Issue 24

A. A. Shanyavskiy, Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale, 24 (2013) 13-25; DOI: 10.3221/IGF-ESIS.24.03 14 2 1 1 2 (1 ) e A A        (1) Figure 1 : The bifurcation (a) diagram of metals fatigue has constructed according to the tension diagram and (b) schema of probability of metals cracking variation for the bifurcation area (  q  2 ). Bifurcation areas are specified at transitions from nano-(  w1 -  w2 ) to meso- (  w2 -  w3 ), and macro-(  w3 -  w4 ) scale level of metals fracture. Parameters A 1 , A 2 depended on the material-type and can be determined in specimen biaxial tests [9]. Applicably to in-service aircrafts, in the case of Low-Cycle- (LCF) and High-Cycle-Fatigue (HCF), material reaction can be discovered after crack occurring when fracture surface will be analyzed in electron microscope [4]. That is why, if there were not estimated in-tests parameters of Eq.1, fractographic analyses of cracked aircraft structures can be used for estimating e  -value because fatigue striations and eff K  or e K - equivalent value has unified correlation in term of mate- rial reaction independently on the in-service unknown external loading condition [4-6]. Possessing aviation gas-turbine engines (GTE) with higher in-service parameters and reduced weight required heavier thermal and mechanical tension of the engine parts, including the turbine disks. Gas-turbine engines of some types have the turbine disks designed in such a way (existence of the central hole, arrangement of the fastening holes in the stressed part of the hub) that the disk material of nickel-based superalloy EI698 experiences elastic-plastic loading in stress- concentration zones by the holes. There is clear material biaxial stress-state in areas of crack origination and propagation with different  -ratio for different bolt joint stressing from one exemplar of turbine disk to another. Besides, the working temperatures are quite moderate in the fastening-hole regions. Hence, creep effects do not contribute much here and so the low-cycle fatigue in these regions is mostly responsible for the disks lifetime. Under LCF conditions, the crack-growth period occupies most of a material lifetime [4]. Therefore, stronger thermal-and- mechanical tension of the disk material together with possible material defects introduced in manufacturing and in periodic servicing of the engine reasons the damage-tolerance approach to the disk service. In service, fatigue cracks were found to grow in Stage-III disks of NK8-2u engine, Tu-154B aircraft; the cracks grew in the sites of high stress concentration by the holes used to fasten disks to the engine shaft. Complicated stressed state was calculated with finite-element method for those disk sites where linear stressed state was expected to exist according to the traditional calculation techniques [10, 11]. Solutions based on the generalized concept of plane-stress state in a series of sections neglect tangential stresses and, partly, a three-dimensional stressed state of the disk rim, including its labyrinth- seal portion. Erroneous estimations of the real stressed state are even more likely when applied to the stress-concentration sites by the holes for bolted joints of a turbine disk and shaft. In service, it is by those holes that fatigue cracks arise to then propagate towards the hub and shaft. The actual stressed state differed from the calculated one: according to calculation, the greatest stress intensity would correspond to the section normal to the plane actual crack growth. Stage-III turbine disks of two NK8-2u engines (labeled arbitrarily as P-1 and P-2) broke in service. One of the in-service failed turbine disks has shown in Fig. 2. Both disks broke in a similar way during a starting run along the takeoff runway. Hence, a reasonable guess was that the same cause brought these similar-stage turbine disks about the failure. Moreover, when having the engines serviced after different operation times, numerous fatigue cracks were discovered in the bolt-joint holes of the disks. Therefore, disks with different numbers of cracks in the holes were selected after different operation times, aimed at the analysis into the trends of the crack initiation and propagation.