Fatigue Investigations of the Compressor Blades with Mechanical Defects

Abstract

This paper presents results of experimental fatigue analysis of the compressor blades subjected to high cycle fatigue. The blades used in investigations were preliminary defected to simulate the foreign object damage. The blades during experiment were entered into transverse vibration. In results of investigations, the number of cycles to crack initiation and also the crack growth rate were obtained for the blade subjected to transverse vibrations. Moreover, observations of the beach marks on the blade fractures revealed two main shemes of crack propagation process. In this work, the finite element stress analysis of the blade was also performed. Obtrained numerical results shoved that stress level in the notch vicinity is 3 times higher than the stress in the blade without mechanical defects.