Reduction of Aircraft engine blade damage case study
Problem
Beginning in 1991, the B-1B Lancer's F101 engine began experiencing failures of titanium turbine blades due to foreign object damage (FOD) caused by ice and hard objects ingested into the engine. Chunks of blades that broke loose, in some cases, did irreparable damage to the rest of the engine. To avoid grounding the B-1 fleet, the Air Force required a manual inspection of all the fan blades before each flight. The time-consuming leading edge inspections involved rubbing the leading edge with cotton balls, cotton gloves and even dental floss. If a single snag was detected, the blade was replaced prior to the next flight. In 1994, over one million man-hours at a cost of $10 million per year were required to complete the engine inspections and keep the B-1 flying.
Solution
GE Aircraft Engines (GEAE) investigated laser peening as a potential solution to increase the durability of titanium fan blades and decrease their sensitivity to FOD. The improvement to high cycle fatigue performance was remarkable.
Damage to an F101 blade can reduce the fatigue strength from about 75 ksi to less than 20 ksi, which is less than half of the design requirement. However, when laser peened blades are comparably damaged, they retain a fatigue strength of 75-100 ksi.
Resolution
Thus, laser peening restores the structural integrity of damaged fan blades. Sensitivity to FOD defects up to 0.25 inch in F101 blades was virtually eliminated. In 1995, the U.S. Air Force authorized the production development of laser peening, bringing this technology out of the lab and into a production environment. By 1997, GEAE had proven the beneficial effects of laser peening and began production application to F101 blades, using four laser peening systems designed and built by LSPT.
Application of laser peening avoided over $59 million in blade replacement costs, secondary damage engine repair costs, and cost avoidance from airfoil failures. Avoiding catastrophic engine failures over the remaining life of the B-1B/F101 program is estimated to save another $40 million.
Overall, the potential savings from laser peening are estimated to approach $1 billion when calculating this impact over all engines in the Air Force fleet.
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