Impact Loads and Containment Aspects during a Rotor Failure in Aircraft Jet Engines

Abstract

In today’s jet powered aircrafts, there is a danger associated with rotor failure when some parts of the rotor break loose at very high speeds and often these parts have enormous destructive potential. These high energy fragments can penetrate through the engine casing and nacelles and and have the potential of damaging fluid lines, control systems hardware, airframes and other vulnerable parts of the aircraft. Such incidents can affect the flying performance in a number of direct and indirect ways and some can even lead to loss of airplane and hundreds of passenger fatalities. Rotor failure occurs for a number of reasons, the primary one being fatigue due to normal engine operation in a high temperature environment for a sustained period of time. Additionally, they may occur due to overheating, birdstrikes, blade detachment, material defects, etc. A high level of quality control, inspection and maintenance procedures have kept these failures to a minimum, but statistics over the last fifteen years indicate that the reliability approach has reached its limit and a certain number of rotor failures are bound to happen each year. Under such circumstances, it is necessary to develop preventive measures that will contain the high energy fragments in a manner so that all potentially dangerous situations can be averted.