COMPOSITE FAN CASE BLADE-OUT SCENARIO CONTAINMENT TESTING Ryan Blancke, Mike Schwartz

Mentors: Andy Vanderklok, Xinran Xiao

5” Aluminum Fan 3D Printed Mandrel

The next portion of the setup was to build a small scale spin pit chamber to spin the fan. This chamber is built to form a vacuum, eliminating all air resistance making the fan capable of running up to speeds of 60,000 RPM. For the next portion of the project a MATLAB code had to be written using Dynamics formulas to determine at which speed the blade would release from the central hub.

Future Testing

Small Scale Notch Induced Blade Out Test

GEnx Jet Engine

IntroductionFans are used on commercial high bypass aircraft engines to provide thrust forces essential for flight. The fan is nested within a duct otherwise known as a fan case to direct the flow of air to make the engine more efficient. However this case serves the dual purpose of a duct and as a containment structure, necessary in the case of a fan blade out scenario. Several studies have been made on testing numerous metals for production in fan cases, but composites have not been tested as extensively. Composite materials are lightweight, strong, and have great potential to be used in aerospace applications.

MethodsBuilding a composite fan case gives the benefits of the strength of a hardwall fan case and the light weight of a softwall fan case. To build the composite fan case a mandrel was designed using NX 8.5 and printed using a 3D printer. The aluminum fan will then be spun inside and a blade will be released.

The results of the preliminary testing show that an increase in pressure when manufacturing the composite panels, increases the strength of the panels. Therefore the fan cases will be constructed under the VARTM pressure system. The pictures below show a small scale test run on the aluminum fan blades.

MATLAB Blade Out Speed and Energy Prediction

Composite panels were then built to test the strength of composite materials. To build these a process called Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer Molding (VARTM) was used. This is a process in which resin is infused in a vacuum and cured in an oven to give composite materials shape.

Glass Panel Before Infusion Glass Panel After Infusion

Preliminary TestingThe composite panels manufactured using the two different VARTM techniques were then tested using a Dynatup drop test. This data was then compared to show the strengths of the two materials at different energy levels.

An alternative method of VARTM uses an increase of surrounding pressure in attempt to increase the strength of composite panels. After infusion, the panel is placed inside a pressure chamber raised to 40 psi.

Pressurized VARTM Process

Dynatup Impact Test Pressurized Panel After Impact (60J)

Regular Panel After Impact (60J)

The Dynatup impact test records data in the form of a load versus time graph. Integration of this curve results in the impulse that the objects withstood. This allows us to compare the materials by observing proportionality between impulse and strength.

Graph Comparing Impulse of Pressurized and Unpressurized Composites

Large Scale TestingIn the future months large scale testing will be done on large fan blades. This testing will be done inside of a spin pit that is set to be delivered by early September 2014. The spin pit gives the benefit of creating a vacuum making the fans capable of reaching speeds up to 40,000 RPM.

LabVIEW software, high speed cameras, thermocouples, strain gauges and accelerometers will all be used to acquire data for the fan blade out scenario.

Spin Pit Design

References1. Fabrication of Composite Laminates by Vacuum-Assisted Resin Transfer Molding Augmented with an Inflatable Bladder- J. P. ANDERSON, A. J. KELLY AND M. C. ALTAN 2. Tests of Spinning Turbine Fragment Impact on Casing Models-J.S. WILBECK3. Prediction of Transient Loads and Perforation of Engine Casing During Blade-Off Event of Fan Rotor Assembly-RAJEEV JAIN4. Impact Testing and Analysis of Composites for Aircraft Engine Fan Cases-Gary D. Roberts, Duane M. Revilock, Wieslaw K. Binienda, Walter Z. Nie, S. Ben Mackenzie, Kevin B. Todd

0

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000

Impu

lse

(N-s

)

Impulse Test

4 Layers Pressure 60J4 Layers 60J3 Layers Pressure 60J3 Layers 60J4 Layers Pressure 100J4 Layers 100J