Containment and Arrest of Blade Shedding in Gas Turbine Engines Using Novel Dual-Ring Design

In this paper, we examine the energy absorption and containment capabilities of a newly proposed dual-ring design accounting for interactions between a released blade and fully bladed fan disk using three-dimensional finite element analysis. The components of this dual-ring design are strategically selected to ensure high energy absorption and high impact resistance, thus leading to reduced damage of the disk and increased safety. Three containment ring designs are examined: (i) conventional single-ring design composed of one of titanium, aluminum, or Kevlar; (ii) a newly proposed aluminum-Kevlar dual-ring arrangement; and (iii) dual-ring arrangement with an interfacial gap between them to arrest and contain the released blade and ensure free passage of the trailing blades. The results of our numerical simulations indicate that although the single-ring design resists penetration and contains the released blade within the confines of the disk, it does not remove the released blade from the path of the trailing blades leading to severe damage to the fan disk. On the contrary, our new dual-ring design, which contains an interfacial gap, has potential to successfully arrest the released blade within the confines of the ring and out of the path of the trailing blades. This design can significantly reduce the impact damage to the fan disk and reduce kinetic energy of the released blade to near zero in less than half a rotation of the fan disk.