An Energy-Based Uniaxial Fatigue Life Prediction Method for Commonly Used Gas Turbine Engine Materials

Abstract A new energy-based life prediction framework for calculation of axial and bending fatigue results at various stress ratios has been developed. The purpose of the life prediction framework is to assess the behavior of materials used in gas turbine engines, such as Titanium 6Al-4V (Ti 6Al-4V) and Aluminum 6061-T6 (Al 6061-T6). The work conducted to develop this energy-based framework consists of the following entities: (1) a new life prediction criterion for axial and bending fatigue at various stress ratios for Al 6061-T6, (2) the use of the previously developed improved uniaxial energy-based method to acquire fatigue life prior to endurance limit region (Scott-Emuakpor et al., 2007, “Development of an Improved High Cycle Fatigue Criterion,” ASME J. Eng. Gas Turbines Power, 129, pp. 162–169), (3) and the incorporation of a probabilistic energy-based fatigue life calculation scheme to the general uniaxial life criterion (the first entity of the framework), which is capable of constructing prediction intervals based on a specified percent confidence level. The precision of this work was verified by comparison between theoretical approximations and experimental results from recently acquired Al 606-T6 and Ti 6Al-4V data. The comparison shows very good agreement, thus validating the capability of the framework to produce accurate uniaxial fatigue life predictions for commonly used gas turbine engine materials.