the crack propagation rate for all loading cases. The extracted cycles are processed based on their mimimum and maximum equivalent K-factor and the maximum temperature. The mission crack propagation rate consists of the sum of the rate of all extracted cycles.