Determination of Blade Stresses Under Constant Speed and Transient Conditions With Nonlinear Damping

Abstract

Determination of resonant stresses is an important step in the life estimation of turbomachine blades. Resonance may occur either at a steady operating speed or under transient conditions of operation when the blade passes through a critical speed. Damping plays a significant role in limiting the amplitudes of vibration and stress values. The blade damping mechanism is very complex in nature, because of interfacial slip, material hysteresis, and gas dynamic damping occurring simultaneously. In this paper, a numerical technique to compute the stress response of a turbine blade with nonlinear damping characteristics, during steady and transient operations of the rotor, is presented. Damping is defined as a function of vibratory mode, rotor speed, and strain amplitude. The technique is illustrated by computing the stress levels at resonant rotor speeds for typical operation of a turbomachine.