Fretting Stresses in Single Crystal Superalloy Turbine Blade Attachments

Abstract

Single crystal nickel base superalloy turbine blades are being utilized in rocket engine turbopumps and turbine engines because of their superior creep, stress rupture, melt resistance, and thermomechanical fatigue capabilities over polycrystalline alloys. High cycle fatigue induced failures in aircraft gas turbine and rocket engine turbopump blades is a pervasive problem. Blade attachment regions are prone to fretting fatigue failures. Single crystal nickel base superalloy turbine blades are especially prone to fretting damage because the subsurface shear stresses induced by fretting action at the attachment regions can result in crystallographic initiation and crack growth along octahedral planes. This paper presents contact stress evaluation in the attachment region for single crystal turbine blades used in the NASA alternate advanced high pressure fuel turbo pump for the space shuttle main engine. Single crystal materials have highly anisotropic properties making the position of the crystal lattice relative to the part geometry a significant factor in the overall analysis. Blades and the attachment region are modeled using a large-scale three-dimensional finite element model capable of accounting for contact friction, material anisotropy, and variation in primary and secondary crystal orientation. Contact stress analysis in the blade attachment regions is presented as a function of coefficient of friction and primary and secondary crystal orientation. Fretting stresses at the attachment region are seen to vary significantly as a function of crystal orientation. The stress variation as a function of crystal orientation is a direct consequence of the elastic anisotropy of the material. Fatigue life calculations and fatigue failures are discussed for the airfoil and the blade attachment regions.